My Goals for 2025

Welcome to the year of rest and relaxation

I didn’t really set any distinct goals for 2024, but last year ended up being a pretty good year for me. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the way things are going so this year is really about making small tweaks. I’ve shared my reading goals in a companion Instagram post, but this post will focus on my personal goals:

Make time for rest

This is the big one for me. My personality tends to have me work like a dog until I inevitably burn out and am miserable because of it. It’s hard for me to stay still though, and days off often leave me wishing I was working, coming in to cover for someone that calls out, or just in an overall state of blah as the hours tick by. Working two jobs is sure to put a heavy burden on me (especially once senior photography session picks back up in the fall), so in short I am going to need to try to find moments to quiet my brain when I’m not working.

I have a few ways I’m thinking of doing this: actually taking time off to just reset. I’m not entirely sure what a summer looks like at the photography studio but I have already planned a couple of trips as tentpole moments to reset. Though this will be a lighter travel year than the last couple for me, I still want to make time for shooting personal projects. I’m really trying to decouple photography as a job from photography as a hobby that doesn’t necessarily need to make money (a pressure that I’ve subconsciously put on myself for so long as I worked to make photography something I can do for the rest of my life and you know pay the bills).

This’ll be much easier said than done, but I’ll be trying to spend one day a month completely offline. You’ll probably never catch me buying WiFi on a flight (except for that one time my friends and I needed to coordinate our Eurovision hotel since the EBU revealed the host city while I was in the air). I’ve also set up a two hour screen time limit across social apps (Instagram, Threads/Bluesky, Snapchat, and TikTok depending on whether it’s still allowed in this country) just to limit the amount of time I spend doomscrolling versus reading or creating.

It’s no secret that social media is changing rapidly. Between Twitter being a cesspool of hate, TikTok on the verge of being banned here in the United States, and Meta frankly being reprehensible at every possible opportunity, it’s left me thinking about where I want to engage in the long term. I’ve been loving the community being forged on bookstagram, having a forum to connect with people in a long form way with this newsletter, as well as chatting on Discord communities like the one set up for my Eurovision ones and the bookish ones set up by Brittany. I want to lean into the social aspects of social media more by being more conversational about the books we love, places we’ve been, and life we’ve experienced.

This’ll be much easier said than done, but I’ll be trying to spend one day a month completely offline. You’ll probably never catch me buying WiFi on a flight (except for that one time my friends and I needed to coordinate our Eurovision hotel since the EBU revealed the host city while I was in the air). I’ve also set up a two hour screen time limit across social apps (Instagram, Threads/Bluesky, Snapchat, and TikTok depending on whether it’s still allowed in this country) just to limit the amount of time I spend doomscrolling versus reading or creating.

Personal photography

So what does that mean for me as a photographer? In terms of me shooting, hopefully not much will change. I’m in a very good place with the photos I’m shooting though I’m always looking to level up, I actually just talked about this in therapy earlier this week, but I’ve found myself at a little bit of a stalemate shooting in the same spots. My therapist encouraged me to get out more and to explore different parts of the city (which is made a lot easier by having a car now). Just today I went to Marietta Square, got a good load of photos, saw a friend from work, and explored a lovely indie bookstore (more on that coming on Instagram soon).

I want to turn this newsletter into a safety net for sharing my photography with more photo essays that tell the story behind the shot in a format that doesn’t always fit with Instagram’s 10-20 photo limit or lack of support for multiple aspect ratios. My 2024 photo recap was really fun to do and it honestly gave me a new spark for what The Notepad can be.

Additionally, I want to branch out into my travel bag and curate guides of things to see, food to eat, and what to do in cities I’ve been to on my travels. I’m open to feedback on how to do this whether you’d want them to manifest as posts here or as PDFs for purchase.

One long-term pipe dream goal for me is to release physical books and zines for my photography. During the pandemic, I gravitated to photo books from photographers like Evan Ranft, Roman Fox, and Nathan Reinds for inspiration both from their photos and also having them packaged in a tangible format. Since then, I’ve played with various formats for bringing my own photos outside the Instagram feed and have landed on the wallpaper packs as a stopgap for now. However, I do want to investigate ways to bring physical photo books and zines to you while being mindful of challenges that exist with shipping overseas.

