First of December.
I haven’t posted anything for the last several days. I am still trying to get it into my head that I “retired” from my day job. I do not miss the 3+ hours commuting. Now that I am done with the Fall 2012 Semester at Sea voyage, the road trip to New Mexico for Nikonians ANPAT 12, recovered from the Hurricane and Nor’easter, and completed backing up all of the images from the trips (including having to upgrade my digital storage) – it is time to develop a new daily routine.
One of the first things that I realized was that the workspace I was using at home is not really suited for the image processing part of my photography workflow. For right now this meant moving the image processing and printing into what was my dinning room and re-optimizing the other workspace for home office activities. As I have been moving things around, I am finding 20 years of dust behind furniture that has not been moved since I moved into the house. There are several other major and minor renovation projects inside the house. Right now I am putting together a project plan and prioritization so I start working through these projects. This itself will keep me busy for some time. Several hours a day are devoted to reviewing and keyword indexing images as well as processing and printing images. Over the last week, I finally have had time to start posting images on several Daily Photography Themes on Google+. I need to include time for composing and posting on my “Images of the Day Photoblog”.
I now have time to spend reading books again. I got a new set of glasses specifically for reading, which helps. Right now I am re-reading Olivia Manning’s “Fortunes of War” Volume I “The Balkan Trilogy” and Volume II “The Levant Trilogy”. As I read this there are many places I would like to see in eastern Europe and the Middle East. I also have rediscovered music. As I have been moving things around the house, I found 100’s of vinyl albums and CD’s – many I didn’t even remember owning. Subject of another post will be what it took to re-establish a stereo system to play and listen to this music. Also, what it takes in this digital era to convert old analog recordings to current digital recordings. I haven’t had a working turntable for 25+ years, and it is hard to believe that CD’s are now considered “old technology”. I have the same issue with how I want to deal with a box of my old “film” based photographs. I am also starting to go see movies again.
I am looking forward to the Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the M/V Explorer. I am also looking at options to go to Norway or Alaska to photograph the Northern Lights this winter. There is still a lot that I need to do as the year comes to a close and as I plan my new life going forward.
