Shot of the Day #63: A Million Words.

Shot with iphone. Click to enlarge.

One of the requisite duties of a wake; collecting photographs for display. My mom had a stack of old 2-D memories, so many frozen moments in my Dad's life, and my brother Mike was in charge of putting together the framed tapestry before the viewings today, and just going through all these was a time-warp. Notice the badassness of my pop with his chopper, or the shot from our wedding in Santa Cruz with "the Boys"...and pay particular attention to the shot of my "boss" holding down the fort at his self-made success, Automotive Trik, an auto customizing shop he founded and battled to success for 25 years before he closed the doors in 2006.A Business that was his legacy, his burden and our first job(s). I should go back to that building, which he still owned but rented out to another company.

That photo of my dad with the sign was the first official "assignment" I had in photography, where the teacher in our 12 person Photo class in high school tasked us to capture a person completely in image. Being a small-business owner, for years my dad was plagued with people asking for a "hook up" or a "fayvah" and drop the sales tax from big sales, and he was sick of telling people to politely "fuck off", so he had a friend who had an air-brushing business make him a sign that encapsulated his feelings in an easy to display form to save his breath and temper, and having the shitty camera on me one chilly December morning in 1993, I captured this moment that to many, perfectly captured my Dad, at least to me. This was "Joe Trik", the nickname he was given years ago and one I haven't heard in years. I also hadn't seen the picture since I graduated in 94, and laying eyes on it again was a punch to the senses, as if it was only seconds ago I was framing up the shot. Got an A- by the way (the minus was due to my rushed developing process, and the shot had a few hairs on the print. Well, FORGIIIIVE ME!).

But pictures like this tell so many tales, so many wonderful moments with my Dad. Plenty of shitty ones, but that's family, isn't it? Just having this photo montage of a man's life in front of us was overwhelming, with so much to digest in both the heart and the mind. (Im sure there will be a lot to digest after the funeral as well, as I hear we're gonna have a hell of a spread. Woo.)

It was good to see these, like emotional wasabi. Joe Trik would have appreciated the metaphor. Or is that a simile?

Joe