Now
19th April 2025
This is a now page. I'm going to write here frequently about the things I'm focusing on in my life at the moment. If you have a website, make one too.
For the past two years I have been busy finding myself and reconnecting with my roots. Now it is time to put that into change and to tackle the overwhelming amount of to-dos that need to be done to move my life in a much more joyful direction again. A glimpse into my daily life at the moment:
Where am I right now?
While January lasted forever, the last two months just went by in a blink of a second. I co-hosted a winter wedding photography workshop in Denmark, was interviewed in two podcast, attended the first wedding photography conference of the year in Berlin and kept working on my blog and this website to provide more value for my future customers and colleagues. Easter is here, but since my calendar is free and I will travel by the end of the month, it will be like any regular day for me: sitting a the computer, cuddling with my cat, playing some games, watching some movies.
My biggest achievement in the last two months: I stayed highly motivated! And got my happiness back. Screw you, winter depression! (and world situation)! Oh, and I got featured on an industry website with my work. ❤️
I’ve also managed to finish a big task in getting back to digital sovereignty. I moved my whole 22TB of image files from the cloud to my local NAS and can now also save a couple of hundred Euros a year with that. I also ditched Google Docs in favour of CryptPad, but more on that in the Ongoing part.
Ongoing
Staying sane
What a year it has already been. While the whole world seems to turn to fascism and ignores the huge problem our planet has with our existence, I try to stay sane by consuming as less news as possible (sometimes it works out great, sometimes it doesn’t) and focusing on the things I can actually do: spread as much kindness as possible
Privacy | #unplugTrump | re-owning data
A couple of months ago I started to use my power as a consumer (and my eternal love for privacy) and began using more privacy friendly, ethical and local companies. Needless to say that the change in US government speeds up that process - especially for tech services. There is the hashtag #unplugtrump trending throughout the Fediverse (and beyond) where people share tips and help each other to switch away from US big tech services to more privacy friendly, often EU based, services.
Since then I managed to migrate my cloud backup from Amazon to my local NAS last month and continued to collect blu-rays of my favourite movies for my home cinema station. A slow but steady growing collection of the finest movies that spark joy watching. And now I can watch them whenever I want - and in better quality! And I moved my subscribers from my old newsletter system over to my Ghost blog.
I’m pretty happy with my progress so far. I de-Googled my main and my backup phone, emptied my Amazon cloud, and moved docs to Cryptpad since the beginning of the year. I signed up for Libro.fm, a wonderful DRM-free Audible alternative that lets you support your local bookstore. E-Mail and browser is already safe, messengers as well (Telegram ditched last year, WhatsApp this year) and cloud storage also EU-based and E2EE. So far, the main tasks seem to be completed. I sum up my efforts in a blog post about that in the near future.
Leaving / rethinking Social Media
After writing about the possible consequences of leaving Meta I closed all personal accounts on Instagram. Now only my business account is left and it gives me headaches. I don’t get much clients there but I fear losing connection with the industry. This already happened as I missed a deadline for a talk proposal - because it was only communicated on Instagram and not via email. Revamping my account and let it rot is still something I consider. Maybe link to blog posts from time to time. But maybe I just have to die this death. Especially to free up headspace.
I’m rethinking social media (and my usage of it) in general at the moment. The way the fediverse works, the way that feels good again to use it, is so far away from what’s daily life on big tech. At the moment I’m collecting thoughts on that for another blog post.
Blogging
I fucking love blogging and if you are fancy, head over to blog.sturmsucht.de (EN) and take a look. The first few posts were kind of heavy as the world’s situation has left its impact in my mental health and business life, but I’m happy to have my motivation and energy back. World is terrible, but I won’t let it bring me down. Writing is a wonderful way for me to express myself.
What’s next?
Catching up with daily work and pimping my website further more to be less dependent on social media and local groups. So much stuff to do, so little immediate impact. But I keep going.
A few trips are taking place during the next weeks! Planning for South Germany and London.
Speaking of trips, I really need to set up dates for the upcoming workshops and workations. The year is moving fast these days.