Day 355/365
The last moment of real happiness for my poor little Mason… And for myself for that matter.
This was shot at the Brussels airport. It was a playground with TVs, games, toys, cushion-y areas to jump on. Really fun.
But because of the snow, we were about to experience the worst trip of our lives. Well Mason is four, but it was by far the worst trip of MY life.
The plane in Brussels was an hour late. We got to London and we had to hurry so we could get on the next plane to Chicago. I first went down the wrong line for my connecting tickets. Then I went in the right line with less and less time to make my flight, but the line was strangely very empty…
I get to the front desk and talk to a rep there.
My flight to Chicago had been cancelled due to the weather… Oh no… NO!!!!… Now what?! They told me that I was on my own because it was a weather delay so United Airlines couldn’t book me into a hotel; I’d have to pay for it myself. Oh thanks. And there were absolutely no other airlines that could get me back to the states. Great. I was gonna have to call Travelocity to see if they could help. I paid extra to have their travel protection, they better pay up and help out!
Another guy came along at the United Airlines desk and said the best they could do was put me on standby on a flight to Washington, which would then connect to Denver and then finally back to Salt Lake. No guarantee that I could get on the first plane, let alone the other two, and the extra connection sucked, but it was something. They’d re-route my checked luggage too of course, which I would have to pickup in Washington and check back in (standard procedure when entering the country from abroad).
I hurry to the gate for the flight that’s headed for Washington, anticipating a full flight that wouldn’t have any room for Mason and me, but to my great surprise, we got in! We had two seats! Hallelujah!
There WAS one little problem though… The only reason we made it to that flight, besides blind luck with being on standby for seats, is that the plane was delayed pretty significantly… That’s gonna make it hard to make the connection from Washington to Denver, but I’m sure it’ll be fine. Besides, I’d be in the US and I’d have more options.
The flight was long. The sun stays up longer when you’re flying west and Mason wouldn’t close his eyes and get any sleep. That is, not until just before landing, by which time everyone, and I mean EVERYONE on the plane, was in panic, because the large majority of people on the plane knew they’d have to hurry up where they could and wait enormously long lines through security to get to their connecting flights.
I could hear several in nearby seats who had already given up hope on making their connecting flights.
Me on the other hand, I refused to give up hope. I’m gonna make it. I have more time than most. I’m gonna make it. I’m gonna be fine.
Everyone on the plane has a screen in the seat in front of them. You can watch movies, but many of us watched the map indicating our distance from Washington and our approximate landing time. We were finally within 4 minutes of our approximate landing time.
But then it stayed at 4 minutes for about 10 minutes… And we’re turning a lot…
Oh you’ve gotta be kidding me… We’re circling the airport NOW?!
Finally, we land. And Mason is fast asleep… But I have to wake him up. And I do. And nobody likes me now. And he’s inconsolable.
I rush out of the plane, hauling a stroller, my camera bag, a backpack-sized carry-on and Mason. We make it to the long line for security and now we wait. And wait. And wait. Catching our flight to Denver is really not looking good now. And we still have the long line after picking up our suitcase so we can check it back in and I’m not really sure how I’m gonna push a stroller, a carry-on, deal with Mason and pull a large suitcase to anywhere… I don’t have enough hands now…
Lucky for me, United managed to lose my suitcase for the second time, which means I spent a good 30 minutes looking for something that was never going to show up in the first place. Cool, so I ask someone where my suitcase is and they said to file a claim once I get to Salt Lake. And I’m looking at my time, and I’ve got about 7 minutes to cross an airport I’ve never been to with almost more luggage than I have hands to hold them and a child who’s really not in the mood anymore just so I can make it to a connecting flight to a place that’s still not home…
I ask one of the staff if I can make it. She says yes, I can make it.
Run.
So I book it. And I mean that, I’m running across the airport like a friggin’ maniac with the stroller in front of me and Mason, very unhappy, not enjoying the fastest ride I’ve ever given him on it.
I finally get to the gate, breathing very heavily. I look up at the status screen and it says the flight is leaving at the time it’s supposed to, at 5:25pm. I can’t believe it! I made it!
I walk up to the counter and ask about the flight.
It’s been delayed by four hours.
I’m not gonna make the connection in Denver to get home and there’s no other way to Salt Lake, Mason is still crying and screaming his head off and I gotta say, I don’t smoke, don’t have any interest in starting whatsoever, but I finally understood why people smoke.
“You mean after as many setbacks as I’ve been through all day today, after I ran like a psycho to make it here, it’s been delayed by FOUR HOURS?!… Excuse me for a second (pulls out a cigarette), I’m gonna go kill myself now. Slowly.”
We finally made it to Denver, at 11:30pm, by which time Mason had fallen asleep on the plane of course, which meant I had another 20 straight minutes of screaming child to deal with. We got to the hotel at about 12:30am, which United had decided they would book for me, since this time there was no excuse for the plane being 4 hours late, and were finally in bed by 1am.
