In February of 2010 I reentered the world of the commuter. I went to work for The Talon Group, a subsidiary of the First American Title Company, and my office in the Eastlake neighborhood, is just north of downtown Seattle above Lake Union. I was delighted to be working with many long time friends again and it was great to be back in the city. Yet the daily drive from Renton was a major challenge.
I seriously had to come to terms with it. Somehow I needed to make it a creative endeavor before I went totally bozo, popped a vein, or crossed over to the dark side and my road rage went super nova. One morning literally parked on the freeway in a sea of red tail lights, I snapped off a few pictures and uploaded them to Facebook along with a few wry remarks.
The mysteries of social media prevailed over any kind of plan, strategy, or logic as friends chimed in with comments. It hit me that I always have my Blackberry with me. It’s not the best camera but it’s always handy. I began snapping off random shots and continued to share them. After a few weeks if 3 or 4 days went by and I failed to upload anything my friends would ask me where they were. Little did I realize at the time, a conversation was born.
A shift happened and I was engaged. Instead of dreading the commute I couldn't wait for the next photo opportunity. As I traveled to and from work (keeping my eyes on the road, of course!) I fired off pictures by the hundreds. As soon as I could I’d look through the results. Most of them didn’t turn out, but if there were just one or two accidental gems out of a hundred that weren’t crappy blurred nothings, it was a good commute!
What I hadn’t planned on was taking photos in this haphazard way would evolve into one of my preferred methods of creating images for my blogs. Why? Simply put it was when the opportunity presented itself. The rest of the day I was tied to my desk.
I still upload these pictures to Facebook on occasion, but along the way a blog was born.
The slideshow is a collage of the photo’s I've uploaded to my Picasa Web Alum to use for the blog. I've shared several here on Activerain. What was reaffirmed for me was the power of location blogging with pictures. I talk about that in an earlier post:
Big Time Google Juice from Pictures
The Blackberry Chronicles has been a fabulous learning experience for me and it’s about to begin a new chapter. As I’ve mentioned our merger with First American is underway and with my new duties as a teacher and regional resource my commute is soon coming to an end yet my travels will be expanding.
The irony to me is I stumbled upon an idea that became an experiment. I can’t help but ponder the question: Did I take an idea somewhere, or did the idea take me? Perhaps it’s both.
The Blackberry Chronicles
© ARFCO MEDIA 2011
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