Blessings in disguise: the flood of 2018

It’s been a heck of a week. On Wednesday, February 21, the Elkhart River started overflowing its banks. By 1:00 am Thursday morning it had crested at the highest level ever recorded and the edge of the river was touching my patio, about 50 feet from the normal riverbank. This meant that my basement flooded, but with pumping, we kept the level to around 2.5 feet in depth. I lost some items, but with the help of my daughter and son-in-law, a lot of things were saved.
The event is a blessing in disguise because it has forced the issue for me of clearing out a lot of the artifacts of my old life and allowing me to move more easily into a new one.

For years, even before my dear wife Michele died, I have been aware that we were somewhat trapped by our possessions. This event has made it necessary, and somewhat easier, to release those things to others, to the dump, to children, etc. I need the room and the freedom this has precipitated.

This week, a dumpster will arrive at the house and the beginnings of the great purge will begin. I think it will be a little difficult for me at times, but generally, I’m ready for it.

Alec Hosterman on a very cool photography podcast

Alec Hosterman apparently trying to clone himself.  

This week's episode of the podcast Hit the streets with Valerie Jardin features my friend Alec Hosterman talking about PR for photographers.  Valerie's podcast focuses on street photography, a genre that's become increasingly popular in recent years as cameras of quality have gotten more compact and unobtrusive.  Some of my photos qualify as street photography, although I never really think about what genre I'm working in.  Anyway, even if you're not a pro (and I'm not one), give Valerie and Alec a listen right here.  This is one of my favorite podcasts (yeah, I'm a nerd).  I hope to be participating in one of Valerie's workshops later this year in Minneapolis.  

Starting Anew

This is a brand-new fresh personal website for my pictures, comments, rants, etc.  But largely for my pictures.  It's on SquareSpace, which is different, but I like the way the site work and looks.  I'm not really doing any major programming or web development anymore, and frankly I wanted to get away from it.  WordPress is great, but still feels like work.  This one doesn't as much.  I could be wrong about that, but I'm here for a year, at least.  This particular theme is recommended for online portfolios, and I think it looks good. so far.   

The old blog is here.  I jumped to SquareSpace because I like the way it works but importing the old WordPress blog is more difficult than just starting over.  Yeah, I can import it, but there were too many things to fix in order for it to look right here, and it comprises content going back to 2000 apparently. Hard to believe.