An American.

I became an American citizen today.

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What does this have to do with photography? Nothing! Well, I took pictures…does that count?

For those of you who have known me for a long time, this might come as a surprise. Yes, I’m secretly Canadian by birth. I’ve lived here since I was three years old. And now, roughly 38 years after moving here, I’ve become an American. On September 11th, coincidentally.

The ceremony was in the Los Angeles Convention Center. 6000 people all being sworn in, with two other sessions later today. That’s a lot of new citizens! Or, as my wife puts it, “18,000 new Democrats being sworn in every month!” (Can you guess how she’s voting in the next election?)

We had to get up at 5am to make it down in time for the ceremony. And, after hauling my family down with me, we didn’t get to sit together. Non-swearing guests (is that the right turn of a phrase?) had to sit in a separate section. So all the pictures I have at the moment are self-portraits via cellphone camera. Which promptly ran out of battery power during the ceremony, thus ending my continuous stream of text messages to my wife, along the lines of “I’m over on the left side. See me waving the flag? I’m the guy waving the little American flag. What, there are other guys waving flags? Ok, I’m the guy waving the red file folder? Can you see me?” Etc.

People around me wondering why I’m taking pictures of myself.

The thronging horde of new citizens.