Tag: year in review

“Navigating 2024: Personal Growth and Bucket List Adventures”

Since I’ve given up on New Years Resolutions years ago, I’ve found setting some personal goals for myself to be not only satisfying but fulfilling. They are, for me, far more meaningful and manageable to accomplish. I can add to them and edit them to suit my situation. As well as outright delete them. Some are completable, some are reminders, and some are something for me to continually work towards.

What did I learn in 2024?

Life has a way of teaching us lessons through both hardship and growth. I’ve come to realize that there are some mean spirited and fucked up people out there —individuals who, without hesitation, bully and cause harm to others, whether through reckless actions like causing a car accidents or through deliberate cruelty. And because of my experiences with these individuals, it has taught me the value of distancing myself from those who don’t give a shit about their actions. 2024 has also shown me the importance of friendship and the memories we create together, grounding myself in the relationships that truly matter. Along with time, my most precious and non-renewable resource has taken on new meaning as I try to spend it wisely—at work, at home, and in play—choosing carefully who and what deserves my attention. And finally, I’ve come to embrace the value of exploring the quirks of my own mind, even though it doesn’t seem to function “properly.” I’ve come to accept it with a sense of humor and a willingness to grow, knowing that understanding myself is an ongoing journey worth taking.

Where did I go and see in 2024?

This was a bucket list year which included a bunch of firsts for me. Beginning with a mini road trip with my best friends down to Toledo, Ohio to see our first Total Solar Eclipse. It was stellar. (Pun intended 🙂) Our next group outing was celebrating Star Wars Day (May the Fourth) in downtown Detroit.

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Then in July, I began my epic England aviation vacation. My first time “Crossing the Pond”, driving in England along with my first air-to-air photo flight. I struggle with describing how fucking exhilarating it was to photograph World War Two fighters over the iconic English countryside from the back of the famous pink Skyvan. While racking up 1400 miles on a rental car, I had to go and see the infamous White Cliffs of Dover along with one of my favorite all-time aircraft, TSR.2. She is such an amazing larger than life aircraft. And yes, I had to do some plane spotting at London-Heathrow while I was in England. Then I heard London calling, so I answered with another day trip via the train, which I found pleasing to ride. Seeing such iconic and historical landmarks felt like a dream.

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And since I fell in love with helicopter flights, you know I had to book a flight over London. And as long as I have been attending and photographing airshows, the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) has always been on my radar. And after 5 days of RIAT, I can say it is a far superior experience to Oshkosh AirVenture. A week after I got back from my England trip and with jet lag in full force, my sister along with my best friend and I headed to Las Vegas for some serious nerding out at the Star Trek convention. The best was saved for last. Two of my best friends got married, my other bestie officiated, and I was the “Best Man” (another first for me). From the rehearsal to the ceremony all the way through to the reception, we had an absolute blast.

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What did I Lose in 2024?

My good friend, Shawn Yost. Tragically, cancer relentlessly took him from us. My wonderful friendship with him started back in 2004 at the Grosse Ile Airshow. I had arrived early and scoped out a spot on the taxiway to shoot from. Shawn walks up and sets down his chair a couple of feet away from me. Opens up his camera bag and I noticed he pulled out the same camera body that I had, the Canon Digital Rebel. And that started our friendship with our shared love of aviation and photography that lasted for 2 decades. Over the years, we traveled coast to coast, shooting tens of thousands of photos, and creating countless hilarious and meaningful memories. We had so much fun together.

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As time passed, we had different paths in life, and our lives slowly separated further and further apart. I was in England when I got the news of his illness. It was two weeks later that I spoke to him, and the first thing he said to me was that it didn’t matter what happened to our relationship, life happens. But now we are starting over. And our conversation picked up right where we left off. We talked about shows and events we attended, shared photos back and forth, just like old times. Sadly, 35 days later, he passed. If I’ve learned anything from this, it is that Life is short. Use your time doing what you love with the people you love being around. Someone once asked me, “What are the images that you shot that makes you smile?” Not your best or favorite. Mine are of Shawn and my fellow aviation photographers goofing around at airshows over the years. I miss you, my friend.

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What did I Gain in 2024?

