Asheville Skyline in Early Fall

With photos appearing in three local publications — on the cover of one — I’m confident that fame and fortune have finally arrived. I think I can see my ship on the horizon.

Okay, I don’t need to be reminded there’s a fine line between optimism and delusion. Which reminds me of a joke:

The optimist says the glass is half full; the pessimist says it’s half empty; the engineer says it’s twice as big as it should be.

I’m neither an optimist nor an engineer, but I have been accused of pessimism, which charge I deny; I’ll plead to being a dedicated realist. So maybe it’s just another fishing boat out there.

Which naturally brings me to the subject of the annual Southern Conference basketball tournament, which started at 11:30 a.m. this morning in Asheville. The SoCon tournament is a pretty big deal in downtown Asheville, worth about $4 million in business according to the Asheville Citizen Times. But what really makes it significant this year is my Asheville Skyline photo (above) that’s featured in the tournament’s official program. Haven’t seen a copy yet, but I was told the photo would probably be on the same page as the mayor’s welcoming statement. Cool.

So to take advantage of the exposure I’m going to temporarily change the Home Page at my website, www.photothemes.com, to promote that image and the following one, which will be on the cover of the forthcoming Lake Junaluska Centennial Magazine.

Lake Junaluska Cross at Sunset

Then there’s the local newspaper for Waynesville and Haywood County, The Mountaineer, which will be running an article on the Lake Junaluska Centennial. Not sure when the story will appear or which photos they’ll be using, but here are some I submitted. The location is Inspiration Point, completed in 2005. The lady in the last photo, Hattie Polk, is a well-know resident of Lake Junaluska who was the inspiration behind the project.