( random photo of Bella, so that this post will have a photo )

So, last year while I was pursuing many blogs to get an idea of what I wanted mine to be, there was this trend going around. People were making lists. A list of 101 goals to meet or things to do in 1001 days. 101 in 1001. At first I didn’t think much of it, just another one of those viral things, like the tag game where you tag someone and they have to give 8 seldom known things about themselves. I hated that one. If I wanted you to know something about me, I’d let ya know. But after following some of the blogs and people who were making these lists and doing the tasks, I was intrigued. I started to look at it differently. I started to see it as a way of being held accountable for some goals. Like many other creative people, my mind goes 1000 miles an hour all the time. Ideas pop in and out, some register, some i forget the second the next shiny thing catches my eye. It can be very frustrating as I am sure some of those idea are just brilliant! Mostly the idea comes and goes and I don’t really address it. like a photo project or story I want to do, I have dozens of them in my head, but don’t ever start acting on them. So I figured this was a way to put down on  the page a list of things I want to do. Some are big things others are rather small and easy. 

I started my list about 6-7 months ago, wrote down about 75 things then left it for a while. I decided to get back to it last week and finished my list. I re-read my list and was surprised at how many of the tasks still meant something to me and how many of them I had actually already completed! So, with a start date of Nov. 1st 2008 and an end date of July 30th 2011, here is my list.

The page will become a link on the top of the site for you to keep track of what I accomplish and I will be posting some of the tasks from time to time.

 

1 – Build new websites

2 – invest money in an IRA

3 – write thank you notes once a week for 3 months

4 – send congratulations notes to local and regional ad agencies that win awards

5 – contact at least one potential new client a month for 6 months

6 – go bone fish fishing in the Bahamas

7 – go Salmon fishing in Alaska

8 – go trout fishing in Montana

9 – photograph a series with local artists

10 – eat local food for a month

11 – visit and hike Yosemite

12 – learn to snowboard

13 – do something for someone and not tell any one

14 – start a senior photo business

15 – start a pet portrait business

16 – take an agility class with Bella

17 – produce and shoot one portfolio level shoot a month for 6 months

18 – learn to tie my own flies

19 – eat vegetarian for a week

20 – support a local CSA

21 – learn to can food

22 – buy an used old cast iron skillet   2.09

23 – travel to Europe

24 – build an outdoors portfolio

25 – visit my grandparents

26 – offer a workshop

27 – write a letter of appreciation to someone who does something nice for me

28 – no fast food for 3 months

29 –  blog at least once a week for 3 months

30 – take Jake fishing

31 – buy a house

32 – learn to shoot skeet

33 – make a Christmas card list and mail cards this year

34 – do a pro bono shoot for a charity I wish to support

35 – do a pro bono shoot for a deserving family

36 – join a new professional organization

37 – go to a professional organization conference

38 – take a workshop

39 – teach a college level course again

40 – plant a garden

41 – shoot a catalog job

42 – help someone in need

43 – hike for 4 more weeks on the AT

44 – volunteer with an environmental / conservation group

45 – take an overnight canoe/kayak trip in NC

46 – go to a Yankee game

47 – go surf fishing

48 – get a studio / loft space

49 – shoot more seed pods

50 – shoot more cactus

51 – edit, scan and post a stock collection

52 – get a stand alone ice maker

53 – get passport renewed      1.09

54 – get a video camera

55 – ROAD TRIP!

56 – expand wedding business into a real business

57 – make new friends in Charlotte

58 – set up a proper work flow

59 – shoot more flags

60 – shoot more night scapes

61 – enter some photo contests

62 – make my own mozzarella cheese

63 – design new promo items for clients

64 – get all my stuff out of storage in my parents basement

65 – bake fresh bread

66 – take a yoga class once a week for 3 months

67 – help a new / novice photographer

68 – go to the symphony

69 – expand children’s business to offer mini sessions in NJ and FL

70 – start a locations database

71 – hike on the Florida Trail

72 – go on a cruise      2.09

73 – visit friends in another state

74 – donate blood

75 – take a cooking class

76 – shoot in another country again

77 – go to the Observation Deck of the Empire State building

78 – visit the 8 states I’ve not been to, WA, ID, OR, MA, VT, HI, AK

79 – Ride my bike 25 miles

80 – win a live poker tournament

81 – shoot a video

82 – buy art, support a local artist

83 – get an old truck

84 – have a dinner party

85 – learn to cook Chinese

86 – make a new hard copy portfolio

87 – shoot more for Docuvitae

88 – get an assignment from one of the big food magazines

89 – re-connect with an old friend

90 – build or re-build something

91 – try a new food

92 – carry a camera everywhere for a month

93 – look into getting representation for editorial work again

94 – set up a RAID system or some other back up system

95 – fly a kite

96 – fish with in the Charlotte city limits

97 – shoot an empty space

98 – swim in the ocean

99 – drive a jet ski

100 – get prints / canvas’ done for the house

101 – sell a fine art print

 

As I am working on getting new promos done, and making new contacts and rebuilding and starting my photography business again, I find that I don’t have many new photos to post. So I decided that I would start a new feature on the blog, a look at my past lives in the photography world. A blast from the past. This feature will pop up every now and again. I am proud of the work I have done through out my career and am glad to showcase some of the locations and people and events I have been fortunate enough to meet and witness.

