Self Portrait

Sometimes when I go on road trips for work I take my camera.  I started traveling heavily for work in 1997 and pretty much traveled about 50% of my time through 2011.  That’s about 14 years and during that time I amassed close to 2MM miles in the air and many Christmas’s, Thanksgivings and other holidays on the road.   It was always pretty hard to travel so much and it wasn’t until I stopped traveling so much that I started to learn what would make business travel much easier – just planning to do stuff you like. Too many times you go on a business trip and you work all day, go back to the hotel, hop on the computer and start answering emails about work from back in the office.  I did that for so many years and it drove me crazy.  I couldn’t sleep because I would be answering stressful business emails at midnight in London or whatever part of the world I was in at the time.   So recently I stopped all that.  I rarely go back to the hotel and answer emails right after work.  Instead, I do a couple of things that really make me happy and make trips worthwhile and keep me sane.  I go the gym, and I bring my camera. When I go the gym, I feel connected to home because I bring some of my daily routine with me.  When I go out after with my camera, it makes me realize that every business trip is a chance to explore the world and learn more about places I visit.

I went to Chicago for a business meeting recently. It was to Chicago. It was a great set of meetings actually and I really enjoyed it and what I also enjoyed was going out after those meetings and exploring the city of Chicago. Just me, and my camera.  The place was amazing and while I had been to Chicago countless times before, I never saw it like I saw it this time.  I actually saw it for it was, a beautiful city.  It makes me regret a bit the 12 years before when I had traveled close to 2mm miles on planes that I never brought my camera with me.  The memories I would have captured could have been priceless.  I wish I had one that.

This link has some of the pictures I captured while in Chicago. I took this interesting picture below a bridge.  There was stainless steel that was so shiny that I could capture my reflection it it while I walked under it.

http://www.frankiefoto.com/Travel/Chicago/26120603_VTR3Nr