I’ve made a long overdue update to my website by changing the home page photo to a couple from my Feb ’09 Egypt trip. It’s something I’ve always intended to do on a monthly basis at least. This time it went for over a year.

This winter I made plans to make lots of updates to the site, this blog, and especially to my other Shade of the Cottonwood site. I usually have a lull in travel over the holidays and winter months so I thought it would be a good catch-up period.

Well… that was the plan. Reality often bears little resemblance to my plans and, so far, this winter is no exception. It is becoming one of those “one step forward, two steps back” periods. When I returned from Mexico in October, I planned to get through the processing of images from that trip and then I’d be free to dig into my “winter projects”. Then the cat fell from the balcony and broke his leg resulting in 8 weeks of heavily supervised recovery. While hanging out with him in his cushy rehab pad (actually Sally’s sewing room) we noticed the carpet was damp. After some exploration, it was discovered that the hot water heater was leaking and, although there is a floor drain less than three feet away it’s apparently uphill from the water heater. Plumber called, new water heater installed and now we are in the middle of the carpet drying process — pulling the carpet and pad up, fans everywhere, etc.

I won’t go on with my entire list of distractions (and there are a lot more), but you get the picture. Today I decided to ignore everything else (except the cat duties, of course) and make a dent in the web site updates. Much progress has been made but it will be a while before you begin to see it online. Hopefully not too long.

To help me get down to work, I used up some remaining credits I had in the iTunes store and added Ceu’s “Cangote” EP and Minipop’s “A New Hope” album to my library. I find it really helpful to crank up some new tunes when working at the desk. It’s a trick I use when post-processing a shoot, too. I usually buy some local music while I’m on the road and then I listen to it while processing the images. Listening to Chinese pop while processing Shanghai images or a Desert Beat compilation while going through an Egypt take keeps me connected to the place. Plus, music makes a great souvenir that’s easy to pack.