Ok so!

First the bad news: A few years ago, I made a terrible mistake. I needed to reformat a hard drive and, instead of the one I intended, I reformatted the hard drive containing ALL of my photography files.

All of them.

And I hadn't recently backed up the drive ... and hadn't processed much of anything in that time ... meaning, I lost over a full year's worth of photos.

The loss was crushing. And I only just recovered to the point where I could start taking photos again this year.

Five missing years of lost photos and lost opportunities.

But today I found something ... not the full measure of what I'd mistakenly thrown away ... but a sliver. Two days. From October 2018.

It doesn't undo the loss. But the chance to go back into time to a place that I thought was gone forever? To see where I was at a time that was lost - both literally and metaphorically?

This was a special gift!

The photos aren't great. They aren't my best. But it was a joy to find them, return to them, and be able to (finally) upload them:

https://cityneighborhoodsnyc.smugmug.com/Individual-Photo-Shoots/2018/Manhattan-October-18-2018/

https://cityneighborhoodsnyc.smugmug.com/Individual-Photo-Shoots/2018/Forest-Park-October-31-2018/

I know it pales in comparison to what is going on in the world. I understand the context. But for me, personally, this was a good day.