Mark E. Johnson [ • ] Photojournalist

Home, at last. 

I love to travel. I love to see new places, meet new people. I love to see old places and people just as much, which was what the last two weeks was all about - catching up.

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On our northern drive earlier in the week I had feared the worst. I had watched the weather reports - bitter cold, lots of precipitation. We had purchased a new (to us) vehicle for the ride and got the dealer to put on new tires. I was set to go - new knobby tires, all wheel drive, heated leather seats.

My big fear, though, was missing the storm - I really needed to drive in some snow. It had been way too long. 

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A few photos and such from the road trip north … somewhere in Pennsylvania we stopped for the night. Morning brought a light dusting of snow, and a view down the hall. Check out the spherical distortion at the edges …

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After two days on the road we made it to our destination - a land where the temperature is seasonally approriate and there are no signs of grass or leaves.

It is good to be at (my old) home.

iPhone, processed through Camera Bag

Tried to make a picture. Emphasis on the tried because there was a picture to be made, but this isn’t it. I leaned a little from my seat, but really needed to get out of my chair and get this right. 

Sad part is, I was sitting at a diner table with a bunch of other photojournalists and none of them told me to move. If you can’t rely on your friends to tell you’re doing something wrong, who does that leave?

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Photography, like almost everything else, goes away when you abandon it. And it’s not just about the pictures fading (or or discs degrading), it’s the skill that goes away. Vision is something you may be born with, but it’s also something you must practice. 

I am out of practice.

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One of my favorite folkies, John Gorka, penned an awesome line years ago:

I don’t feel like a train anymore, I feel like the tracks

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I Twittered this earlier today:

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I hate to say it, but I’ve been lazy the last few weeks. The school semester is winding down, there’s been a flood of students in to show me their work (and some of it is Very Good), but my creative output has sort of plummeted. I’m rethinking this blog again, trying to figure out what I need it to be for 2009. 

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So when does the government step in to bail out the Fourth Estate? How does the industry extricate itself from Wall Street? Perhaps go into non-profit status. Well, legally. They’re already claiming to be there fiscally …