What does Raw Imago mean?
So I guess for my first blog I will go ahead and share with you why I choose the name Raw Imago Photography and what it means, for starters it's kind of a double entendre, mostly just for myself but first let me explain the name and then the secret meaning. The easiest and fastest way to explain, .jpeg "the picture" raw "the negative" we all remember film cameras and having to take the negative to get developed, (now I feel old) anyways, that's what we're dealing with. .jpeg the camera processes the image strait out of the camera, and raw is unprocessed and I would process the image myself not the camera. So now that we know the difference between raw and .jpg let get back to it. Raw (R) the first word, means I shoot raw, and process all my images in post processing before sharing, Imago (I) is the Latin word for image, imagine that ha, and of course Photography (P)--RIP-- (Rest In Peace) this is my double entendre for my father.
My father Robert W. Duncan is my hero and some of you know him and some do not, if you don't let me catch you up to speed and give you a little history. My father and my grandmother loved photography, my grandmother was a nurse full time and what time she could spare she took pictures and when she retired she opened her own photo shop in San Diego Cali. and my father was first taught the family trade which was construction and that was his main source of employment and through out the years he was able to have his own business in construction and event went far enough to open his own photo shop just like his mother but unable to sustain a living in it he always went back to construction. In 2008 my family found out my father had stage 3 lung cancer and nearly had half of his left lung taken out, I had just moved to Texas while all this was going on and was hard to deal with but the surgery went well and
even went into remission. Couple of years later something happened.. a brain tumor the size of a gulf ball! Tumors this size in the brain was very bad and the doctors said that patients life expectancy this severe is a maximum 2yrs... he surpassed that by 7yrs. I want to say for the record. Cancer is a bitch and EVERY SINGLE CANCER PATIENTS IS A HERO IN MY EYES. They're fighting to survive, looking death into his eyes and refusing to give in, my father never gave in and that's why I believe he lived as long as he did.
After the lung cancer my father started to do what he loved and that was photography and even had his own photography business, fallowing the footsteps of his mother. Around 2013-14 the lung cancer came back and by that time my father was living in Washington because they have an excellent V.A. and other cancer specialist. Being the age that he was and the cancers he has had, surgery was not an option and even the treatment would just slow things down but he did them anyways. He would say "I know cancer will get me some day but its not going to be easy". In Dec 2014 I found out I was going to be a father, and when I told my father he decided to leave his treatment to be with his grandson. Its hard even writing this. My wife and I wanted my father to be there to see his grandson being born, maybe a little unorthodox but we didn't care, we didn't want him to miss a thing and I remember my father saying "Seeing my grandson being born is my epilog, an ending to my story". My father passed away September 18, 2017 and shortly after that I was almost hit by a truck running a red light, my wife and son where in the car and the chances of me driving that day and the inches that could of ended everything was so astronomically insane! For days I was obsessed with it, I almost lost my wife and son, then I realized that time was to short and I wasn't happy with what I was doing with my life. What did I love to do? Photography! That's what I want to do and that's what I'm going to do! My father always gave me advice when I needed it and when I didn't, but he always said to do what you love and what makes you happy and I want my father to know he can rest in peace because I am doing what I love.
Robert W. Duncan
Sep. 18 2017
