The year is just started and in some ways it is a “clean slate”. All over the internet I’ve seen people post articles about what they’ve got planned for this year, various projects that they’re starting up, subjects they want to focus on in their photography, and that’s great for them. Personally though I do not have a single project idea at the moment. No upcoming exhibition, no book project and not even a single trip planned. In previous years I’ve done lots of posts in late December or early January proclaiming what I have planned for the new year, or what I hope to do, but other than the 365 projects I did for a few years in the 2010s I rarely finished, let alone started, many of those projects.

I’ve not come up with a single thing I plan on doing with my photography this year, so I think for the time being I am going with the idea of “winging it”, getting back into photography one outing at a time. In time perhaps a new project will present itself to me, an end goal that will be interesting enough to pursue for an extended amount of time.

I recently came home from celebrating Christmas and New Year with my American family and even though it’s been a few weeks now it almost doesn’t really feel like I’ve landed yet. If things go the way we want I will have a lot of time to spend with them in the future so it was delightful to get to have a “preview” for a few weeks…although seeing the flat landscape of Texas disappear again underneath me again is NEVER easy, no matter how many times I’ve done it through the years!

*Every year the very old Moonlight Tower in Zilker Park in Austin becomes the Zilker Christmas Tree with hundreds of lights.*

*The view from below the Christmas Tree in Zilker Park in Austin, Texas.*

The photos in this post are from the annual Trail of Lights event held in Zilker Park in Austin, Texas, a place that I’ve had the privilege of visiting several times through the years. This year it was extra special since I had the privilege of seeing together with my fiance, her daughter and grandson. It was such a treat to see their joy and delight at all the things on show, and it was the perfect way to kick of my Christmas and New Year’s visit with them!