Blast from the Past Friday! 11.20.09

Happy Friday!, and welcome to a new regular feature on my blog, “Blast from the Past Fridays,” in which I upload some old dorky/funny/glamorous (well, that probably won’t happen) photo of myself, accompanied by a short story that hopefully has some relevance to the photo, and maybe also to what’s happening in the current week.

I read a lot of blogs. A lot, of blogs. Mostly photography blogs, but also quite a few others. What I’ve realized, though, is that while I really enjoy reading and looking at the work of blog authors, I really get a kick out of getting to know the authors a little better when they choose to reveal a personal detail or story about themselves. I just feel I develop a better sense of a business by knowing a bit more about the person behind it.

And so, for you, my lovely blog readers (and yes, I am talking to all 3 of you here), I will blathely reveal actual personal details about my life, each and every Friday, until I run out of stories, or, until my readership falls below the “0” threshold, at which point I will have to resort to hunting down all of your email addresses and spamming the heck out of you. Just kidding. Sort of.

Anyway…to get us started on our very first trip down memory lane together, I will begin with the intro portion of “Blast from the Past Fridays,” which is called “What’s Happening Today.” Well, it’s not really called that. It doesn’t really have a name. It will just be a little review of what I’ve found remarkable about the current week, whether that be music, photography, people, books, current events…whatever.

So let’s get started, shall we?

This week:

I’ve been listening to John Mayer’s “Battle Studies” non-stop since I bought it Tuesday. Non-stop. It’s great music to work to, ride the stationary bike to, to have playing in the background while making dinner. Just. Really. Great.

Seth Godin’s gift set of 5 books (no longer available…sorry!) arrived this week, and though I’ve just gotten started in Purple Cow, I’m already sensing a shift in how I am thinking about my branding. (Gosh, is this why I’ve suddenly come up with this new feature on my blog?!?!?) Follow him on Twitter (@ThisIsSethsBlog), on his blog, read his books!

Two photography books came out this week that I cannot wait to dig into: David DuChemin’s “Vision Mongers” and Chris Orwig’s “Visual Poetry.” Love both these guys, the way they write, and, in Chris’ case, his awesome video tutorial on Lightroom (I think he has more, but this is the only one I’ve actually seen.) I’m really hoping to find both of these books beneath the tree next month (or heck, I’d REALLY love to have them this week!)

Which brings me to the Blast of the Past portion of the blog today:

I attended the webinar given by Chris Orwig this week for his new book, Visual Poetry. He showed a lot of his own photos (many of which I’d also seen used in his Lightroom tutorial,) and seeing all his California surf (and surfer) photos really made me nostalgic for a past life (more than 15 years ago) in which I made the waters of Southern California unsafe on my bodyboard.

Bodyboarding was a daily passion of mine; early dawn sessions before my college classes, late evening sessions until well past sunset, winter sessions in cold water, summer sessions (in not much warmer water). I have some really great memories of surfing the beaches of San Diego for years, but I guess my quintessential bodyboarding memory is paddling out at (well, actually, within 25 yards of) the infamous North Shore Pipeline, on an epic 15- to 20-foot day (also known as a knee-slapper day to local Hawaiian surfers.) Let’s just say I’m happy to have gotten back to shore alive that day after bobbing out there on my bodyboard for what seemed like hours, just waiting for a small enough wave (turned out to be about a 15-foot face, no exaggeration) to catch back into shore. I will never forget what it felt like to ride that wave…a perfect right towards the Pipeline. Pure magic.

I still own all my bodyboarding gear (minus one fin that was ripped off my foot by a wave in 2001) and I am absolutely convinced I will be back in California one day to resume my bodyboarding life once again; I’ll be the one out in the water with the gray hair and the huge smile on my face.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!