Responsible Camera Use

Many of you already know that I recently applied for, and was offered, a permanent position here at BYU. It's a tenure-track position, but my tenure is based entirely on teaching and service to the university, and there are no research requirements written into my contract (although I can certainly do research if I want to). I'd kind of given up on the belief that the perfect job was out there, but this job seems to be awfully close to perfect, and I'm excited that it worked out.

When I learned that I'd been offered the position, I rewarded myself by going out and buying a camera. It wasn't an impulse buy. I've been using a borrowed camera for almost two years, and was just waiting for the right moment to buy my own. It took the convergence of a steady paycheck, the promise of a future of steady paychecks, a pending road trip, and an event that called for celebration to motivate me to action, but I'm really happy with my purchase.

Many of you may also know that I have bad luck with cameras (and yes, I realize that calling it "luck" might be giving myself more credit than I deserve). It all started more than ten years ago, on a two-month study abroad in Spain. I carried my camera everywhere I went, and I usually held it by the cord (string? strap?). It was hard not to swing the camera unconsciously, and every once in awhile I would accidentally lose my grip and the camera would fly from my hand and go skidding down the sidewalk or the cobblestone road or the aisle of the cathedral. When it happened, my friends and I would laugh at my absentmindedness, and I would think, I should really be more careful. Tragically, this thought never translated into actually being more careful. Somewhere in Barcelona, about a week before departure, my camera left my grip one last time and smacked into the ground and cracked open and died a horrible broken death.

I learned my lesson temporarily. With my next camera, and with my first digital camera a few years later, I was careful to tighten the strap around my wrist, and I would catch myself when I started swinging the camera. But old habits have ways of transforming themselves into new habits, and sometime during my years in Michigan, with the camera-swinging habit carefully in check, I developed a far more dangerous camera-losing habit. I lost my first digital camera at an Enrichment activity. I combed every conceivable inch of likely camera hideouts in the institute building and my car and my apartment, but to no avail. After months without a camera I finally admitted defeat and sacrificed a portion of my graduate student stipend to a new Canon Powershot. Shortly thereafter, my old camera, predictably, reappeared in a plastic bag of Christmas lights that we must have used to decorate for the Enrichment activity. And shortly after that, camera #2 took a trip with me to a youth conference service project in Detroit and never returned. And slightly-less-shortly after that, the lost-and-found camera #1 took a trip with me to Charlevoix, Michigan and also never returned.

It wasn't just my camera. While I was losing cameras, I was also sending iPods and cell phones through the wash, and the universe was taking a decided stance against my car. Given my track record, my parents were awfully brave to loan me a camera, but I've managed to protect every camera and iPod and cell phone and car in my possession for nearly two years. My new job equips me with the financial means to replace the camera, and my PhD equips me with maturity and wisdom to care properly for the physical well-being of my material possessions.

So now I am once again the proud owner of a digital camera, and I'm loving it. Also (transition!), the camera came right on time for my recent road trip to Oregon and Washington. I took my time driving to Seattle, then met up with Jessica and spent a few days in the city before we headed down south for a weekend in Portland with Brian. It was a great trip all around. The camera story provides a nice frame for posting pictures of my trip (or maybe posting pictures of my trip provides a nice excuse for telling the camera story), and I'll let the camera do most of the talking from here. (I apologize for any weirdness in the formatting. I don't know why some of the pictures come out left-aligned when I publish...)

My first couple days were mostly solo, interspersed with a few visits with old friends, so I had lots of time to walk around and play with all the funky settings on my new camera.

Seattle Temple

Dinner with my college roommate, Tana.

At the top of the Space Needle. The ride up in the outdoor elevator was slightly terrifying because I frequently dream of elevators falling. But this one didn't fall.

View of Seattle from Queen Anne.

This is a city park that used to be an industrial complex. They've kept some of the old structures. It's kind of cool.

Hiking in the Columbia River Gorge.

Punchbowl falls.

The view from the place where Edward stepped into the sunlight and revealed his sparkly vampire self.

With documentation. ("He takes a deep breath, and steps out of the shade. 'This is why we don't show ourselves in sunlight...'")

Voodoo donuts. In spite of not being a huge donut fan, the trip kind of turned into a Tour of Donuts for me. The Gales took me to the original Spudnuts shop in Richland, WA (apparently Sarah Palin fans may know about this place), we visited Voodoo donuts in Portland, and the one morning in Seattle that I was left to fend for myself for breakfast I discovered the semi-famous Top Pot donuts just around the block from the hotel we were staying at, so I made it 3 for 3.