I’ve had better mental health in the past 6 months than I ever had in the past 40 years. Why now and what caused this huge positive shift? Well, for years now I’ve been putting a lot of effort and dedication into bettering my mental health. And I can say with confidence that looking back at my life, I’ve had poor mental health for years and didn’t know what to do about it. To a point of just accepting and struggling with it. I journaled for years, and it helped temporarily and had no lasting impact. Then I started listening to self care podcasts and philosophy audiobooks, applying what I learned to my life. Some of it suck like glue and some just wasn’t right for me. But as I slowly got to know myself and my triggers, my outlook on life changed as well as having fewer and fewer days of having a noisy and chaotic mind. Then with the death of Shawn, it dramatically altered my perspective. I started to see who and what is profoundly important to me and on the flip side, who and what does not. Also expelling myself from the super massive black hole of death scrolling through social media and the News has been so liberating. It’s a gravity well of anxiety and fear that is relentlessly damaging and tremendously toxic to my peace of mind. This ongoing spiritual journey has helped me discover and realize a meaningful purpose in life.

How I met Cielo

Early this year, I got into a car accident which was caused by another driver’s road rage. Fortunately, no one was hurt but my car of 10 years was damaged. It was repairable but I knew sooner versus later, things were going to start failing and I wasn’t going to start dumping money into her. So, this was my reasoning for getting a new car. From the start of this, didn’t know what kind of car I wanted, just features I knew I wanted. Turbocharged engine, all-wheel drive, heated steering wheel, Apple CarPlay along with the newer technology that my old car didn’t have. Did quite a bit of searching online and found a few possible candidates. While at the dealership looking at various Genesis G70 models, I spotted the Hyundai Santa Cruz, which checked all my boxes. And after a test drive, I told my sales representative that I wanted a blue one. The dealership didn’t have any in blue. But she would contact their other dealerships and if they had one, it could be transported here. The next day, she called and told me that she found one with the same trim level I wanted. A week later, I got my Cielo. Which is “Sky” in Spanish.

Looking back on 2024, it had its profound life lessons, bucket list adventures and strengthening meaningful friendships. From witnessing a solar eclipse and fulfilling lifelong aviation dreams to embracing better mental health, this year’s ups and down has been instrumental in changing the way I live my life. Finding a sense of purpose, cherishing my friendships, and continuing on with my life long spiritual journey are my most valuable takeaways from 2024. So, what’s in store for next year? You’ll just have to stick around and find out. 

Until next year,

S.Lewis

Links to this Year’s Post

“Between Clouds and Legends: My Air-to-Air Journey Over the English

Countryside”

Spotting at LHR

“From the Thames to the Clouds: My Memorable London Adventures”

“Seeking Unique Shots on Arrival Day at the Royal International Air Tattoo

2024”

“The Royal International Air Tattoo: Redefining Awesome for Aviation

Photographers”

“Departure Day: Capturing the Magic of RIAT 2024”

“Finding Purpose: A Personal Journey Through Solitude, Creativity and Real

Friendship”

“The Art of Sharing: The Importance of Thoughtful Interactions”

“Capturing Hearts and Clicks: Growing Your Instagram to New Heights”

2020 Year Review

First off, I hope you and your loved ones are safe, healthy and continue to be into 2021. This year has been a complete dumpster fire, and this post is not about the historic gut-wrenching events that shaped it. But it will be about how my creativity was affected by the well fueled Inferno. And how my passions help me to keep my mind occupied and stay in a positive place during these trying times.

Like many, I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions. But having some yearly goals is more my taste. I feel they are not set in stone and I can change or adapt them as the year goes on. And at the beginning of 2020, my goals were…

  • To travel more.
  • To write more and continue to develop my writing style.
  • To get a pocket-size camera.
  • And to keep building from imagination and not reality

I started 2020 in Japan with my sister and her family. And after such an unbelievable journey, I was enthusiastic about traveling along with blogging again. So, I started planning adventures for the coming year. Starting with in February for my birthday, I headed to the desert southwest of Arizona and I finally got to see the dream like colors and fluid shapes of Antelope Canyon. Then in April, I was to travel to the Pacific Northwest to see Crater Lake along with the giant coastal Redwoods. But in March, the dangers of COVID-19 were real, and the world stopped. And like so many others, I started my time in quarantine.

Being a creative individual, I didn’t have a shortage of projects to work on. Very early in quarantine, I started and maintained a daily routine that kept me busy and productive. It started every night before bed, I would write down things I would like to accomplish the next day. At first it was easy but as time pass by and I finished up projects, my “To do” list started to shrink, and I had to adapted it to help maintaining my peace of mind. Like how to stay informed on events of 2020 but not damage my peace. And start to recognize and cope with things that eroded my fragile tranquility.

My routine was so effective, there were days that I would overwhelm myself trying to accomplish too many things. And it would turn my productivity into frustration. Fortunately, I have come to notice it when it happens. I must stop what I’m doing and change my pace to let my mind and emotions settle. Catch up on shows, cook some of my favorite foods, Zoom with friends…anything other than keep fighting my frustrations. And when I feel like being creative again, I didn’t try to do a thousand things in one day. It was OK not to cross out everything on my daily list. And what I didn’t finish today, I’m fine with letting it carryover into tomorrow.

