Life: Two Months Later

The early days of rebuilding a life after the Eaton Fire.

We have settled into a house that will serve as a temporary home while we rebuild. We were blessed to find a place in Pasadena. We consider ourselves lucky. Many other displaced families moved further away due to both pricing and availability. The housing market in the Los Angeles area was challenging before the Eaton Fire. It became more so after thousands of new people flooded the market overnight.

It is a strange experience to transition from having all that we own in a single suitcase to filling up a house. The bigger things are apparent, including a bed, a couch, or a dining table. The minor things, which were easy to take for granted, reveal their importance when building from scratch. You realize the need for bathmats, a tool kit, a toilet paper dispenser, or a drawer organizer for silverware. Those things had accumulated over the years, decades. Suddenly, they were needed all at once.

Thankfully, Cynthia created a housewarming registry on Amazon. The generosity of so many helped us in this first crucial phase of rebuilding our lives. We have been overwhelmed with gratitude for the kindness of friends, families, and strangers. It has helped keep my spirits up while facing the more challenging aspects of surviving a natural disaster.

Tonight, I am sitting in the house’s second bedroom, which serves as our new office and my new studio. Thanks to the generosity of B&H Photo, Fujifilm, The Phoblographer, Lenscratch, the Huntington Library, and many others, I am finally ready to return to podcast production and leading online webinars and workshops.

My first webinar is Tuesday night. The apt, titled Return to Simplicity, is being hosted by the Creative Photo Academy, the education arm of Paul’s Photo in the Southbay. The event will be followed up with an in-person workshop on Saturday, which will include time for photography and a critique session.

The following weekend, I’ll be doing a presentation on street photography at Samy’s Camera in Santa Ana, California. Sponsored by Fujifilm America, I will share my approach to my favorite genre of photography.

And in April I will be leading my annual weekend street photography workshop at the Los Angeles Center of Photography.

These things are possible only because of the support we have received over the past two months. The return to normalcy gives me the time, energy, and means to practice being both an educator and podcaster. Those roles bring me great fulfillment, and they have been missed while I was learning how to recover from the loss. Most importantly, my career has made me a member of a community that helped my family, and many others like us, weather the loss and look forward to a new and different future.

If you are interested in attending any of these events and are available to participate, please click on the links and join me. As more events are scheduled and announced, I will share them on this blog and on the podcast, which will be returning soon.

Your financial contributions continue to be a great help to us. You can do so via various platforms, including GoFundMe, BuyMeACoffee, Patreon or purchase one of my ebooks. If you prefer to send us a donation directly via Zelle or Venmo, please e-mail directly at Ibarionex@thecandidframe.com.

Take care, and be blessed with a wonderful week.