…And no, I don’t mean an amusement park in Jackson, NJ.

Late on Wednesday night, I’m flying out on the first leg of a trip that will have me in Cebu, Philippines by Good Friday. This is the first time I’m ever going to use my passport. That’s right, kids, 34 years old, and the only time I’ve left the country is to go to Canada. Which isn’t much more out of my way than going to Philly, in reality.

My father is already abroad on the trip, in Myanmar (formerly Burma). My dad has used his retirement to coordinate logistics for short-term medical missions trips, getting doctors and dentists to free medical clinics in countries such as India, Pakistan, Egypt and Thailand. I’m going to document one of these trips as we go to Cebu and also to an area just outside of his hometown of Manila that has suffered damage from a volcano and from a typhoon over the last year. On the way back, I get a tourism day with Dad in Hong Kong, where I’ve made arrangements to go to Happy Valley Race Course to shoot some pictures.

The toughest thing about the trip, of course, is missing my wife and daughter, who will be hosting my in-laws while I’m gone. Thank heaven for videoconferencing. There’s also been a lot of vaccinations and things like that, too.

I’m going to try and update the blog from time to time while I’m out here, including pictures and maybe video. Keep checking back!

I do miss my wife and my darling little girl. Thank heaven for iChat video conferencing.

There’s a funny thing about working out of a home office: Sometimes you actually have to abandon the office to get anything done. I’m out in Lexington, Kentucky for tomorrow’s meeting of the Kentucky Bride Association, an wedding vendors group serving the Bluegrass region. I flew in this afternoon, settled in to my hotel room, with the full intention of eventually going downtown to scout out locations for future engagement shoots.

Instead, I ended up opening my MacBook and finally bringing my new website live, which meant new photos, music, and a new logo. Unfortunately, I need to work some bugs out, so I need to talk to the authors of the web template I’m using, but I think it’ll be a good look. I also got a chance to play with the trial version of Adobe Lightroom, which is an awesome workflow/editing program. I have no doubt I’ll be ditching Apple Aperture shortly.

I’m really tired. I did a second shooter gig for one of New York/New Jersey’s wedding photography firms, and had to rush my edits back sooner than they normally require just so I could come out here without it hanging over my head. That meant 4 hours of sleep Saturday night, 2 hours Sunday night, and then with packing for this trip, 3 hours last night so I could hop the AirTrain out to Kennedy Airport. But I feel energized again being out here, and I’m looking forward to meeting people in the industry tomorrow night.

Anyway, let me know what you think of the new site!