Censor No More

The Internet and technology in the last fifteen years has revolutionized communication. Instead of the classic model where a few media moguls with their million dollar transmitters deciding what is and isn't news, the internet gave you and me the power to decide. We are no longer limited with what New York Times believes is sensational, or what our own local papers report. The internet allows us to search and read from media sources around the world. Better yet it, allows us to bypass the media centers entirely and go straight to the sources. And most incredible: it is instantaneous. Better still, technology is becoming more and more mobile, allowing us to create the news and share it immediately with the world. Look at me. I am typing this on my laptop on a train. You can read it as soon as I publish. How long is it until real time connections allow you to read as I type? Perhaps a sort of Facebook Skype hybrid of absolute real-time connection? Not far off I imagine.

So now to the title of this post.

The following video is linked to the TED talk by Clay Shirky, entitled "How cellphones, Twitter, Facebook can make history." This is an incredible talk on this topic. Let the video load and jump to 6 min and 50 sec. China was helpless to stop the mass broadcast of last year's earthquake from its survivors. In fact, the earthquake was twittered as it happened, minutes before the the US Geological Survey announced it. BBC, the first to break the story, got the news from Twitter.

At 13 min and 40 sec is a great story about Obama and Censorship. Well. The whole thing is great if you have the time to watch it.

Nature Photography: One View

Why do I not always take my camera with me when hiking and camping? I have often said that I do not bring a camera with me because I do not want to be distracted. When I start taking photos, I stop seeing what is around me. I start seeing it as numbers and composition. As in, instead of a wonderful flower moving gently in the breeze with radiant orange pedals delicately ribbed, I just look at the black frame around the flower, it position, and the numbers on the side telling me exposure, shutter, and aperture. I am no longer seeing the flower. I no longer smell it, or feel that indescribable sensation of actually being with, and experiencing, a beautiful flower. I see its form through the lens of the camera but the flower is removed from all contexts and becomes flat. It has already become a photograph as soon as I look through the lens, even before I push the button and capture the light. And the question is: is it better to look at photographs or to actually be there? Dumb question. I doubt there is anyone who will say photographs are just as fulfilling as the real thing. Does a girl thrill at receiving a photograph of roses? They are not the same. We all know that.

So when I am hiking and camping, do I want to spend my time looking through the viewfinder at detached, flat images, or do I want to put the camera away and actually be there?

This becomes an argument of whether it is better to capture ‘memories’ for future use and pleasure, or to fully drink in the moment so that in the future you have better ‘memories’ of the experience? Maybe, just maybe, we have such a hard time remembering past experiences because we were never fully there. How do you remember something you did when your mind was wandering elsewhere? All of us have experienced a wife or a mother talking to us while we were thinking on something else only to have her ask us to respond and we have no idea what she is saying. Are we walking through the forests but not hearing what they are saying?

I can tell you Tom Brown’s view. Each time I step from my car and into the mountains his words are with me. Leave all distractions behind and live this moment. To do otherwise you are robbing yourself of the beautiful experience. You must give up past and future concerns. The past and the future are illusions. They do not exist. All you have is now. So why not be present now?

For most of us, it seems, Saturday is a mad rush to get to our wilderness destination and Sunday is a mad rush to get back. Very little time is actually spent being there. Very little time is spent experiencing…In the “now,” you have no past or future, and everything is experienced freshly. A person without a past has never seen a tree, a mud puddle, or a blade of grass. A person without a future is free of worries and fears and open to whatever may cross his or her path (p.18, Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking ©1983 Berkley).

The motive for the photography comes into question. Am I photographing because the moment and the object are just so perfect that I cannot resist? Is the act of photography furthering my experience of “now?” Or am I asking the following questions: Am I going to remember this? Do I have enough photos for when I get home? Will my friends be entertained and impressed?

If those are my thoughts, then I am wasting my time now and capturing empty photographs for tomorrow. So when friends ask me why I, a photographer, am not bringing my camera along on this hike, I respond that I have stored up enough ‘memories’ for tomorrow and would prefer to actually make some memories today.

