Beginning

It snowed a few days ago.  It was warm today melting the snow around my 1980s condo into a reddish brown muddy mess.  I had just pulled into the parking lot from the local Safeway where I picked up my weekly 8 lb bag of oranges.  It was impossible to get into the house without tracking the deep red Virginia clay on my sandy beige carpet. 

The truth is, I hate my condo.  I hate my neighbors, I hate the bank that gave me the loan, and I hate the bastard who sold it to me.  The American dream has not been at all what it was cracked up to be for me.  With the crash in housing prices, the value of the place fell to less than half of what I had paid for it.  With that, the neighborhood took an extreme turn for the worst.  Rarely a week goes by where I don't see the Fairfax County police pull into the parking lot with lights and sirens blaring because yet another one of my neighbors got into a drunken, shirtless, domestic dispute in the parking lot.  It's almost like something directly off an episode of COPS.

Such is a fact of life in Northern Virginia.  Neighborhoods that are fine, upstanding bastions of the yuppie upper middle class lifestyle one year,  can completely devolve within 12 months into a squalid and rotting slum.  It's astounding how rapidly it takes place.  It's not like it matters anyway, I spend most of my time knocking away miles in my Volvo station wagon.

As a pro photographer, I put nearly 80,000 miles per year on my car.  Technically, I could fly to jobs; but, I'm morally opposed to flying because there is so much in between your origin and your destination that you miss.  Many times, I have time on my way back home to stop and enjoy some of the sights I note on my way out to wherever I have to be.  I usually end up driving cross country 2-3 times per year as my photo jobs don't necessarily keep me in one place.  You can't easily fed-ex a collector car or a piece of unusual architecture to Northern Virginia.  Since I don't usually fly, it does take a bit more planning and scheduling for jobs than it would if I were flying, however, I have a perfect attendance record, and have yet to miss a job... unlike one of my friends in the field who flies everywhere.

Last April one of my photographer friends, Sylvia, was supposed to meet me at an equestrian event because we both had scheduled shoots.  We were each hired by a different horse's owner separately, but since we routinely work together, especially when we're going to be at the same location for a similar job, we talked the two owners into booking a 2 for 1 package.  It ended up working out very well for me, but not so well for her.  A late season snow closed down the airport in Montreal, her adopted hometown.  I, as always, chose to drive.  I hadn't heard from Sylvia about her flights, so I assumed she was going to meet me at the hotel.  About halfway into the journey, my blackberry rang, and Sylvia's number popped up on the screen.

"I'm stuck in Montreal" came through my headset before I even had a chance to ask how the trip was going.  I knew at that point, this job had gone from being a social event with a friend to being all on me.  Rather than just one horse, I now had to make sure I got all the shots necessary for both horses and riders.  In a show setting that can be a bit tricky, but as always it's doable.  But, I digress, If something were to happen and the Volvo were to break down, I'd call the nearest Enterprise Car Rental office and get a one way rental.  I'd make it to the shoot on time even with the added pit-stop.  If she had driven rather than flying, she would have left early enough she would have completely missed the snow storm, and would have made it on time.

As it turns out, she completely missed the event.  I helped her out with the pictures, and ended up getting a few new clients in the process, so it worked well for me...but not so well for her.  Even though it's been almost a year, she has not been hired for another horse related job since, and has only gotten work as the one thing most of the pro photographers I know fear, a wedding photographer.  That's like being on the D list for professional photographers.

Don't get me wrong, I'll do a wedding if it's offered.  My price for a wedding is quadruple the national average.  I set it there just to keep people from requesting them.  I generally prefer working with non-human subjects, with most of my specialty being in cataloging and automotive.  I've had my work published in several major ad campaigns for car companies and car magazine's.