2024 -> 2025

Looking Back at 2024

✍️ 🕑 2024 life updatesNew Years

Malaspina Galleries, Gabriola Island, BC - April 2024
Malaspina Galleries, Gabriola Island, BC - April 2024

At some point in 2024, I took a much longer hiatus from updating this blog than I intended. So long that a friend asked me if I thought my last post, on visiting James Buchanan’s Wheatland, was my magnum opus.

Nevertheless, we are limping back to life, here. This blog is now five years old, and I’m glad that there’s someone out there still reading it.

So, let me give you a speed run of the last year, accompanied by some somewhat curated film photos, and followed by some thoughts and goals for the coming year. In other words, a modicum of self-reflection, a pile of grain, and a word vomit of facile hope.

In return, dear reader, tell me what you want to see more on.


Recap

I began 2024 in Turkey, celebrating New Years with a close friend, and feeling an almost magnetic pull back to a place that I love, and the person that I was when I lived there. For this reason, I felt like the year would bring a lot of returns to places I had been before…

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Ilford Delta 3200 - Developed in Berspeed 17m @ ~22.5C, 1+1

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Landing in Seattle, I was reunited with Chelsea after a long time spent away, and the two of us would journey to Portland Oregon for some camera repair errands, something I would end up doing with increasing frequency and disgruntledness as the year went on.

Karaoke Bridge
This frame was an accidental double exposure, a bit of serendipity that I would never have otherwise imagined. Semflex Studio + Kodak Portra 800 / Scans by me, processed in Negative Lab Pro.

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Perhaps more fruitful and rewarding was instead my move towards developing my own film, which I’ve found enjoyable as a process with a lot of room for experimentation. Doubtless Chelsea loves the liters of chemicals which have found their way into our bathroom… 🙂

Whale Box
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February marked a family member’s milestone birthday, and a return to Pennylvania. But also, my first taste of Altoona-style pizza.

Entering Dahntahn
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March had some actual birthdays. Mine was celebrated with a trip to a hockey match. Chelsea hosted an elaborate gathering which for some reason necessitated that all surfaces in our bedroom be cleared of all objects, down to my bedside alarm clock.

Sea to Sky Gondola
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Towards late March and early April, I embarked on a little solo roadtrip back up to Canada, visiting Squamish and Tofino. I watched a whale breech, and wondered why I thought getting on boats with high, choppy waves was a good idea.

Barn
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Back in Seattle, I also greatly enjoyed a mutual friend’s birthday party, a brief visit from a friend, and a quick trip down to Olympia with Chelsea to see the Procession of the Species parade.

Old Spiral Road
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May was eventful and included a somewhat impromptu roadtrip to Palouse Falls and Eastern Oregon with Chelsea. Memorial Day was spent helping my parents move out of my childhood home, a somewhat chaotic and strenuous process. Towards the end of the month, I went on a solo backpacking trip to the Enchanted Valley in Olympic National Park.

Somewhere in the midst of this chaos, I decided that helping to move my family, and doing all of this running around in general meant that I should put my bigger travel plan for the year – a roadtrip to the arctic ocean – on hold until a future time. Chelsea’s mom was also looking to schedule knee surgery, and so some sort of scaled back plan seemed like a better idea…

In early June, Chelsea and I went to Spokane Pride and had a great time seeing friends and stopping by the North Cascades on the way back. Towards the end of the month, I left for Oregon, with various possible routes in mind, thinking about ending up in Colorado, California, or Utah, and having Chelsea join me on my way back to Seattle.

Looking Back
Black Butte Trail, OR

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That I had booked very little for this trip turned out to be a blessing. My sister had asked me to stay with her in New York, and a one way ticket was quite economical on July 4th. I spent a lot of 2024 in New York, bonding with my sister, and helping out with her adorable puppy as she went through the difficult process of divorce. Though there were many difficult moments along the journey, getting to spend so much time with my sister and help her along it was the most important and meaningful thing I did this year.


Image On Where-Is-Steve

Bicycle at Sunset, West Seattle - August 2024.
Bicycle at Sunset, West Seattle - August 2024.

Giant Schwarma, a.k.a. the Vessel. Hudson Yards, NYC - September 2024
Giant Schwarma, a.k.a. the Vessel. Hudson Yards, NYC - September 2024

The last quarter of 2024 remained chaotic. In the fall, Chelsea’s mom had a second knee surgery. Chelsea and I attended a wedding in Ohio. Then Chelsea and I did some dogsitting for my sister – by which I actually mean Chelsea did some dogsitting for my sister while I got COVID, and then the two of us attended a wedding in New York. I attended another wedding in Pittsburgh with my mom, and then, for the first time in months, spent more than a week straight in my honest-to-god actual apartment in Seattle. I think.

Strip District, Pittsburgh, PA - October, 2024
Strip District, Pittsburgh, PA - October, 2024
Hollywood Theatre, Portland, OR - October, 2024
Hollywood Theatre, Portland, OR - October, 2024

Does reading all of this make you think I could use a vacation? Well, Chelsea and I visited friends in Algeria, and did a lot of site seeing, both together and separate.

The whole thing was a magical adventure. 🤩

Sahara Desert, Algeria
Sahara Desert, Algeria

Then, Thanksgiving with my family, a bit of New York sibling time, a bit of Seattle film development time, and a Christmas Eve flight to Ohio, where I finished 2024 with Chelsea and her family.

😴


Hopes and Goals For Next Year

So, with all of that out of the way, what are my goals for 2025?

I think one of them is slowing down. I don’t particularly want to slow down that much, but I do need to do a much better job seeking a balance between all the things I want to do and accomplish. There were moments last year where I was home for a few weeks, and spent a lot of time and energy franticly developing and digitizing film when I wasn’t working, or crashing.

I want a little more of a balance, because going at the pace I was going made it more difficult to make something out of my experiences. Yes, I have photographs, and I have thoughts and feelings and reflections, but how many photographs have I printed? I’ve noodled around on the ukulele, but how many songs have I recorded?


Last year, I meant to finish my album and print some zines. (And also – In 2023, I meant to finish my album. In 2022, I meant to finish my album. In 2021, I meant to finish my album…) I want to get back to working towards some of those goals.

And probably, the way I should formulate that is to make progress. I won’t finish my album if I don’t spend any time working on music. So, really, a goal is to prioritize more time working on music. (Though some of my interests and some of the techniques where I want to grow/focus are now rather different than my goals for that… almost decade-old project.)


At the same time, life is full of rapid changes. My job title is Software Engineer. My employer talks about how they will disrupt the industry by using AI to replace Software Engineers. And much as the Andrew Yang capitalist bros can talk about this leading to some sort of shared prosperity, history has repeatedly shown that technological advancements are used to enrich those who are already rich and powerful. Say, the ones who own the means of production, rather than the ones actually doing the work.

I’m not necessarily looking to change my life around, to move cross-country, to take a career break, or to change jobs to one less flexible with how/when/where I work, but depending on circumstances, I might not have a choice. And that is something I need to continue to reflect on. I’ve spent such-and-such percentage of my life here, and doing these things. What do I want to do with my next chunk of time on the planet?


2024, a year of returns. 2025, a year of stasis, discipline, and practice?

California is burning, and the country is freezing. Tech oligarchs are lining up to kiss the ring of fascism. And I cannot help but selfishly want to enjoy experiencing as much of what this planet and humanity has to offer as I can, while I can.

So, here’s to whatever that will look like!

Piñata - Bronx, NY - December 2024
Piñata - Bronx, NY - December 2024

Thanks for reading!

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