Retirement, ageing, Covid - and photography

[DownUnder]

Some years ago, on a whim, I started a thread about retirement and photography - I can't remember where I posted it, I've searched this site but no sign of it, Maybe the universe has hijacked it. In eterno reposo.

As we know, Covid has thrown a massive spanner into our lives and for many of us, our photography. We've all had our experiences, good and bad, with this, at at long last it's showing signs of abating to some extent, even if sadly it may never go away.

This thread is about being retired, ageing, Covid, and our photography.

Briefly told (ha!!) -

I retired in August 2012. Nine years and seven months. First thought: where did the time go??

I'm in good health, but age has wearied me, and heavy cameras no longer suit me.

Thanks to Covid I feel I've sat around for the past two years and I've lost that time. I made as good use of those months as well as I could, including in my photography.

I bought a Nikon D800 just before Covid hit to back up my two ageing D700s (I've kept those). The 800 was a great improvement in image quality but not weight. Those FF Nikons are bricks, and at my age I don't want too much weight in a backpack or crumpled bag when I go on bush treks or country day trips. New options were called for.

So I bought a Fujifilm XT1 mirrorless and four lenses. It's fun to play with and half the weight of a Nikon. The Fujinon lenses are superb. Learning new techniques and ways to use it has been interesting new learning curve, even if my early results don't quite satisfy my perfectionist urges. The experimenting is fun, and I know I'll get to where I want to be in due time.

I got the XT1 to laterally shift my ways of seeing and photographing. More street photography and people, and a new shift to B&W images. So far, good. And fun.

In 2020 I downsized my home darkroom - I sold a Leitz Focomat 1c bought in 1999 but little used (I kept an LPL 7700) and several boxes of old chemistry and RC paper, and other bits. Our guest bedroom/makeshift darkroom was reclaimed. I flogged off two-thirds of my photo clutter and still have a minimalist darkroom. So win-win.

I sold cameras - Nikkormats, a Pentax, other film Nikons, all unused for many years and not at all missed.

Two more Nikkormats yet to go, also Nikon F lenses, two F65s, two, maybe three of my four Contax G1s. I mean, why four G1?? GAS... But the Zeiss G lenses, wow.

Archiving and scanning. Thousands of film images cleaned and dusted, some disposed of. About 10,000 scans in 18 months. Will I ever find the time to post-process, caption and keyword all those?? Honestly, I don't know, it's a minefield for me. I'll be 75 this year, and too many other interests and pastimes are calling for my attention.

My beloved Rollei TLRs and 1950s folding cameras get too little use. I have 80+ rolls of 120 film, and I want to use these soon, before they go as grey as I am.

I plan to go back to Southeast Asia, I hope in June or July or even before. To go on photographing the architecture, people, landscapes, ephemera and other interesting things I see as I go. Not long trips. Health concerns are now a thought. I'm still reasonably fit and healthy, but who knows??

Did I say briefly?? Okay, enough. In the summing up, for me it's too little time, too much still to be done. As we know, time flies.

What are your thoughts about your photography in retirement, past, present or future??

Thanks for taking the time to read all this. You are so patient and I appreciate it.

 

[jpressman]

Wow, when I saw the title of this thread it struck a nerve, thanks for starting it.

I retired rather unexpectedly at the beginning of 2020, just before the pandemic shut everything down, so haven't been retired for all that long in the scheme of things. I still feel like I'm finding my way as a retired person, getting used to the change in self-identity, what it means to be productive, and the rhythms of a new kind of life.

I'd been taking photos for many years as a strong avocation, and thought that retirement would free up the time for me to really devote myself to it. COVID obviously put a damper on that, not feeling like I could get out there and wander as I was accustomed to doing. So I spent time going over my archive to really see what was there, and based on that made some prints for friends and a website for myself. In that process, I discovered that there were far fewer photographs that I really liked, and felt proud of, than I originally thought I had. The upside is that it gave me a kind of mental framework for how I saw myself as a photographer. The whole review process was very helpful and enlightening.

However, as the pandemic continued into 2021, my energy and focus for photography seemed to dissipate. As a hobby when I was working, photography was a great way to get my mind off the day-to-day crunch. Now that the crunch is no longer there, I can't seem to summon the motivation I thought I would have to get out there. Maybe it's a byproduct of age (I'm 68), or the pandemic, or energy, maybe it's a phase, I don't know. I've alway considered it a lifelong endeavor, so probably just need to be patient and the wheel will turn...

We have some travel plans to EU coming up that I'm hoping will reinvigorate things for me photographically, although the current international climate might make those plans problematic. Hard to tell at this point of course. Travel is one of the things my wife and I are looking forward to in our retirement, both of us having done a lot of it when we were younger, before kids and dogs.

