Another Year Past…

Well here we are again. Christmas time. Is anyone every really ready when it rolls around? I know i can never believe its already here. This year being no different.

2024 really flew by. Seemed to me I would blink and a whole month would be gone. Every time I looked back, there was never really anything exciting that had happened. I guess after the CHAOS that had been the years prior really desensitized me to the passing of time. Hours. Days. Weeks. They really all just ran together. I didn’t really go any where or do anything. Just worked. Maybe that’s where I went wrong.

Oh well. Here we are anyways. Presents have been purchased. I have outsourced all my wrapping (you the real MVP) because, lets be real, I suck at it. Now to sit back and wait for the new year. Thats when we all start over and plead we’ll be different, right? Guess we’ll see how long that lasts. In the mean time, lets reminisce on the year I just had.

Not a lot has changed. Still working the same full time day job. Living in the same place (good ol’ Runaway Bay). Drive the same cars. Eat at the same restaurants. Go to the same places. Never really took a vacation other than a couple of short weekend getaways. Couple of them being to Port Aransas. One to Arkansas (we all know i love escaping to the “mountains”).

The only real difference between 2024 and years past is i picked up some new cameras. Not your every day new digital cameras though. Yeah thats right. i jumped on the analog resurgence bandwagon. It’s something that always interested me but i never put a lot of thought into it. Why would someone want to go back to having to wait weeks or sometimes months to see what they shoot? Why wouldn’t you just get a camera that you can see exactly what you captured on a screen? Probably because we love to be broke. Or to be cool on social media with tags that say we shoot film.

Just kidding. For me its about slowing down. We live in such a fast paced world that we rarely slow down enough to look around us. Always going from one place or task to the next. Never just looking around to see intricate details of the world we live in. I was shooting hundreds to if not thousands or photos at a time. most of them all looking the same. Constantly filling up memory cards of 30+ photos that were the EXACT same image. Coming home feeling like i didn’t actually “see” what i had just shot. Always disappointed.

I’m not saying switching to film has completely changed that feeling but it forces me to slow down. To actually look for the best composition. Not just shoot 100 different ones and figure it out later. Now, it can take me a week or 2 to shoot an entire 36 exposure roll. The days of spraying and praying are slowly drifting away.

I think that’s a lesson I should of actually used in years past. Slow down. Enjoy it. See the beauty around me. I know this year I sure haven’t done that. It has been a difficult one. Always seemed to be going 100 mph while simultaneously sitting still. Looking back, I can see steps taken forward with my crafts. There has been a lot of improvements made. But there’s still something in me that feels off. That feels like I’ve back tracked somewhere in the process of progression. That I could have done more.

So, I am going to start trying to document a little more. Document the process of hopeful progression. Document the adventures of the works to come. Hopefully, with actually keeping track of the misadventures along the way will help 2025 slow down a bit. I am hoping to keep these post some what short. I will add in some of the recent work and details around them, as well as, some of the hopefully comedic outtakes. Going to shoot for at least once a month, more if I can muster up the motivation to do something with my life.

I have a lot of work from the last couple of years that I still need to get through and find a home for. Some of it will eventually go into publication of some kind. I have plans for a couple of shorter projects as well as a full length book or 2. The work not going in those, and maybe some of the work for them, will find a home on this website or Instagram (as a last resort to get it out in the world). And lastly, I will be working on getting prints made to start showcasing in the local art gallery. Keep on the lookout for updates along the way.

If you have made it this far into my rambling, my hat goes off to you. Thank you for taking the time out of your life to read this. I am looking forward to putting more of my work out there for you to see.

Leave a comment if there is anything you would like to see or hear about on here.

-Brock

Taken January 2024. One Stop Christmas Tree and the Danger Ranger. From the first roll of film I shot.