Kirk Russell:
CLASS OF 1968
Ledyard High SchoolClass of 1968
Ledyard, CT
Kirk's Story
"LET ME START OUT BY SAYING DON'T JUDGE THE EXPERIENCE BY THE OUT COME. REGARDLESS OF HOW IT ALL ENDS I HAVE HAD A GREAT EXPERIENCE WITH MY LIFE AND WOULD NOT CHANGE A THING."
I have had more than enough money for most of my life and during the lean times I learned more about myself than the flush times. Whether health ,money ,children, spousal or personal; we all find ourselves in the barrel at times in our life.
After high school and collage I was a photojournalist for 5 years and then opened Russell Studio in Ledyard CT. RussellStudioPhoto.com . I work my A-- off for 30 years and retired early and went sailing on my boat which was another love of my life. Because I was sailing through out the Caribbean and South America I had to give my brokerage firm power of attorney over my account as much of the time I could not be reached. You guessed it! I received a message one day that I owed the beverage firm Thousands of dollars in brokerage commissions so I called and ask why they just didn't take it out of my account with well over One Million Dollars only to find out the brokers handling my account had lost every dime I had. After flying home I also found out that the laws are set up so you have to be able to prove intent to defraud in court as all the brokerage firm had to do is come to court and say we made bad business decisions; So Sorry. Now after selling my sailboat being depressed for over a year My sweet Beverley said "Look we have each other and our health, What else do we really need." Well by that time photography had changed so drastically because of digital cameras 60% of all studios and photo labs had closed up shop so we really not only had to get up to speed with the new digital photography but had to reinvent our selves as it was in no way business as usual in the photography business. So we also made the decision that if we have to work we might as well be in the islands we love so we rented our house in Ct. and live and work in Anguilla B.W.I. Now if you have visited my photo and painting gallery at this site you will see we photograph the worlds Mega-Yachts and Mega Villa for Internet marketing and sales. Great work, as we get to spend 3 days on these Mega Yachts and the crew is at our beck and call so we are getting paid well for what others have to pay 10 grand a day for to charter one of these yachts. By the way I wish I had known about crewing on a Mega-Yacht after school as these young people get paid very well and travel the world. They receive 6 month contracts & if thecaptin likes you in the Caribbean you will be ask about a contract for the Mediterranean and a month leave while the ship travels from the Caribbean to the med. and if they really like you they will throw in an airline ticket and a bonus to boot.
It is just about the same story with the Mega-Villas most of the time the owners are not on island an...Expand for more
d the Villa staff are there to assist us and we have run of the villa and private pools and beaches. The staff fix our meals and we have great food and wine and many time stay at the Villa if we are shooting off island. When we are not shooting villa and Mega-Yachts we create vacation photo books for visitors on the island as well as my paintings are in all the galleries on this and several other islands. visit AnguillaMemories.com. So all and all life is good; yes it would be nice to have lots of money in the bank again but we are healthy, at the beach 5 days a week and don't work all that hard and most of the time have a great time working. The only thing we really miss is our sail boat. We have lots of friends that are always asking us to sail with them and we don't have the up keep of the boat. We still miss our boat at times but have a great deal to be thankful for, we have each other, and of course Miss lady our springer. By this time in life most of us have traveled to the places in the world we have wanted to visit and done most of the really important thing we wanted to try I know Beverley and I have very few places we haven't seen or done. We still want to do a barge trip in France and there is a cruse destination Beverley wants to go on but we have to wait until I loose 30 lbs as my idea of a cruise is to graze my way from one port to the next and if I can't eat what I want I don't want to go. Ya Ya I know it is bad but that is the way it is and I am trying to change but I love to cook and eat. Beverley eats twice as much as I do and never gains a lb.;it just isn't fair. Well if you ever want to come to a great pristine beautiful island Anguilla is the best. I know because American Express sent me throughout the Caribbean after collage to photograph the islands and for many years I never missed a winter in St Martin but in 1985 because I felt it was no longer safe in St Martin I move over here to Anguilla and even used Anguilla as a base when I was Sailing. Come to think of it STAY AWAY we don't want to have happen here in Anguilla what has happened to most of the other island in the Caribbean TOO MANY PEOPLE. Now we go to the biggest of the 34 beautiful white sand beaches and if we see 10 people on a 1 mile beach that is a lot. If you do venture here or want to don't forget to call me first as we will be here on the beach or on our balcony listening to the waves and watching the whales and dolphins playing in the sea. Well; Miss Lady and Beverley are bugging me about going to the beach so gotta go. Hope your life has been as interesting and varied as mine and may the wind always be at your back or at least 30% off the beam. Most of all I hope you are still healthy. All the Best Kirk P.S. If any of you hve an extra million you don't know what to do with, I would enjoy having a liveaboard go any where sailboat again. That was great fun !
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