Getting back into photography (and blogging)

The last time I was somewhat serious about photography, I was a pimply, insecure teenager in the late 1980s. I shot black-and-white Ilford (as you did in those days if you fancied yourself an artist) on a comparatively pedestrian but capable Minolta 7000i with Sigma lenses, and made prints from it (also Ilford) in my dad’s basement workshop. I stuck with it for a couple of years, but eventually life got in the way; the hobby slowly atrophied and died somewhere around the early 1990s.

I didn’t do any photography to speak of for many years after that — decades, really. When smartphones showed up with the iPhone in 2007 (I was on a Palm Treo 650; that’s how old I am), I thought putting a camera in a phone was ridiculous — even though my Treo had one too, and I think it shot somewhere around half a megapixel.

Then, as phone cameras improved, I started seeing the appeal. I always had my phone with me, and as the saying goes, the best camera is the one you have on you. For a lot of people, including me, that was now their phone.

I kept taking more and more photos on my smartphone, but it never went beyond the convenience of spontaneous snapshots. I briefly picked up some gear for a business project around 2012 — a Panasonic GH2, I think, and a couple of lenses — but when the project wrapped I didn’t feel any pull toward rebooting my old hobby. I sold the gear and went back to snapping everyday stuff on my phone.

I think I started wanting more from photos around when the Google Pixel 4a landed in 2020. Maybe before that; I don’t remember what phone I had immediately prior.

In any case, I took more and more pictures of my dog, places I visited, nature, the usual. Smartphone shooting was waking up my long-dormant photography itch, but it only scratched the surface — like a bag of chips when you’re hungry: okay in the moment, then you’re still wanting something more substantial. I started craving the creative control you only really get from a proper camera, proper lenses, and RAW editing.

So in early 2026 I decided to give photography another go. I’ll save the story of finding the right camera for another post; for now I’ll just say I ended up with a Fujifilm X20.

Blogging isn’t dead

I’ve written various blogs over the decades. None of them stuck for long, apart from one for my business — and even that is in desperate need of an overhaul.

I’ve always had a blogging itch, too — that urge to turn thoughts into words on a (digital) page.

When I decided to pick photography back up, the next question was what to do with the photos I’d be taking. Letting them sit on an SSD felt pointless, and while getting prints made is fine for the best shots, it didn’t scratch my itch to share what I was making.

The obvious outlet these days would be social media, but aside from watching YouTube I don’t really use it. I’m not dead-set against posting photos there, but I’d much rather have my own place where I make the rules and keep control. I don’t want to feed an algorithm; I want somewhere anyone who’s interested can browse. Given my history with blogs, that pointed in a pretty obvious direction.

So: another blog. Comfortable territory, except I’ve never run a photography-first site. I wondered about format — pure photo blog, more gallery than essay? That could work, but it felt narrow and it wouldn’t scratch my writing itch.

After more back-and-forth, I decided this site would mix photos and longer articles so I could scratch both itches at once. As for the name, I didn’t feel like inventing something clever, so using my name was the path of least resistance. Instead of thomasborowski.com, which is a bit of a mouthful, I used another domain I already had: t12i.com. It’s a numeronym of my name — the letters between the initial “t” and the final “i” replaced with the count in between. Kinda nerdy, but it makes for a short domain, and those aren’t easy to find anymore.

Final thoughts

That’s how this site happened. I know, kinda boring — but starting a new blog without saying why felt weirder. Even if I’m mostly explaining it to myself.

If you’re reading this months or years from now (I’m writing in May 2026), there’s the origin story. Do with it what you will.