I was somewhat tempted by GAS as a way to kickstart shooting again. Recently bought, then returned, a Leica Q2 to see what it was like. As it turns out, happy with my Fujis.

Curious to see who else weighs in on this thread. Thanks again for starting it!

 

[Bingley]

I turned 69 in January. Retired at the end of March 2020. Had lots of travel planned, but Covid shut most of that down. But a brand new granddaughter refocused my photography in so many new ways and kept me busy, and even during the worst of the pandemic in 2020 I was able to get away for trips to the California coast and the mountains (being outdoors in windy environments must be the safest place to be from Covid). So I continued my photography there, in those settings. When my granddaughter was an infant, my wife and I would visit our daughter and son-in-law every weekend to help out with babycare… and I would take their dog for a long walk, always with a camera. So I tried to adapt my photography to circumstances.

In October 2021, during a lull between Delta and Omicron, I went to Venice for a photo workshop with Peter Turnley. Had a wonderful time, and felt energized about street photography once again. With travel restrictions and lockdowns, street photography in northern California in 2020 was not happening much. It was wonderful to reconnect last October, in a beautiful city, and with congenial fellow workshop participants.

I’ve continued to go to the California coast and to the mountains and make photographs. I’ve always loved being out on a trail or in a mountain valley with a camera. I’ve signed up for two more workshops later this year, to try to up my game. So even though my retirement didn’t quite start the way I’d anticipated, it’s still rewarded me with photographic opportunities.

 

[robert blu]

Photography always played an important role in my life. When I retired more or less 12 years ago i had more time for it of course.

For me photography as passion is much more than simply taking photos. It means to the story of photography, which I can do through books and through internet as well. It means to travel to visit exhibitons when these are in a different town or part of Italy. Taking part in workshops also plays an important role. As Steve noted it gives not only opportunity to work with experienced photographers but also to meet other people with the same interest.

Photography oft requires to learn new tecniques, some strictly photographic other are different. I'm spending time to learn to use InDesing. Why: because I'm interested to make small books some via print on demand companies like Blurb and my next plan is to make home made books. Which will require to learn bookbinding and other techniques. Because I like printed photography I'm starting to make small low-fi zines. Inkjet printed in limited numbers for a close group of friends or any other interested people.

During the covid, specially the first year with strong lockdown photography helped me to "feel alive" and I ma naged to make a small book with photos reflecting my fears and emotions of the time. Visits to RFF daily was also a good help in that time. Now I confess I'm still afraid of it, I do not feel yet ready to meet too many people I do not know or to travel with public transportations and this is affecting my photography (of course it is affecting my life too).

Of course at my age and with the health not perfect, still good enough but slowly deteriorating (I assume this normal) I don't know about the future, specially with a war going on. I think I will focus my efforts more on small projects, like other zines both with new photos and photos from my archive.

I have plans, they are flexibles, now in stand by because of the war. And the uncertain we are now living...

 

[Yokosuka Mike]

I retired about 6 years ago. I love retirement. I have never been happier.

When I first retired I really went all in on street photography. When the big “C” reared its ugly head I laid low for a few months out of a primal need for self preservation but then I just put on a mask and hit the streets again. All was good, I was doing my thing but then I started to have a feeling in my gut that there was something lacking in my photography life; a lack of satisfaction.

YouTube is my friend. Sorry to say but it is true, I started to watch the British landscape photographers on YouTube and it reminded me of the kind of photography I did back in the ‘80s and ‘90s when I was toting around a Canon F1 loaded with 50 ASA film and a heavy as hell tripod in search of the best nature photographs.

So, I sold a ton of my old gear, sold some other stuff too and I bought a Fujifilm GFX 50R camera and some lenses and reacquainted myself with nature and landscape.

Now comes the key point of my retirement photography adventure. Turning taking a picture into a life experience. Now I’m investigating locations that are not all that far from my home that I never thought to visit before and I’m setting up my camera on a tripod and I'm taking pictures that excite me. Each release of the shutter is an event! I’m alive! At the end of the day I drag my tired butt home with all my gear and I feel completely satisfied. I’m happy.

I still do street photography but my true passion is the time I spend lugging a tripod and my GFX 50R down some rugged ocean coast or up some rocky hill. Being retired allows me to visit places during the workweek when I often have the location all to myself. It’s great!

