Catching Up

7 days into 2017 and I'm already behind. I'm not a believer or practitioner of New Year's Resolutions, mainly because I think it sets you up for failure to try and arbitrarily make a huge change without addressing & changing the little support aspects of life, but I have successfully made little tweaks to my days in the past few months - the biggest improvement being establishing a regular workout habit.  Besides good health, there's a practical, project-related reason for fitness:  photography gear is heavy.  Guess what's really not fun?  Lugging even the lighter end of equipment on hikes and treks and being so out of breath, using a slower shutter speed was out of the question because heavy breathing messed up shots.  So yay for that small win.  But, I digress.

Anyway - 7 days in and I'm already behind in posts, though in reality, I've been behind since September when I went on a business trip to New Mexico and spent some time capturing images out there, which I never found time to post or account the hours.  Since then, I've also finished my MBA thesis and upgraded to my shiny new camera toy, the Nikon D750.  Don't get me wrong, I still love the shots from the D3300 and still managed 3 years on this project with that, but have felt increasingly limited in low light particularly.  The one downside (apart from the D750 being a much pricier toy) is that it's a little heavier and my little weeny wrists aren't accustomed to hefting it around - hence the working out.

Since I've been taking the D750 out, I've already managed a lot of shots I love as opposed to shots I just like and started seeing the world differently (literally, since the crop D3300 "zoomed" me into a scene).  And so, an update to get me all caught up and ready to continue on to new photographic and topographic heights.

From the top of Sandia Peak, Albuquerque, NM. Taken with D3300.

A stormy sunset in the Santa Fe National Forest - my favorite shot from the series.  Proof that a crop frame can still work some magic.

First series of shots with the full frame D750 - the centerpiece from my MBA thesis completion reception, lit with a ringlight. 

We took a trip up to Seattle and actually caught a rare snowfall. The additional fine detail captured with a full frame sensor is notable.

Puget Sound at Blue Hour.  The D750 is a low light beastmode dream. 

Active Shooting Time: 14 hours
Editing Time: 9 hours
Hours To Date: 392.5

Leadership and the Sophomore Slump

I've hit the infamous sophomore slump with this project, although it's not for a lack of creative desire - I've managed to keep up on the photographic front and even squeezed in a few adventures.  The photographs I've taken seem to continue to improve in quality, composition, and drama; I've just found it difficult to write when all of my thoughts have been mundane. The old adage "when it rains, it pours" applies to my situation, with multiple unexpected demands cropping up at work and overlaying on top of each other.  Unlike previous assignments for which I was voluntold and just didn't know how to say no, these latest management tribulations fall squarely under my responsibility.  I'm not one to shirk from duty, so I've patiently (to the tune of the last 9 months) managed situations, put out fires, and demonstrated the so-called je ne sais quoi of being a strong leader.  And I will say, the last 9 months have been more mentally and emotionally exhausting than just about anything else I've undertaken.

Like anything else, I'm sure it will get better and I'll look back onto this period as a proving ground for my capabilities as a leader.  In the meantime though, it just feels like another frivolous first world problem when compared against some of the tragedies occurring around the world.  And yet, I'm so entrenched and exhausted by the day to day, I haven't had capacity to consider anything outside of my bubble.

I love travel and adventure and I don't blame my peers who quit their corporate jobs on a whim to pseudo-glamorously backpack around the world without a plan to "find themselves," but it's always been a little tongue-in-cheek for me when their posts to social media meticulously catalogue their journeys of escape and wanderlust at iconic places around the world, but their return to reality is silent.  They went on an epic journey to build character and life skill, but they don't seem any different once they return.  I may not have visited all 7 Wonders of the World in the last 3 months or quoted Tolkien to rationalize a lack of direction, but I have put my nose to the grindstone and managed unsavory situations that no one wants to deal with - the battle scars of leadership.  Through that, I know I have the discipline, good judgment, and sheer grit to make it through any sort of hell.  Not to mention, an intact savings account.

I did manage to take some vacation amidst the chaos to travel for a wedding and spent a few more days in Maryland and Washington, DC to draw inspiration from other great leaders in history.

Active Shooting Hours: 16 Review Hours: 4 Hours To Date: 271

Balancing Organized Chaos

I am quite possibly the most organized, disorganized person, ever. And this is a longstanding honor I've carried since childhood. While I always had the neatest desk, binder, and pencil box in school with nary a page nor pencil out of place... my room at home looked like the Wicked Witch of the West summoned a storm through and dropped a house on it to boot.

I think part of it comes from my inner desire for balance. I am impeccably precise professionally and academically, but that trait comes with a need for some (or a lot of) clutter and lackadaisical-ness in my personal life to balance it out.  It's always just felt like the correct counterbalance and try as I might, I can't change it, for better or for worse. Probably for better, since I don't think I would make it if I were a disorganized disaster, professionally.

While not quite at the 2nd anniversary on this 10,000 hour project, I've come to a new epiphany about what "balance" really means. Balance was one of my primary goals when I started out with my first DSLR that fateful Memorial Day weekend 2 years ago.  As how it always is at the beginning of a new journey, I had a very naive view on what work-life balance was and maintained this utopian vision of The Perfect Day.

Of course, being PERFECT, that meant that it would hit off on all top areas of priority for me (in no particular order): health, family, friends, career, academics, this 10,000 hour project, a continual thirst for knowledge, and travel/adventure. It doesn't take a time management genius to figure out that all of those priorities can't be crammed into a day, let alone EVERY day.

And therein lies my epiphany.  True balance is not about having it all every single day, but having it all over a reasonable time horizon. I don't hit every priority every day, but by being aware of my priorities and taking regular temperature checks, I'm able to get to all of them reasonably well within a month or so - the time period I've deemed right for me in terms of feeling balanced.  And that's with managing the seemingly precarious workload I've taken on between working full-time, attending a demanding MBA program part-time, and living my life.  Certainly, that time horizon would look different for someone else, but it works for me.

I've been fortunate enough to find it while continuing to build my skills and my career.  I've known several friends who have gone through the ringer of the "quarter-life crisis" far less successfully, via randomly quitting their jobs and embarking upon some world tour to find themselves.  While it sounds glamorous on paper, I can't imagine anything more nerve-wracking than blowing several years' worth of savings on a 3-6 month backpacking trip with no plan upon return.  To me, that doesn't sound like a purposeful journey so much as an act of desperate escapism.  Of course, there is a lot of peace and bigger-picture-goodness to be gained from exploring the world, but finding your identity and purpose in life doesn't need to be mutually exclusive from your day-to-day. While inspirational and broadening in the moment, a whirlwind tour just seems to make reality that much more bitter and harsh when you arrive back at your parents' doorstep with little more than a backpack full of dirty laundry. Of course, to each, his or her own. I'm sure the abandon-responsibility-find-yourself-around-the-world method works for some and at the end of the day, all that matters is you get out of it exactly what you wanted.

And now, onto the photos from my latest adventure through the American Southwest! I fit a short road trip over Spring Break weekend through Las Vegas, flirted with the Utah/Arizona border, hiked the Lower Antelope Canyon, and went on to the Grand Canyon. Talk about awe-inspiring nature. There's something deeply peaceful and satisfying about watching the sun stream through canyons that words can't describe. Especially the Lower Antelope Canyon, although that's definitely not a hike for the claustrophobic or acrophobic as it involves squeezing past tight corners and climbing up and down ~25 ft ladders.

More SWpring Break

Active Shooting Hours: 15 Review Hours: 5 Hours to Date: 251