If you want to support this Substack or any of my photography work, I’ve launched a new Ko-fi account for one-time or monthly pledges. Monthly pledges will come bundled with access to wallpaper packs and travel guides as they’re released. You’ll also have the = chance to be part of my sounding board for new cities to visit and future creative endeavors. If you sign up for the Producer tier, you’ll additionally get hand-written postcards from me as a little personalized check-in every so often.

Debt

This’ll be quick lol. I want to start a debt-free journey through initiatives like starting the Ko-fi and just spending less whenever possible (especially on books because my physical TBR is way too big as it is). Between having to pay for unexpected tire repairs late last year and the preexisting travel debt and student loans, the balances are very anxiety-inducing to look at and I would prefer not to do that if possible. I definitely go balls-to-the-walls when at a bookstore so just the act of being more mindful about my money has already had me spending less.

Being social

I want to spend more time being social in real life (or at least trying to). I joined an in-person book club at the end of last year that was really rewarding to participate in, and I look forward to our next book (This is How You Lose the Time War if you’re wondering, guess who suggested it lol). There’s also a couple of book events that I want to attend this year so far: I’ll be seeing John Green for his Everything is Tuberculosis tour stop in Atlanta (I actually bought the ticket during therapy where I was figuring out what to do with the newfound free time of slow season) and heading to DC for National Book Festival (seeing Zac of housedownbooks there singlehandedly convinced me to want to make the trip plus it’s in DC so win).

I do also want to dig into the photography community here in Atlanta, which I haven’t been an active participant in since college when time allows. Talking shop and photography techniques with photography has been a really fun part of the photography job that I didn’t anticipate when starting it, so getting to do that in my free time should be really inspiring as well.

Be a decent person

I feel like this is a good way to end this, but overall I just want to try to be a decent person. Not a perfect person, because I’ll inevitably screw something up, but someone who learns from his mistakes and does his best to correct them.

2024 in Photos

A highlight reel on photos that made me so proud that I shot it

This post may be truncated in email apps. Click the link in your app to read or read the full post on Substack.

2024 was a crazy year for me: getting a new job capturing photos for a school photography company (ironically I took my senior photos at the same studio I now work at), traveling around the world, and learning how to drive. It was a year of building community on bookstagram and recommitting to this newsletter. I’ve already shared a reading recap on Instagram, but in this post I want to go deeper on some of the photos I’ve taken over the last 12 months and tell some of the stories behind them.

Before we jump in, here are a few quick stats (because I’m truly a stat obsessed person even if I’m very much a humanities major):

• 6,998 photos taken

• 9 flights flown (all on Delta)

• 12,404 miles flown (halfway across the world)

• 5,805 different albums listened to (via last.fm)

• 4,812 tracks listened to (via last.fm)

Total eclipse of the heart

Looking up at the eclipse from Stone Mountain

April brought a great American solar eclipse as much of the continent looked up to see a spectacular solar eclipse. While Atlanta wasn’t in the path of totality, I made my way east of the city to the peak of Stone Mountain to see a mostly obstructed sun. There was a childlike wonder as hundreds looked up at the phenomenon happening tens of thousands of miles above us. I think these images do a great job of capturing the awe on that day.

United by chaos

A view of the Church of Our Savior taken from the Round Tower observation deck in Copenhagen.

May brought me to Copenhagen for the Eurovision Song Contest (technically the show was in Malmö, Sweden but my friends and I commuted from Copenhagen on show days). If you know me, you’d know that I have a bit of an obsession with the pan-European song festival and it was a dream come through to experience the craziness of the show week in person.

Crazy ended up being the word of the week between pro-Palestine protests against Israel being allowed to compete (Greta Thunberg was arrested for a time at one protest. For my part, I walked into the concourse rather than give the performance an audience), the Netherlands’ Joost Klein being disqualified hours before the jury show final (a dress rehearsal the night before the actual show broadcast on TV where the national juries vote for their favorite songs), and just a lot of decisions by the European Broadcasting Union (the organizing body for Eurovision) that left a bad taste in my mouth.

Protesters brandish the Palestinian flag around Malmö

Despite that, the atmosphere was equal parts family reunion and an at times defiant celebration of the peace, love, and tolerance that the contest was built on. We spent the night before the final at an Australian-themed bar in Copenhagen (truly a wild thought to think about being in an Australian themed bar for an event run by Spanish Europeans in Denmark but hey that’s globalization) where we partied the night away to Klein’s song Europapa (which was disqualified hours earlier and was a heavy favorite to win) at least partially in spite.

