Interesting times. We do what we can to change what we don't like but there needs to be time to do our own work. The kind of work we imagined we'd do.

Chalk artist on the street in Berlin, Germany.

The USA, it seems to me, is heading in an uncomfortable direction. Rights and benefits are being stripped away and the impact is mostly being felt by the most vulnerable. Time to write checks to the food banks and the non-profit health clinics. Time to flex your giving to support local electoral candidates who have ethical visions about service and the ability to follow through. Time to volunteer. But once you've done all you can do to help fix the big picture stuff you have to take care of yourself. 

You only get one lifetime and if you let yourself get overwhelmed by every issue in front of us you'll spend all your time worried, anxious and paralyzed. And that's probably not anything you envisioned for yourself. Not a goal most of us want to work towards.

In times of stress most people tend to go into "hunker down" mentalities. Circle the wagons. Stay home. Watch movies on TV. And sadly, fret about the health of their 401Ks. 

This afternoon I caught myself fixated with the live, serious weather reporting. We have a big, big storm coming towards Austin from the Northwest. It's already generated baseball sized hail, non-stop lightning and possible tornados in the counties it's struck. I worry about storms. I worked in a few bad storms to document the work of the Pedernales Electric Co-op. Driving through rain and hail, dodging possible twisters and working hard not to get boxed in by fast rising water in low lying roadways. Deceptive, those low water crossings... 

When we got a serious alert today for probable severe weather I wanted to make sure the skylights around the house were protected, as well as the cars. I made sure the drains were cleaned out. That leaves weren't blocking the French drains on one side of the office. That we had batteries charged and knew where the flashlights live. We're supposed to get up to 3-5 inches of fast falling rain and the chances for big hail are pegged at three out of five. In 2023 hail damage in central Texas cost nearly $600 million dollars!!! We're in the hail zone. That's for sure. Oh, and 60-70 mph wind gusts. It just gets better and better.

When I've done everything I think I need to do to mitigate disaster I try to remember that what I really want to do is take photographs, share photographs and interact with interesting people. And then photograph them. If I'm paralyzed by all the sudden emergencies popping up I'm not going to get a lot of the stuff done that makes me happy and feeling worthwhile. 

So, after I did my storm work I came back into the office and started looking at recent work, old work and favorite work. I planned a few trips. I processed some files that I made in the past decade because I've gotten better at processing and the applications I use have gotten much better as well. Thank goodness a lot of what I shot was in Raw. So much more potential to revisit and improve many favorites. And that's really fun to do.

The rain will pass. If tornadoes damage the house, well, we're insured. Same with the cars. And if worse comes to worse and everything is destroyed, locally we'll start over, I'll buy a new computer and download all of my favorites back down from the cloud. And I'll continue to play with the images. 

I have some Texas vacations planned for this Summer while all the rest of the folks hop on airplanes and flock to crowded hot spots in the tourist world, traveling at the most expensive and least hospitable time of the year. Not me. I'll be out driving around savoring the coast, the mountains and the deserts. With a stop in our neighboring state of New Mexico for some art browsing in Santa Fe. 

But all of it is an excuse to do what I like best which is to grab a camera and lens, some extra batteries and free time and then head out to make photographs that I'll enjoy. 

The images above were done while I was in Berlin testing an ill-fated camera for Samsung. I was supposed to be in a little van, packed with other photographers, going to yet another "spectacular site" but I demurred, faked a headache. Went out on my own. For myself. And took time to photograph an artist at work. Unplanned. Discovered by turning a corner. And I really enjoyed it. 

So, put a bit of time aside to change the world. Put some more time aside to help fix your local issues. Crack open that bank account and donate to your favorite causes because you know you can't take it with you and there are only so many Leicas and Porsches you really want to buy. And then ignore every bit of external stress and get back on track doing what you love. It's really the only reason we're here.