Charles Apple

I got back late last night from my speaking gigs at the North Carolina Press Association Winter Institute and The News & Observer.

I took my camera, but I neglected to charge my battery before I left. So I don’t have any pictures to show you.

Therefore, I’ve decided to illustrate my trip using whatever photos I can find to approximate what I saw.

Call it an experiment. Hey, perhaps this is a new form of journalism we’re creating here. Or something.

Anyway…

I had a wonderful drive down on Wednesday. Rather than driving across Virginia to Emporia and taking I-95 south — which I normally do — I drove south from Hampton Roads, taking the scenic route through beautiful eastern North Carolina.

As I blogged Thursday, however, I had an accident on the outer beltway in Raleigh when I hit a large chunk of road debris. My car wasn’t hurt too badly. But the incident set me back a few hours.

The NCPA was meeting in the Embassy Suites in Cary. A very nice, very impressive hotel. I was given a plush suite on the 7th floor.

After dinner, I stayed up pretty late, enjoying a few beers in the hotel bar as I tweaked my presentation.

The show itself went very well Thursday. We had about 30 or 40 folks, I think, from newspapers across the state of North Carolina in attendance. It was a very nice crowd.

I delivered my Art of Brilliance presentation, the one I’ve performed three four times, now. In it, we talk about the qualities of brilliant newspaper work, what it takes to do brilliant work and how to create and encourage an atmosphere of risk-taking and collaboration.

After the initial 90-minute presentation and a brief break, we came back with a session on nuts-and-bolts of visual journalism and how to actually put into practice some of the principles we had talked about in part one. I used some of my own work as case studies, but I also made an effort to include a lot of work from smaller newspapers, including some small papers in North Carolina.

Note to Doug Jessmer: I included 20 slides I made from PDFs you’ve sent me of your work work there at the weekly Pinellas News in Florida.

Your work illustrated very well the points I wanted to make about doing excellent work with limited resources. I received quite a few compliments about including your pages.

My audience was attentive and appreciative throughout the morning. My compliments for hanging with me for three solid hours.

After answering a few questions from attendees and chatting a few minutes, I left the Embassy Suites and treated myself to a luxurious lunch.

Then, I drove to beautiful downtown Raleigh and to The News & Observer, my professional home from 1993 to 1996. I always love going back to The N&O to visit my old friends there.

I arrived to find my good friend Teresa Kriegsman, the design director of The N&O, settling into her beautiful new office. Despite the fact that she supervises a fairly large staff, she’s always been located in a cube in the newsroom. No longer. Her new digs are gorgeous.

I gave yet another 90-minute presentation as the keynote speaker for The N&O’s career development day.

I have to admit, I was thrown off at the beginning due to an incredibly generous introduction by Teresa. She and my other close friends, Andrea Jones, Michelle Valenzuela and Grey Blackwell, have long been supportive of my work. I’m lucky to have such devoted supporters.

Finally, I was all talked out for the day. I’m delighted to report that hardly anything of note occurred on the long, lonely drive home to Virginia Beach.

And that was my trip to North Carolina!

Thanks for being such gracious hosts and such good sports. I’ll have to remember to bring a fully-charged camera with me next time.

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I had a really nice drive down from Virginia Beach yesterday. Until I got to Raleigh’s outer loop, I-540.

Just as I was nearing the Capitol Boulevard exit — ironically, not far from where we lived, back in the mid-1990s — a big piece of plywood lying in the road flew up in the turbulent wake of a pack of vehicles and flipped right at me. I smacked into it at 60 mph, ripping off part of my front bumper.

Yes, that’s the same front bumper that I just had replaced two months ago after I hit a deer.

At least it was drivable after only an hour’s work at a nearby Chrysler dealer. While I was there, Sharon was back home on the phone with our insurance agent who suggested — I am not making this up — that we switch to bicycles.

Mental note: When I get home Friday, start looking for a new insurance agent.

As a result, I got to the Embassy Suites here in Cary, N.C., a little later than I had hoped. Man, what a nice place this is. The only previous time I’ve stayed in an Embassy Suites was at a Quickcourse in St. Louis in 2000.

My place here is huge, with a living/dining room separate from the bedroom. This sure would come in handy for an SND annual workshop.

I wonder if we’ve ever considered holding an annual workshop in an Embassy Suites. Our annual workshop is probably too large for this hotel anyway.

The view from the door of my room is nearly identical to the photo I posted a couple weeks ago. Except I’m higher up — on the 7th floor, three from the top:

That’s a photo from the Embassy Suites website, not from me. I brought my camera so I can take pictures to post. But I discovered this morning that my battery was dead. So no photos this time. Dammit.

I sat in the bar last night, sucking down Sam Adams beer and tweaking my slideshow. I went downstairs for a complimentary breakfast. Which means you can’t eat it; you have to stand there and compliment it: Oh, what a beautiful spread!

Not really. But it makes a good story.

I’ll head downstairs in a few minutes and set up for my show, which begins in about 45 minutes.

I see a lot of familiar names on the NCPA registration roster I was given. I hope they’re coming to my show. I’ve not seen some of these folks in years.

I’ll be done at noon. I’ll hop in my poor, wounded PT Cruiser, probably hit a Wendy’s for lunch and then head downtown where I’m presenting at The News & Observer’s staff development day this afternoon.

Then, I face a long, dark ride home after only a few hours’ sleep last night and with a car that’s handling funny because I’m missing a slice of a bumper and half of the attached air dam.

Sigh…

If any deer leap in front of me tonight, baby, they’re toast!

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