Some Mornings

Not all mornings are created equal, thats for sure. We can do our best to make our homes as peaceful and welcoming as possible but being the fickle, short attention span people we all tend to be, even a beautiful home can start to become routine. This is where places like this come into play. The great escape from the every day. Our time spent out hiding in the woods was a welcome break and certainly helped to untangle a stagnant mind. While I don’t have any overseas travel planned any time soon, there is still plenty to discover and explore nearby. 

dB

Just why is it that I don’t post daily around here? The simple answer is, because of my work as a live audio engineer. This extends to lighting and video work as well and with this work comes a wildly unpredictable schedule. There is no predictable 9-5 to be found here, some days start at 6am, others at 5pm. Some events are in the morning, others go late into the night and I don’t see the door of my apartment till the sun is rising. The rest of the time is spent handling office work, booking new events, doing prep work for upcoming ones, and other odd and ends of day to day busy work. It’s rewarding in that I get to work with something I do love to do but it is equally exhausting and time consuming. I do all I can to take time out to sneak in a photograph here and there and write for future articles here on 50ft but some days when I have time off all I can do is want to calmly sit in a dimly lit room with a record on and relax.

That said, my goal this year is to take fiftyfootshadows to a new level where it is able to help support itself to the point where I can afford to take more time to focus on adding new content. It is an uphill battle but I have my heart set on making this a landmark year for fiftyfootshadows and what you have come to expect to find here up to now. This image is from a recent job at a college theater, their aging system has a few kinks to work around but I make the best of it.

Blaze

I had a wonderful couple of days up in the mountains of NC with YoungDoo. A small town called Hot Springs which is a through point for the epic Appalachian Trail. There was a steady stream of oncoming backpackers through town and I could not help but get a little envious as I always wondered if I would be able to hike that massive trail one day. It’s been quite some time since I have felt the calming rush of being in the woods for a week or two at a time. Life on my back, humbled by the nature we only dominate because of our theoretical intelligence. I have been hoping to get a good backpacking trip going for a long while now and hopefully soon. For now I am happy to take what I can get in shorter hikes.

These images are of the blazes (trail markings) found along the Appalachian Trail. We hiked about 2/2000th of it in the rain while we were traveling out there. It seems to have left me catching a fever I am now paying for back at home but it was a good hike all the same. I will share a few more images from the trip soon as I make time. In the mean time feel free to browse through Yesterday Was Only for a handful of photos posted from each day.

Volume One

I’m happy to announce the first of what will be a monthly series of books containing images from Yesterday Was Only. I still have a number of things in the pipeline for 50ft as far as my shop is concerned but I wanted to get this going before too much time passed. To make them I have chosen Blurb to publish with at first for a couple of reasons including prep time and publishing costs. I have plans to publish short run of books myself in the future but for the simplicity of this project I am simply using blurb. The only downside of this is that I don’t get the quality checks and control I would by self publishing which is hard to let go of but due to the nature of this idea, I don’t mind letting go a little.

I have opted to use the Trade style book from Blurb which prints on a modest uncoated paper and has a nice size to it but with a smaller base price than their full on photo books. (I replied to a commenter below a little about why I chose trade over other things they offer.) I am offering two versions, softcover, and hardcover.

Hardcover books will cost $30.02, (not including shipping). I have not added any profit to the cost, this is just how much it is to make a book this size and variety with Blurb. I am only allowing FIVE copies of the hardback version to be sold.

If you would like me to sign it I will order the book and ship it to you myself after signing it. Due to the nature of the Hardcover edition it is not listed publicly, if you are interested, send me a mail and we will work out the details, no problem at all.

You can find the order page here.

That’s it! I will continue to post here and on yesterdaywasonly.net when a new edition becomes available, most likely within the first week of each new month. Enjoy!

Even Now

Even now, a month or so after this image was taken I see this photo and remember how magic this evening ended up being. What started as a brisk walk out to the lake ended up transforming into this beautiful mist covered trip from afternoon, to sunset, to this glowing twilight. As the sun set the cool air of the night started to push in amazing patches of fog on the lake that slowly danced along in different shapes with the wind. Like a ballet of clouds dancing on the surface of the water for us it was a scene thats hard to forget.

Every time I head out to this one lake, even after all the years I have been going, it always seems to surprise me with something fresh and exciting to experience or see. It inspires me to know that even during times when more lavish travels are not possible that I am still able to at least escape to this lake nearby and discover something new.

It’s amazing how with the passing of every new season we are given fresh opportunities to explore the landscape around us. While some of us are luckier than others as far as where we live and what resources we have to get to great locations to photograph, there are always places like this lake to return to and re-imagine as it transforms and grows non-stop throughout the year. This is just as true for a back yard, a street corner in a city, or a valley between mountains. The only trick is to get out there and explore. You never know what may be waiting unless you get out there with a willingness to see the subtle shifts in the details of the world around you. Opportunities to stumble upon something beautiful are more fruitful than you may think.

Interlude

I had the idea to start incorporating video clips into my Yesterday Was Only feed but the theme does not seem to like the idea as much as I did and threw off the nice grid that the theme is built around so I am holding off on the idea until I have time to make it work the way I would like it to. In the mean time here is a video made with the intention of posting there along with yesterdays photos. Just a bit of an ambient break is all. Because I am not a pro user of Vimeo I will have to refer you to the vimeo page if your interested in seeing it in full HD.I will have a couple more desktops up this week for everyone so keep a look out. Until then, enjoy!