that time again?

After more than a year of avoiding this blog, thanks mainly to thinking, Well, the writing and photos get more attention on social media, I have changed my mind. Sure, photo posts will get more attention at social media. But social media, particularly Facebook, has gotten on my last nerve in COVID-19 crisis era.

At the same time, the crisis era has left me adrift as far as my favorite pastime, which was photography. Travel isn’t sensible this summer, as the positive rate numbers clearly show. I’m not dining in at restaurants, no matter how often I’m encouraged to do so via restaurant accounts at Instagram. The brunch drinks look nice. But no thanks! I’m not going overseas, not going to blues festivals (which aren’t happening anyway), not taking photos of friends or people modeling or posing for me.

I was traveling around for photos a few times a year right up to the day the lockdowns began in the United States. Witness these photos from San Antonio TX, taken during the second week in March. I can remember washing my hands all the time them, and freaking out when briefly finding myself in a crowd, making sure I got out of it quickly. Then came hearing from others about how all this was overblown, once the Houston Rodeo was canceled. (I disagreed.) That was it for me for the year, it turned out. I later canceled a planned trip to Southeastern Utah for May.

One of my last restaurant meals, at the Hotel Havana’s Ocho in San Antonio TX

So I’m back here at the photo site blog. I am not sure what all I want to do with it. Still thinking that over, something I don’t have that much to time to do–or won’t have soon enough. What I do know is that I strongly opted against making this a now-standard sort of static photo portfolio site. I’m not in the photo biz professionally.

Otherwise, I thinking that a) I want to look for subjects that can get me to take photos here and there, or use old ones, say, while giving me a creative outlet for writing as well as photos, and b) I want to do my little part in bringing back an Internet outside of social media, news media, and business-oriented and professional sites and such.

Many people keep talking about the how the old normal wasn’t that hot, or wasn’t working at all. When, then, continue to act like we can just type our way into something new and better via the same dysfunctional platforms? Why not go out on our own?

Not that I want to set too high of a bar here or anything! More later.