My husband, Steve (a/k/a Mr. Excitement), and I are “empty nester” Baby Boomers. We’ve been together (as a couple) for 32 years, most of them with our noses to the proverbial grindstone — actually, usually, several grindstones concurrently. Our roles as lawyer/physician-scientist/parents/caretakers left little time (nor energy) for much self expression.
Over the last few years, our responsibilities have lessened. Now, I’m a recovering lawyer, our human sons are launched (i.e. self-supporting), and most of our aged relatives have left their earthly bonds. Steve is still fighting the good fight trying to find treatments/cures for mesothelioma and lung cancer. I still write the occasional legal brief, but mostly I’m trying to reinvent myself as a non-legal-stuff writer/blogger. If you ask my mother, she’ll tell you that she’s “good enough” — not a bad thing to be at age 88 (knocking all kinds of wood).We still have a furry “being” we care for, but he seems content with some kibble, daily walks and the occasional tummy rub.
For the first time in the 42 years since I’ve known him, Steve has a hobby. He enjoys photography. He would be the first to tell you that he is not aspiring to be the Boomeresque version of Ansel Adams nor Mathew Brady, but when he’s not up to his eyeballs in his still more than full-time day job, he likes to go for a bike ride with his point and shoot digital camera in his pocket in case he comes across something he considers picture worthy.
On the Fourth of July, we had the good fortune to be able to see some of the Atlantic City, New Jersey fireworks from our deck in Brigantine. I took truly forgettable photos of them with my smart phone camera, but Steve captured some interesting images. I think they’re interesting anyway. And I’m not biased 😉 Judge for yourselves:
[This post is now part of collection of photos on the site, Travel Photo Discovery.]
Tell us about your hobby?
{ 52 comments… read them below or add one }
Fantastic shots! I think Steve will be a great photographer – and what an awesome hobby to pick. Blogging is my hobby, but also something from which I’d perhaps like to earn some pocket money so my husband can retire one of these days 🙂
I don’t think my husband wants to retire, but I’d still like to earn some pocket money to help support my travel habit. Write on!
Fireworks photography is not easy. I’ve worked at it, read posts on it, dabbled with my settings. These are lovely. Hope Steve continues his hobby (with you presenting the photos).
I have plenty of hobbies – some I wish I could return to doing! I did pottery for ten years. Now I do watercolor, though I think about doing oils again. I dabble in my garden, and some cucumbers are growing. I have this sewing machine in my closet …
That’s where my sewing machine is too! I wonder if they’re related.
Ha, a recovering lawyer! Can you ever truly recover from that profession?
Steve took great pictures of the fireworks!
I have several hobbies, dabbling here and there depending upon my mood and the year. This year it’s been starting a garden from scratch. My husband had to dig up the grass with a shovel and pickaxe for me to do this.
Good luck with the garden. I finally decided we had to sell our house since neither of us seemed inclined to want to till the soil. I do think lawyers are the same as addicts in some regards, we can never be cured. We can only be in recovery.
They are spectacular, like celestial plants, just wonderful.You two make an amazing combination.
I love the photographs! Steve definitely has talent there.
Welcome to the blogosphere, Suzanne. It looks like you’ve got some interesting insights and the desire to create a community here. I’ll be back!
Re hobbies: you know mine … chocolate travel.
Congratulations to a successful marriage that has lasted for 42 years! That’s so unusual nowadays. It’s grear that you and Steve have found a partnership that stimulates both of you. Keep up the good work!!
The friendship has lasted 42 years, the marriage only 31.5 😉 I think the fact that the friendship preceded the romance by 8 years or so was probably a good thing. We had the chance to get to know each other without the distraction or pressure of being “in love”.
I think he absolutely got some keepers! There are some really got shots there. Photography is also my hobby, though I’m looking at turning it into more of a career, just looking to scrape up some money first. Keep at it, great work so far!
I’m pretty sure that in Steve’s case, photography will stay being his hobby. He still likes his day job.
