Two days left! I'll be out of town on New Year's Day, so judging will be late that evening or on January 2nd.
As a last minute entry, here is a print of my dad, who has now literally flown off to heaven. I made this image in 2002 and found it last week again when sorting out his stuff. He was sitting in his old truck and I photographed him looking into the mirror.
My father finally died on December 20th - sooner as expected. His prognoses were 3 months at first, but it reduced to three weeks and then just one week within days. His hart was damaged too much to keep going for long. So I brought him home to take care of him a week before he died because he wanted to die at home. We had a good week to do all the things he still wanted and to say our farewells. Then he went in peace surrounded by his family - as he wanted. It was good this way.
I chose this image since the only way I can see him now is by looking into a mirror at myself and see what is there from him in me (and that's a lot). I made this portrait, with my old Nikon F on Kodak Tri-X, when he was sitting in an old military fire truck from the Royal Dutch Air Force. It's a DAF YA126 from 1958, that he restored himself and rebuild into a camper and looks like this:
I'm glad I made these images back then since I inherited this fire truck and will keep it rolling - thinking of my father. It was his pride and we enjoyed our trips.
Lesson to be learned: spent quality time with your family and friends while you can - enjoy these moments and take photographs while you're at it!
BTW: these images won't be eligible for winning in this MSA since they were originally made in 2002. But I wanted to share it anyway for it is a wonderful theme.
Bert from Holland