Holy Boners

Beulah, Michigan

Speaking of Crowley, today is the seventh anniversary of our camping trip to North Manitou. So much for that day or two… the last six (!) days were all about friends and family. I seem prone to underestimate the amount of time required to maintain relationships. Despite my ability and even enthusiasm for working in seclusion, the “other” must be acknowledged and serviced. Otherwise who will care if the project rocks or is even ever finished? Who will vote for the trailer on Youtube?

I’m not working alone any more ’cause y’all are included in the process. Sharing with the stakeholders. Without accountability, very few people make changes. The change I seek is to complete this project and have a great time along the way. Thanks again for your help on this.

I’m plugged into the internet as of Monday. Yesterday was the obligatory wasted day that’s required before re-committing, so now there’s definitely no reason not to crank. It’s not quite 10:00 am and I’ve noodled around with some minor masking details in the door shots.

I’ve got a 14 day work window before I fly to Flagstaff, AZ. Got to make the most of it. Once I’ve truly slipped back into the groove I’ll launch this update.

3:30 pm. Been reviewing and tweaking previous work for most of the day. Back in the saddle. More soon.

Beulah, Michigan

It’s been about a month since I last touched After Effects. The week following the 8/15 update went into packing and making the Brooklyn apartment fit for sub letters. I then drove 15 hours to northern Michigan, dropped off most of the gear and both of the cats and flew to Wyoming to get Dave and Darcie married. I also got a chance to hike up into a forest fire on the last day, pix follow. Returning to Michigan I spent an afternoon on the Betsie River and stayed up late into the night talking movies with Jonathan. The last four days have been a bit of a blur, what with unpacking, cleaning and setting up the gear. Tonight I am gonna find out how much I’ve forgotten how to do.

A day or so is usually needed to get back into the groove. Should be cranking again after this weekend.

Less than 24 hours before leaving Wyoming, a mad dash up the mountain to try and catch the edge of a big forest fire.
Many smaller fires were burning all around. Snake Lake (top) and panning right to it’s watershed (bottom) are at about
7000 ft of elevation. I shot this from about 8000 ft.

On the way to the “big” fire, I find many smaller conflagrations along the way. Here I watched the fire burning downhill,
which was kinda of contrary to what one would expect. I suppose it’s following the fuel.

Sunday 8/31, about 2:00 am at 9000 ft. I ascend through an area that had already (mostly) burned, but little fires flare up all
night – like the one at the left. After sleeping on a rock for a few hours, I prepare to descend. The main fire edge is still too far
to reach, I’ve got to get back down and catch Dave and his boat at 6:30 am so I can make my 11:40 am plane out of Jackson Hole.
I’ve got four hours to descend 3000 vertical feet and bushwack about 5 horizontal miles with 50 lbs of gear… in the dark.
Slightly challenging.