The People and the Planes

Okay, this is my last post about Create South.  I had thought about doing these seperately but it's going to be mostly photographs (go figure) anyway.

I met some amazing people down in South Carolina.  I'm sure everyone who was there is amazing.  I just met a few.  That whole shyness thing, ya know.  I started out taking pictures of people.  Until I started paying attention to the presentations.  So, I got sidetracked (surprise!) and didn't get pictures of everyone I would have liked to get.

One of the things I realized as a result of this little adventure is that I hadn't realized how much I was missing by not being around photographers.  I am stuck in 1988 (The year I graduated from College.  The year I last took photography seriously.).  I've never even used Photo Shop. (I know, I know.  I didn't write that for the shock value, it's the truth).  I plan to learn and catch up as fast as possible.

Afterward, a few of us stopped at War Bird Park, the local memorial to combat wounded veterans from the Myrtle Beach area.  I found myself first taking pictures of the guys taking pictures.  That seems to be a new theme for me.  I also found that I wasn't seeing 'planes'.  I was seeing the little parts, the  graphic lines, the patterns.  Another new theme.  Fine by me.

So, here are some of the people pics, some of the photographer photographing the photographer pics, and some of the plane plane pics.

Tee and Dave (one of the founders and organizers)

Tee in his trademark bunny ears

Mur Lafferty

Cal Miller (left)

Photographing the photographer begins

Tee and Dave again.  What is this "Firefly" of which you speak??

Photographer Tee as subject

Photographers Kreg and Dave as subjects

One of my favorites: Me shooting Kreg shooting Tee

The underside of one of the wings

Too good to pass up: Fighter plane as phallus

I loved the reflections of the flags on the plane

Underneath one of the planes

The monument to wounded combat veterans of the Myrtle Beach area

The dedication plaque

More information

One of the plane's insignias 

South Carolina Sunrise

Saturday, the day of the Create South conference, was going to be a busy day.  I hadn't gone to sleep until 01:00 in the morning (hadn't slept more than an hour catnap pulled off the highway the night before either) and we wanted to get an early start so that there was time for a light breakfast before heading over to the college.  The conference was scheduled to start at 09:00 that morning.

So, just before my head hit the pillow early Saturday morning I worked backwards from the 09:00 start to 07:00 for breakfast (when the hotel restauraunt opened it's doors), to 6:30 to drive down to the hotel my friends were staying in, 5:30 time to get in the shower, and finally to 05:00 just in case something went wrong.  I set my alarm for 05:00.  Just four hours to sleep.  I was lucky to get the alarm set at all as fast and hard as I fell asleep.

The ocean improves so many things about me, for me.  I had forgotten that.  Whether it was the sea air or just pure exhaustion, I have no idea.  Next thing I knew the alarm on my trusty little Blackberry was telling me to get up.  I awoke from the best four hours of sleep I can remember.  While still tired, I was excited and nervous (in a sort of good way) to start the day. I always factor in extra time for myself for getting ready to go somewhere.  I've learned.  The hard way.  But, Saturday the nerves were working in my favor.  That, and the fact that I was in a hotel room with minimal belongings as opposed to being home with forty gazillion distractions helped keep me on track.

I didn't look at the clock as I grabbed my stuff for the conference.  I just headed out the door and figured that early is better than late.  When I got to the other hotel I realized that it was still dark out.  The sun was just beginning to rise over the Atlantic.  I looked at my watch.  I had tons of time before breakfast.  So, rather than go inside, I walked around to the back of the hotel and straight on to the beach.

I stopped to take a couple of shots of the tall dune grasses at the edge of the beach proper.  I would walk a few yards, stop for a couple of pictures.  Walk some more.  Snap a few.  Finally, I took my sandals off, dropped my bag on the beach next to them, and walked down to the waters edge.

As the sun rose, I took photo after photo of the waves, the clouds, the sand, the birds, and the few people who were sharing this magical time of day with me.  A lot of the shots were blurry from the low light. But many were not.  Doesn't matter either way.  I made myself stop and take the time to enjoy the sunrise over the ocean.  I remembered to look through the lens and see the whole frame.  The conference hadn't even officially started and yet I was returning to a long lost lover. I was finding a piece of myself I had pushed down inside myself.  It felt good to pull it free again.

The light that Saturday morning was not great.  It was a bit overcast, a bit fuzzy, a bit flat.  Didn't matter to me in the slightest.  After a little while, I was done shooting.  Done looking.  Done experiencing.  No rhyme or reason to when or why I just was.

I went back to my bag on the beach, picked it up, grabbed my sandals and made my way to my friends' room.  We had a lovely breakfast and went back to their room to get their stuff for the conference.  Before we left for the day, we were hanging out on the balcony talking about the light that morning.  For a brief moment, the sun smiled in that way that it only does for a brief time, if at all, twice a day.  It's called "The Golden Hour" for a reason.  I took my final sunrise pictures on that balcony, in that magical light, of two special people.  

After those first few hours of the day, the conference was a bonus.  Lovely and wonderful but a bonus none-the-less.  Here are some of those images:

Muscle Memory

I just had a really long three day weekend.  Out of the three days I spent almost a full day in my car (22 hours give or take a bit).  Of that time over 18 hours was driving.  I might have had 10 hours of sleep total in during the three days. I have learned (as a result of this weekend) that I shouldn't be behind the wheel for more than 5-6 hours if I am going to be by myself.  That aside, I would do this again in a heartbeat!