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Due to my lack of traveling and personal adventures, I worried that I would not have anything to write about being a travel blogger. But that wasn’t the case. I discovered that I didn’t have to make my way painfully through the TSA to write new post. This year I managed to develop, write, edit and post an astounding 20 times after my Antelope Canyon trip. Far more than last year.

The Pain of Sorting
Aesthetics
Bored and in Lock-down? How to keep yourself occupied
The Importance of Post Process
Detroit’s island Getaway
What does photography mean to You?
A Study in Color
Elements of Art in Photography
New site announcement
Memorial Day- Photo essay
The Story Behind an Image, Part 5
Aviation Expo 2020
The Truth
Banners of Change
Common mistakes made in Aviation Photography
The Right Massage
How I shoot with intent: Setting some personal goals
Stay informed and keep your mental health: How I watch the News
Photographing more Consistently: Having a Shooting Routine
Fall Color with my new little Sony

Looking over my list of post, I can remember with vibrant clarity my inspirations and motivations behind each of them. The wrestling with different ideas and how to express them with my writing voice. Along with the endless hours of searching through my photo archive for the right images to show. Some were ideas I had for some time and finally got the time to properly complete them. And others were spontaneously developed from something I had seen or read and wanted to share my opinion about it. But I surprised the shit out of myself that I came up with so much new content with such a wide range of topics while working on my other passions.

Speaking of other passions, I completed a new series of Airbus A319’s based on imagination rather than reality. From a retro Eastern Airline scheme to a NOAA hurricane hunter. I’ve been photoshopping for over 20 years and I’m always willing to learn something new. And having the time and money, it was a no-brainer to start taking online classes. I join Skillshare and took advantage of my time away from work. Taking courses from creative writing, leadership skills to new techniques in photoshop and illustrator. Your never too old to learn something new.

USN VQ 2 EP A319

One creative writing course I took, the instructor used Instagram as a platform to write and share stories. This idea resonated with me and I wanted to give Instagram another try. A few years ago, I had an account and to be honest, I didn’t understand the nature of the platform. Like how to use hashtags, what to share and really lack the patients and knowledge to let my account grow.

So, I started a new account with the idea to reach out to a possible new audience for my blog as well as share images of the things I love doing. And again, I found myself getting annoyed and frustrated with the slow pace of how my account was growing. This was due to what I was sharing, images from my adventures, my aviation profiles along with photos of my modeling projects on the same account. Three totally different audiences and once I separated them into different accounts and began posting consistently, that’s when they started to get some noticeable traction.

2020 Top Nine

Of my three accounts, @adventuresinawesome is the least successful. My post to follower ratio is nearly one to one and I’m going to slowly stop posting on that account. For one, it’s damn near impossible to get people to leave Instagram and go somewhere else, especially to a blog. And second, WordPress is a much better platform for me to share images and stories from my adventures. The account for my aviation photography is definitely my success story. It’s growing by leaps and bounds with each new post receiving hundreds of likes. The next time you’re on Instagram, be sure to check it out @far148studio and @far148models for my creative madness.

Let’s get back on topic. In terms of photography, I added another tool to my camera bag this year. During my trip to Japan, I noticed it was easier for me to use my mobile device then my DSLR to capture images without slowing down the experience of site seeing abroad. And I wanted a pocket size point & shoot camera to fill in that gap. What I ended up choosing was Sony’s ZV-1. And it arrived just in time for the peak of fall color in my area. It’s a great little addition to my camera bag and I’m looking forward to using it more. Now on to me torturing plastic.

My time in quarantine, allowed me to stretch out my builds far longer than normal. To the point of when it came to doing something, I would do it the hardest and sometimes the most illogical way possible. From scratch building new master parts to be pressure cast, to new ways to scribe panel lines along with adding various surface details. Like everything I love doing, I’m constantly challenging myself to attempt different techniques to continually grow as a model maker. Some things worked out amazingly and others got tossed in the garbage. I did manage to finish my 1/48 scale Hunter/Killer drones which I started back in August of 2019.

We finally made it to December and another holiday season. It would be a gross understatement to say, “I cannot wait for this troubled year to come to a close”. And I want to hope that 2021 is going to be better. But only time will tell. Until then, continue to stay safe, think positively and keep busy.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by my little blog, left a like or comment and welcome to all my new followers.

Until next year,

Steven

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