photos © James P. Jones 2009 - please don't republish or hot-link the images without asking.

I was listening to Bill Harley on Monday as he gave a funny and poignant speech. In an anecdote he talked about realizing one day that he had really affected a particular child - "you know when you set out to do something... and are surprised when it actually happens."

I had that feeling last week when I was looking at these images. Lately when I pick up the camera I want to capture beautiful images of people doing things that 30 years from now will surprise their kids (and others). So, even after I edited these pics it didn't really strike me, until I started to spell it out, that I was taking a picture of something that may disappear in my lifetime.

A friend of mine told me that it is hard to find beer and cigarette vending machines in Japan now. They were so ubiquitous that I am a little sad and a little disbelieving. I have to go see this for myself. I remember being sent out to fetch beer for my dad when I was 9 years old from the nearest vending machine (my grandparents sent me on the task). Of course this was a different time and a very different place, but still. It was in my lifetime. So, what of these images then?

Here are two pilots sitting at the edge of a hangar, planes parked behind them, beer in hand watching the big birds take off from the end of an international airport runway. Of course these guys aren't flying any time soon. This was winding down from a long day at the office, so to speak.

But, will it last? Will such small pleasures become an inconceivable quirk of the past? I really don't know. I hope not, but then I was sitting there on the green couch having a beer with them.