Another year has passed, so it’s time to look back again. 2020, a review. And what a year it was!?! Holy crapperoly! Where many people may think this year sucked due to this little global pandemic thing we’ve got going on, it was actually not that bad for me!
Photography
Well, I had all these great plans, but hey, who said it again, “Life’s what happens when you’re busy making other plans”.
Life’s what happens when you’re busy making other plans
John Lennon
Promenade Days
My Promenade days project was at a full stop this year because I wasn’t able to travel. And, I still could not get myself to write more. So there are still some stories to come.
Meeting other photographers
Meeting and following other photographer’s way of working was a no-go. It just didn’t happen. Yet. It will come when Covid-19 allows us to travel again. A thing that did happen just recently is an online meeting where photographers discuss images. Very educational!
Tegelen Pinhole
A project I worked on for a bit, but not enough. It’s quite a challenge to create photos that are to my liking, so I’ll have to figure out how to move forward with this. We’ll see. Covid-19 is far from over, so there will be time.
So what did I do?
I did some street stuff, which I still enjoy. After the first lockdown here in the Netherlands, I shot some various locations, to get a sense of how people were picking up their life again after being shut down almost completely. As we’re in a new lockdown now, I’ll continue that project when we’re allowed to live again. Apart from that I picked up people photography again, shot with some models in Cologne, did my first (patchwork) family shoot and planned another, and tried myself with flash photography for a bit. And I started a 365-day photo challenge which I have actually kept going this time.
And of course I visited beautiful Berlin for a couple of days with friends. It was a blast, and I will go there as often as I can. But before that, I can post a lot about my “Promenade Days” project I did there a while ago.
Life
Life had its surprises for me as well this year. After my burnout in 2019 and starting work in January of this year again, I soon found out that I and my employer were not a great match anymore. So I went looking for a new job and found one. I work in the south of the Netherlands now at a great company called Open Line, where I was welcomed with open arms. Damn, I feel good there.
Next to that, my camper was totaled. No accident, thank god, but it was too expensive to repair it to be allowed back on the street again. So that was a bit of a bummer, but yet again, a life lesson.
As for people in my life, people were there. People came. People went. I’m still happily helping out at Inkmen Tattoos, I love being there, and the guys there have grown to be true friends. I was able to visit friends and acquaintances in Cologne and travel to Berlin with some of them. And the tinder-thing from 2019? Well, after a year it turned out to be a tinder-thing after all. So I’m happily single again!
All in all, what a year. With ups and downs, but I look back at it in a way more positive way than last year.
Moving forward to 2021
Well… After all the plans I had for this year, which didn’t pan out, I think I’m going to leave it at that. I won’t make any plans, and we will see what happens.
I will continue working on my photography, I will keep visiting friends as far as possible, and I will keep living life with an open heart and mind. Let’s see what happens in 2021. I’ll make the best of it, no matter what comes. and, I’ll actually try to blog a bit more.
~ B.B.