I was in the arena to see both dress rehearsals for the semifinals, and it was such an unique atmosphere to see songs that I’d heard for months translated to stage performances. It gives a completely different perspective to what you see on TV as you can see in this photo taken during Marcus & Martinus’ performance of Sweden’s song Unforgettable:

Sweden’s Eurovision 2024 representatives Marcus & Martinus perform the song Unforgettable in Malmö Arena during a rehearsal for the first semifinal.

Between the ticketed events (both the live shows and the live shows that I watched from a Copenhagen nightclub transformed into the equivalent of a sports bar if it was mostly queer and the competition was entirely in song, my friend Rachel’s apartment, and a hotel ballroom), there was plenty of time to explore Copenhagen and Malmö. Highlights included taking a canal tour of Copenhagen from the popular Nyhavn harbor, quieter moments at Malmö’s central library and an adjacent park, and an amazing street food feast at the Reffen open-air food hall:

Various sights from across Copenhagen and Malmö

Eurovision fan site Wiwibloggs also hosted a fan fest at a very nice location atop the Emporia shopping center in Malmö, where I snapped these shots of Lithuania’s Silvester Belt:

Lithuania's Eurovision 2024 representative Silvester Belt is interviewed at Wiwiblogg's lounge at Malmö's Emporia Shopping Centre.

Reunited

Highlights from a quick afternoon photowalk in Manhattan with views from my uncle's Jersey City apartment and a trip to the Oculus in Lower Manhattan.

My family had a reunion in late June at my grandma’s house near Newark that migrated down the shore to Atlantic City. I did manage to get a couple of small photowalks in Lower Manhattan and on the boardwalk in Atlantic City from this next gaggle of photos.

I was fortunate to catch some really cool mist and fog that bubbled up over the ocean in Atlantic City that created some really moody shots along with the typical summer boardwalk vibes I was expecting to capture when heading out.

A woman gazes at a painting of another woman on the Atlantic City boardwalk. My goal for this shot was to take a similar crowd shot to the one I got in Copenhagen (see the photo of a man leaning on the wall at the Moscot store).

Bumpin’ that

The two kinds of people: Charli XCX fans and Falcons fans.

I was a Charli XCX fan before Brat became a cultural phenomenon so there was no way I was going to miss the Sweat tour. My iPhone served as the camera for these shots which I think did a really good job at capturing the unique experience of State Farm Arena becoming a club as the Atlanta Falcons played right next door.

Empire State of Mind

My last trip of the year was a Halloweekend getaway to the Northeast mainly to see Zara Larsson in Washington with friends. I arrived in DC Halloween evening, checked into my hotel near the Navy Yard, and immediately set out to capture some photos while grabbing an Aperol Spritz at Takoma.

Before the concert Friday night, I spent the day exploring the city that’s become a bit of a second home for me over the last few years. After a stop at Solid State Books, I went to the National Museum of Women in the Arts via a walk in the city’s Chinatown neighborhood.

After we went our separate ways on Saturday, I took Amtrak up to the Big Apple for about 36 hours of hitting the pavement hard. Between the New York City Marathon on Sunday and a Saturday evening walking from my hotel in Lower Manhattan to Times Square left me with nearly 1,000 photos. I was really in my street photography bag capturing ordinary moments on the streets that sparked so much joy in what felt like such a festive atmosphere in the city.

Other odds and ends…

A rain-soaked man tries to catch an Xpress bus at Atlanta’s Civic Center station.

Of course, there were plenty of random photowalks all over Atlanta that were equal parts therapeutic and practical. It was a year where I took advantage of being able to pop into the city (before I got my car, I would drive to Cumberland Mall and hitch a ride on a MARTA bus into Midtown) and make photos out of just ordinary life. It’s a much different approach from the more event-oriented photography I was shooting mostly in college.

Final thoughts

I’m not really sure where photography will take me in the year ahead as I continue to balance school photography with personal work and try to find the balance between having photography as a creative outlet without burning out. Aside from planned trips to Stockholm and DC, this should be a relatively light travel year but I’m always open to whatever the year brings.

Headlines

• I made a Spotify playlist with some songs that I think will set the table nicely for starting the new year well.

• Not sure if you need the PSA, but clean up your phone’s charging port every once in a while. My iPhone 14 Pro was having issues charging and connecting to CarPlay before I took a toothpick to the Lightning port.