All the best,
Mike

 

[Dogman]

I retired in 2011 at the earliest date possible for me. It's been a mixed trip ever since but I thoroughly enjoy not going to work every day. My wife and I traveled a bit and I got deeper into photography (I had worked as a news photographer earlier in my life and I never lost the love of good pictures). Then, in 2016, things took a downturn. My health started going to hell in a hand basket. First was a cancer diagnosis, then a surgery that was successful but while recovering I began having difficulty walking. Imaging showed my spine was a mess--spinal stenosis, bulging and herniated discs, arthritis, etc. A spinal surgeon advised no fix was possible given the multiple levels of involvement. I went into pain management, had injections and ablations and I had improvement with the pain but I'm still limited in mobility. In the meantime, I developed pneumonia and my gall bladder went south. It was not a happy time. But I kept plugging away at my photography.

In early 2016 I had bought a Fuji X-Pro1 and a few lenses. It introduced me to a simpler type of photography that I enjoyed. A couple of years later I bought a Nikon D800 with the plans to digitize my negatives from past years. That never really happened. I just spent my free time making new photographs and I started using Nikons in addition to the Fujis. Over the years, I've expanded and contracted the numbers of my cameras and lenses but I've always photographed. COVID came along and, while it initially didn't seem to affect me much, it did limit the types of photos available. My limited mobility further limited my photography. But they have never stopped me. I love light, shapes, textures and circumstances. When they all come together, it's lovely.

 

[neal3k]

I was able to retire (mostly) young (56) and have enjoyed life, travel, and photography ever since. I bought my first 35mm in 1960, shot film and then digital as time passed and I travelled around the world and later the USA. I started moving back into film about 2018 with mostly the OM-1 I bought new plus a few other cameras I had picked up in 1918. Now I am 99.5% film-shooting.

COVID changed things but rather than slow me down, sped me up. In 2020 I stayed very near home shooting but moved heavily into trying out cameras and films. I bought and sold about 50 cameras and tried dozens of films. I began developing B&W and then Color as my roll counts picked up. 2021 was my big change. I discovered Barnacks, first with 2 Canons. I like them so much I bought a Leica IIIf and then got more into Barnacks and their history. What followed was a Leica I, Leica II, Standard as well as Zorki, Tower Type-3, Kardon, and Shanghai. I love them all and am loving shooting with them for about 90% of my photography. I have become photo a addict and feel I must get out at least once a week on a photo shoot. I'm ready to travel farther from home as things hopefully return to normal but I keep discovering new local ideas, locations, and now some night shooting. I'm fortunately to be in good health and have a very supportive wife.

At 76, I'm shooting well over 100 rolls a year and enjoying every shot. I'm so glad so many others are enjoying this wonderful hobby, whether they are shooting film or digital. It's great to keep up here and on Flickr.

 

[JohnWolf]

It's wonderful to read everyone's thoughts and experiences. Thanks for sharing them.

I retired in mid-March 2020, just as the pandemic was taking hold, from a very enjoyable career as a contract technical writer. My final contract was a five-year stint at United Airlines headquarters in Chicago. By then, Covid was hitting the airline industry hard. Two days after my last day, the company released all contractors, so I would have been out the door anyway.

Part of my retirement plan was regular street photography. Of course, Covid ended that. I experimented with other genres and found the Holga most rewarding. That started a return to film. To cope with isolation, I tried other things: painting, guitar, cooking, even brewing a killer kombucha. But I always return to photography.

I began photographing in the mid 70s at the same time I started my many visits to India seeking spiritual growth. In all the years since, these two disciplines - meditation and photography - have been the constants in my inner life.

I have no retirement goals for photography, beyond continuing to try to make satisfying pictures. In Robert's recent thread on projects, the phrase "snapshot poetics" was mentioned and it deeply resonated with me. To me, "snapshot" explains the how of shooting and "poetics" covers the what and why. Together they explain what I aspire to in picture-making.

John

 

[Calzone]

I retired at age 63 the day before Thanksgiving 2021. With the NYC lockdown for three months everyone at my hospital that could kinda worked from home, but in my case it was paid leave because I was a researcher. The money had to come from somewhere, so my hospital froze future additions to my pension making it not worth while to continuing working. The 12% match was not enough, so I started looking into retiring early, and for me this was a year long process.

I was living in Manhattan, life was kinda scary because it was a Covid epicenter. My gal who is 5 years older than me I locked down into our 650 square foot “luxury” apartment. We eventually became NYC refugees and bought a house 50 miles north of NYC in the lower Hudson Valley in a river town. I commuted only for a year, and this wore me down and tired me.

When we bought the house it was at record low interest rates, we bought a 1912 house that had remarkably low taxes, and it was before people realized there was a housing shortage. If Larry Summers (Bankster) is correct and in 2022 there is a projected 7% increase in home prices then in a little more than 2 years our old house will appreciate to 35%.

My gal is/was a Digital Influencer, but now has a book contract, I was her photographer. Her change of identity into a writer was her “pivot,” but now it seems a new opportunity has opened up because she is actively being “poached” by her first agent, and I’m included as part of the deal.

