The train to National Geographic

A few hours after my anxiety fueled insomnia (see the post previous to this), I made my way to the Fairfax-Vienna Metro station in Virginia to ride the subway into DC and National Geographic. The only problem with this convenient, environmentally friendly plan was that there was absolutely no parking, paid or otherwise. That’s not to say there weren’t any parking spaces. There were tons. Unfortunately they were reserved for use after 10 AM. It was 8:15 AM and I was pushing my luck for making my 9 o’clock call time for a run through of my presentation.

After spiraling through three parking structures I got on highway 66 to drive into DC. During the morning commute hours highway 66 becomes a massive carpool lane. Solo drivers like me are forbidden. I exited the freeway as soon as I could and found the next Metro station down the line. There was no parking there either.

It was now 9:15 AM. I called Ashley at National Geographic and we decided that the run through was cooked. I hatched a plan to park in the 10 AM parking zone at 9:30 and gamble that the the car wouldn’t be discovered to be parked illegally for the thirty minutes until ten and get towed. Just then I caught a break and found a broken meter about 20 yards from the metro station entrance.

After picking up my pass from security, I hightailed it upstairs.

It was a ghost town.

I ran down to the auditorium. The other speaker, Jim Richardson, was giving an excellent talk on geo tagging. Jim and I were the only speakers for the event so I had until he was finished to go through my presentation a few more times to make sure everything was tight. It was at this point that I did something that I never do in these situations; I second guessed myself.

I heard clapping out in the auditorium. I was on.

Everything went along swimmingly well. My coffee kicked in about the time I walked on stage and I got a few good chuckles from the audience. Then I got to the last slide of my presentation.

When I was second guessing myself before going on stage, I added a misspelled, duplicate title to the last slide of my presentation. Because it was the last it remained on the screen for 30 minutes as I answered the questions of the 100 Nat Geo photographers, editors and staff who filled the auditorium to standing room only capacity.

Whoops.

Minor 2ft tall spelling error aside, the questions and conversations that followed my presentation were brilliant. I got to meet some of the photographers who I work with on the assignment blog, and I was invited to the private, “works in progress” session in which the Nat Geo shooters show their work to a room of their photography peers. There is nothing in the world like looking at a Nat Geo shooter’s images and hearing the behind the scenes stories about them.

However, the true highlight of my week at Nat Geo was when I was asked to add my signature to the oversized 4ft tall National Geographic cover. It is a humbling honor to have my signature included among some of the most amazing and famous names of recent photographic history.

A big MUCHOS GRACIAS to Rebecca Daniels who helped me out the day of my presentation. She is a gifted architectural photographer with an infectious, fun personality.

For those of you in the Seattle area, I’ll be presenting the talk I did at National Geographic at an ASMP event this Thursday – sans spelling error.

Wide effing awake.

It’s an absurd circumstance. On the west coast, on non-party-or-date-with-my-girlfriend-nights, I usually traipse to slumber land around 12:30 AM. When I travel to the east coast, 12:30 AM West is 3:30 AM East. I’m currently sneering angrily at my iPhone which is unrepentantly ticking the seconds away until it’s going to Marimba my ass out of bed in 3 hours. Writing this snarky little missive is not helping anything I’m sure. I mean here I am in a sea of darkness cooking my eyes with the light from my laptop screen and illuminated keyboard. I can’t decide if I’m self destructive, or irretrievably stupid.

With and opening like that I should turn the comments off on this post.

Photo

Brrrrr

As I sit here in my house in Los Angeles having survived another harsh winter day of 74 degrees, I wondered how the people in the states with seasons were fairing this winter. And then I was struck with karmic retribution. I’ve been summoned to DC.

Oh brrrrr.

Careful how you angle your attitude.

Adios naught 9

My girlfriend returned from Costco yesterday with so many rolls of toilette paper that I am actually concerned we’ll never use it all. Knowing the logic of our more militant, ecologically minded friends, I can see them opening the linen closet and accusing us of wanton eco-cidal tendencies towards the forests. “We’ll use it eventually,” I’ll argue. They’ll counter that a supply as large as ours has a significant chance of outlasting both our life spans. They’ll continue the guilt trip by stating that there are people dying from diarrhea in some third world countries.

I decided it was best to prevent this uncomfortable scenario before it happens, so I went to our local taco stand and ate a four chicken tacos with extra hot sauce. Now, with some alone time to put a dent in out TP supply, I have an opportunity to reflect on the past year.

Each year on New Years eve, rather than announce, write down, or even think about some absurd list of resolutions that I’ll never keep, I like to think about the biggest take-away lesson from the previous 364 days. This past year it was definitely that complexity is complex. I don’t mean to sound like some sort of village idiot, but with all the technological offerings of the past decade I discovered two indisputable and universal truths that apply to anyone who makes a living as a creative person;

The first is that the real world is way more interesting than social networks. I’m not saying that social networks don’t have their place, I love them. I’m just saying if you find yourself killing free time by reading tweets or browsing Facebook get off your ass and go outside. Creative inspiration comes from you being there, not from reading about someone else’s being there.

The second is that there is absolutely no better way to start a creative project than pen an paper. Brainstorming applications are crap. They are a barrier between your thought and your expression. If you have an inspiration you should never handicap yourself by thinking about turning something on, and starting something up before fleshing it out. Furthermore, a pen and paper are totally unhindered free form tools. They can write, draw and doodle without you giving a second thought. Even if you draw stick figures like I do, it’s the idea you’re pursuing not the craft. The computer and the software are what you use to execute and refine the idea. I was never more happy when I started carrying a notebook again four months ago.

With that I leave you with an image by one of my most favorite photographers at one of my most favorite places on the planet. It is the last sunset of 2009 shot with a Blackberry from the Griffith Park observatory in Los Angeles by Susan Anderson.

Image © Susan Anderson.