I’m driving to the airport, waiting at a downtown stop light. A silhouette in the air catches my eye—not a pigeon, says the piece of my brain that registers such things. Quick, steady wingbeats, long tail, round wings, and tiny: a Sharp-shinned Hawk. It wheels around and passes over me again, level with the roofline of the 10 story buildings. I crane my head to look up through the windshield. The light has gone green, and the driver behind me patiently waits for me to gather my wits and move along. Were this New York and not Baltimore I would have unleashed an orchestra of horns behind me.
An hour later, and I’m waiting for my connection. The sandwich shop in the Newark airport has as its ambient soundtrack a kind of music I can describe only as "Grey’s Anatomy" style: plaintive, repetitive lyrics about loss and yearn, in a mellow minor key, backed by piano, suggestive of meaningful looks of ambivalence in the characters’ eyes during the closing minutes of the episode. It seems to be the common music of public spaces these days.
Darn. It used to be that you could cop a free wireless signal outside the Continental President’s Club on Concourse C. No more. Now it costs $8 to log on through Boingo, anywhere in the airport. Regarding wireless I turn into one of those obnoxious computer libertarian types who think all content and access should be free. Of course, they seem to avoid considering how the content providers (I’m one of them) get paid or how the infrastructure gets built. But dammit, $8 to check my email and post a blog entry is too much.
I started this post about birds because it seems indicative of a necessary quality for a creative professional. The work doesn’t cease when you’re off the client’s nickel. What I bring to bear that my clients value is a depth of attention and the ability to respond instantly to what I see. You don’t turn that on or off—it needs to be cultivated. My birding is probably symptomatic of that attentiveness—no matter what else I am doing, if I am outdoors I am noting what bird sounds I’m hearing, or what is flying by, and identifying it. Walking across Mt St Mary’s University the other day with my minder, I mentioned how her campus is full of Downy Woodpeckers. I’d heard a dozen of them that morning, and seen several. "What? You’re kidding! We have woodpeckers?"
Right now I have an hour in Newark before I board my flight home. I need a Daily Photo—maybe it’s here. Or perhaps I’ll see something on the flight. At any rate, it’s a useful motivator to keep my eyes open.
"the ability to respond instantly to what I see" ... My brother calls that my adult ADD! I wonder how many photographers have Attention Deficit Disorder?
Posted by: Bruce Nall | February 23, 2007 at 05:26 PM