I hope you’ll pardon today’s non sequitur; the picture and the story simply don’t have anything to do with one another. First, the picture. If you live here in East Tennessee, I hope you’ve been enjoying the blooms this year, they’ve been amazing! The redbud trees (pictured above) especially so, I can’t remember a time when they’ve been so pretty for so long. Good stuff!

Now the story. When I logged into Facebook today it announced to me that today was Sibling Day, and that I should share a story, so I thought I would. For those that don’t know, my brother Vance is something of an amazing trumpet player. He teaches at the University of Tennessee, and founded the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, for which he has arranged and composed many songs. Upon hearing that my brother was ‘THE’ Vance Thompson, a former college classmate of mine proclaimed “Holy crap man, he’s awesome! I have textbooks written by him on how to play the trumpet!”

As you would imagine, being that skilled -at anything really- takes a lot of practice, and some amount of natural talent. Growing up, Vance practiced a LOT; something I personally had no care during my half-hearted attempt at learning the saxophone. After years of hearing “Why aren’t you as good as your brother?” from a certain, I’m sure well meaning but still sort-of jerkish middle-school band director, I hung it up and decided to try my hand at art class instead of band (and let’s be honest… I didn’t want to be in High School marching band that bad anyway). THAT, is when I discovered photography.

Long-time family friend Roger Givens gave me my first camera, a Canon AE-1, and later a Canon F-1, and for over 20 years now I have enjoyed a hobby that is immensely gratifying. A hobby that, who knows, maybe I would have never discovered had I not been given a nudge to branch out on my own path. So thanks, Vance, for being so awesome there was no use to follow in your footsteps. 🙂 (And thank you Roger, for inspiring me with your images when I was a kid, and giving me the gift of a camera)

–Dan Thompson

Knoxville, TN