07/11/2025
** Originally posted on my old personal Fb page, which I'm still using, until this is done. I did change some wording for this page specifically, to explain things better **
Part 1 - The End of the Beginning
Mostly posting this because I've realized I can't start any new projects or pages until I get this done 1st. I had no idea how far behind I was, otherwise I probably could have done everything at the same time. Also posting this because I'm going to be randomly messaging or contacting people for the next few months. Some people I haven't talked to for years, and even most of my adult life. So just a heads up... With my tail firmly between my legs. That's a saying that means 'in a state of humiliation' for those that don't know, because I can't help but wonder, what if, if I had been better organized, what I could have accomplished.... Even if they were free practice photos or for fun photos or just random photos, I take all photos seriously. I realized years ago, just how much the stress of all of this affected me. Even though I planned on finishing this no matter what, I just never dreamed in my wildest nightmares that this would take this long.
Finally. Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. Months turned into years. And I can't believe this but... years turned into decades!! 😮 After 15-17 years (15 for sure, but I think there's some stragglers after that, albeit no biggies for a few years before that) I'm finally delivering on every last promise I made, including to myself. At least the ones I still can do. Unfortunately a few people died since then. And I'm sure I lost some contact info for people I wasn't otherwise connected to over the years, but I tried to keep every last scrap of paper and old cell phone and old email with everyone's contact info.... Also I'm going year by year, starting this year, 2025, and going backwards. Delivering any kind of photo I still haven't delivered, even ones that weren't promised, that were solely just for fun, but making sure nobody is left just in case. I deleted a bunch of unnecessary ones too, because I finally woke up to the fact that you just don't have to give people every last photo lol. After years of learning, I don't really listen to photography advice anymore, because I did wayyy too much of that in the early years (which actually is a huge part of what got me in this mess to begin with), and I know I'm exactly where I need to be now and what works for me, and what doesn't. But that was definitely one of the last things I learned. Sometimes less is more. And it's kinda pointless to deliver a truck load of photos. Especially if they were for fun and/or free.
So yea, after years of learning, constantly making just about every mistake possible and making things wayyyy harder than they should be, after years of battling bad memory cards and hard drives that became damaged because in the early years that newer tech was filled with bugs and sometimes didn't last long or malfunctioned a lot, after years of debugging, data recovery, organizing photos and files, after years of unencrypting photos and files I accidently somehow encrypted, after years of unexpected and worsening health and medical stuff, and after years of just plain stupid by me, I can finally finish what I started and move on with my life. Frankly considering how bad my 2 forever major medical conditions are, I wasn't sure I was going to make it this far. But yea, after I get this done, I can start releasing all these photos I've been holding back for decades.