• Given what we heard about Moana 2 essentially being a Disney+ show repackaged into a movie, it was a pretty fun watch that is a poignant reminder of how important community is. It’s hard to replicate the magic of the original but it’s certainly a solid sequel.

• Zendaya all but confirming her engagement to Tom Holland has me devastated as someone who’s had a celebrity crush on her pretty much since Shake It Up.

Live from New York...

It's not me, at least not long term anytime soon

New York City is an intoxicating cocktail of overstimulation, a city that has no respite at any hour with something new at every corner. You probably knew that, but it’s entirely different to fully envelop yourself in it versus popping in for a visit.

I spent about 40 hours in the city at the beginning of November (which happened to coincide with the New York City Marathon), and it got me thinking about how I want to live and what I value in life. It busted a few of the thoughts on city life that I had going into the trip.

A word on Atlanta…

Some context though: I’ve spent most of my life living in my family home in the Atlanta suburbs, aside from a shortened stay in downtown Atlanta attending Georgia State University (thanks COVID). While at college, it felt like I’d outgrown the city in a way (especially as someone who didn’t drive in an extremely car-centric city). It was like I’d “completed” experiencing all that Atlanta had to offer (well at least all of the city easily accessible by public transit).

However, recent months have showed me a new side of the city too busy to hate as I picked up my wheels, found new neighborhoods to explore, and really started to embrace the city in the forest. We’ve got incredible nature where you can almost forget you’re in a major city and I’ve loved beginning to look beyond the major brands to find local gems for food, coffee, and shopping.

It’s been waiting for me

Aside from CNN being based in Atlanta, it’s hard to find a journalism or publishing job that isn’t based in New York. It sounds perfect, how could I (job offer willing) pass up the opportunity as a fresh college graduate to start a new chapter in the city where dreams are made. There were certainly a few starstruck moments walking from the iconic marquee of Good Morning America’s Times Square studio to the Today show plaza at Rockefeller Center to see sights that have been emblazoned on my television for years. It reminded me a ton of the memories I have of CNN Center, first taking the tour as a seven year old and popping back in 11 years later during my Georgia State orientation because I was desperate for a caramel macchiato.

At least compared to the southern hospitality I’m used to, there’s the perception that New Yorkers are stuck up and flat out rude. That couldn’t have been further from the truth in my experience. Maybe it was because of the marathon weekend or the seasonally really nice weather, but there was a real sense of togetherness in the city. People generally looked out for one another and aside from incessant car honking, things were very demure. It felt like you belonged no matter where you originally hail from.

Speaking of the marathon, I set out from Lower Manhattan on a quest to see as much of the city and the route as I could in eight years It was extremely ambitious but I’m very satisfied with the fruits of my labor (I’ll be sharing some of those in a future letter) across four boroughs. It’s hard not to feel immensely proud to be a human seeing and hearing endless waves of support with extremely creative signs (that could be a post in itself tbh) and cheers even hours after the first finishers received their bright orange parkas of victory.

This togetherness is even more stark when you think about how diverse New York is. According to US Census Bureau data, nearly half of New Yorkers speak a language other than English at home (Italian was the language I encountered most during my time in the city). It was almost a culture shock to encounter an authentic representation of the world’s culture around every corner whether it’s a random food truck, corner bodega, or upscale restaurant. It also created a paralysis of choice as the world was just my oyster in terms of food to eat and things to do. Forty hours was hardly enough time to even scratch the surface of everything the city has to offer.

To know me is to know that I am a sucker for a well-organized public transit system (I actually have merch from the Washington DC Metro system and I could write a love letter about the metros in Stockholm and Copenhagen). While it’s definitely confusing in places, the depth of the iconic NYC subway system is something to be admired particularly in the US. I was never more than a couple blocks from a staircase into the city’s underbelly, and trains ran frequently even at the odd hours I decided to call it quits for the night.

I truly think there’s much to learn about a city from looking at its subway system from the utilitarian Brutalist architecture of metros built from 1970s government funding a la Atlanta and Washington DC to the iconic Helvetica signage of New York and the works of art that are Stockholm’s metro stations. I saw so much life in those in between moments: residents hauling Trader Joe’s bags assumingely filled with the week’s essentials, students and business types making their way to school and work, and of course thousands of marathon runners and spectators.

What felt like an epic staredown in Times Square

It plays into the hype that New York has as a haven for street photography with so many characters that it’s hard not to find an intriguing subject to capture. My typically architectural-focused photography shifted to people in a way it usually can’t roaming through downtown Atlanta for example. Honestly, it felt like I unlocked a cheat code for street photography with the sheer amount of photos I was able to capture.

