the first excuse i have for not being here for so long on this forum, is that right before this long trip to Brazil/Mexico , my beloved 12" laptop crashed to the floor ..reduced to only allowing me to see the much hated spinning color wheel..much to my chagrin, i somehow have become laptop dependent..no laptop = no dowloading, no blogging…
then the trip itself…how in the world did i think i could make the 9 hour flight to Sao Paulo, followed by a 7 hour car ride in the heavy rain to the colonial beach town of Paraty and with only 20 minutes to spare, put on the opening show for the photo fest??
i then had to put on a one day seminar, get back in the car and rush over the same route to the Sao Paulo airport where i swear snaked the longest immigration line (full length of the airport) i have ever had the misery to stand in to get on the flight to Mexico City, where i then had to spend 24 hours in the airport hotel with the internet down, and then finally finally to my class here in San Miguel de Allende where i have very limited internet access….(yes yes yes, i promise to catch up on all comments by the weekend…no internet before saturday)
am i making excuses for not being here to chat with you for the last week??? absolutely i am….are they "good excuses" ?? maybe, maybe not….i generally am not excuse tolerant with other people…as a photo workshop teacher, i spend a whole lot of time listening to student excuses, accepting very few of them, and now here i am doing the same thing…making excuses to you…
i think it is probably fair to say that most of us tend to "make excuses" for a wide variety of our behavior patterns… ones that may not be acceptable to our colleagues, family or "significant other"…..but surely, some of them must be legit??…and it is probably also fair to say that all of us could have moved our work a little further forward at least, but we made excuses of why we did not do this book or that book or somehow did not finished such and such a project or why we just did not have enough time to totally finish a particular body of work….
how about you … have you ever made excuses to your own detriment??? or are all of your excuses as good (or bad) as the one i just made to you???
mr. harvey: get your hands on a bottle of this, to water down your excuses ;))…
Cuervo Reserva la Familia Añejo Tequila
http://www.tequilasource.com/cuervoreserva/
a friend of mine who owns a cantina in LA used to feed me that shit when I was going through problems with my long-ago girlfriend (long story)…
cheers,
bob
I made a list of excuses for you but my dog ate it.
Safe travels,
Asher
you are turning your excuses into a teaching tool? Clever!
Asher’s dog ate my excuses too.
hi david…
dam good excuse!! been hanging to hear from you happy that your safe and well…
safe trip,
ozzy al
Frankly, I’m sick and tired of the excuses I make to myself. Who am I kidding? I just need to get off my arse and make those calls, blow my trumpet and so on and so on. I’ve got the work, the talent and experience. Now I just need to stop making excuses.
So good to see you back on-line, David!
Been wondering about your trip. And yes even wondering about you…glad only your laptop crashed to the floor!
Perfectly acceptable “excuse” by the way. Hope the rest of the trip is smooth.
I raise a glass of scotch to you… “To no excuses!” (except when they’re really, Really, REALLY necessary! *heh-heh*)
Peace,
MK
first of all david,
‘my computer crashed’ is the 21st century ‘my dog ate it’
that said, I can say that murphey’s law mandates that excuses will result from anyone attempting anything. Reasons and excuses aren’t the same thing. From your post you have reasons for your absence but not excuses.
I however have a lot of excuses for the lack of photography i’ve been doing as well as a couple reasons. This is something i’m constantly working on and I think/hope I’m getting better.
I was hoping you’d be in brazil a little longer, when i read your post i was looking forward to having a beer at my favorite watering hole here in rio.
david, hello! hello all!
ok, you gave your excuse, but… what about the rest of you? where have you all been? i’m new on the blog, but i’ve been hanging on it for the last three weeks,daily, and i’ve seen that when david is not available, i always find posts from the rest of you every day anyway…except for the last 5 days… you were all gone! why? where were you? …strange…
(bobblack did answer my MRB post! thanks bob!)
; )
I made some excuses in my daily life, but excuses for something that damaging severely.
Now I’m trying, to give up excuses, except it’s an honest one….
One thing though, there is an excuse my friends here in Indonesia usually use when meeting me very late: traffic jam, very classic here for people of Jakarta.
I just can’t except that kind of excuse :D
Btw I heard you will be in Bangkok in November, David?
I often tell people, I have no excuses but I can explain and you will understand! ;-)
I was starting to worry, David, glad logging in on the Magnum site didn’t deliver any bad news (like “piranha eats the index finger of our member DAH while piroguin the Amazon, finishes trip with self-timer”) and that you have reappeared from the dark side of the moon (that which has no internet, real or self-induced)….