So anyways even though I am officially retired, well not really. I can’t really relax because I take up the slack for my woman who is working hard, I have a 110 year old house to develop before I build out a darkroom and digital studio. Know that during Covid I stayed indoors and printed and printed producing one-off fine art books that some people call “MONSTER” books because of their size.

I was mindful that I had to expend these materials and photography and printing likely would get put on hold for a pretty long period.

So now it looks like I have a new career happening later this year when the relationship with my gal’s present agent winds down, and the fall deadline for writing her book is met.

Somehow I unexpectedly have become a model and somehow my photography will be part of the branding as a couple where my gal will do the writing. Our agent is the big time and is in London, while my gal’s present agent is in L.A. and is U.S. centric. Our new agent is more international and more European centric mostly connected to the UBER luxury markets.

Know that now I am a 64 year old man that somehow has a body of a high school kid. In another thread I call myself a “skinny bitch,” and know that I have an unusual look that stands out. I have no health issues, and look remarkably young. I am in the process of building myself out as a fitness model, I have a heavy lightweight to welterweight boxer’s build, so not only am I skinny, but I am said to be muscular. I’m 5’10” and 150 pounds.

My dad was an illegal immigrant, was illiterate, and poor, but he lived to 94. I likely have a high probability of exceeding 100, but I realize that it will take work and planing to maintain a high quality of life and a life of independence. I eat clean, I exercise, and I am alright to being alone and isolated because even though I am an extrovert, I am also a loner.

Anyways retirement came as a surprise, as well as a second career that is currently brewing. The Instagram wave we road for a while, but now that is behind us, and we are entering a new higher level of quality and not quantity. My worries about being sustainable have been put to rest by our new agent who addressed all our concerns.

Anyways for me it is like going back to the time of high school where careful decisions had to be made about the next forty years or so in the future, but I am not some poor kid without a family or backstop that is terrorfied. I have begun a second life where I can really live.

Good to know that in the 70’s I was an art student, but I knew I would need a day-job. I am still the same artist as back then, but now is when I can live up to my potential. A life of struggle is behind me.

Cal

 

[audiocus]

I retired four years ago and started to rekindle my love of photography with my spare time. Got back to developing B&W film and building up my camera collection with rangefinders and medium formats. With the COVID restrictions, I turned a spare bedroom into a studio. I just love playing with lighting.
Got into full frame with Nikon this year and started with bird photography as well.
Just cant wait for the warmer weather to arrive so I can use my new wildlife equipment in the field.

 

[farlymac]

In March of 2004 I was pulled out of service by my employer due to medical issues. That started a two year process before I was declared disabled, so I haven't been employed since then, officially being retired back-dated to April of 2005. Did a lot of volunteer stuff to keep busy, sometimes applying my photography skills to the efforts. Got into camera repair so I could fix my own equipment. Got back into rangefinders, first with FSU gear, then Nikon, Leica M, and IIIf in that order, filling out kits for all three. Never gave up on the SLR's but started looking at digital as a more convenient way of producing images. Went heavy into APS-C, then finally got an FX body to use my older AF D lenses. Now I'm building up a Z system to eventually replace everything else for when the time comes to massively downsize. I need to get rid of most of the stuff I've accumulated over the years, so I've been trading P&S cameras for items to fill in the gaps in my other systems. Heaven help me, I just got a Mamiya M645 to play with, so we'll see how long that itch needs scratching. I've wanted one of those ever since they came out back in '75.

As I've been transiting into a more digital flow, it has helped in these Covid times to be able to ensure I got the photos I wanted. And it's keeping costs down as far as developing is concerned. I still like to shoot film, as it's what I know best, but the digital stuff is starting to look better now, especially since the equipment has gotten better. Can't wait until I can afford a digital Leica. But as I approach 69 years of age, I wonder just how long my body will hang in there, as the old Arthur's-itis slowly takes over. Good thing I was able to get a left hand grip for the M645 because I can't hold it in my right hand.

Onward, into the light!

PF

 

[raid]

Thanks for these informative posts above.
i have not yet retired;
COVID-19 slowed my photography quite a lot.
Yes, each year we get one year older. This is life.

 

[DownUnder]

Wow...!! Such good responses. I now feel much less alone in the low moments I've had during my ten-year retirement, and I've had them at times.

One depression I went through when we relocated from Tasmania to the Australian mainland lasted almost six months. It didn't incapacitate me, but it took away a lot of the wee joys I was getting out of my day to day life and activities, which I then realised were the small bulwarks that kept me functioning.

