The other day I looked in the mirror and couldn’t believe how dry and frizzy my hair was! How did this happen? Then I realized that I went from a very humid climate to an extremely dry one over the past two months. My hair was screaming for moisture. It was time to get out that leave-in hair conditioner that I brought with me but hadn’t been using because it wasn’t needed. I’ve also been going through a lot of chapstick lately. Funny how I get into a routine and fail to notice when the routine needs to change. It wasn’t much of a problem when my life was pretty much the same day to day. But now that external circumstances change all the time, paying attention and being flexible becomes more important. In fact, I’d go so far as to say flexibility is a key to happiness, as well as soft, smooth hair.

Ever since I arrived here, on the outskirts of Death Valley, it’s been a constant windstorm with blowing sand and dust. I’m anxious to explore and photograph Death Valley, but photos of blowing dust aren’t exactly what I had in mind. So, I’ve been watching the weather forecast and thinking my photo shoot will have to wait for at least another day until the wind dies down. Being flexible will hopefully give me better photographic opportunities, and it gives me time to edit and re-edit some photos from the past few months.

I’ve been making a mental list of images that I wanted to try in black and white, but haven’t had much time to spend on converting them, which often involves quite a bit more than just desaturating. So, I’ve taken advantage of the bad weather induced downtime to work on some of them.

In the past month, my travel days have been pushed back a few days here and there due to circumstances beyond my control. In the past, this would have caused a lot of stress and anxiety around disrupting the planned schedule. But now I’m learning to roll with the inevitable changes that happen along the way. I figure it will all work out just as it should, so why worry about it?

And, thanks to the extreme wind, I’ve added to my monochrome portfolio, which I have a tendency to neglect, kind of like my hair.