It’s been a while since I wrote the last journal. Almost 20 days or so, and the change of winds is palpable even on the website now for Year V’s ramp up. It’s creeping deep into my bones and moving my flesh above those.
Year V is upon us, and it feels like I’m walking through a door to a second chance at what the last five years have meant. Things are much different now. Down to the tiniest little detail. Doing new kinds of things. Listening to new types of stuff. Making new kinds of art.
All the while, life has to happen, so journals will shift in format slightly to compensate for the downtime in between them. I’m working full-time now, doing more when I go out, now, and writing so rarely that instead of an author of reality I’m now more of a photojournalist of reality. Doesn’t mean that poetry will ever stop. Just less of it these days as taking pictures of each experience dominates.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve gone to see a production of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, shadowcast locally in Tacoma. My SO’s friend had a part in the shadow cast, and it was a pretty awesome experience all told. Go to one of those things if they happen near you.
Bellingham saw me walk among its cobbled roads again, having lunch at the Western Washington University lunch room. Woods Coffee called my name once more. And I got to walk around Fairhaven for the first time after hearing so much about it so long ago. Even though the Monarch went, it didn’t fly. Didn’t feel right, not this time. I have to be a proper tourist first, and make a special drone trip out next time I’m hitting some spots up near the border.
I could no longer find use out of the 80D, and so I switched gears completely. I am now the proud owner of something more befitting the way I use it, the Sony Alpha 6300. Mirrorless all the way. And also 4k video doesn’t hurt much either. Traded in the box set for the 80D, got the 6300 the same day, and ordered myself a little camera cage for it from smallrig. I’m a little more comfortable using it for street photography than I was with the 80D, and I’m glad, because that was the whole damn point. The cage also gives it an exo-skeleton feel, as well as giving me the opportunity to customize a rig for it.
I gave my SO the SL1, my favorite 18-55 EF-S, and a 55-250 IS telephoto. Distancing myself from Canon suddenly just because Sony has the edge on the technology, and the DSLR world is headed for mirrorless technology. For me, it was a no-brainer. Especially after putting it through the wringer.
Year V will not start explosively. It will start, and it will simply begin as it means to go on.
With that in mind, here’s a poem I’ve written called “Uncaged”:
“What can a
Mirrorless cage
Hope to look out to
With a lens to cover
Wide angles
And telephoto distance
Guarded by a hood?
Much.”
Inspired by this little camera I have now as my every day carry.
This might be the last journal you get from me until Year V. 7 or 8 days left to go. We can do it.
Consume reality!
Radio Reality City!
Consume Reality! 