As some of you know, I recently spent ten days in Ireland filming for a travel show pilot series. From the start, I knew it was going to be a harrowing ordeal simply because our schedule/itinerary was brutal in print form, and it's always worse when you try to actually do it. I was right. But by far the worst of it was that our host's father passed away midway through the trip, and she had to fly back early. We only got about half our filming in the can, but this was obviously far more important. We still got enough to make a couple episodes, though.

Consequently, since I did not qualify for the bereavement fee waivers from American Airlines (with whom I have a long-standing affair of hatred and contempt), I had to spend a couple days in Dublin by myself, waiting for my flight. The first day I ventured out of my hotel and was immediately set upon by a literal swarm of beggars. In the ten=block walk to the cafe where I got lunch, I must have been accosted ten or twelve times. They even came up to my table while I was eating. It was serious. It was then that I knew I had to get out of the "tourist" zone and into the real Dublin. After lunch I walked back to my hotel and worked on some footage for the rest of the night.

The next day, I messaged my mate, superb street-shooter ~Treamus who lives in Dublin. We spent about seven hours walking around the city, and Seamus told me all he knew about Dublin – which is a lot. It was supremely fascinating. We just walked around making street photos and talking. Then we stopped by his Downtown studio where he showed me some of his recent take from the former Soviet state of Nagorno-Karabakh. It was a great day; much better than the one before.

After catching an early flight from Dublin and spending 12 cramped hours on a plane, I arrived back in Texas to begin the recovery process and start catching up on the work that piled up while I was gone. I'm almost there. At the moment, I'm working on the final output of The Powderkids, a feature film I DP'd, which is having its first private screening later this month in San Antonio. I've just finished color grading it and now it's almost time to show it to the masses.

I'll be posting some street shots from Dublin over the next few days.

Mahalo.