OK, I'm gladly moving on from yesterday's fiasco. I woke up this morning much refreshed and feeling chipper. I was the first in line for a boarding pass. Now I'm now at the gate adjusting to what some call "Africa-Time." Hurry up and wait.
I'm so happy to have my ipod. Good music can make any environment enjoyable. My favorites of the morning were Sufjian Stevens, Best Boy Electric, and Coldplay. Music makes for an interesting soundtrack for life.
I'm looking out the window at the luggage carts winding around the tarmac like little slow motion trains. They look fun to drive. I wonder what variables in my life would have placed me out there as the guy I'm watching. "Fun" as it looks, I'm glad to be on this side of the glass about to fulfill a lifetime dream.
I grew up, like so many photographers, pouring over the pages of images from Africa in National Geographic Magazine. Among my favorites were pictures of the Masai. I'm sure most photographers can relate to the envious thoughts... "I'd love to photograph someone so colorful and beautiful as that!" Though short, one leg of this trip is to visit a village of the Masai. I'm so excited!
I'll fill more details about my trip as I go... I don't know much about my assignment. But that's the way most of my magazine work is. I rarely get to read the story before I go to a location to try to get an image or images that support the spread. Part of me likes the challenge.
My "boss" from this trip, Laura has been traveling internationally and we have yet to really talk about what I'm to shoot. I first met Laura in Guatemala when I was shooting for Healing Waters, a rock star water purification non-profit that I fully endorse.
http://www.healingwatersintl.org/flash.html
Laura's husband was an art director that hired my friend and mentor, Stewart Cohen, for several American Airlines ads when I was his first assistant over 10 years ago. Small world. She said they have one of his prints from India on their wall.
From what I do know, I'm shooting marketing images for Compassion International, a Christian nonprofit that supports children all over the world. In fact, I grew up with pictures of kids my parents supported on my refrigerator. I specifically remember a picture of a guy in Romania. In the picture, he's wearing one of my old sweaters that we sent him for Christmas. My mom told me last week that our family has been supporting Compassion children for 25 years.
Anyhow, like the guy out there on the tarmac driving his little train, I've got a destination to get to. I'll tell you what I see when I get there.
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