Moab Part II

I was to meet with Dan at noon in Moab. Until then I explored around where I was, just north of Arches. I drove up a rough, steep, and very narrow road to the top of the opposing plateau. I hiked around and generally had a good time. Back down at the base of that road there was a mine dump tucked in a narrow canyon. I explored several miles along the plateau. Finally I found a real mine entrance that was still open. I climbed in and walked down the sloping, wide tunnel. It was pretty nifty. I went until the light of the entrance faded. That was far enough to ascertain that it was a good mine for exploration. It wasn’t merely a prospect. One should never go into a mine alone, so I turned back towards the dim light and hustled out of the blackness. As soon as I had my back towards the unexplored mine, and my face to the entrance, I felt really creepy. It was eerie being alone in total blackness without knowing what was really behind me. I could imagine Gholem sneaking up on me and slitting my throat.

Dan Sunderland didn’t show up at noon. In Moab I had cell phone service and discovered that Dan had slept in. He would be to Moab at around 6pm. That was the same time his friend Matt was arriving from Provo.


With the day suddenly free and still alone, I drove into Arches and decided to explore. I hiked Park Avenue. The wind was whipping on the ridge and the clouds had thickened to dark gray hulks. The hike is only a mile one way, but that distance in the wind and the threatening rain was enough to keep most of the visitors out. I held onto my hat as I stood with the masses at the panoramic overlook. I smiled at them and then descended into the canyon. I was virtually alone. The few people that did pass were German and French.


I then drove over to Devil’s Garden. I wanted to make the full four mile circle before I had to return and meet the guys in Moab. I walked along the trail stopping at arch after arch. People were all around me, again more of the French and Germans. They were all very pleasant, but I felt like I was at the zoo instead of in the wilderness. I don’t like being herded along on neat trails and unable to step off and explore at will.

The trail ends at Landscape Arch and the Primitive trail (meaning unpaved) begins. The trail climbs directly up a steep fin of rock. Most people don’t venture past the end of the pavement so there I left the other tourists behind and found the sense of wilderness I desired.

The wind picked up. It was terribly powerful and knocked me about on several occasions. Sand got everywhere: my eyes, ears, nose, and camera.

I was at the far end of the loop, half way of the entire circle trail, when I checked my watch. It was 5pm. I had been walking for two hours. I thought to myself, Dang, two hours for two miles? Those were two hard miles! I rushed through the rest of the trail and didn’t see a single person until I got back to the paved trail. It turns out that the Devil’s Garden loop is eight miles, not four. Oops.

Moab part 1

June 4, 2009

Amid scattered rain I departed from ARUP and headed for Moab. I left early hoping to make good time and get to my camp site, just north of Arches, to watch the sunset...

I have been driving at this point for four hours. I have been mulling over whether or not to go to Costa Rica with Ryan and Amy.

We are creatures of habit. We create routines and stick to them forming ruts in the world surrounding us. We drive the same roads, eat at the same restaurants, shop the same stores, amuse ourselves with the same activities day in and day out. All the while we crave something new. We dream of foreign lands and adventure to alleviate our boredom. Yet we have no idea what lies one block away from our house.

What is driving these thoughts, and my current trip, is a desire to explore and discover. I want to see and experience new and foreign things. This desire is both for the external as well as the internal: to go new places and explore lands and cultures as well to do things that confront and push my personality and mind from their hazy comfort zone.

This desire can be satiated without spending thousands of dollars and traveling to distant countries. Yes, I am driving on the right side of the road and still speaking English. (Well, except for at Carl’s Junior when I ordered my hamburger.) I am still in Utah. I haven’t even left the jurisdiction of my local government. But I am driving down a road I have never driven before. I am going to Arches, a singularly unique wonder that I have never seen in the 20 years I have lived here. These experiences are new. All of this adds up to a sense of exploration of a foreign land. I am not in Costa Rica, no, but I am where I have never been before and that is what truly counts.

I am enjoying this. This is foreign to me.

I think the desire for something new can be easily lived by each one of us just by stepping outside of our boundaries and going someplace new; even if only an hour away — even if only around the corner. Doing that, we can explore things foreign to us and have adventures as often as desired. It is within our power. And it is cheap.