This is the one year anniversary of being on the road. Shawna, Chloe, Starfish, Stewie, and I pulled away from our house July 17, 2017 after shakedown cruises to Pismo Beach, Northern California, and Utah.
Our path has been North to Oregon, South through California, SouthEast through Arizona, New Mexico, East along the Gulf coast through Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South to the Florida Keys, North to Georgia, North Carolina (skipped South Carolina for some reason), Virginia, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, Maine, we are currently in New Hampshire starting our trek West.
When this started it felt disingenuous at best to describe ourselves as "Full Time" nomads. After a year when I'm asked where I'm from, I'm comfortable telling them "here." When they if I'm retired I say "No, I'm a photographer." The first time I said "I'm from here." It felt a little strange. Are we homeless? Houseless? Do they think we live in this particular campground year-round? Now having met dozens of fellow nomads it feels natural.
When I was a working stiff I categorized people into one of three groups, Big Brain on a stick (people who were paid for what they know), Asses in a seat (people that need to be onsite to solve problems or serve the customer) and Talent (artistic types that suckered their way into a job). I've always been an Ass in a Seat guy, fixing things that break, maintenance, work a shift/go home guy. Now I'm calling myself a photographer, moving from Ass in a Seat to Talent. Surprise! It ain't as easy as I thought. I went to school to repair video cameras but had limited experience operating one.
I was thinking about that this morning as I was trying to think of something to write for this blog. I remembered an essay I read by one of my favorite authors Captain Fatty Goodlander. To sum it up: Captain Fatty, a man with only four or five years of formal schooling, wanted to be an author. He set a goal of 100 rejection letters in a year and started writing. Years later he has written a dozen or so books, and numerous magazine articles. He uses the money he earns to travel the world on S/V Ganesh his Wauquiez Amphitrite. Here is a link to the article from Fatty, inspirational stuff.
If Captain Fatty can do it so can I. I am a Photographer! I will have one thousand photos on my stock photo site and one hundred videos this year. I'm going to keep trying til I get it right.
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