Day 356/365
The view from our hotel in Denver the next morning. It wasn’t an early flight out, but jetlag had woken me up at about 4am and I caught some of that sunrise.
A few more screaming child episodes between the plane, the airport and the ride to my house, and on January 7th, we were finally home.
You know what’s funny? I hated United after that flight. Hated them. But I got $150 in credit for my next flight with them… And as 2 weeks went by and nobody could tell me where my suitcase had gone until one morning it finally appeared at my door, it meant I was lucky enough to spend hours talking to customer service, asking them where in the world my suitcase was; literally. Chicago? Denver? Salt Lake? London? Brussels? Zimbabwe? Where on this planet was my suitcase? So they gave me another $250 voucher and a $150 voucher.
I should have called more often. Maybe they’d have shipped me a box of cigarettes (see above).
And now, like an idiot, I’m wondering where I should go. San Francisco for a few days in the summer sounds great to me. Anyone have some awesome suggestions?
Day 357/365
Getting home was important because I had the Bridal Showcase at the Salt Palace to do starting on the 8th. I did have a backup plan, as I enrolled the help of the wonderful Heidi J Photography to setup in case I couldn’t make it due to delays.
Day 358/365
Junk food helps get you through a day at the bridal show when you have no time to shove any other food down your throat.
Day 359/365
Sunset on my way out of a movie.
Day 360/365
I’m coming to the stop sign of my 365 project!
Day 361/365
Went to Antelope Island with my good friend and fellow photographer, Heidi, and it was this horizon that took my breath away. I hadn’t planned to go out there, so I only had my iPhone unfortunately and I’d run out of shots from my Holga.
Day 362/365
If I can find you and I happen to be getting rid of old portfolio pieces, I like to give the print to you, free of charge. I’m just gonna chuck them anyway, why not make someone happy instead? Sarah and Dani.
Day 363/365
Pulled over on the way home as I rose above the fog down below.
Day 365/365
Posting this one first because I want to end this project on a little note regarding the image on day 364 and its meaning.
Engagement session with Joe & Heather. These guys were a ton of fun to work with! I love being able to have me some fun and watch my subjects join in. They were up for anything!
Not so superstitious 
BLUE STEEL!!!! hahaha
Groom: Where’d they go boss?
Bride: That-a-way!!
And the last image of the 365 project…
Comes tomorrow!!!
Yes, I just pulled a Ryan Seacrest
Oh I’m sorry… Did I hint towards a trip to New York City a couple of posts down? Woopsie! I meant to say EUROPE BABY!!!!!!!!!!!
A few days in Paris, a few days in London, a few days in Belgium, a few days with my brother in Cardiff and a few days in Rome.
I should mention however, that I went with my little Mason, who is just under four years old right now, so although I really wanted to pull out my camera more often, go in more places and get a lot more artsy-fartsy… Well I just couldn’t. He wanted to be everywhere I was, all the time, doing everything I was doing, including taking pictures when I did.
And I’m going to begin with that.
I know that as a father, I’m biased in saying this, but my son is a photographer. And a spectacular one at that.
Aside from a few not-so-good ones, and hey, he’s friggin’ FOUR, he captured three shots that I wouldn’t hesitate to put in my portfolio, HAD THEY BEEN MINE!!
What REALLY blows my mind though, is that whenever he would take pictures, I could see him searching for an image. He wouldn’t be content with snapping a picture of whatever, I could see him aiming the camera at his surroundings, actually searching for what he considered a good image, never taking a shot until he’d found it, then he would really pause and take the care to not shake while hitting the shutter button.
Dude…
And then the results speak for themselves. Just LOOK at the composition on those!! Are you friggin’ kidding me?!?!?!?!
These were shot with my iPhone, and I think that had something to do with him finding an image because he could really see what he was doing as he was doing it.
Here’s the last one he took that I really love, although I think it was more of an accident. It was unbelievably cold in Paris, and that night was colder than that. This was an attempted shot at the Eiffel Tower. I didn’t have a tripod and in my shots remained as still as I possibly could and set the camera on as stable an object as I could, but I don’t think Mason realized the camera had been set to such a slow shutter speed, so after he felt the camera shutter open, he figured he’d taken the picture, and started bringing the camera down.
Accident or not, that’s cool:
Ok, onto the rest. I’m not going to differentiate between my Canon shots and my iPhone shots and I’m going to split the trip in at least two parts.
Day 334/365
My trip to Belgium was long and turned bad by the end for me. By the time I landed, I wasn’t feeling well at all. By the time I got to my mom’s, roughly two hours later, I was about to throw up and in a cold sweat. Oh and United Airlines was kind enough to lose my luggage. Thanks.
A glass of water I sipped on and a slice of fresh bread was what helped me get through
Oh and with time “moving faster” going so far east, I technically missed a day for pictures. I headed out on the 14th of December and got there on December 15th even though the trip was about 15 hours altogether… So I don’t know. I’m just gonna add another day to my 365 days.
