This Is My Job

Tully Rohrer

February 23^rd, 2007

Rather than throw up yet another half-assed attempt at artistic photography (see my last 7 posts), I have opted to provide a snapshot of my life. I guess that makes this photo more for my friends and family than any of our photoblogging visitors, but if I haven’t driven you away from OpticDistraction by this point, chances are this photo probably won’t either.

This is a 6th grade student from Newton Middle School in Hacienda Heights, CA, watching a bottlenose dolphin surface next to our boat during an oceanography lab. We had a pod of 40+ animals follow our boat, surfing the wake, leaping out of the water, and bowriding under the front of the boat. It was amazing, and many of the kids were crying because it was the first time they’d ever seen dolphins. One of those moments where you realize just how lucky you are to be doing what you do. Because somehow, miraculously, this is my job and I go windsurfing on my lunchbreak. Cubicles be damned!

Song of the Day : Great Lake Swimmers - Your Rocky Spine
Though about the Canadian Rockies, this banjo-driven folk song is just as perfect for watching a sunrise over the ocean and thinking about playful cetaceans.