Have You Seen My Phone?

My home office has taken on the look of a NASA command center this week with monitors and hard drives buzzing and beeping breaking the early morning silence. I’m not launching a space race or trying to hack any political parties, I’m just trying to organize my photographs and streamline my workflow. That’s a catchphrase I picked up on a YouTube tutorial I watched while eating lunch, answering emails, ordering Thingamabobbers and posting a cool photo of Fly Fishing Film Tour tickets on Instafacesnaptweet. As technology races forward, those of us not raised on terabytes have a somewhat harder time keeping up. I have a hard time just figuring out my phone and the radio in my 4Runner.

It wasn’t too long ago in dog years when I strolled into a Radio Shack in downtown Portland and bought a Tandy 1000 to help organize my budding photography business. While it did manage to track billing invoices and project bids, in the hands of someone that didn’t speak DOS it was nothing more than an overpriced electronic typewriter. I spoke DOS about as well as I speak Spanish now, which is to say, just enough to get a Bonefish guide to understand it’s time for lunch and a cold drink.

The funny thing is that since that time I have tried to embrace technology to give me an advantage in business in order to free up more time for things that I love to do, like fly fishing, tying flies, photography and spending time with my wife. The not so funny thing is that these buzzing and beeping bits of plastic and unobtainium have done little to add to that free time. I have just found more things to do with them.

This weeks process of upgrading and updating my command center to manage my photographic library required outside expertise, several additional buzzing bits, bytes and a few days without my shiny Steve Jobs electronic typewriter. While I will admit to suffering some separation anxiety, I also got to re-experience the peacefulness of early mornings here at Woodsprite Lodge without shuffling through emails or updating social media posts. I found that I was really more productive without all the electronic megabytes and terabytes. I tyed a few flies, fed the frozen Hummingbirds, organized my camera closet, watched the sunrise and even read a book. OK, the book was on my Kindle, but it still counts.

Sometimes you need an intervention to help you see the problem. So while I’m not one for New Year’s resolutions, I will be making an attempt at spending less time chained to technology and more time on other unplugged pursuits. Wish me luck. Have you seen my phone?