Issue No. 15 - Land of Enchantment. Welcome to Issue No. 15 of The Small Hours. This past month I spent a lot of time on the plane and on the road visiting Santa Fe, Salt Lake City, and Savannah. This was my first time in Santa Fe, and I thought it was an absolutely magical town, probably one of my favorites in the U.S. The skies went on forever, the people were kind, the food fantastic, and the art and architecture top-notch. I look forward to visiting again.

A few days before that, I was in Salt Lake City for two days shooting some spots for 1Password and the Utah Mammoth. We attended the Mammoth v. Toronto hockey game, where we got to sit on the team bench during warmups, but I left my camera in my room. I caught up with an old coworker and got a pretty good snap of him. I am trying to take more photos of people. I felt that was particularly missing from previous months.

I also went to visit my son at SCAD in Savannah, Georgia, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite places. The SCAD Film Festival was about to kick off, and the town was abuzz with excitement. We had a couple of great meals, including a birthday celebration for my kid at Brochu’s Family Tradition. The sunchoke hot sauce from there is the world’s best condiment. It was lovely to see him, as I miss him so much each day, but it’s heartening to see him succeeding in a new place.

I also completed a multiyear effort to get my team to come to Los Angeles for a team offsite. After years of nagging, we finally were able to make it happen. When you work remotely, it’s so valuable to get your team together. Besides getting a ton of work done, we ate Korean BBQ and tacos and went to the new (strange but cool) Lucas Museum. We also participated in a letterpress workshop at ArtCenter, which was one of the best things I have done in a while. It felt so good to physically produce something like that.

The only negative in an otherwise great month was dropping my Yashica on the sidewalk in Santa Fe, breaking it. I’d be surprised if it ever works again. The Savannah photos, and all photos moving forward for some time, were taken with my Contax TVS. It’s not as point-and-shoot as the Yashica, but possibly a better camera.