Okay, Steve – I am “sister-in-law kvelling”. I’ll be able to say I knew you when you were a mere research pulmonologist prior to becoming a famous photographer. Just kidding!! I am very impressed by your accomplishments on all fronts. These photos really are strikingly beautiful as are the other photos of yours I have seen. You have an “eye” and a “knack”! My current hobbies are square dancing and reading (been in a book club at my local library for about 14 years – egads!). The biggest passion that I have the least time to participate in is acting/theater…a career path ultimately not pursued for many reasons. It is one of those hobbies that one cannot practice alone and the logistics, as one’s “adult” responsibilities pile on (particularly making a living and caring for a child) can become rather daunting! Nonetheless, the love for it remains, and when the time is right, I hope to participate again!
Thanks, Mads. Sister-in-law kvelling is quite acceptable. I do hope you someday get to return to your acting passion. Life does sometimes get in the way of our passions, but maybe we’d be less passionate about our passions if that’s all we had to do. I dunno. I’ve never been in that situation. My current life is the closest I’ve come.
Fabulous pics.
My husband and I have various hobbies together – including cars and cruises. On my own I really love reading and short coffee shop visits with friends.
My husband and son (he and his family live on the west coast and we’re on the east) are both into photography. Thankfully they have the same camera. Why do I say, thankfully? Because they love swapping lenses and I love that because it penny wise!
Over from LinkedIn Group BHB
AWESOME photos! As for my hobby:
http://www.womensvoicesforchange.org/this-is-my-quest-to-follow-that-star.htm
Beautiful!
WOW, Lawyer turned amateur photographer, how cool is that. :-). Photographing fireworks take some real skill. That said these shot are amazing. I need to figure out how to take fireworks better myself.
My husband hobby is cooking. From executive to the kitchen and he loves it. It makes for an interesting time when we’re both in the kitchen at the asme time… LOL.
Actually, Steve’s the physician-scientist and I’m the recovering lawyer.
Oh I am so sorry. I did got that reversed. I do that sometimes with my dyslexia. Either way that is a great hobby for your husband. 🙂
Those pictures are phenomenal. They would like great on separate canvases hung in a row on the wall. I always find fireworks to be absolutely magical, but the way the fireworks are caught in the moment reveals something deeper and more whimsical.
Last year, Steve did a series of fireworks bursts next to close ups of flowers they resembled. They came out nicely—-or at least my mother loves the copy we gave to her. Or, she just didn’t want to hurt Steve’s feelings. She’s a very nice person so sometimes it’s hard to tell with her…. 😉
Steve’s pictures are beautiful. I’ll try to pass them on to Louise. If I get a picture of
something I made I’ll pass it on. Renee
Beautiful pictures. It is so great that Steve has found a hobby that he enjoys. I thought I would go crazy when my husband retired but he is so busy. He is building telescopes, loves to go to car shows, does the cooking and shopping. I call him Chief Bill and I am having the time of my life. I run the business and I don’t have to worry about doing the cooking. Life is good.
I don’t think Steve would have any trouble finding hobbies either — although I’m not sure he would decide that food shopping and cooking should be one of them. However, he has always maintained that his job is his hobby. He kind of can’t believe that he gets paid to do what he is driven to do anyway (medical research). Admittedly, there are those days when paperwork and administration interferes with his “hobby”. I have a feeling that his last day of work might be his last day—period. (Now I’m making myself sad.)
We love photography as well (great shots by the way!) and I understand the love of the art form. Some of us will always only be amateurs some rise above. What matters is the pleasure in the process. Hobby or more!
Sonja, you have hit the nail on the head. As long as photography brings joy (and not too much frustration), I’m happy for Steve. I keep wanting him to learn more, read books, take a course, etc., but I think I need to let that ship sail and just let him enjoy it at whatever level he’s comfortable with.
By the way, please tell Montecristo that we are anxiously awaiting his photos of Greece, the sail and Bulgaria.
I especially love the 2nd shot! And funny enough, I always refer to our son as having been “launched!” Fun post!
Those pictures are wonderful.
Wow! Love the pictures. I have some pictures of fireworks on my website (taken by my husband) but they are nothing like these. What kind of camera did he use and what setting?
Thanks. It was an old Canon digital point and shoot on a night setting. I don’t know which model. I cropped them for posting, but there was no other editing.
