How thought-provoking Sirius - it is rather serious:
This could run into the unaffordable - the cost is probably not measured just in dollars, but in emotion, and relationships as well.
1. Police band radio in our cars (according to Weegee)
2. I had a business trip that was planned for me to a locale near White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. I cannot express adequately how much I was looking forward to it. Some of the monetary costs and offsets for me -
a. Trip to NM was paid by the customer. YEAH!
b. Strong desire to photograph in the White Sands sent me into a spiral of decisions:
i. I bought a legitimate field camera (a Chamonix)
ii. I bought stuff like lead-lined bags that i could bring my negatives out and back home in.
iii. Not being a very experienced or good photographer, i decided that i should take a workshop - Michael Gordon photographs in Death Valley and i think that his workshop would have been a very good investment for what i wanted to do. It was going to cost about the same as the whole rest of the trip - Ugghh. I ended up not committing a reservation to the workshop due to feet-dragging on the part of the customer to firm up the trip. BUT the point is that the workshop can be a very important cost of time and money for some of us. I remain disappointed that i have not been able to get to Death Valley and White Sands. (i have been to white sands NM from previous work trips - borrowed a digital SLR and loved the results - but it aint film and so it doesn't count in my book).
3. Speaking Of Books - for instance, i concluded that i had to get the Brett Weston monograph of White Sands available on Michael Smith (Lodima) website. Stunningly good photographs. And i had to pick up four books of Paul Strand (the last purchased in a small bookshop in old
Edinburgh by the castle - Tir a'Mhurain: Outer Hebrides). I have almost every book on or by Ansel Adams. A library investment is rather expensive.....
4. Following the point of 2.b.iii, our time is probably the most costly of all expenses that anyone who is contemplating. The time to even get on location. The time to spend on location. The time to prepare. The time away from home, possibly? Or in my case if i go take a morning excursion with camera to even a nearby location, i am gone for hours that i should have been doing the honey-do's.
5. Speaking of Honey, try doing without any. So there is the marital strain, possible marriage counseling, the cost of taking honey along and making him or her feel like they will enjoy the time spent however it unfolds (I was going to try to get Honey out the NM excursion), citations from the local municipality for not keeping lawn mowed to standard, WHE@W!!, the cost of a doghouse that Honey has now relegated me to....
6. Summing up: Often any aspect of life or vocational options get simplified into three degrees of freedom - choose two:
In this example, the degrees of freedom are: Money, Time, Relationships (in my business, we measure by cost, schedule, performance)
-0- choose two.... (another proverb that reflects similar thought is is "you want it bad, you will get it bad")
>michaelorr
