It is not quite a year yet, it will be in a few days, since I have been at my current job and working for this company. I remember my first week still, especially since it was also my first experience with a grow out study. I remember I met my new team and Ellen whom I see as my mentor. Well, I had met Ellen during the interviews period but this was our first time working together. Our first work together was actually reading a cornfield 🌽

Now, almost a year later, I am reading my second cornfield. This time though, I am all alone-ish. For obvious reasons she can’t fly out here to Idaho, she works remotely from another state. Lucky for me, there are people on-site, that have done this for many years and offered to help me out. One of them came out today and gave a good “Reading corn 101” rundown. You could tell he knew his stuff so I took advantage of that. I asked him every question I could have imagine, from the most “stupid” one, to the most relevant. We walked the field and did some readings together and then he left me by myself. At this point I was confident enough, put on my Power Beats Pro and started reading – reading and counting.

It is nice, to be out there in the field, just me, my thoughts and my music. However, there was something else. As I am walking up and down the plot, I noticed a different sound, it wasn’t coming from my PBPs or from someone else. I took my PBPs off and stood there in silence. I had totally forgotten, or didn’t even though of it until then. The corn’s tassels! There are full of pollen! What I was hearing was all the buzzing from the bees 🐝 and it was loud. It was both amazing and a little worrying, in a way 😅. Imagine yourself in the middle of all these corn plants and there’s no other sound but this loud buzzing. No cars, no people no machines or any other sounds but the buzzing.

As long as I don’t get stung, this will be fun! Not a fan of being covered in pollen but… What can you do?

I do not like Reels cdevroe.com

All the feels on this. I have always had this love-hate relationship with Instagram. I have closed up to 3 accounts over the years. My current account is less than a year old. And yes, I dislike Stories – sometimes – especially from accounts that have like 20 in less than 24-hours, lol. I have posted but never that many in 24-hours. The main reason I keep Instagram is the same reason most people won’t quit Facebook, I have friends and family I want to stay in contact with. Somehow Instagram seems to be the less Facebooky way of doing it, or at least in my head it is. I fallow some excellent photographers as well and I like that. I don’t share as many of my pictures as I used to and recently all I want to post are snapshots of my regular life. If I want to post nice pictures, they’ll go here, to my site or Flickr.

Right this second, I don’t have the feels to rage-quit Instagram again but it stills annoys me that it is still a thing I “need” to have around. Wish they had a strip-down version of Instagram, where is just photos. No stories no Reels no chat, just content. The closest thing to this, it’s our beloved Sunlit.

Oh, and by the way, my favorite line from Colin Devroe' post,

Yes, I’m old. Get off my lawn. I just mowed it.

❤😅 I so relate! Also, it reminds me it has been 2 weeks since I’ve mowed 😬 (yikes)

How are you? A very common question with – under ideal circumstances – a simple answer. And yet. Why is that I have a hard time answering it sometimes? How are you doing? The usual response would be, “I am doing well” or “I’m good”.

Very often when I am asked this question, I go down this rabbit hole of questions in my head. Should I just say, “I am doing well, thanks for asking”, you know the normal BS? Shall I say “I am okay”? It’s like this simple question makes me double guess everything in my life up until the moment I am asked. Like what doing well or good really entails? Is it been alive and kickin'? Or is it having a job, especially in the pandemic? Is it not having the COVIDs? Having all your bills paid up, having three beers in the fridge, or having a Gigantamax Charizard in your Pokédex? So many unnecessary questions about what should be a simple answer.

Now this is me opening up a little bit. Many times, when I get asked my head goes to a place of insecurities and darkness. Years ago, when I was working at a company that shall remain nameless, I often was comparing my life to others. Thus, oftentimes I found myself frustrated, very unhappy and maybe even depressed because I wasn’t meeting “the standards”. Standards that I definitely got in my own head, I think.

