Month: September 2020

Yesterday, I drove my son to school and went for a run with my wife. After my shower, I looked at my schedule and saw an afternoon of back to back video calls. I found it hard to fire up the home iMac and get going.

So instead, I made the last minute decision to head to my Spark office in downtown Boston. I’ve been there a total of 3 times since the pandemic started. It took me fifteen minutes just to find my temporarily misplaced office key fob. By the time I stepped off the elevator on the 8th floor, I had a wave of mixed emotions. I missed the noise of an office environment with conference rooms filled with colleagues and entrepreneurs. I missed my office. I missed seeing all the familiar faces.

But at the same time, it was nice to be back at my work desk. I made myself a cup of tea as I used to. I turned up my chill playlist on my headphones, I made my video calls, I took care of email and Slack — in between I went out for a coffee and took a walk around the block.

I am grateful for my privilege and the ability to do my work from home. But I really miss the office and all that it brings. Clearly, I didn’t appreciate that enough.

Last night Lauren and I watched 42. It came out in 2013 but truth be told we didn’t get around to watching it until the untimely and very sad passing of the great Chadwick Boseman.

The film is a powerful account of the Jackie Robinson story. Boseman is tremendous and you can’t but feel a sense of anger, shame, frustration, and inspiration after watching this movie. It’s absolutely the best baseball movie ever made and likely one of the best overall movies ever made.

I highly highly recommend it. I am just sorry it took me this long.

Colin Meloy from the Decemberists recently played this new song on NPR. Lovely.

I had a lot of plans for 2020. Along with a sense of optimism and a list of things I wanted to accomplish.

One of the things on my list was to begin selling prints of my photographs. I had always wanted to do this but it was easy to put off. Mostly due to deep insecurity about my work along with a serious case of imposter syndrome. But eight months later and with some gentle nudging, I took the leap and yesterday opened my little store on the internet.

As you can see, my shop only has a small selection of prints. And for now they are limited in size to either 8×8 or 8×10 depending on the camera that made the photograph. All of the prints came from old analog cameras and Kodak films. All are open edition inkjet prints made with archival inks on Canson Infinity Baryta Prestige paper, an acid-free paper made with alpha-cellulose and cotton with a 1/4″ border. All of them are the same price, $50. I’m likely going to rotate them every few months or so.

Yesterday, eight people bought my prints. Some bought more than one. I can’t tell you how happy this made me inside. I’m honored and proud. Much more than any “like” on a social app, that’s for sure.

It’s too early how this little shop will last. But for now, I’m glad I took this step.