Self-portrait à deux: chip off the old block

Here's a shadow self-portrait of me with my Dad. We had gone out for a walk together with our cameras, "up the road a piece" from my parents' house to Wild Acres, with my mother and sister along for the exercise. Of course when two photographers get together for a walk, the exercise is only incidental. You can't get your heart rate up very high when you're stopping every so often to photograph the interesting old dilapidated farmhouse, or the rough texture of a barbed wire fence post. It was one of those magical, early spring, New England days when shades of grey and brown seemed crisp and glowing. This photo doesn't really showcase the glorious light of that day (I plan to post others that do in the coming days); I include it only because it's an example of another type of self-portrait. And it captures for me the father-as-mentor relationship which nurtured my love of photography. I do not yet have the patience of my Dad in setting up a shot (I remember us kids whining to him when he was taking what seemed like forever to get the family portrait up at the cottage just right, which always paid off in excellent compositions). But I think I get some of my attention to detail from him.