Today was a half day of travel and we had the afternoon to sit on the beach for some much needed relaxing after the past 2 months of working long nights and weekends to catch up on our latest edits. I took the opportunity to catch up on some writing. I felt a sense of serenity as I stared out at the not-so-red waters of the Red Sea, imaging the Sinai peninsula and eventually Saudi Arabia on the horizon.

Tim on the other hand seemed to have trouble relaxing. Well, first I should clarify why I’m picking on him: I think a lot of creatives out there, myself included, have aspirations to run some sort of business one day, whether it’s working as a freelancer or as a collaborator with other creatives.

Not 2 minutes after sitting down, Tim’s phone starts ringing. I’ve written a few good paragraphs by the time he’s off the phone, at which point he tells me about the conversation he just had with a client. He’s interrupted by another call and spends another 15 minutes making arrangements for a shoot, at which point I’ve taken to photographing some interesting light on my Havaianas.

It’s true what they say, that “creatives never stop working” because they’re alway seeing things in their surroundings. This is something I love about what I do; I can relax and “work” at the same time, like taking photos of sandy sandals.

Today Tim reminded me of the other meaning of “always working” that comes with the territory of running a creative business. If you’re running a successful business, you want people calling you all the time, no matter where you are or what color sea you’re sitting by. From a business standpoint, this is a really good problem for Tim to have.

I haven’t reached this stage of my career yet, but I honestly look forward to the challenge of building a business around the craft that I love. I imagine it’s immensely satisfying selling a product that you crafted and put your soul into. I’m really excited for this aspect of running a creative business, but seeing Tim today brings up the question of keeping your sanity. How does one run a creative business while making time for writing and sandal photography, or something as fundamental as being with your loved ones? At this point it’s purely hypothetical, but still something to think about.

Have you run into this problem? Please leave your input in the comments.

From my visit to the States in August: Sitting in Central Park with Jenna.

For Halloween this year I tried to emulate a piece by the notorious street artist, Banksy. How did I do?

Mahmoud repairs a radio/cassette player at his shop in Islamic Cairo.

The face of the massive machine he was working on.

I was drawn to this shop because it’s the kind of thing you would never see in shops in the United States nowadays. Radios in the developed world are a fraction of the size and when they break, they’re often thrown away and replaced. The people who repair radios are all but extinct because of this tendency to replace, rather than repair.

First, I should say, I was impressed by Ryan’s “photojournalist pose”, he seems to have mastered it:

Ryan McManus on the Moqattam Hills overlooking Cairo.

A merchant in the market around Hussein mosque.