I went to a one-day conference called Create South.  Create is an acronym.  It stands for :

C = Carolina

R = Regional

E = Exposition of

A = Art

T = Technology and

E = Education

It is held annually in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

My original motivation to go was to meet some twitter friends in person and maybe learn a few things that might help me with my business.  My secondary motivation was to learn more about this world of writers, podcasters, and tech oriented people that I stumbled upon.

I didn't think of it as a vacation.  I thought of it as "networking" sort of.  I'm terribly shy when it comes to "putting myself out there".  I don't as a general rule go to places where I am not going to know anyone.  I don't get panic attacks but I think I come close.  If I meet someone casually one-on-one then I am fine.  So it was with more than a little trepidation that I made the decision to attend.  It was a spur of the moment sort of decision.  Maybe my subconscious knew I was ready.  I'd like to think that.

I did end up getting together with my twitter friend and found out that they are even better in person.  Most people are but you never know.  I spent most of my time Friday evening talking about art in general and photography specifically.  That first evening all by itself was worth the drive.  I hadn't talked to anyone about artistic choices, motivation, perspective, composition, or really anything concerning the creative process (except writing) in so long that I don't when the last time even was.  I say that I am an artist.  But as is true in athletics it is also true in other things that if you don't use certain muscles they will start to get flabby, to atrophy.  But, once you start using them again they will regain their old strength provided you keep using them.  But the muscle memory is there for the particular sport they were trained in.  Photography is my original sport, artistically.

There were lots of people there from a wide variety of disciplines: writers, podcasters, tech people, artists, and just creative people in general.  People willing to have an open mind.  People looking for others to inspire them.  People looking to inspire others. People wanting to engage each other in discussions and in learning.

These are creative, inventive people.  Many with tech backgrounds.  Self proclaimed "Geeks".  So, it turned out that I was not alone in the nervous area. And, I probably wasn't the shyest person there.

If the two friends I walked into Create South with knew that they were my "security blankets" in terms of knowing someone else there and being able to find them and touch base with them every so often as a means of not feeling like I was drowning in a sea of unfamiliar people, then they didn't let on.  I can't imagine that they were unaware. They're just really good people. That sentence easily describes every person I came in contact with over the weekend.

I realized as I figured out which presentations I was going to attend that I was most interested in finding out about some of the publishing options available.  I had said to my former co-workers that I want to do a book.  A knitting book.  Now I'm not so sure.  I don't know if my heart is really in something like that.  I do know I want to improve as a writer.  I want to create a story.  Not just certain scenes.   So, I got a bunch of information on publishing that is really relevant and very interesting.  Did I talk about my writing?  Not a word.  I'm even having a hard time dealing with talking about it this much, here.

I didn't push myself to come out of my shell while I was there.  It felt like enough of a stretch just to make the leap to go in the first place.  Someone then told me after the fact that I should give one of the presentations next year.  On my yarn.  Or my dying process.  I immediately said that, "No.  That's too much.  Too big a stretch."  

So, I had another discussion, with a different friend today.  About my inability to talk about my writing.  About how I loved talking about art and photography and creativity.  He told me that all of the different creative things I do all come from me.  He made me think.  Maybe it's not about yarn.  Maybe it's not about color. Maybe it's not about photography.  Maybe it's not about art in general.  Maybe it's not about writing poetry or erotica.  Maybe it's about me.  Maybe it's about the creative process I go through regardless of which medium I am working in that day.  Maybe it's about the ADD that seems to be present in so many of the creative people I have met lately.  Maybe it's about learning to function with ADD so that I can be a productive member of society while still keeping those parts of the ADD that make me the creative, scattered, shy to the unknown, uninhibited and open to those I know, crazy person.

Oh, and it was most definitely a vacation.  Never underestimate the power of the ocean to fix something you didn't even know was broken.  The sunshine was a bonus.

I'm already making plans for the trip down next year.  With company in the car.

Happy Anniversary & a trip to CREATE South

Yesterday marked the 4th anniversary of this blog.  I can't believe that it's still going strong.  There were a lot of moments (like all of 2008) when I thought, "Why bother?" and almost closed it down.  But the biggest reason this is here in the first place is to make me put my thoughts down and examine them.  From the mundane to the sublime.  And, at the four year mark I feel like I am just starting to really do that.  It feels like I am just beginning.  I guess that is a good thing in many ways.  I could do with out the new kid feeling when it comes to all of the tech stuff but *sigh* I guess we take the good with the bad.

This weekend is going to be a whole lot of good.  I'm heading south for a few days.  To a one day conference called "CREATE South".  This is the 3rd year for the conference, my first attending.  I'm really nervous about stepping out of my comfort zone and going somewhere completely foreign to me.  But I am also really excited to meet in person some of the people I have been talking to on twitter for a while now.

I am hoping to meet a lot of great people, put some faces to the twitter names, and learn as much as possible about the changing world of technology  and social media and how it all relates to the arts and my yarn business. 

I'm taking the camera and the blackberry (like I ever leave either of them at home) and an open mind.  Hopefully, I'll have lots of cool stuff to share when I get back in a few days.

So, time to hit the road.....