Eventually I decided to try and break the spell - took out a few of my old film cameras, including the four Contax G1s and Zeiss G lenses I'd been keeping safely under lock and key in my gear cupboard. And went out walking. Once we were resettled in Victoria state, and even before the unpacking had got under way, I started making day trips to regional towns and villages I'd not been to since the 1980s. Not as much photography the second time around as I had done during my first visits (circa 1985-1986), but enough to rekindle some basic urges to get back into it and start producing images.

Then I set to cleaning out, cleaning up and disposing of a lot of photo gear, cameras, lenses and darkroom stuff, I'd not really used for many years. Which got rid of a lot of the clutter in our already-too-small guest bedroom and I think, helped improve my relationship with my Significant Other a great lot. We had both felt the stresses of having to clean out, sort, dispose, pack up, clean up the empty spaces, organise the movers, fix up relocation and temporary accommodation for our family of cats, and say goodbyes to a few very special friends at the 'Tassie' end. Sadly, since we left that isolated but truly enchanted isle we've not had the time or the resources to go back for an extended stay, as originally planned, which may not be an entirely bad thing - the memories are still too strong.

Anyway, during that difficult half year I went through, I found that I ate less, drank a little more good wine, and amazingly lost a few kilos of weight I'd been trying to shed for a few years. So positives as well as negatives. My annual medical last month (02.2022) brought unexpected results that really surprised my GP - lower blood pressure, much lower cholesterol, a long-term fatty liver condition had shifted massively to the good, and other benefits. All my natural vitamins and minerals were high.

After six months, the low mood lifted, very suddenly, and I found I had regained 90% of my old equilibrium again. I moved on and my life went on, and I found I had a lot to live for and be thankful for - and enjoy.

Since the 1990s most of my photography has entered around old colonial buildings and sites in Southeast Asia, which are being destroyed by developers now at an alarming rate for new condos, shopping malls, office buildings and government offices. Take for example Ipoh and Taiping, two delightful small cities in Malaysia where my partner has family and we visited regularly before the Covid mess grounded us at home in Australia. In the past decade, so many lovely old buildings have been bulldozed into dust for shopping strips. The ultimate sacrilege to me was in the mid-2010s when a unique and very attractive Art Deco cinema complex built in the late 1930s by a renowned Danish architect lost resident in the then Malaya (those familiar with the old European architecture in Asia will know of Bethel Michael Iversen, b 1907 - d 1977, who worked in Singapore and Malaya from the 1920s and did hundreds if not thousands of buildings until his retirement 40+ years later) was destroyed overnight to put up a block of truly ugly modern warehouse-type shophouses lacking even the most basic of decorative trip or the covered walkways so typical of old buildings in Malaysia. Sacrilege indeed. A few months before this outrage I had spent a few hours on the site, photographing that building from every possible angle.

Many of my evenings at home during these Covid times have been spent researching other old sites in several Asian countries. So I have a new impetus to go back as soon as I can, and continue my recording of these priceless but now largely forgotten relics of colonial history.

Moving on... may I say, in the past I have always enjoyed Calzone's many detailed posts about so many aspects of his life, interests and photography - but his post in this thread is, I believe, one of the best he has written.

Raid, it's good that you go on working, my wish is that you can continue to do so for as long as you enjoy it and are doing things that are worthwhile. When you do decide to give it all away and retire, I suggest you plan this carefully, and give yourself time - I needed almost two years from age 63, when I first noticed my failing energy levels and realised I was tired of the work I did at the time, to the fateful day I hit the big six-five in 2012, to make and activate all my pre-retirement plans, and I am forever thankful that I took the time and made the effort to go through all that.

Again, thank you all. A lot of this thread is obviously about photography, but we are sharing so many good other ideas and thoughts, and just as importantly giving ourselves some emotional support in what we have gone and are still going through in our remaining years of leisure.

A few lines about the everyday joys and pleasures. As I write this, a CD by the supremely talented Julian Lloyd Webber ('Cello Moods') is playing on the stereo in my study/second bedroom. So inspiring.

This week a friend in Melbourne kindly "gifted" me with a great surprise, 68 CDs with detailed brochures on the jazz musicians of America - 'Jazz Greats', issued in the late '90s in England. A greatly appreciated acquisition.

So my life goes on, in dribs and drabs. One day at a time. As my Buddhist friends all say, "cherish the moment".

Okay. Enough for now.

 

[Calzone]

Wow...!! Such good responses. I now feel much less alone in the low moments I've had during my ten-year retirement, and I've had them at times.

One depression I went through when we relocated from Tasmania to the Australian mainland lasted almost six months. It didn't incapacitate me, but it took away a lot of the wee joys I was getting out of my day to day life and activities, which I then realised were the small bulwarks that kept me functioning.