Again, nowadays, I don’t think about those things anymore or at least not as much as I used to but it lingers. I guess this is why, to me, answering this question is hard at times. Am I doing good because I may or may not be good financially? Am I doing good because of my job title? The car I have, the size of the house I have, etc, etc.

Or just well because I have blessings?

So, let me count my blessings.

1. I have a wife that loves me (more like she puts up with me lol)
2. I have two beautiful and healthy daughters.
3. I have a job that pays for my Micro.blog hosting.
4. I have three beers and a camera (Ha! Three beers and a Camera, sounds like a good podcast 🍺 📷 🎙 ).
5. I don’t have a Gigantmax Charizard yet but I will have it soon 😜
6. And beta 5 just came out!

I am sure I have more blessings but those are the top 6 at the moment. I think I am doing well enough.

That being said, if you’re reading this, I hope you’re doing good. Or as my friend Justin would say, fabulous 😘

What makes photographer a photographer? Is it technique, knowing anything and everything about lightning and composition? Knowing all the ins and outs of its camera? Or, is it just owning a camera and use it?

Me personally, I don’t consider myself, nor would I even dare to call myself a photographer. Not even a photography enthusiast, I am just a fan. I am a fan of photography itself and, of course of many photographers that in one way or another, inspire me.

I have been a fan since my early years of college, actually, even before then taking random pictures of my friends in school with one of those disposable cameras. Then on my first or second year of college was when I got my first point-and-shoot digital camera. I don’t even remember the brand but I do remember it was 5 Megapixels and that was the shit LOL. Then I remember getting some Olympus one and those were the good years. I say that because it was now my 3rd or 4th year and I was attending this environmental sciences class and we were doing field trips all the time. The photos I got to take during that time in Puerto Rico, before moving to the States, were so amazing (to me). Yes, they probably weren’t the most crips or high-end pictures ever taken but they were pure and of course, no editing whatsoever back then. I need to find them, there are probably stored in some CD. Remember CDs? I was also very obsessed with sunsets in my hometown. I recall one picture that apparently I, by accident, caught a UFO in the sky. That picture mad eme famous for a week in one of the local UFO forums in the Island 😅

Long-story-short, After moving to Idaho my thing for taking pictures fizzled a little. It was a very different environment for me and I lost my eye as it were. Then I picked up again using my smartphone and when Marley was about to be born, it’s when I had decided to get a better camera than my phone, this was back in 2016 mind you. It was then when I started to be a fan again. Found new things to take pictures of, new ways to see my new world here in Idaho.

Just the way I blog, I have very little to no technique, I think. When I write or take a picture, I do it for the fun of it. That doesn’t mean I don’t put some effort into it and or that I don’t look into learning more of or care. But I am also aware that I can’t call myself a pro on either field and that is fine. What I can say, is that both things give great satisfaction, doing them, moreover practicing, and I am having the time of my life.

We, went out shopping today 🙁. Preschool shopping for Marley to be exact 😭. Yes, our oldest is going to preschool, starting this September. I am not going to lie, I am little nervous about this, part of me isn’t ready el-oh-el. I am also scared, and it is not much so about COVID but more about Marley. Like how is she going to behave or how other kids are gonna treat her. Will she listen and follow instructions? Will she be the difficult kid in the group? Marley has a very strong character and I can tell she has “very strong leadership skills”, and very strong headed. I love all of that about her, even if it drives me crazy-town banana-pants at times. She also has a great heart and can be the sweetest kid.

Many times i get in my head that how your kid behaves at places and/or in situations it’s how you are going to be judged as a parent or as a person. Does that makes sense? I want my kid to be at her best behavior and be the best version of herself she can be (whatever that is), but I know that is not a hundred percent possible. Me, as a parent can do the best I can but also know that kids will be kids. I do think about this a lot and I am not sure if that really matters.

Being a parent is not an easy task and so far we have only needed to deal with immediate family. Now, it will be other kids, teachers and other parents. Things will get complicated. Maybe I am overthinking the whole thing, most likely because I have never gone through this before.