Fellow used-to-be-kids,

Before I say anything else, can you please watch this 1:51 min rough edit of the video I filmed on Neeltje Jans and tell me what you think?

I'm still learning a lot about making videos. There's so much to take into account and I haven't even began to scratch the surface. One question: Did the first minute make you curious enough to keep watching?

Knees and toes

My knees have already given out two days ago. And now I also sprained my ankle quite badly. So much so that I genuinely think I might need a hospital as soon as the adrenaline wears off. They don’t have any ice packs at the Italian Borgo where I’m photographing a wedding, so one of the wedding planners is looking for a different solution. I still have a solid day of shooting ahead of me as well as the rest of tonight's festivities. Things are not looking great for me at this moment.

The wedding planner returns with a latex glove filled with ice cubes. It’s the best she could do. I gratefully shove the unusual ice pack in my sock and apply some weight to my damaged ankle, hoping I can walk it off. I can’t, and almost hit the ground again in the process. There's not much of a choice but to accept I’m missing an hour of photographing the ongoing party, to give my ankle some rest. Thankfully, after that I’m able to limp my way through the rest of the job.

A week passes and the ankle recovers relatively quickly, to a level where I can walk normal again. The pain is still there if I flex the joint in certain ways, but the initial fear of having severely damaged it is gone. Frankly, I'm more worried about my knees again. 

In an effort to lower the barrier to regular workouts, I recently started running. I figured a very short 1 kilometer run to a nearby calisthenics park, doing a quick bodyweight circuit there, and then running the same way back would be a simple but relatively effective workout. Especially after being mostly sedentary for a few years, with short alternating stints of working out fanatically or not at all, this seemed like the perfect way to get moving again. Alas, despite my careful start, I too get the classic knee injury beginner runners get.

Head and shoulders

It’s all a bit of a bummer. Mostly because I planned to go on another adventure along the coast but couldn’t, for my legs wouldn’t let me. On top of that, the video I planned to make last month is not even finished this month as well. The two-minute preview is all I found time for.

But that’s enough negativity.

gotta keep my head on my shoulders and appreciate everything that is working out in life. The trip to Italy gave me some of my favorite recent images. You see them sprinkled throughout this newsletter. The 33punt website got a redesign (the process quickly spiraled into learning how to build it myself using Ghost, GitHub Actions, VSCode and Codex) and 33punt welcomed its second official client. Though I prefer to think of them as partnerships. Additionally, I found a way to work through my injuries while also continuing to train for that 900KM coastal walk I've been meaning to do for years (and will continue talking about to keep the thought alive.) It’s a mix of physical therapy and personal training that will keep me accountable and steadily growing stronger. 

Anyway, that's just a quick update from my side, I have not much else to talk about. Hope everybody's doing well. Tell me about your plans for summer, if you have them! I can use the inspiration.

Talk soon,

M