Well good for hubby and he did a good job on your blog….and now you can join my link up Mondays, thanks Suzan!
I think I’ve joined the last three, Noel. But, after this week, it could be tough 😉
Those are amazing photos. Fireworks are so difficult to capture and I love the creative perspectives. Well done, Steve! BTW, my favorite is the 3rd one of the gold fireworks.
The shots are fabulous. It is rather hard to get good photos of fireworks and these are spectacular. I love the way it ties in with your blog. It takes ages to find pictures to go with your blog posts, so sending your hubby out to take some is brilliant 🙂
Becc, in this case, it was the photos that inspired the blog post — not the other way around. When I saw them, I said “aha!, a blog post!” It’s an occupational hazard. One starts to see the world through blog-colored glasses 😉
Thank you all for your comments. I have been passing the compliments along to Steve. Maybe I should set him loose with his camera at least once a week. (Seriously, Steve can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants — within reason. I’m no Huma Abedin — nor Hillary for that matter.
Beautiful photos 🙂
Very good photos! I think it’s great that you’re now a recovering attorney. Actually, one of the major characters in my novel Revelle is a recovering attorney (he calls it being a refugee attorney :). One of my hobbies? I just wrote about it in my post of last night, called “The Best Part Of The Day”. I like your blog, Suzanne.
Thanks for sharing. Your husband’s hobby is marvelous.
Hi Suzanne, it’s so great of you and Steve to pick up great interest outside your profession. Blogging and photography are definitely cool things. So you guys rock! Your blog is definitely interesting and Steve’s photography is stunning.
Thanks, Marisol. I think he’s finally moving past his “blogging is self-indulgent” phase.
Ooooooo, aaaaaaaaarrrrr…it’ll be ages until I see fireworks again (probably in October) so I am getting a virtual fix from these photos!!!!!! You are so busy, I was hoping that once my kids had grown up I might get chance to sit down and have an uninterrupted cup of Earl Grey – or even a pre-dinner glass of bubbles. Do you do that too? (Please say yes).
Vanessa. Yes, we drink uninterrupted cups/glasses of whatever — whenever we want to! And, starting in January 2014, we are scheduled to live in Hawaii for 3 months while Steve does a sabbatical at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center — so we aim to be adding tropical drinks to our repertoire of uninterrupted beverages. I think Steve will also have plenty of opportunities for more photo ops.
This post is so ironic as I finally Subscribed to your blog and realized I needed to go back and “get to know” you again after not being here for a couple of months! Sorry. I had just participated in your Trips Down Memory Lane essay post of which all were so much fun to read! Anyhoo, I started with this post and talk about perfect re-introduction! 🙂 I have just recently delved heavily into photography with a Canon T3i and some very expensive lenses. I’m brand new to it just learning and my primary photo target is the love of my life, my Golden Retriever, Phoenix. Who I also have written stories about for 10 years now and just last Fall started converting them over to my new blog I started then. Oh, and tell your husband those were fantastic 4th of July photos!! 🙂
Thanks for rediscovering my blog, Mike. We’re still very much in point and shoot land.
Amazing shots, Suzanne! Photog is a great hobby, it lets you relax and see the world differently.
I’ve never called them hobbies, just interests. I’ve had several at different times, most times they’ve turned into paid work!
Thanks, Marcia. “Interest” is probably a better descriptor for Steve’s relationship with photography than “hobby”.
Cool photos!
My dad is a super hard working man. He does crazy hours and honestly, I’d be burned out after a month doing what he does.
Photography is also his hobby. He’s discovered this passion a few years ago and to go on a photography trip, even if it’s just for an afternoon, for him is really getting away from it all.
Me? I dance as much as I can:)
We all need some release from our “day jobs”. I did get Steve to take some Latin Dance classes with me at our local high school night school program. We learned just enough to be dangerous on the dance floor.
That’s great:-) My boyfriend isn’t really into dancing, unfortunately
Beautiful photos! And I’m happy for you to have time in your life for hobbies. People always ask me what I do with all my spare time. You’ll find it goes by very quickly!