Of freedom and frustrations

Seattle, Wa

I left home the last week of January, off to wander and photograph and think and do. It had been exactly a year since I returned from Syria. Wanderlust is a powerful thing. It can make you walk away from someplace so perfect, so comfortable, so easy, in search of adventures, daydreams, and unknowable futures. Wrapped up in the wanderlust, it's easy to forget the loneliness and frustrations that go along with those daydreams and adventures. You learn a lot about yourself in those moments, especially the first ones; walking out the door, the first night away, the first time you pick a direction and start driving.

I'm still learning, still driving, and the moments of frustration are well balanced by the peacefulness of the open road, a good cup of coffee (I am in Seattle after all) and the knowledge that I have no idea where I'll be a week from now. I'm heading south tomorrow, along the coast. I figure I'll drive to Port Townsend, sleep in my car in a hotel parking lot, and wake up minutes from the ocean. The ocean has always been enchanting to me. I crave the comfort of insignificance, of knowing there are things out there bigger than me and my problems, even bigger than the problems of the world and its peoples.

In the last couple weeks I've done something like twelve photo gigs, mostly taking portraits of toddlers and families. I'm looking for jobs in Oregon now. I'll go where the work leads me for the most part. I'm in the process of revamping my website a bit, Sydian Photography, and when that's updated (very soon I hope) it will have a portrait gallery on it. In the meantime I've also been posting my favorite portrait shots on a picasa album which I'll link on the right asap. And now, back to my book.