 

These photos are from a trip I made to Somalia in Dec of 1992. I also worked in Somalia in march and April of 1993. In Dec of 1992, I got a call from Dover AFB telling me that there was an extra seat on a plane as part of the Hometown news program the military ran back then. It basically was a program where local media could fly on aircraft that are part of the mission to provide coverage of their local residents who have been deployed. I heard about it and made a call and caught the ear of a sympathetic SGT. Jones who understood my predicament, which was this, I was young, right of of school, trying to make my name in photojournalism circles and had no money and no assignments and no backing. So, of course I was thrilled when he called, but the timing was awful. We lived in Manasquan, NJ then, on the beach and 2 days before we got hit with a Nor’ Easter storm that they still talk about today. We lost all our cars and had had 3-4 feet of water in the house. Crazy. But here was a once in a lifetime opportunity, I couldn’t say no. So off I was on a big C5 heading to Africa 2 days after the US Marines made thier televised beach landing. So I land in Mogidishu and try to figure out what to do next. I have no idea. But I meet some other photogs and tag along on a food run to the town of Xuddur. Once there I meet up and hit it off with a photographer named Manny Garcia ( who has become quite well known in recent months as he is the one who took the photograph of Barrack Obama that was used by Shepard Fairy in the now famous and iconic ‘HOPE’ poster ) Manny said I should come with him and he knew a place I could crash that some bad ass seals used and were out in the field. So i left my group, having read the orders I had, that permitted me to fly on any mission associated aircraft, space permitting. We went to the hotel and I crashed then we had some beer and watched the Indian Ocean, we were in the town of Mombosa, Kenya, at a resort the air force had leased out for the mission. We talked about Xuddur and how it was a great story, a town that was not yet invaded by the Marines, was still seeing trouble with fighting and starvation, and it had more than a few aid groups and NGO’s looking over it. So we decided to go back the next day and see if we could hang out there for a few days. With a quick stop at the PX to secure bribes gifts for the NGO’s of smokes and cokes and our last cold water, we were off. Then we were landed in Xuddur, watching men unload tons of food from the plane. We knew planes came at least once a day so we could get out anytime we needed so off we went searching for a contact of Manny’s named Patrick who worked with CONCERN. while Patrick liked the gifts, he was not happy to have 2 photogs dropped in his lap, he was a busy man getting food and medicine to the sick and needy. He arranged for us to follow him around for the day and a room with a dirt floor that they called the hotel in town that was 4 bux a night. After our day, my first time seeing real poverty and the costs of war, we went to the hotel and were there less than an hour when Patrick came pounding on the door for us to pack up and get out now. Bandits and rebels had heard about us and our gear and were coming to get it. Patrick had gotten the tip from one of his security men. So he took us in at the Concern compound which had high walls and armed guards. The next few days Manny and I roamed the city and the refugee camps, the MSF camp, the outlying villages, etc,etc. It was crazy and exhilarating and scary all at the same time. At night we ate whatever was served and I slept on the porch of the house on a piece of cardboard. On Christmas day we had dinner with the MSF crew and had a little party. We had Dik Dik omelets and what ever other food we could all scrounge up. I got so sick I spent the next day within 1 step of what passes as a bathroom in Somalia. The Marines were due any second and I was so upset that I couldn’t leave when Manny popped over with some pills from MSF that stopped me up for the next 4 days! The Marines arrived, we took some pix. We stayed a day or two longer, then headed back to Mombasa to regroup. I decided to take off and see if I could sell any of my pix. While I didn’t sell any, I did catch the attention of quite a few editors and the AP. It was a trip that I hoped would be the start of a career. I spent the next couple of months looking for work and finding….. none. I then called SGT. Jones again and headed back to Somalia. That time I spent a couple of months in Mogidishu, but that story will have to wait until the next Blast from the Past.

On a technical note, all these images were shot on film and scanned at least 10 years ago. Some of the better ones are due for an updated scan as you can see the lack of sharpness and depth in these scans.