The Tradeoff of Being Outside

Adulting is hard.

Not in a dramatic way. Just in the steady, constant way that things always seem to be waiting.

Work. Responsibilities. Messages. Tasks that don’t really go away.

So when I see someone outside—on the trail, on the water, just… out—I have a lot of respect for that.

Not because of what they’re doing.

But because they made the time.

There’s always a tradeoff.

Being outside usually means something else isn’t getting done. Something is pushed off. Something waits.

And I think that’s necessary.

But it doesn’t mean it’s easy.

I feel it with photography.

I love being out here. Making images. Meeting people. Paying attention to things I wouldn’t notice otherwise.

But every frame I make carries something with it.

Time later.

Time spent indoors—editing, organizing, going through thousands of images, trying to make sense of what I saw and how to share it.

The part that people don’t see.

And on a day like today, when the light is good and the air feels right, that tradeoff becomes more obvious.

You start to feel the pull in both directions.

Stay out a little longer.

Or go back in and do the work that follows.

Neither one is wrong.

But you can’t ignore that both exist.

And when I see people choosing to be out here anyway, knowing full well that things are waiting for them…

that choice stands out.