Out & Back

This photo represents the cipher of the day--it means "a short out-and-back run in the dead dark of the dawn."
I'm trying to get in as much mileage as possible before Christmas ever for beautiful Burbank. Z and I are going to visit the kids--the 2008 version of over the river and through the woods. He's driving; I'm going into work for a while and then flying later.

I'll miss my computer. I realize that in this blog I'd like to take some time to look back and then look ahead, but also know that time for doing that may be limited in the remaining eight days of 2008. Looking back and looking ahead may be rather like an out-and-back run: I can do it, but in the end I can only find real meaning by taking step after individual step.


Below, Bay Area signifiers that it's mid-winter!

One interesting phenomenon I've observed over the course of my 2008 runs is that I'm manifestly back in touch with my photographic self. This has come about in such a gentle way that I've not stopped to give it much thought until recently.

For those of you who don't know, one chapter of my life, one that I've regarded for a while as pretty much closed, was a stretch of intense involvement in the world of photography. For most of the years between 1980 and 1991, I was working in and/or studying about photography. I started by taking some photo courses, then began working in photo labs (a thank-you here to Orrin Moon, mentor and amazing photographer) and compulsively pointing a camera at the world around me. I was never drawn to photographing people--landscapes seen in general and in detail were what drew me.

The end of this lengthy chapter came after I graduated from Mills College with my MFA in 1991. That year I spent the summer working an internship for the now defunct Friends of Photography, in San Francisco. The experience, which consisted of helping put on photo workshops that featured recognized artists, convinced me that my chances of making a living wage as a "fine aht" photographer were (very) minimal.

Fast-forward to now, some 17 years post-photo daze. As an editor and proofreader I make my living indulging a passion I acquired early on (in infancy maybe? in the womb?), my love of the English language.

I find, however, that you can take the girl out of the photography but you can't take the photography out of (this) girl. Last year I acquired a camera phone because I thought using one could be fun--and it's fun I'm having. (Thanks, Z.) I'm collecting such a huge archive of phone photos that if I were still living in my photo days I'd organize a show!

So, I end the year thanking the stars for letting me enjoy a life that enables me to run and to photograph at the same time.