David, your excuse is perfectly acceptable. I really didn’t expect to hear from you with all that you had going on so you don’t even need an excuse!
Excuses have gotten me out of a lot of things that looking back I may have been better off not getting out of….for example my dream of a dance career…I convinced myself (in my early 20′s) that I was too old to be a dancer (Hello Herve???) then stopped, but many years later I returned to dance and am still dancing for fun. My point being…if the excuse is holding you back and keeping you from something you should really be doing in your life you will either outgrow the excuse or find a way to carry on in spite of it.
David,
I have a dog of my own so I didn’t need Asher’s dog to eat my excuses. In general though, I’m lousy at making up stuff so I just come out telling what happened hoping for clemency (stopped hoping for understanding a while ago) which makes me — I guess — either a good manipulator or a really lazy bum…
Anyway, good to hear none of Herve’s nightmarish scenarios happened, and it seems your immigration line beats my security check line at Southwest at LAX last year, which went from terminal 1 to terminal 3 (for those who don’t know LAX, that’s about 300 yards)…
After all of this, are we going to see any photos form Paraty?
Cheers,
GC
lorena,
My excuse is that I have been moving this week and also have eye strain but I just increased the text size on my laptop…see, a way to overcome the excuse :)
Well, first of all, David, there’s absolutely NO NEED for ANY excuses to this crowd! Don’t even worry… and for sure don’t start feeling like you ‘HAVE TO’ write anything to us, unless and until your other work, responsibilties, pleasures, idle pursuits, passions, or just need for personal space-freedom-down time allows. You give us plenty, Big D! Least we can do is reciprocate by being very understanding, without even being asked, about airport lines, long drives in bad weather, jet lag, crashed laptops, demanding workshop students, or serendipitous encounters that may cause one to lose all sense of time…
Interestingly enough, I am reading your excuses just after I have finished writing my own list of obsequious (yet heartfelt) excuses IN JAPANESE to one of my major translation clients in Japan for being slow in returning a rush job. Now, one characterisitic trait of most Japanese interaction is lots of apologizing, even when it may appear entirely unnecessary to outsiders, and there are elaborate ways of course to offer excuses… which usually begin with the words “Moushiwake gozaimasen ga…” which literally means, “There is absolutely no excuse, but…” (See, cultures aren’t all that different after all!)
To you however, David, I fortunately need not offer an excuse (this time around!) because I have in fact already got my 20-image essay together for the second-tier submission- I intend to live with the edit for a few days before submitting it, but basically it’s ready I think (for better or worse). Time spent photographing, downloading, post-processing, editing photos, or looking at other people’s photos, thinking about photos, talking about photos, does not really feel like WORK to me and the real problem is putting that aside to do what I have to do for money these days! I suspect many of us DAH Blog readers are in a similar situation, with a day job supporting the photo habit (?). Trouble is, most ‘day jobs’ these days carry with them expectations of more than full-time commitment. One has to negotiate cannily and fight ruthlessly for the space for one’s art. So making excuses is an indispensable part of modern life, I guess. I would wish for a world in which we all could cut each other a lot more slack!
Sidney
David…
Almost forgot! Disculpe-me, Señor! Saludos del Dia de los Muertos!
Sidney
David, didn’t you say the light was magic as you were heading toward the airport? Maybe you should have put the trip off for a few days—that would have been a good excuse!
But to answer your question, no, I generally don’t make excuses. I’ve resigned to the fact that sometimes I do things, and sometimes I don’t. Lately I have been DOING!!
I blame my Dad!
david….welcome back…2007 year is for me an amazing year: the birth of my daughter, the sharing of my passion with you all…
actually I took “time off” from your blog too, and it has been very healthy: you take some distance, you take time to ruminate on the ideas, work on my project for the submission of our experience, and you come Back fresh…
Over the past two weeks, with all the accumulated “material” from this blog and personal thinking, I have develop a new way of looking at what/how I photograph…
so, in order to make a story short, time has an amazing impact on the psyche…a thing that you did not understand few days back suddenly appear very clear…
arie
Agreed, D.A.H. no excuse was needed here…but here is my take on excuses:
Sometimes we just want to be excused from something, to be given permission to back out, back down and know that the permission to do so was granted outside ourselves. I think that comes when we aren’t in right relation to the thing from which we want release.