But I don’t know if I could enjoy living there long term?

And yet, here I am asking myself if it’s an option that I even want to pursue long term. Atlanta has spoiled me with being a city in the forest, particularly living in the suburbs tucked away with a mini forest for a backyard. Access to nature is surprisingly very important to me to just have a moment to step away from people for a bit and just exist as me. It’s why I was about to find myself at home in Stockholm, Lisbon, or Washington DC compared to a place like Copenhagen or New York.

That’s compounded by the fact that my refuge would realistically be a glorified shoebox while I’d still struggle to make ends meet in the city working an entry-level job in journalism or book publishing. I just can’t see myself working long hours to barely afford rent in a place that doesn’t give me much to show for it.

I think I could learn to love New York, but it would be a massive jump to go from living with my parents in the Atlanta suburbs to living on my own in the city that never sleeps even if the idea of it is an exhilarating challenge.

Recommendations

• Lower Manhattan: If you’re looking for good California-inspired Mexican food (I had a really satisfying steak quesadilla and a deceivingly strong cocktail), Mezcali is a great option.

• Lower Manhattan: Gild Hall is such a charming property that I can’t recommend highly enough. It’s an old tenement building that’s been renovated to provide a super lux home base for my time in the city. Honestly, the saddest part about leaving NYC was leaving my corner room behind.

• Theater District, Manhattan: Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived! I’m not the biggest Broadway person, but I saw Six based on my friend Rosie’s recommendation based on my pop music obsession and it didn’t disappoint. The songs are great as you’d expect, but I really loved the wise cracks between songs.

• Sunset Park, Brooklyn: City League Coffee Roasters makes a mean flat white, and at least when I was there on marathon Sunday there was a pretty good sister duo selling homemade flatbreads that made for a perfectly balanced breakfast. It’s a good sized space with plenty of seating for planning out your next adventure as well.

Headlines

• You might’ve noticed a new profile picture on this account and my other profiles! I had the chance to do a personal photo shoot at the photography studio I work at and I’m stunned with the results. It’s hard to be perceived in front of the camera as someone whose home is usually on the other side, but I’m very pleased with the way I was captured across these images.

• Maybe it’s just years of journalism training or the diagnosed depression, but it’s easy for me to take a pessimistic view on society particularly seeing the waves of negative news headlines. Google’s Year in Search is a reminder that not all is bad in the world and that humanity is pretty dang cool in some respects.

• The movies are so back baby! I saw Gladiator 2 on Black Friday and Wicked on Monday, and it’s so nice to see movie theaters packed in a way I hadn’t seen them since the pandemic. I still need to see Moana 2 and Y2K, but those will have to wait a bit because…

• I’m having a corneal cross-linking eye procedure done later today (If you’re reading this on release day) that’ll likely have me in bed for a good week as I recuperate to keep my vision from getting dramatically worse. Please send audiobook recommendations my way!

Being a wildfire, not a blowtorch

On juggling multiple jobs, passions, and audiences

I’ve always envied people that are true specialists at a passion of theirs: those that can loop a song or album infinitely or read a bazillion books in a year or crank out reams of thought-provoking prose. On the other hand, there are people like me who dabble in many things and (at least in my opinion) are kinda sorta good at most of them but certainly with a gap to what I would consider excellent.

My passion burns so bright, but it’s spread wide like a wildfire instead of narrow like a blowtorch. My Instagram presence is a perfect On my main Instagram account, I’m a traveling photographer who captures the world as I see it. Of course, there’s also my bookstagram account where I read, review, and showcase books. While my photography skills are transferrable to creating for bookstagram, there’s an opportunity cost (an analogy I hate to use when it comes to hobbies but it’s the only one that seems apt) involved in every moment I spend shooting for my main feed or reading/creating for Reads.

Now that I’m working two jobs (more on that in a second) and living two separate double lives on social media, the biggest commodity is time way more than the energy or effort taken to do these things.

All of this comes to a head when it comes to branding myself as a social creative (I’m definitely not calling myself an influencer lol). Between Reads and my main account, it feels like I’m attracting two separate friend groups and this newsletter is the messy Friendsgiving dinner where everyone comes together and the one commonality is me. It makes me feel weird to share bits from my personal life promote this newsletter or a photography sale particularly on Reads because I have no idea if that audience even cares about me. And vice versa, I would feel weird sharing a book review on my main feed because it just doesn’t feel relevant to an audience that I assume mainly wants to see travel photos.