Eventually I decided to try and break the spell - took out a few of my old film cameras, including the four Contax G1s and Zeiss G lenses I'd been keeping safely under lock and key in my gear cupboard. And went out walking. Once we were resettled in Victoria state, and even before the unpacking had got under way, I started making day trips to regional towns and villages I'd not been to since the 1980s. Not as much photography the second time around as I had done during my first visits (circa 1985-1986), but enough to rekindle some basic urges to get back into it and start producing images.

Then I set to cleaning out, cleaning up and disposing of a lot of photo gear, cameras, lenses and darkroom stuff, I'd not really used for many years. Which got rid of a lot of the clutter in our already-too-small guest bedroom and I think, helped improve my relationship with my Significant Other a great lot. We had both felt the stresses of having to clean out, sort, dispose, pack up, clean up the empty spaces, organise the movers, fix up relocation and temporary accommodation for our family of cats, and say goodbyes to a few very special friends at the 'Tassie' end. Sadly, since we left that isolated but truly enchanted isle we've not had the time or the resources to go back for an extended stay, as originally planned, which may not be an entirely bad thing - the memories are still too strong.

Anyway, during that difficult half year I went through, I found that I ate less, drank a little more good wine, and amazingly lost a few kilos of weight I'd been trying to shed for a few years. So positives as well as negatives. My annual medical last month (02.2022) brought unexpected results that really surprised my GP - lower blood pressure, much lower cholesterol, a long-term fatty liver condition had shifted massively to the good, and other benefits. All my natural vitamins and minerals were high.

After six months, the low mood lifted, very suddenly, and I found I had regained 90% of my old equilibrium again. I moved on and my life went on, and I found I had a lot to live for and be thankful for - and enjoy.

Since the 1990s most of my photography has entered around old colonial buildings and sites in Southeast Asia, which are being destroyed by developers now at an alarming rate for new condos, shopping malls, office buildings and government offices. Take for example Ipoh and Taiping, two delightful small cities in Malaysia where my partner has family and we visited regularly before the Covid mess grounded us at home in Australia. In the past decade, so many lovely old buildings have been bulldozed into dust for shopping strips. The ultimate sacrilege to me was in the mid-2010s when a unique and very attractive Art Deco cinema complex built in the late 1930s by a renowned Danish architect lost resident in the then Malaya (those familiar with the old European architecture in Asia will know of Bethel Michael Iversen, b 1907 - d 1977, who worked in Singapore and Malaya from the 1920s and did hundreds if not thousands of buildings until his retirement 40+ years later) was destroyed overnight to put up a block of truly ugly modern warehouse-type shophouses lacking even the most basic of decorative trip or the covered walkways so typical of old buildings in Malaysia. Sacrilege indeed. A few months before this outrage I had spent a few hours on the site, photographing that building from every possible angle.

Many of my evenings at home during these Covid times have been spent researching other old sites in several Asian countries. So I have a new impetus to go back as soon as I can, and continue my recording of these priceless but now largely forgotten relics of colonial history.

Moving on... may I say, in the past I have always enjoyed Calzone's many detailed posts about so many aspects of his life, interests and photography - but his post in this thread is, I believe, one of the best he has written.

And Raid - it's good that you go on working, and my wish is that you continue to do so for as long as you enjoy it and believe you are doing things that are worthwhile. When you do decide to give it all away and retire, I suggest you plan this very carefully, and give yourself time (it took me two years from age 63 to the fateful day I hit the big six-five in 2012) to make and activate all my pre-retirement plans, and I am forever thankful that I took the time and made the effort to go through all this planning.

Again, thank you all. A lot of this thread is obviously about photography, but we are sharing so many good other ideas and thoughts, and just as importantly giving ourselves some emotional support in what we have gone and are still going through in our remaining years of leisure.

A few lines about the everyday joys and pleasures. As I write this, a CD by the supremely talented Julian Lloyd Webber ('Cello Moods') is playing on the stereo in my study/second bedroom. So inspiring.

This week a friend in Melbourne kindly "gifted" me with a great surprise, 68 CDs with detailed brochures on the jazz musicians of America - 'Jazz Greats', issued in the late '90s in England. A unique and greatly appreciated acquisition...

Okay. Enough for now.

OzMoose,

For about a decade I shot NYC obsessively, mostly street, but also urban landscape in the form of urban decay. This was just after 2007-2008 and the housing crisis.

I annoyed many people who did not understand my obsession. I would shoot film (B&W) and just develop the film creating negatives. I would have arguement’s defending my actions. Film was still cheap, and I could buy rebranded Tri-X for $2.89 a roll, and even rebranded Acros that was close dated for $1.89 a roll.

Then I got a M-Monochrom and shot collecting images. It would be about two years later that I started printing digitally, but by then I had created such a mess. I have so many negatives that it may take a lifetime to sort through, print and edit.

