Oh I love these baking adventures. Sourdough is tricky, but you will get the knack for it soon. Practice and loads of practice. It only gets better with time. I have been doing it for almost ten years now and I have made so many mistakes but mistakes are important to learn!
I love that people are getting back into sourdough baking. It is really awesome. Enjoy the baking! I know the feeling of trying to take photographs when it tastes so good.
There is a real resurgence in home cooking, gardening, food preservation, etc. based on what I see people borrowing at the library these days. It was starting to grow before COVID, but that disaster and especially the political/economic fallout really kicked things into high gear. Sourdough is my own small-scale experiment on those lines.
Oh yes, same here in South Africa. People started brewing their own beer when we could not buy alcohol! But this event opened people to the idea of fermented drinks and foods beyond the normal things. But sadly, in my area it seems like people reverted back to things before covid. Fermented foods for the South African palate are too foreign. But I guess living in such hot places like Africa, fermented food is not the go-to preservation method. Or is it exactly the right area? I am not sure!