I’m thinking of all of this as I’m going to have some professional photos shot this week (mainly for my online presence) and trying to decide what props I could potentially bring to showcase the true me. Let’s just say that I have options.

I would love to hear any ideas you have on any of this:  juggling all of these interests (aka making more time for reading), being different things to different groups of people, and/or soliciting a bigger box to fit all of my various passions.

Headlines

• Change seems to be the only constant in life lol, but I started a new job as a studio photographer for senior portraits! It definitely stretches a different creative muscle than shooting in my more discrete street photography style to be in a controlled studio environment and having to pose clients but I’m really excited to see where things take me. I also really appreciate how flexible they are with everything else I do; as an employee it seems like a dream partnership so far.

• Let me not promise consistency with this newsletter anymore, because I add something else to my plate anytime I do. Instead, I’m going to wish for a good helping of time management skills. Though the holiday week could be good for building some momentum going into the holidays, we’ll see.

• DC and New York were fantastic. DC truly feels like a second home to me at this point, so it was fun to have a day to unplug (as much as you can while being in the center of the free world days before a presidential election). New York was pure chaos, though it may be doubt whether I could actually live there full-time (I’ll talk about that in a future letter).

• I’m really happy to see Barnes & Noble thriving in this new era of books being cool again! As a Borders mourner, Barnes was my gateway to so many reads as a kid. Though can we agree that their new aesthetic is meh at best?

• I rebooted my Bluesky account and I’ve been loving it! It’s truly a wild concept being able to glance at a feed, see all of the updates since I’ve last checked, and be done with it. In terms of posts, I’ve basically been trying to use it for quick fire thoughts throughout the week, though I’ll definitely be live reacting to the occasional big event as time goes on.

Scratchpad

A reimagining of what The Notepad is and some updates

I promise that the days of this Substack being more than me explaining away an extended hiatus are coming, but I felt like an explanation was necessary for the shift in what I want The Notepad to be.

My dilemma

I’ve certainly had ideas about what to post here, but it’s been a lot harder than I’ve expected to actually put those thoughts to paper and execute them. It’s been like the opposite of a writer’s block where there’s almost too many ideas percolating in my brain that leave me bouncing between them. Part of what I loved so much about Twitter (firmly pre-Elon) was how instant the gratification cycle was: I could have a thought and post it on the internet within seconds depending on how fast my fingers could type. There was absolutely no friction, which made bouncing between ideas really easy but often lacked the depth of being able to contextualize a situation or the pause to fully flesh an idea out.

The Notepad is going to turn into that middle ground: a place where I process the world around me (sometimes diving into current events and other times escaping entirely with thoughts on culture, travel, or my latest batch of photos). The one thing I miss since finishing school is writing (fitting for a journalism major) and the discussions that came from being surrounded by people from every walk of life. You might not always agree with me, but I hope that this can be a safe space for conversations about the world around us that don’t end in name calling.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring money into it, because the journalism industry is basically imploding in real time unless you’re already at the peak of your career. It’s also basically impossible to live on a starting salary in DC or New York. The recurring trend in response has been everyone launching a Substack and charging a subscription for their writing/reporting/bad jokes. Though I don’t plan on putting this newsletter behind any kind of paywall, any donations/purchasing of my photography prints or wallpapers would be greatly appreciated.

I’m going to loosely aim to be in your inbox or feed (I don’t know what Substack calls its reader feature tbh) Sunday mornings ET though that may slip or there could be an extra edition when the need arises.

Some general updates before I go…

• I’ve got wheels! I’m finally fully able to drive Christabelle (my 2024 Kia Soul) and the last few weeks have legitimately just been me on the road. I’ll always be a proponent for transit but I’d be lying if I didn’t find driving incredibly relaxing with a good playlist.

• I’ve been fully in my concert era between seeing Maude Latour open for Fletcher and the Sweat tour here in Atlanta. Both were insane and just reaffirm my love for live music.

• My Mom surprised me with a Kodak SureShot film camera that I’m just waiting on film to ship for before I take it out for a shoot. I’m super excited to dive into this new world and have an alternative to my main Sony rig.

• I’ll be in DC and New York at the end of the month and am looking for recommendations in either city if you have them.

Until next time,

Andrew