A Wrong Turn Can Be The Right Move

This green edifice is the Sentinel Building (also known as the Columbus Tower), located on Columbus Avenue in San Francisco’s financial district. I recognized it as the home of Francis Ford Coppola’s production company, Zoetrope.

Sentinel Building - July 15th, 2018

This classic flatiron-style from 1907—So says “the internet”— I would have missed completely had I not walked several blocks in the wrong direction on my way to work.

Late again.

I stopped, gasped, pulled out my phone, and snapped this simple photo. A practice that after getting my first iPhone 3 years prior, was becoming frequent, daily even.

Instagram popularized by making a process so easy. Hard & Soft Wares’ working together to rekindle an art that had so many steps, chemicals, and costs… so many costs! Plus sharing it to complete strangers on the web, world wide!!!

By 2018, I had already visited San Francisco many times. Traveling for meetings from Guatemala City, where I worked as a Project Manager for the Brand Team at Xoom, it had amazing perks.

That job was a true blessing in many ways. It gave me the mental peace to realize and appreciate this moment. A modern marvel at the tip of my fingers (the iPhone) shocked my memory. Years before this, 15 years to be exact, I had to sell my first Pentax film camera. I had completely abandoned something beloved: photography. Halting a creative practice instilled by my uncle/mentor to me. A fire was a blaze again.

Some of us—not all—get caught in the rush of life: tasks, deadlines, meetings, calls, debt, failure, dissolution, tragedy. You choose, you prioritize, you grow-up.

Dreams slip, let go like balloons on a windless day.

Can you still reach it?

EXPO1 Building - Zone 4, Guatemala City. 2021.

If you like something, if you’re curious, if it calls to you and doesn’t hurt you or anyone else…

You have to do it.

If you like it, DO IT.

Do it for you.

What’s your thing, what did you let go?

I’ll be sharing more memories, thoughts and pics from my camera roll—monthly—gratis.

Yes, this other photo is also mine, not from a phone.

I’m glad you’re here.