Between dealing with strange recurrent computer problems, tornado watches and a generally inclement spirit I wasn't in much of a mood tonight for anything more than a hot meal, warm glass of red wine and otherwise cool, relaxing evening with my sweetheart. I was on the phone with the Microsoft Dynamics team when my friend, photographer Paul Nurnberg, first called me this afternoon. I intended to return his call during my drive home, however when he called again a short while later I knew something was amiss.

“Oh, so you're still in Savannah?” he asked in reply to my comment that I was calling from a client's location. Apparently The Photography Club of Beaufort found themselves in a bind when one of the three judges slated for tonight's competition found himself in a bind — and a hospital emergency room! Fortunately he was not in the principal role of patient, but his role of judge needed a replacement and quick. I assured Paul that if I made it back to Beaufort before 7:15 I'd call him, which I did at just 7 pm as I was crossing the Broad River.

Truthfully I wrestled with whether or not I was of the right temperament to be judging others' work; after all, I had been extremely judgmental of other's efforts today — possibly to a fault. After all, it could simply be green-eyed jealousy causing me to criticize Microsoft's requirement that you have a current support contract (not simply a validly licensed RMS/Dynamics product) in order to download hotfixes and service packs. Isn't this licensed software, and don't bug fixes come along with the deal? Apparently not, at least not so far the those patches necessary to make the first release of Microsoft POS run correctly are concerned! While the support staff I dealt were most pleasant and helpful, it still takes a minimum of $45.00 per month to get behind door number one when making a deal with Redmond. Hey, perhaps they're on to something important here: while it takes lots of cash to develop good software, the costs don't stop there. If you want to reap these future benefits you need to at least continue participating financially.

At the same time I was simply helping a client; trying to keep their problem from driving off of a cliff and falling down to the next plane of Hell. The fact that I was stymied at almost every turn didn't do a whole lot for my attitude, nor did my cleaning up from a prior ‘authorized (but doesn't have the courtesy to return my calls) integrator's’ mess.

Hence why I questioned my participation tonight — right up until Linda's plainly stated "call Paul". So I did, and again was honored by the opportunity to participate, and fascinated by both the works entered and the responses each image evoked. Afterward fellow judges Ed Funk and Kenny McKeithan and I each observed and commented on the same sentiment: Beaufort has an amazingly good crop of photographic talent at all skill and experience levels! It did wonders to help me refocus, thanks.

I'll update this post when the club posts results on their website (typically in a day or so) sharing the same visual happiness with any of you happening to return. In the meanwhile, please mark your calendars for 7;00 pm, Friday April 17th. Even though the Island Packet got the date wrong in today's article, photographer Greg Smith will be presenting his Master's thesis “Keeping the May River Wild” at ARTworks in Beaufort. Linda & I hope we'll see all of our friends there!