I know it's been a while, ladies and gentlemen, although I imagine at this point my sporadic attendance has become more or less accepted.
I hope you are well. I have been keeping fairly busy myself. I know I'm not churning out art too regularly here. I have been very active with my leatherwork, although photography has slowed down since travel has always been my greatest muse and finances are just not in the place they need to be for that to be in the cards at the moment. There are cheaper solutions of course, like Peace Corps, but I have a new job I absolutely love so I'm going to hold off on making that sort of serious commitment for at least another year or two. Honestly, this is the most "settled down" I think I've been in my life, and while I'm not entirely happy about it, I'm 24 with many years ahead of me so I'm not worried about getting stuck in some sort of static, white-picket-fence rut.
Oh, the job? I'm so glad you asked.
I am working at a Living History Museum, which is like a museum in its educational mission, except rather than preserving artifacts we preserve cultures and lifestyles. In our case, the culture is that of England in 1376. The United States has a few  living history museums that operate like ours (albeit on a much higher budget) portraying the late 17th and the 18th centuries in the form of Colonial Williamsburg and Plymouth Plantation on the East Coast. But the basic principal in all cases is that we rebuild a town to period specifications and then fill it with actors portraying the locals. We're in an unusual position in that we bare a lot of surface similarity to ren-fairs, except that our focus is on accuracy and education versus entertainment (although we hope our visitors enjoy themselves as well!). My specific job is... well... not very specific. During the off season I have been doing site maintenance and historical research, but this summer I will be one of the actors, portraying the roles of leather worker and cider-maker, as well as giving archery and longsword demonstrations. I am also training as the backup blacksmith in case our primary one can't make it that day. As I continue I will start training new actors and become the volunteer coordinator. I'm also the PR and Marketing Director, so I'll be doing photography and advertising, as well as an eventual web overhaul.
So like I said, I keep busy.
Part of that advertising bit involves a goal to start doing commercials, documentaries and maybe some how-tos on various medieval crafts. In order to make that happen, I sold my trusty Canon Rebel XSi and just ordered a Canon 60D. I've been a long way with my entry-level DSLR, and I have nothing but good things to say, but I think it's finally time to move on. Especially if I have ambitions of shooting video. I know dA isn't the best place for video hosting, but if that goes well I hope to share my upcoming projects with you as well as some portraits of medieval life if I manage to abandon my six other job responsibilities for a minute.
So there you have it. A sparse update for such a long hiatus, but at least it's something. I have been avoiding spamming you guys with my leather projects and historical essays since I know most of you came to watch me because of my photography. Of course I'm far from giving up taking artistic pictures, but maybe instead of assuming, I should just ask. Would you mind if my gallery became more of a leather project one for a while (maybe a year or two until my next big trip) or should I post it elsewhere?
Thanks, and safe travels.
~Drocan