It was time for MissAdventure to upgrade her Apple Watch but the Apple store was out of stock in our city so of course we took a road trip to the OKC Apple store. Shenanigans, geocaching and urban exploration occurred as well of course.
Chris
Journaling
Date: December 27, 2021 at 6:24:52 PM CST
Weather: 54°F Mostly Cloudy
Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
Almost one year since I have last utilized this journal app called Day One properly. My plan for 2022 is to journal daily. I want to track fitness goals, blood pressure, nutrition and random thoughts as well. Hopefully by purchasing a premium subscription I will use this more effectively towards my goals.
Me, today
A few months ago the parent company of my web host, WordPress purchased the Day One journaling app and I was hoping to see some sort of integration by now. Maybe in 2022?
I also purchased more than a few Field Notes notebooks for daily journaling, note taking, scribbles, logs etc. You know, in a physical format. This is highly unusual for me but it is something I have wanted to do for awhile.
Neon Nights NFT Collection
My first foray into NFT and cryptocurrency trading has begun. I have just minted two digital images for sale on the OpenSea market for .25 ETH coin. This translates to a lot of USD$ for only two images. Will they go to an earnest collector/curator? Time will tell as they are up for a three day auction. If not, I’ll try again for a month long auction.
It’s different, and I’m learning as I go but the speculation is fun!
Travel Photography Tips
Like everyone else, I am tired of this damned pandemic and want to experience a different reality. So, I’ve masked up, received a vaccination and started booking flights.
Where to?
Migratory birds and pensioners have it right, so I suggest going south for the winter. New Orleans is a little slice of Europe here in the States. Guadalajara has a great blend of Europe and Mexico. Mexico City is on the list for its views. I’m always keen to go back to the Dominican Republic.
When the weather turns warmer, I’d recommend San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Savannah, Charlotte, Miami, and Chicago.
Hit The Road
I’ve traveled the length of Route 66 from Chicago to LA and kicked myself for not taking the time to stop for better photographic opportunities, so this is definitely on the list again. Big Bend National park on the Texas/Mexico border has been canceled twice due to the pandemic or wildfires. Maybe this year? Pitch a tent, rent an Airbnb or rent, even better, a trailer in a west Texas nomadic hotel.
Stealth Mode
Wearing a mask and shooting street photography from a distance can be beneficial and fun.
Minimal Clothing
One backpack filled with limited apparel and essentials. No checked bags at the airport, buy what you need when you get there.
Minimal Gear
For me, it is one camera, one lens, the iPad, external hard drive and the chargers.
Shoot Everything
Memory cards store numerous data, so fill them up. When done for the day, dump them on the iPad and then go back out to play.
Plan Ahead
Map out where you want to shoot, do your homework and take notes. Check out Atlas Obscura for unique finds, Geocaching can take you to unexpected places that aren’t in the tour guides. Refer to these often, so you don’t miss anything.
Airplane Mode
Not just a good idea when you are on a plane, but when you are on the ground and trying to focus. Leaving the phone in Airplane mode limits your distractions, to disconnect, to think, meditate on your life, to create images, you know, the whole reason you started this adventure.
Recover
I go away to get away from it all. It’s funny to me that I rarely do so. Next time, I must promise myself to be in the moment and enjoy it. Otherwise, what was the point?
MyPad
After playing with my Apple toys I’ve come to the decision that the iPad is the one I play with the most. A close second would be the iPhone. A distant third would be the MacBook.
With the iPad, there are few limitations. As far as I can tell, the one drawback would be image capture even though the iPad Pro is no slouch, not with these tech specs such as the built in Wide and Ultra Wide cameras. But who wants to use both hands on a 12×9 frame and snap a photo with it?
With an iPad all is achievable.
I have work related apps loaded on there such as Microsoft Office so I can stay in communication with my team anywhere I go (helpful, but depressing.) A keyboard that also is a protective case is always handy. Wifi where available and 5G cellular when it isn’t so I am always connected. You can’t get that on a Macbook. The same for the #2 Pencil. It can’t be used on the Macbook or the iPhone.
When I am not working, I can catch a movie, crank up the tunes, or read a good book. The iPad is my mobile photo processing lab, my video editing room and my gaming console.
My advice is to skip the Macbook if possible and spend the extra money on the iPad Pro. I maxed mine out because I knew it needed to endure everything I put it through. Work, play, entertainment, everything.
Constraints
Lately I’ve been frustrated with the lack of shooting opportunities in small town USA. By comparison, larger urban cities are target rich for photo shooters. I’ve spent two hours on two Sundays and walked away with maybe 10 images on the new camera.
Maybe I need to adjust my thinking here and appreciate the creative constraints to just keep shooting for the hell of it.
Photo Denbow Redesign v. 55
Because I am never satisfied with the way my online portfolio looks, a new coat of paint has been added. Also added is the new download page where that one person (thanks, mom!) can download and read my photography zines.
Artistic Investments
We’ve been taught that it is wise to invest in your future, so you should save and retire comfortably. So, you save and invest in hopes of a nice return on your investment. Now that you’ve saved and invested, what happens? Wait and die without living an enjoyable life? I say invest in what makes you happy, as there are no guarantees anymore. The 401k retirement plans can be worth less than what you’ve invested. Social Security is not sustainable either. But we are still taught and encouraged to keep at it anyway. Sounds like a trap for complacent sheep.
