The last post of the year fulfills one of my personal resolutions for 2021: Publish something here every day, and I have. The process proved beneficial for honing storytelling, which often constructed around one (or more) of my photographs. Rarely did I sit down to write with clear topic in mind; often the prose unfolded as a storytelling process anchored, sometimes loosely, by the illustration.
Similarly, my continual need to have something to write about encouraged me to look for objects to be topics, improving my photographic craft, too. I lack the sense of composition and style necessary to be a professional shooter. My eyes instead see stories in the things I capture. I stare in awe at the pros producing photos as art; I can’t.
That said, this website has an audience of one. While posting publicly, I write for myself—as the aforementioned exercise and as diary of remembrances of sorts. Because anyone can read, I must acknowledge to undertaking quite a bit of filtering personal attitudes and occurrences. Regarding the first, cultural and political polarization are reasons for my taking a relatively neutral tone. Some folks can overreact in response. About the other: Ongoing daughter drama would make an unbelievably entertaining TV sitcom. But out of respect for her reputation, I am silent. My attitude is changing, though, so maybe you will read something about her in the future. If I really wanted to expand the audience, she’s the story to tell; but I don’t want to.
Roundabout, we come to the Featured Image and two companions. On Christmas Eve, I walked to Pizza Hut because online search failed to reveal holiday hours. I assumed 6 p.m. closing, like past years. Nope. The takeaway-place closed an hour earlier, which I wouldn’t have known without visiting.
Along Texas, approaching University Avenue, I spotted the oddest looking three- and four-wheelers across the street. I presumed them to be golf carts; five in all. They are electric vehicles developed by AEV Technologies, which coincidentally is (or was) based in Texas—the state, not the street where I saw the things parked. In June 2019, the company rebranded as Ayro, which explains why the website on the bumper guard in the first photo is a dead link.
Ha! I sometimes wonder who isn’t profiting from the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 pandemic. Ayro sells “the Electric Vaccine Vehicle (EVV)”, which “is designed and built specifically to meet the needs of on-demand and mobile clinics for COVID-19 virus testing and vaccine administration”. No way! Vroom, the EVV has a “50-mile driving range plus 6-8 hours of equipment operation on a single charge”. Damn, why couldn’t I have seen one of those to document?
I used Leica Q2 to shoot the first and last of the three images. Vitals for both, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/500 sec, 12:51 p.m. PST. The second comes from iPhone 13 Pro. Vitals: f/2.8, ISO 32, 1/1179 sec, 77mm; 12:54 p.m. Regarding the three-minute delay between shots: A woman came out of an apartment building and stood in my line of sight. I waited for her to move.
Okay, folks, that’s a wrap for 2021. May 2022 be better for ya.