Day 335/365
The next day, it was off to Paris! I know it’s winter, but I was surprised at how unbelievably cold it was out there…
Oh how I loved the quaint little streets of Paris…
Day 336/365
To my Utah readers, snow isn’t a big deal. In fact, to many here in the States, snow is normal.
In Paris though, and in Europe in general, snow was complete and utter chaos. This is primarily because most of the European countries that had been hit with snow, hadn’t had THAT kind of snow in about 20 years. So I was told at least.
That day, we couldn’t go up on the Eiffel Tower at all, so we went to the Louvres.
Day 337/365
The Passages Couverts (Covered Hallways), the Centre George Pompidou, the Arc De Triomphe and finally, the Eiffel Tower again, illuminated.
Day 338/365
The Eiffel Tower again. This time we were able to go up, but only to the first floor. The second and third floors were still completely frozen… Bummer.
Notre Dame de Paris
On the train back to Belgium for a couple of days.
Upon our arrival back to Belgium, we went to see some friends for dinner. Mason got to play with their parrot, who apparently doesn’t take kindly to strangers. Not with Mason! Our friends were very surprised and Mason had a blast.
Day 339/365
Mason watching the giant snowflakes coming down in my old home.
Day 340/365
I missed the second day of being in Belgium. This was the last time I forgot to shoot for the 365 project. So I think the total ended up being four missed? Make it five just to be safe, so I’ll shoot every day until the 15th of this month, how’s that?
This was when we got to London
Day 341/365
The London Eye.
It takes 30 minutes to complete a full revolution on it and get this, you can get married on it! They said that it costs £2,000 which is just over $3200. I’m not sure exactly what they provide, if anything, besides the 15-minute ceremony which starts at the bottom when you get on, and ends when you seal your union with a kiss at the top! How cool is that?!
Any future brides on here wanna book me for that?
Day 342/365
Pigeons are tons of fun, especially when you can lure a ton of them to you. It’s not hard, just throw some crumbles of rotten food on the ground and you’re set.
Throw a four-year-old in the mix, and you have yourself a par-tay!!
Day 343/365
We got to my brother Ramzi’s house the evening before and had dinner with his fiancée and her father. It was great.
And then we went to their impeccably kept house. Here’s their Christmas Tr –… Sorry… Holiday Tree. Commemorating… stars… and lights… and glass balls…
Oh I don’t know what to call it anymore…
Day 344/365
The next day, we went shopping. Everything was half-off and this one looked like it was in good shape, so I thought what the hell, let’s get one of them!
Day 345/365
I haven’t been in every part of the world, so I can’t be sure these really were the best fish and chips in the world, but they tasted good to me.
By the way, fish is pretty self-explanatory, but chips are fries. What do they call chips? Crisps… So to recap, fries are chips and chips are crisps. Cool? Cool. Try saying that fast by the way. Not possible.
The UK is known for its drizzly, grey, depressing weather. So is much of northern Europe actually. But what I’d forgotten is how cool their clouds are when the sun does break through a bit. Clear skies forever here in Utah does get boring after a while.
I love the architecture there.
Day 346/365
Another day of shopping. This time, outdoors. There was a Merry-Go-Round. And I had a four-year-old. What did you think was gonna happen?
Day 347/365
Shopping for food. Well, us adults were. Mason was busy.
Day 348/365
I bought a pair of Reeboks on that outing…
Made in Vietnam… Yes. As evidenced by the BRITISH FLAG SHOWN BEHIND IT!!!!!!!
And that gets me wondering, did anyone at Reebok get fired?
A rainy country means lots of fun in puddles.
Day 349/365
Running through the backyard.
Taking a walk through the neighborhood.
Happy New Year!!!
Day 350/365
And the next day, it was off to Rome!
No joke, this was the entrance to the building of our hotel.
Best pizza I’ve ever had and one of the best I had in Rome.
Day 351/365
Rome has some cool, colorful architecture and lots of churches.
Ok, see these stairs? I went down every single one of those while pushing a stroller that Mason didn’t want to get off of. Oh yeah. Highlight of my vacation!
Mason and I took a break, then a walk along a river where the water had receded enough that we could. My brother, his fiancée and my mom chose the road above us. Psh.
Day 352/365
The road leading up to the Vatican was PACKED with people who were going to see the Pope.
Find the Pope.
Give up? There he is! In the window!
The ledge to the river and Mason sitting on it.
Day 353/365
The Colosseum is the epitome of Italy’s past architectural grandeur. You get there and like many other places, you can’t believe how grand everything feels. Everything feels like it was built with excess and more importantly, luxury in mind.
But if there’s one image that I shot in Rome that I would use to represent it, it would have to be this one:
Chaos. Total chaos. I didn’t get that feeling from Paris or London. Only from Italy. Can anyone back me up on this?
Day 354/365
At the airport on the way home to Belgium. Yes, wood flooring in an airport. The Italian police also manage to justify Lamborghinis for some of its officers. Not making this up.
Part 2 along with the last images of the 365 project coming up soon!