Recently, I had a dream about a friend who is an artist, a mother, wife, etc.. and in the dream I had a heightened perception that allowed me to understand how she manages to flow through life with all in balance, while thinking of others and being a prolific artist. What I saw was that she had made each of her choices at some point from a place of love, and as she faced the challenges of the moment, she had peace because she knew that each of these challenges arose from consciously created priorities.
She had no need for excuses, or over extending, or stress or feeling fragmented, because all that she did was purposeful and came from that which she valued. I saw how someone could actually live in a state of grace because the reason for their actions was love..and if something couldn’t be done from this place, then it wasn’t done at all.
Sidney is telling something very close to may own feelings. I started in photography while I was sarting to work, after graduating from business school. That was 10 years ago. For the first time in my life I was doing something with a profound sense to me, and I would’nt let it go in the form of excuses, like no time, day work is firts, and so on. That was my real challenge: become a fine photographer no matter what. So after 10 years I have finished many projects, and I continue involved in new projects even considering that now I have a wife and 3 childrens…and still a day job. I have had individual and group shows with my photographs, as well as a couple of books. Maybe not a big thing (I still can’t make a living from photography), but definitivelly not just a hobby. Till know, and after 10 years, I have won to excuses, but the battle is not over.
Jorge
I went to Catholic school so I just know that if I try to make an excuse for not doing something I should have done, a nun will smack me across the knuckles with a ruler. That doesnt stop me from making excuses, of course, but I have to make sure they’re really inventive; saying the dog ate my homework just wont cut it, but saying my Uncle Joey got drunk and barfed all over it just might get me off the hook.
Hi all…did what Arie did…took time, worked the project, STILL goin’ at it, will probably till the end…Asher’s dog ate my homework too;;;=]]…Erica, i believe you hit the nail on the head: getting outside validation for not coming through…I am pondering the philoshpical quandary of validity…that seems to be interesting; ’cause it gets close to authenticity of the self to the self…that is==as you all mentioned, stop making them bloody excuses===that being said; lorena, i think we’re all shooting and working, sorry there[[he-he just had 2]+i blame all of YOU..i think that’s my new one “sorry, boss, got stucjk on the DAH blog and Uncle Joey’s drunk…”
travel safe, grandmaster…
l8er and good shootin’
Excuses! :D I remember so well the day you told me that I was making excuses. I had only two afternoons to do my assignment, two afternoons with two little girls hanging around, homeworks, showers, dinners and all that stuff that generaly make my excuses. Till then, I really believed on my excuses. But since you told me not to make excuses, I am doing a better work. I’m working hard, I’m fighting for all the things I want and I’m earning time…..
But there are excuses and… excuses. And your “excuses” are perfectly acceptable this time ;)
Enjoy life with your excuses and get always the positive part of it.
Cheers!
Ana
I feel that every time I’ve made an excuses it sprung out of either fear and/or uncertainty. I feel that most people aren’t inherently lazy. I feel most people inherently have a fear of the unknown. In one of the last entries, the task of photographing others, specifically strangers, was discussed. Everyone seemed to come to a consensus that the act of getting up and out into the open and starting the process of seeing, meeting, understanding, the world around you was a daunting task. A beloved task with great rewards, but daunting nonetheless.
What about the idea of jumping into freelance photojournalism. I’m sure we all can agree, those who have done it, will do it, or are pondering the thought, that nobody holds your hand. In the end, we make our own decisions and at times they seem scary to think about.
I think excuses come with the territory of being human. I think everyone, everyone, makes them. I think that they range from very bad excuses, to valid reasons for not completing a preconceived objective. I think too many excuses become outright regrets, and I think that is bad. I believe one should try for perfection, but realize that it is never obtainable. In my estimation, a ship that sails will take on some water, it’s going to happen. If one can get the ship to port in one piece, great job. If I can do that, I can live with a couple excuses along the way.
After all we are all human. We cannot control everything we want to achieve goals within expected time frame. In the end of the day, if you put the effort you make in the equation, not focus solely the result, you may find that those obstructions are really what give the most valuable experiences. What I mean is excuses are absolutely alright when you give your best shot but not slack off. Have my sympathy for the chain of likely-not-fortunate events. Will those be something to laugh when you look back?
For me, I make excuses all the time, most to myself. Bad ones that stop me from making progress eat me bit by bit. But that’s just me beating myself up.
I off to Bangkok this afternoon. Is there any chance to catch up with you, David, although I won’t be in the workshop late this month?
