"The innate force of matter is a power of resisting, by which every body, as much as in it lies, endeavors to preserve in its present state, whether it be of rest, or of moving uniformly forward in a right line."  -- Sir Isaac Newton

Physical inertia is a seemingly logical and straightforward principle.  If something is resting, it will continue to rest until something moves it.  If something is moving, it will continue to move in the same direction and speed until something changes or stops its motion.  What is strange is that this law seems to apply to us, or at least me, in an emotional and mental way.  If I am at rest - whether it's 5:00 am and I'm sleeping, or it's 3:00 pm and I'm watching a football game, I tend to stay at rest.  This emotional inertia stands in the way of me getting out and taking pictures.

I don't know why I'm that way.  I think I'm a pretty logical person, and it's easy to see that the possibility of some good pictures is easily worth a sacrifice of a couple hours of sleep.  But, if the alarm goes off at 5:00 in the morning, and if I have a real choice of whether to get up or stay in bed, I'm probably going to choose to stay in bed.  Stupid, huh?

Recognizing this, and knowing that I'm much more sensible at 10:30 at night than I will be a 5:00 in the morning, I've tried to think of ways to force myself to get up and overcome the inertia.  I tried to put my alarm clock on the other side of the room so I at least had to drag myself out of bed to turn it off.  But, no luck.  On my way to turn off the alarm, I peek my head through the curtains, and, even though I can't see a bloody thing, I tell myself that it's probably not going to be a good day for photography, and I crawl back in bed.  It seems to take me 5 or 10 minutes of waking time to become rational enough to stay awake.

I have discovered one way to overcome my own intertia, though - a photography buddy.  If I know that somebody else is going to be on my doorstep, or he's going to be waiting for me at his - even at some unholy hour - I'm probably going to get up.  So, I try to plan my trips with a friend, and then I'm committed.

Besides forcing me out of my bed or chair, a trip with a friend is a lot more fun and often more productive than a trip by myself.  It's nice to have somebody else to bounce ideas off of or to give me ideas.  It's also nice that sometimes I don't have to drive, but rather just get to enjoy the ride in the passenger seat.

Photography buddies (and I have one both here in Belgium and back in Utah) have become a key element of my photography.