But in the end I discovered that I unknowingly had created a historical archive. Much of what I captured has been destroyed and no longer exists because of redevelopment.

I also realize because “Maggie” and I are gentrifies that we made the banks, the real estate developers, and the landlords mucho money and pretty much got priced out and were shown the door, and the real reason why I photographed so manically was because I needed some sense of permanence or a sense of home knowing that one day I will have to leave NYC.

I like to think I am part of the reason why NYC is a great city, and in a way I can see that in a way I was a bit of a tourist attraction, because people from all over the world came to NYC to meet people like me who stood out and never blended in.

My friend Jeff says I kinda did a Garry Winnogran and created a huge mess by shooting with a total disregard to printing and editing. Anyways I did shoot as much film as I possibly could, and when it was very cheap. In the end I think I did a very wise thing by going crazy shooting as I did.

Anyways the NYC I once knew and loved sadly is gone. Before Covid it was made into a safe place for the UBER wealthy, but along the way it got sanitized.

In more detail in the NYC Meet-Up thread I go into my change of life, my retirement, and how somehow I kinda got “snookered” into doing something I really didn’t want to do, and that is retire for about a year and then start a new career when all I want to be is a lazy-slacker.

My retirement looks like it will just be a one year vacation. “Maggie’s” world is kinda crazy, and I have a feeling I’m getting swept right in. I won’t be surprised if this gig is a bait and switch. Our agent already set the hook, and she is very good at what she does, so I already know where this is going.

”Crazy is good,” I say. LOL.

Cal

 

[zuiko85]

Been retired for 11 years (almost). one bright spot in the last 6 months was my cataract operation. Got lenses set to infinity in both eyes and then went out and bought 20-30 +2 readers and put them everywhere so there is always a pair handy, including my shirt pockets.
I can see the stars again! Bought a 4 in. refractor on an AZ mount from Costco for $200, had to remount in a better home made dob but at least it is steady now. Some purple fringing but not too bad considering it's just a regular air spaced crown / flint objective. Not going to do astrophotography, just want to look and see. By the time I buy some better eyepieces this is going to cost me another $2-300 but I think I can hack that.

 

[Archiver]

ozmoose - I recall the thread you started some time ago about downsizing your collection and scanning the many thousands of negs in your collection.

As for me, I'm not near retirement, but I'm at an age where I'm starting to vaguely think about it. There are a number of things I want to accomplish in the next few decades and I'll continue to work for as long as I can. I'm very fortunate to work full time in the photography and video/film fields, so I get to enjoy the things that I love. As far as aging goes, it doesn't seem that long ago that I was happily repping out calisthenic workouts, with loads of dips, pull ups, tumbling and general mobility, but I'm a pale shadow of what I could do before. It's disturbing how I slowly allowed work to encompass more and more of my time over the years. The more time passes, the more apparent it becomes that fitness and general physical capability are more important than ever.

Coronavirus derailed work considerably. Major projects were put on hold or postponed/extended, major releases were set back over a year, and for several months in 2020 and 2021 I couldn't work as I am not in the 'essential workers' category. Heck, with a curfew at night, stay at home orders, and a ban on travel more than 5km away from home, I could only edit unfinished projects and go for brief photo walks around the block.

To gather footage for a project before lockdown in 2020, I went to the Docklands area of the city. It was early in the morning, and a few joggers were out on the street. Some were sneezing and coughing as they sailed by me, so I simply grabbed a bit of footage and then went straight home.

M9 - The Bare Expanse by Archiver, on Flickr

Just before our first major lockdown in 2020, I was parked at a beach as rain began to fall. A sign had already gone up, saying that the beach was closed.

M9 - Beaches Closed by Archiver, on Flickr

After the first lockdown ended, one of the first things I did was drive down to the coast, to a famous surf beach called Gunnamatta. I'd never been there before, but I was glad I did.

G9 - The Second Wave by Archiver, on Flickr

Lockdown came and went, and it was off to the beach again, this time to Portsea after Christmas, early 2021.

M9 - Two May Enter by Archiver, on Flickr

This was taken in 2021 during a lockdown walk with my then-new Panasonic S5:

S5 - Fields of Green by Archiver, on Flickr

Lockdowns came and went, Melbourne had the dubious distinction of the worlds' most locked down city, and eventually we emerged in 2022. Even though the annual Chinese New Year parade this year was cancelled, that didn't stop the usual groups of lion dancers doing their thing in the city.

S5 - Ready to go by Archiver, on Flickr

With a very high percentage of the population vaccinated, we're now allowed to get back to work, although Omicron puts the brakes on things every now and again. I'm looking forward to things being back to a reasonable semblance of normal. Retirement is some years away, and there's lots to do in the meantime.