After all we are all human. We cannot control everything we want to achieve goals within expected time frame. In the end of the day, if you put the effort you make in the equation, not focus solely the result, you may find that those obstructions are really what give the most valuable experiences. What I mean is excuses are absolutely alright when you give your best shot but not slack off. Have my sympathy for the chain of likely-not-fortunate events. Will those be something to laugh when you look back?
For me, I make excuses all the time, most to myself. Bad ones that stop me from making progress eat me bit by bit. But that’s just me beating myself up.
I off to Bangkok this afternoon. Is there any chance to catch up with you, David, although I won’t be in the workshop late this month?
After all we are all human. We cannot control everything we want to achieve goals within expected time frame. In the end of the day, if you put the effort you make in the equation, not focus solely the result, you may find that those obstructions are really what give the most valuable experiences. What I mean is excuses are absolutely alright when you give your best shot but not slack off. Have my sympathy for the chain of likely-not-fortunate events. Will those be something to laugh when you look back?
For me, I make excuses all the time, most to myself. Bad ones that stop me from making progress eat me bit by bit. But that’s just me beating myself up.
I off to Bangkok this afternoon. Is there any chance to catch up with you, David, although I won’t be in the workshop late this month?
After all we are all human. We cannot control everything we want to achieve goals within expected time frame. In the end of the day, if you put the effort you make in the equation, not focus solely the result, you may find that those obstructions are really what give the most valuable experiences. What I mean is excuses are absolutely alright when you give your best shot but not slack off. Have my sympathy for the chain of likely-not-fortunate events. Will those be something to laugh when you look back?
For me, I make excuses all the time, most to myself. Bad ones that stop me from making progress eat me bit by bit. But that’s just me beating myself up.
I off to Bangkok this afternoon. Is there any chance to catch up with you, David, although I won’t be in the workshop late this month?
After all we are all human. We cannot control everything we want to achieve goals within expected time frame. In the end of the day, if you put the effort you make in the equation, not focus solely the result, you may find that those obstructions are really what give the most valuable experiences. What I mean is excuses are absolutely alright when you give your best shot but not slack off. Have my sympathy for the chain of likely-not-fortunate events. Will those be something to laugh when you look back?
For me, I make excuses all the time, most to myself. Bad ones that stop me from making progress eat me bit by bit. But that’s just me beating myself up.
I off to Bangkok this afternoon. Is there any chance to catch up with you, David, although I won’t be in the workshop late this month?
After all we are all human. We cannot control everything we want to achieve goals within expected time frame. In the end of the day, if you put the effort you make in the equation, not focus solely the result, you may find that those obstructions are really what give the most valuable experiences. What I mean is excuses are absolutely alright when you give your best shot but not slack off. Have my sympathy for the chain of likely-not-fortunate events. Will those be something to laugh when you look back?
For me, I make excuses all the time, most to myself. Bad ones that stop me from making progress eat me bit by bit. But that’s just me beating myself up.
I off to Bangkok this afternoon. Is there any chance to catch up with you, David, although I won’t be in the workshop late this month?
My favorite excuse: Mercury Retrograde….and by the way, mercury has been retrograde since 7 Oct. and in scorpio so as to make all the dropped communications especially emotional and guilt ridden. Continues until 2 Nov. with the effects still being around for another 10 days. Good luck, and take care, Merritt
Está desculpado!
Okay, Harvey. Enough of this candyass excuse making and unbelievable lenience on the part of your blog community here.
We the hardasses hereby assign you wind sprints and a five mile run at 4 AM, followed by six hours of church on your knees while wearing a hairshirt. Later, you’ll have to sit through a Power Point lecture on the relative similarities and differences between the Digital Railroad and Photo Shelter.
That’ll teach your sorry ass to keep a tighter grip on that laptop! Chop chop!
With excuse or not : I’m glad you did manage to come over to Brazil, get your 9 hour flight to Sao Paulo, followed by a 7 hour car ride in the heavy rain to the colonial beach town of Paraty – Rio de Janeiro…
…and despising the fact that we do not have excuses for the bureaucracy in Brazilian immigration… I have to confess that your presence were special, and that goes far beyond your students (I’ve heard great comments about it by the way). Was a real pleasure to meet you. Your work is inspiring.
