I got back weeks ago from a rare trip out west. I say 'rare' because I'm a stayathome, and rarely travel, but my girlfriend does, and so it was off to Colorado we went. I took my baby (my camera) along with me, intending to get good nature shots.

Here's what I learned: I don't really care for mountains, or springs, or jagged peaks or louring skies, or anything that landscape photographers drool over.

My friend Paul asked if I did any shooting when I got back. We'd been gone for about 6 days, and I said I took about 300 photographs. There was a pause.

–Didn't do it for you out there?

–Not really, I like taking pictures of people

–I've got one for you. Eugene Smith.

–The 'country doctor' story guy?

–Yeah.

–That was amazing.

–Yeah.

Look in the back of any photography rag and you'll see how hundreds of accomplished photographers make their living,  by teaching and offering workshops. Santa Fe, Portland, Arizona workshops. Sierra Club photography guides, National Geographic, the Nikon School. Most offer some sort of exciting location, which I suspect is as much a sop to the spouses of the photographers as it is enticement to the photographers themselves.

But I ask myself what the point of going to a beautiful desert is and I miss it. It's nothing business against nature, it's personal: I just don't go that way. You could say I'm not tuned.

So I look back at all those photographs of some rock formation. The light was ok on the days but nothing spectacular. There are some interesting angles. I like looking at the ones with my girlfriend, especially the ones where I'm being obstructive and trying to get her to laugh. Otherwise, I just think: I guess I'm not tuned in to this nature stuff. Some people see spirits and mountain gnomes, but I don't.

Who motivates me? I like Eugene Smith. Larry Burrows. James Nachtwey and Christopher Morris also move me. Serious photo documentarians, news journalists, mostly shooting stuff I can't get to or wouldn't want to.

In a couple of weeks we're going to sit down as teachers and discuss our upcoming year. Dale, our literacy consultant. He wants to know what we're excited about as people, so I guess this is another way of talking about what we're tuned into. I'm going to go off and think some about this, but not today: we're going to Medieval Times. We expect to be back by 7pm. I hope we have enough aspirin.