 

[Calzone]

Archiver,

They say it takes about a decade of planning to be ready for retirement.

Here in the U.S. the problem is that many don’t have a plan. The statistics suggest that only about 1/3rd of Americans can retire.

Then when age advances one becomes more vulnerable to loosing employment. Many are not prepared.

More than a decade ago “Maggie” and I decided to move from Long Island City, just one subway stop from Manhattan, into Manhattan proper. I worked on the Upper Eastside.

In LIC we rented a historic run down row house. It was like living in an Edward Hooper painting. We had two floors, each 900 square feet, plus a full basement, another 900 square feet, and a backyard for only 2 peorple.

In Manhattan we found a 650 square foot luxury apartment we could afford that was in Spanish Harlem. So right next to one f the richest neighborhoods was one of the poorest, and that’s where we decided to move.

So the point of all this in anticipation of retiring we decided to downsize early. It was a healing process. Because I grew up poor, I had the habit of hoarding, and pretty much I had a warehouse of stuff I had a hard time justifying keeping, like old clothes just to do an oil change on a car when I no longer owned a car, car parts…

So I gave away and recycled my “treasure/junk” to my friends, but the neighborhood we lived in was so poor that having a stoop sale made no sense, so we would fill the front yard with our stuff with a “Free” sign and pretty much helped people that were less fortunate than us.

Maggie decided that we would get all new furniture so we called the Salvation Army. This was after a major hurricane and it took a month for them to do a pickup.

In the end it was interesting and healing to realize that I was not poor anymore, to see and realize the vast poverty surrounding us, and to realize that I kept all these things just to give me a sense of home. It felt good helping the poor, and each day when we filled the print yard by 5:00 PM pretty much everything would be gone.

In the end we got rid of about 2/3rds of our possessions, and I don’t really have remorse or miss anything I got rid of. In other words I am still basically a hoarder with old retro bicycles, mucho cameras, a darkroom still in storage, tools, guitars, guitar amp collection…

Anyways I held onto lots of stuff that no longer held any meaning.

My advice is come up with a plan, and be prepared to retire earlier than you think. Also diet, exercise and lowering stress are the keys to quality of life. Here in the U.S. I believe we tend to complicate things needlessly, but I say, “I never knew anyone who has a complicated life that was happy.”

Cal

 

[raid]

Wow...!! Such good responses. I now feel much less alone in the low moments I've had during my ten-year retirement, and I've had them at times.



Raid, it's good that you go on working, my wish is that you can continue to do so for as long as you enjoy it and are doing things that are worthwhile. When you do decide to give it all away and retire, I suggest you plan this carefully, and give yourself time - I needed almost two years from age 63, when I first noticed my failing energy levels and realised I was tired of the work I did at the time, to the fateful day I hit the big six-five in 2012, to make and activate all my pre-retirement plans, and I am forever thankful that I took the time and made the effort to go through all that.

Hi OzMoose.
Thank you for your cautionary words on jumping into retirement.

I am doing research each week anyways, so I might as well get compensated 100% and not less than 50% after retirement starts. Everything is a matter of health. If the health is good, the rest follows. The RFF crowd is helpful in keeping us "busy online" with useful things to read about.

 

[JohnWolf]

One additional thing I'd suggest is to find some way to give back a bit during retirement. We don't have to join the Ukranian Volunteer Battalion - as much as we might like to fight this oppression. But there are needs in every community, and we all have skills that could align with them. Even a few hours a week can benefit others and enrich our lives.

John

 

[Calzone]

One additional thing I'd suggest is to find some way to give back a bit during retirement. We don't have to join the Ukranian Volunteer Battalion - as much as we might like to fight this oppression. But there are needs in every community, and we all have skills that could align with them. Even a few hours a week can benefit others and enrich our lives.

John

John,

Everyone needs a safe place.

Here on RFF I kinda do the NYC Meet-Up thread. I have kept it going for more than a decade. I takes some effort and part of my day, but you are right about having a sense of community. I kinda do it as a public service.

Anyways there was a bit of a black-out period when I retired, and some people actually panicked and were frantic with worry. Others thought I would bail out and just carry on with my life, but I have too many good friends here.

You should know that I have had the opportunity to meet many RFF’ers from all over the world, and you should know that the world really isn’t that big.

I also think of the Russian people who are suffering from our sanctions. War is a horrible thing, when will we learn?

In the end I get back more than I give, and perhaps that is the reason why I have such good fortune and have so many wonderful things happening in my life. “You get what you give,” they say.

Sadly, the world is a hot mess, but individuals and individual actions matter a lot.

Keep the spirit…

Cal