Australia/NewZealand Trip - HULP!

[Ted Byrne]

A month ago the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania invited me to accept a spot on a March 2009 trade mission to Australia and New Zealand.

Never been there... sounded like a trip of a lifetime. But... but.. but...

While they will pay most of the cost (everything but dinners/drinks) the mission lasts eight days... in three cities (Melbourne, Sidney and not sure of the New Zealand city yet). It will involve four days in the air going to and from, and however long the trip will take from Australia to New Zealand.

Each day will be filled with meetings (three to five meetings daily). So... eight days of meetings, four days of travel... best part of two weeks away from my work (I am a partner and managing editor of business magazines). Most of my work would involve writing a major piece on the fit between the Pennsylvania business culture and those of the countries I'd visit.

But... but... It will still cost me a lot, and I will lose about two weeks from my management responsibilities and simultaneously have to do a lot of my editing by internet on top of the many hours of work during the days of the trip.

Sigh... In some ways it is a trip of a lifetime (and of course my wife wants to go... hmmm... but for pesky some reason that expenditure is mine, go figure...). I have until Monday December 22 to notify the folks at the commerce dept. re. my decision. And frankly, this is a lot of work and a lot of money for... for... well, I'm kind of wondering what's in it for me. Can't really afford to add more days to the trip away from the job. And while it could be cool to see those cities after work, well, there are a lot of cities I still haven't seen that won't take four days of travel.

Anybody got any advice? Most photo opportunities will be at night when I probably will also have to do my editing chores. Sounds like a whirlwind... and I'm not sure the benefits outweigh the costs. Hulp!

Maybe there will be a spot on a later mission, but there's sure no guarantee. Sigh....   

Email always accepted mailted@mac.com - Or leave a comment on my site, K? 

http://imagefiction.blogspot.com/2008/12/

Thanks... Reeeeely appreciate advise especially from folks who live or visit Down Under.

Ted

[eob]

A helluva trip to be sure... If it was all leisure and pleasure, not work. I do not have any advise, but as much as I would love to take a trip like that, I would probably not accept the invitation - keeping in mind all the downside you've mentioned. Unless you are a magician who can stretch a day to 48 hours...

[Ted Byrne]

Yes, I have decided to refuse the offer. Not so much because of the $$ costs... those are manageable. But I see meeting and hotel rooms all of the time. To travel all that distance and forgo all of that time, only to know that all of Australia and New Zealand lie just outside of those walls would be tortuous. Yes, I guess I would see some of the cities after dark, but over the recent past I've seen Rome, Florence, Sienna, Boston, San Francisco, Ontario, Philadelphia, Florence, Phoenix, Mexico City, Bogotá, New York, Washington, Baltimore, Raleigh, Durham, Dallas, Fort Worth, and... and... well the list goes on... and on... It's not so much that I'm a hiker, or camper... but still the scenic wonder of most places is not in their cities.

Perhaps I can get a rain check to go on a mission at a time when there will be more time available to extend the trip. The thing is, for approximately the same price for my wife and I, we can vacation in virtually any European, or South American country, with a far smaller investment in travel time. And there are so many of those cultures which we haven't yet experienced.

In fact, the subsidy which I'd receive for this mission is only the smallest percentage of the trip for two of us, and to go without her feels somehow flat. Sooooo.... I have decided to refuse the offer. Pity though, there will always be a small regret. Sigh... And thanks for the advice... it is consistent with my thoughts.

[habakuk]

Oh, Ted. You wrote about the scenic wonders not being in the cities. That might be right. But... and it's a big but... aren't the cities providing huge and vastly interesting scenes for photographers of your kind? The stories are where we open our heart for them. That said, I am sure you could have come home with tons and tons of highly interesting shots from the business trip. But, and again it's a big but, I think you made the right decision. Our lifetime is limited and no one knows how close his own end has come. Since I lost my son, I often stopped in my track and asked me: is this what I am currently doing or what I plan to do next the proper thing to do? And in that context, decisions changed. I started to think there's not much use to run around the world trying to find nice scenes... it's much more intimate, much more satisfying to try and discover the beauty in your back yard.

So, why not using the time you just saved to go out and discover the hidden wonders of everydays life in your world. I sure am looking forward to see those photographs - and they don't have to come from exotic places.

Think about masters like HCB... many of his splendid work comes from rather ununteresting places. It is the moment that he captured that makes the beauty. and I am convinced this moments happen many many times a day all around us. We need to slow down to discover them. Running around in Australia might be a cool thing, but it doesn't do the trick for the discovery and capture of those moments.

cheers
®

[fourth]

Where about's in OZ are you heading ?