20 Years of Photo Blogging

As of today, June 19, 2026, my photo (and once upon a time music) blog, All Eyes And Ears, is 20 years old!

I became a photographer in January of 2006 with a new point and shoot digital, an Olympus D435. I had recently left my job and had nothing but time, so I drove around taking photos of everything I'd noticed around town that I'd always liked or been intrigued by. Old neon signs, funny things, weird things, historic things, creepy things. While Flickr was good and I still have an account there now, I wanted to be able to post things elsewhere and to be able to talk about all of the music I was into as well.

I got a free Blogspot blog (I still have access to the posts!) and went with the hot pink template. Initially, I posted either a photo or a song. Later, I posted a photo with a song that engaged with the photo somehow - either the song title, subject, or artist had something to do with the photo.

My first post - not a great photo, as you can see - was an old steel & neon sign from the '30s or '40s from a local market next door to an auto repair shop of the same name, Rife's. The market closed, I think, and the auto repair business moved elsewhere over the years, leaving the sign behind. The four (?) businesses that have moved in and out since all altered the sign, but it's still around. (And check out that awesome hand-written sign on the wall! I love that kind of thing.)

My first music post, the next one, was Nelly Furtado's Maneater - I still can't hear (not that I often do these days) without picturing the post about it in my head.

Over the next few years, I added more cameras to my repertoire; a Canon Digital Rebel, a Holga 120, a $2 panoramic, a Holga 135 BC, an Instamatic, etc. (Love a vintage plastic film camera.)

Three years later, I moved over to Wordpress. I had grown and wanted to do more with my blog. Ultimately, while I found Wordpress customizable, it was also a pain in the neck to create with. This is also the era - 2008 - in which Steve Banes, a graphic designer with whom I was friendly, designed a pink and blue retro header for me. I cherish it. You can see it in the photo at the top of this post. I also cherish the Halloween version he made me:

Speaking of Halloween, every year I took part in the Halloween Countdown, from 2007 to at least 2012. One photo and an accompanying song every day for the month, all of them spooky season suitable. I took photos all year long for the countdown and really enjoyed it.

Anyway, Wordpress was hard to work with and after another three years, I moved again, this time to Tumblr. I already knew Tumblr was easy to work with and I could do anything I wanted with it, so I ported over each and every post from the prior six years. It took ages, but I got it done and I'll never, God willing, have a reason to leave. (Though there have been very long hiatuses.)

Despite the lure of a new camera, it has been hard to find the time to get out there and photohunt again, but if I don't, I can't feed the blog. Regardless, I will likely never give it up and close it down completely.

See you there and here at the 25th anniversary!