So, just to make sure that this will not become an excuse for you to don’t come back some of these days. =)
Jully Fernandes
hola david,
is good to read that you are in mexico… too bad i’m not there right now… i’m in the uk for another 5 months… still hoping to be able to meet you someday … have a great time in san miguel.
saludos,
hanny
Crashing the laptop is a fact, not an exuse:) have a nice trip!
Gunnar
DAH,
Best wishes for you on All Saints’ Day & All Souls’ Day over there in Mexico. Your photos of that cultural occurrence will be most interesting. [Unless a dog eats your camera.]
-SFJason
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
David…
we can not be mad you went away for a while:- ).. we can only be happy you are back :-)
Hey, Jason how about our own Day of the Dead celebration in SF, are you going? Any excuses why not… ;-)?
I have none, I am going, especially since I totally skipped Halloween. In case others in the Bay area are interested:
http://www.sfmission.com/dod/
Hi Herve,
I’d love to but… I’m cleaning my Camera that night.
Maybe next time!
SFjason
hi everybody…this mroning I have an excuse for not making a picture I saw coming to work…I did not have my camera with me…damn!! each time I say to myself: carry this f….camera with you ALL (ALL, ALL!!) the time…
arie
BOB..
i missed being able to chat with miriam leito on this trip …but, i am writing to her this weekend, since i am now planning some more shooting in Brazil in the near future…many thanks amigo for this contact…she is highly regarded by all..and i will check out the recommended tequilla!!
MICHAEL, JOAN, ASHER…
yes, i know the “computer crashed” excuse…but this “crash” was quite literally a four foot drop from the projection table to the floor in front of a class of students at the School of Visual Arts in New York during a slide show..25 witnesses!!! in the repair shop now…
ALL…
no excuse for incorrect spelling of Sao Paulo in my first draft….apologies to my Brazilian friends…
GLENN…
i blame your dad too!!!
ALL..
rushing to class now…i will be back soonest to comment on your comments…
Hi David! I just read an article written by Matthew Shirts about you.
To bad I missed the Paraty event – no excuse for that. ;)
Anyway, I just want to say hello to you (and everyone).
David: :)))
I am so happy. She is an amazing woman too…and totally accommodating, im happy to introduce u 2 :))…the world is all about that: the weird way we meet people and connect and help…tequilla, next trip ;))…
what’s ur schedule like at the end of December?: u at home (ny)??….
running
b
David, we all know that your computer crash is totally legit, and I’m sure we all share your pain.
As for my excuse… I don’t even own a dog! ;-)
I remember way back in elementary school of having to bring in an “excuse slip” if we were absent from school. The word excuse didn’t have a negative connotation back then as it does now. At least I never thought it did. It was just an explanation (being sick) of why I didn’t show up. Somewhere around junior high, I think I started to catch on that an excuse slip got me off the hook for other reasons (not finishing/doing homework and not wanting to face the consequences, just not wanting to go to school period, etc.) I didn’t choose to do this often, but I guess enough times so that the nuance of the word changed for me.
It’s so prevalent in society now, it’s just like someone wrote on here, it’s like it’s human nature. Maybe, maybe not. I think I hear it so often (from friends, family, media, politicians, myself) that I have become desensitized to it. Both in giving them and receiving them. But, it sure is refreshing when the opposite happens: When someone takes responsibility for their actions or inactions, instead of blaming the dog.
What’s more annoying are the enablers to this behavior. In meetings or in classes where the instructors don’t start on time and want to wait a few extra minutes for a few more people to arrive: “Let’s give them extra time to find parking, the room, etc.” is hell annoying. Although, when I’m the late one, I am appreciative that I didn’t miss anything.
DAH, yours don’t come across as making excuses because you didn’t choose to not blog when you could have, but your circumstances prevented it.
Hi David,
I met you just now at the Paraty em Foco in Brazil, attended your hastily prepared first-rate “opening show” and my wife took your workshop… as far as I’m concerned, you are takin care of business and shouldn’t need to feel bad about making excuses. Your example serves as an inspiration to many of us for exactly that reason – you demand perfection and challenge us to dare to act likewise. Wait for that perfect light, move just an inch over to the side, don’t make excuses.
We make excuses all day, but who’s counting? Thanks for the lessons and I hope to keep up with your road trip.
Dan Chiacos
I’m sorry, I’m not talented…
Is this good excuse? he, he
Let’s my trip will be begun!
Up,up, and away!!
greetings
Martin
Martin, Thats the best and most honest excuse…..There’s no where to go from there but up!
Bob …you really struck me as a dog sort of Bloke!