So I’ve done all that, but have a ways to go before retiring. Now I am choosing to invest in my life through other means- by doing what makes me happy while I still can.
For me, this is photography. It is a creative passport that allows me to go anywhere, capture anything and after thirty+ years, I am vested heavily.
A lot of my free time and money go to producing, developing, processing and publishing images with little reward except it makes my soul happy.
Now that I have the tools I want to accomplish these things, I will invest more time in working with other photographers and their art. Investing money into experiences, not gear. Investing both time and money into travel experiences, workshops, and anything else that furthers my desires.
It is difficult to create something in a small town, in a land-locked, flyover state, in the winter, during a pandemic. So, I invested in a trip to New Orleans next month to change my perspective. I love NOLA and feel as if I can never explore it enough. The camera comes with of course to capture those experiences. Instead of investing in all the best cameras, lenses etc. etc., I’ll put my money into travel expenses.
Investing in my own website has paid off beautifully for me these past twenty years and I encourage all artists to do so. Stop sharecropping on Zuck’s platforms and develop on your own land.
I recommend Namecheap for buying your own domain name and web hosting. After making the rounds with most of the web hosts myself, these guys are some of the most reliable. Domain name can be as low as $2 a year. Web hosting as little as $20 a year. Congrats, you have your own website, with your own email address for the cost of 3 Starbucks visits. What a great investment in yourself and your work.
Investing in photo experiences gets me out of the house and since I am currently workin from home it is a lifesaver. New experiences for the wandering misadventurer gives me fresh eyes and new perspectives to make new photos.
Investing in my life and my lifestyle is a wise choice for my time and money.
It is financially wise eating at home more than I eat out, but I haven’t been doing that. This needs to change. The money saved on dining in can go towards that next flight instead. Why didn’t I think of that sooner?
More money saved can go towards books, self-educated tools, or even investing in others through cryptocurrency to speculate on photographic works of art (NFTs.) I am slowly seeing opportunities for the blockchain to overtake “social media” photography.
Like most investors, I wish I had the wisdom to have started earlier. I want to take advantage of these new opportunities of investing in myself and earning those rewards.
Reading Workflow
Reading is one of my all-time favorite things to do. But nowadays, there hasn’t been time allowances made for it, which is odd to me because now there is more to read than ever before.
As we all know, reading has expanded from traditional printed books, magazines, and newspapers. Now we have websites, blog posts, emails, Facebook, Twitter, forums, newsletters, digital books, e-magazines, etc., etc. These types of reading can be an overwhelming reading list that we must feel we have to keep up with.
The list becomes difficult, so my solution is to not try to keep up. My reading lists are self-inflicted, and so I pare it down to a read-it-later system that works for me. In true minimalist fashion, I have scaled down my printed books to the essentials. Now my fiction reading is done with e-books. Thanks to an all-inclusive Apple One subscription, they threw in digital magazines that I will occasionally browse through. The blogs I enjoy keeping up with have been scaled back. I don’t do Facebook, “news” websites, or newspapers, so no loss there.
Even with a scaled down reading list, time for reading is still a challenge: how do you make time to consume what you want and when you want? How do you read without distraction? It’s difficult to read when you come across something you want to explore later, or notifications pop up on your screen from phone calls, texts etc.
Here’s my attempt at finding reading without distraction:Books. Rarely will I read non-fiction. I love a good novel here. Most of them are now consumed through the Libby app, which ties into your local libraries for zero cost. To avoid distractions, my reading device goes into “Airplane Mode.” I’m good for thirty minutes to a couple of hours into another world.
Blogs. I love to read blogs on topics I enjoy and love to see another author’s perspective on it. The list of authors and websites I have carefully curated is filtered into an RSS aggregator called FeedBin. I don’t visit these blogs and websites, no, they come to me through Feedbin. No advertising, everything is in reader mode. Meaning, the format is stripped down to white text on a grey background for distraction-free reading. I can save the article for later reference or clear the posts out and wait for the next ones to be delivered as soon as they are published. Genius.
Browsing. If you browse through the internet, you could open multiple tabs and maybe re-visit them later, but let’s be honest- you won’t. There are a lot of “Read-It-Later” services out there like Instapaper, Pocket, etc. to help out. Find an article on the web you want to keep for later? Hit the browser’s send button and deposit it there for later reading. Make the web work for you. Personally, I prefer the one-time purchase of a “R-I-L” service called GoodLinks. That is where all my articles to follow up on. Again, on my own time.
Email. This is a tool for critical notifications only. I do subscribe to newsletters, the next step of blog authors getting their articles out there. Not me. All newsletters are delivered through Feedbin. I like my email inbox for important things and keep my address locked down tight.
Social Media. Twitter, is it for me. I have found so much benefit there than any other social media outlet. I have met so many like-minded individuals there and, as a result, in the real world too. I sprung for the third-party app called TweetBot that eliminates advertising and limit my time there to maybe 2 times a week for 5 minutes. After that, I’m good.
Recommended Apps that I use for my reading workflow:
Uninspired
Winter, pandemic, small town, supervising forty people 24×7 remotely from home is taking a toll on the creativity.
I will never be satisfied with my art.
2022
Thinking of exploring other creative outlets besides photography such as video, sketching, and maybe dust off that ukulele as well.
