I had a wonderful trip. It was tough to prepare for and tough to carry out, and absolutely worth it. It's quite emotional to meet a grandchild. One thing I didn't expect is how much of a sense of personality you can get from a three-and-a-half-month old. Photographically speaking, I took only a few pictures with the Sigma fp-BW, and many with the iPhone—family snaps, which the parents request not be put online. I got to meet Kate's family, which was great. Although I only got to spend two and a half days with Xander and Kate and Cirrus, it was more than worth it. One bad thing? After spending time with my son again I miss him a lot. More than usual I mean. But I'm very proud of him for the life he's made. He has a lovely family, and just started a great new job. Of course it keeps him away from them too much, but isn't that life? At least he has weekends off.
I spent a full 24 hours with my brother and his wife in Chicago. We had a lot of catching up to do. They're in new digs, a large and luxurious townhouse. Sometime I should tell you the unusual fate of their former house, which they moved into when the kids were little—it's an entertaining story. But not right now. I should say also that I meant to post more from the road. But, you know how that goes. All the things you think you're going to have time for while you're traveling, you don't.
I had only one incident on the road, an encounter with a psychotic tow-truck driver on the easternmost portion of the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway, where everyone drives like a madman. I haven't driven city highways in a number of years, and I was struck by the general increase in lawlessness. And aggressiveness, oh my. On one of the more open stretches of the madhouse Chicago highways I tried my little trick of shadowing another driver to see how fast he was going. (I only did this twice, so please don't think I was speeding all the time just to gather data!) A kid in an Alfa Romeo Stelvio came up on me so fast I couldn't help but be curious. I started speeding up well before he got to me, meaning to try to shadow him for a few seconds to gauge his speed accurately, but the experiment didn't last long—when I was all the way up to 90, he zoomed past me and was pulling away so rapidly that I immediately gave up. I probably have never driven any vehicle in my life as fast as he was going. I can only estimate, but it must have been 115 or 120.
My other driving discovery, the one I mentioned last night? That it's not actually easy to drive the speed limit. My intention was to obey the speed limit the entire way. But that created problems occasionally. There are times when you just need to get out of the way, or pass, or avoid getting trapped. It's easier—and, if I'm honest, more sensible—to drive the traffic and accept the speed limits as a guideline. I'm sure I pissed some people off by following the law to the letter through construction zones! But I did. And if you drove as slow as the speed limit on the Ronald Reagan, you'd cause accidents.
Discovery in the photographic realm: treat the iPhone like it's a serious camera—concentrate—and you can do good work with it. I made that mistake when digital came along. I just didn't conceive of it as being serious at first. Before that, I had to the same problem with RC paper—my mind went into different modes when printing on RC, which I felt was casual and for proofs, or fiber-base, which was "real" and for finished fine prints. This was entirely a mental, and entirely a Mike, thing. For a long time in the beginning—years—I didn't treat digital like it was worth taking seriously. Some of my efforts at family pics with the iPhone are excellent. Probably because I was giving it my full photographic attention. (Kate is also a talented iPhonographer with a keen eye.) I should probably dilate on some of these issues further in a future post.
I got to meet one TOP reader in Illinois, and that was a great experience. (Are all of you uncommonly interesting people? I think so.) David Vernon lives in Peoria, but he was scheduled to do headshots for Caterpillar while I was there and couldn't join us. So I had lunch with reader Aaron James in Peoria, and I'll tell you about that next.
Mike
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Featured Comments from:
Dan Gorman: "I'm glad to hear you had a good visit with Xander and family, and congrats on meeting your grandson. :-) One quick note on the local culture: I've lived in and around Chicago all my life, and I've never heard anyone from around here refer to 'the Ronald Reagan Tollway' or any variant thereof. In my experience, that highway is universally known around here as 'I-88' or just '88.' No disrespect to the former President, but I'd guess not one person in five who live in the area is even aware that it's been officially renamed.
"On the other hand, you are 100% correct about the driving habits of people on I-88—this road is notorious locally for excessive speed, and for the propensity of impatient speeders to pass on the right. I'm a pretty spirited driver myself most of the time, but when I'm on 88, I keep a watchful eye on my mirrors! Glad you had a fun and safe trip, and glad to see TOP back up and running :-) ."
Mike replies: Thanks for clarifying that. I only used that name because, as I understand it, only the tollway part of I-88, the section between Rock River and Chicago, is the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway, and I drove part of that section. But local knowledge wins.
In fairness I should point out that most of my drive was bucolic and peaceful, with not a lot of traffic except around the cities. Driving I-86 through Western New York is pleasant enough that it's almost like meditation!
robert e: "Mike, I think you do some of your finest writing when you report from your 'private' life. Thanks for sharing! And if I haven't said it before: Congratulations, Gramps!
"I don't think 'didn't conceive of it as being serious at first' is at all 'entirely a Mike thing,' especially regarding RC paper! In fact this seems to be characteristic of the history of 'serious' photography from the beginning, whether it's adoption of sharpness and depth of field, enlargements, film, roll film, 'miniature' film, and cameras, color, ____ printing process, digital process, phone cameras, etc. In hindsight it seems like commerce and industry (including news), or the masses, often lead, artists adopt, and 'serious' amateurs come around last. Or does it only seem this way in hindsight? Maybe we're actually collectively trying new things all the time and the good stuff catches on and lasts?
"Naahh!
"Anyway, I hope you do 'dilate' on this issue, whether from a personal or historical perspective, and hopefully something of both. (Perhaps you've talked about this phenomenon as well, but I'm dismayed to see in myself a kind of backlash attitude where I have a hard time taking the retro-analog efforts of the digital generation seriously, though maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places, or confused as to what the right places are these days. Do I sound like an old man?)"
Mike replies: Kinda. But I do too. :-)
