2026 05 04
Preface: I am merely working through some thoughts on a difficult subject in a public manner, as I love to do!
It finally caught up to me. The dread of knowing hard drive prices have gone up astronomically has been subdued for a few months, as I havenāt yet needed to buy a new one. Iād also recently purchased one measly share of SanDisk stock, which has gone up over 100% already and netted me an on-paper profit of a thousand dollars. If I sell the share and pay the taxes on the short-term gain, I could purchase one new 4tb ssd hard drive. That should get me through the year, so long as I donāt shoot any video or do too many Keep it 100 portrait sessions.
Last week, while driving the back roads to a photo assignment in Indianapolis (INdianapolis, as I say in my head to much amusement), I happened upon a wild scene: hundreds of acres of flat-as-can-be Midwest farmland had been dug up and prepped for development. Endless rows of temporary lighting told me there was an urgency to this operation, if the small rural road jammed with heavy trucks didnāt already do that job. It was a stark contrast to the sleepy landscape Iād been passing through just moments prior. Surely, this is what the makings of a future data center look like, I thought to myself while paradoxically using my Teslaās self-drive feature to allow me to snap a few photos on my iPhone. While this played out, Scott and Kara discussed Metaās earnings on the Pivot podcast and I felt the world shrink even more.
After I wrapped the shoot that afternoon, I decided to do some internet digging into what is going on over in Lebanon, Indiana. Turns out, Meta is in the midst of constructing a 1,500 acre $10,000,000,000 ai-powered data center (which comes with 300 new jobs!). The company that just fired 10% of its workforce, while my Facebook feed is filled with so much inaccurate garbage I get the impression nobody actually works at this company, nor cares much about what is said or done on its platform. But what do I know, Iām just a simple man paying $750 for a hard drive so I can fill it with pretty pictures.
2026 05 01
FARMER CITY, ILLINOIS
Aināt no people here. Except the two kids rolling by on bicycles who say to me, āHello. Hello.ā as they pass, while staring me down like Iām from another planet. There are eyes all over town. But the eyes are not human. Theyāre painted on various surfaces from a likely-bored artist Iād very much like to meet. I imagine heās behind a curtain up in one of these buildings on Main Street, peering down at me right now. Heās painting more eyes onto a large canvas while a police scanner crackles in the background. Another old man nearly walks into me, startled by another person walking down the sidewalk. I want to ask him about this place but heās in a hurry so I let him continue and keep it a mystery.
2026 04 17
Heading out this way soon to spend some time with Haley and very much looking forward to it, even with possible tornadoes in the forecast. Especially because of that, really.
Have a nice weekend, yāall.
2026 04 16
While doing computer work, a youtube video about Stephen Shore caught my attention and had me appreciating the subtle details in this photo of mine made last year in Quincy. Iām not trying to compare myself to Shore, however, it was a refreshing break from my work to take in the video and look at some of his images with a bit of honest commentary from the youtuber The Photographic Eye (a channel I often enjoy). Itās easy to get hard on myself about my images when Iām not brining home bangers after a few days of Ill Wandering. But a pause to remember the bigger picture is nice. Not every image needs to be consumed on a phone in half a second.
2026 04 08
Walking home. Iāve made many images of this house. It always seems to catch my eye. This image, however, stands out as the lighting was perfect, the framing ominous and interesting, and the b/w conversation really brings it all together. While I made this frame on a whim while walking home, itās a prime example of the kind of image that could potentially benefit from a human touch. Perhaps itās a person in the window or a hand behind the fence. A man on the roof would be amazing. This is an example of my internal struggle; Iām always debating with myself when it comes to the sort of images I could or should be making to maximize impact.
2026 04 07
This was a spur-of-the-moment attempt at something while passing through Quincy last year on an Ill Wandering outing. Alec, a bank employee, was nice enough to pose for me as he was leaving work. Thereās definitely something here, but not sure my vision fully translated in the final image. Mainly, Iām obsessed with the church spire sticking out from Alecās head and wandered around town capturing it from every angle imaginable. If youād like to see a dozen more, let me know! Thanks to Alec for being a good sport and entertaining my artistic whims.
2026 03 28
Stumbled upon the below video while editing images at the studio and wanted to share it here. I was not previously familiar with Jaredās work, but Iām glad to be now! He does a nice job of explaining many things that have been rummaging around in my brain for some time now. These concepts are a big part of why Iām adjusting my approach to my personal IG page and, well, kind of reconfiguring my entire photography career.
Itās good to see the kids are alright and nature is healing.
2026 03 19
Allow me to vent for a moment, will you?
I woke up today feeling worse than I have in a long time. The previous night I attended a āstate of the industryā event and it left me, well, fully demoralized. It seems the corporations are all in on ai being a solution for visual advertising and marketing. While this isnāt really shocking to me (Iām already reconfiguring my life away from being fully dependent on photography), the speed it is happening is quite terrifying. Perhaps there will be a course correction or a backlash against generated imagery, but Iām not very optimistic. In the end, the agencies who are using these tools are realistically just as fucked as us lowly photographers are, if not more so. That weāre all in the same sinking ship is the only thing that keeps me from losing it entirely.
On top of this gloomy job news, our new Iran War appears to be turning into a worst-case scenario situations as both sides are now attacking each othersā massively important energy infrastructure. Maybe Iām being pessimistic, but at this point a global recession and covid-style inflation seems almost inevitable. Considering all of my job pivots are reliant on consumer discretionary spending (books, events, art), Iām about as frustrated as can be right now.
Keep on keeping on. It seems to be about all I can do, while hoping for the best.
Good luck out there!
2026 03 10: Finding My Focus(es)
Iām still loving black & white these days. The issue Iām having is that I need to sort of reinvent the way I edit and process my images. My entire workflow is a learned behavior and itās time consuming, slow, and rigid. Lately, Iām finding myself mostly sharing phone images because they are right there in front of me and immediately processed as I shoot them in vscoās app. While this is clearly a lazy approach, the reality is I hardly have the time to look at my images these days, so anything I shoot with my ārealā cameras end up sitting on a hard drive being ignored. When I switched to the Ricoh a few years back, I really enjoyed the newfound control and resolution the raw files gave me when compared to the iphone snaps, however, to get the look and feel of the images to where I want them to be, a not insignificant amount of time is needed.
All that said, Iām finding myself rethinking my entire approach to photography. Instead of constantly snapping images, as is my default method, Iām trying to shoot less ā and more specifically, more thoughtfully. This blog will remain my place to play and explore, however, the posts will probably be a bit less constant as they were in the past. Iām finding myself less excited about the endless flow of snapshots that previously I would not hesitate to throw up on the blog. Partly, if Iām being honest, this is a fear of judgement in my abilities, however, I think the bigger reason is far more healthy: Iām figuring out what it is I want to show. The stories I want to tell. And everything else, well, I just aināt got the time for it!
2026 02 23: In Search of Myself
In search of higher ground; in search of my next wave; in search of myself.
I wanted to take a moment to attempt to roughly and quickly capture some of the struggle Iām currently going through as a creative in 2026. This wonāt be a polished thought piece, but instead likely a jumbled mess of thoughts with the main aim of being helpful to perhaps get me to better understand what I even think about the subject. We write so we can learn how we think, and these days Iām thinking far too many thoughts to even come close to comprehending where my head is at.
Iām doing way too many things and Iām well aware of this. The justifications are:
2026 02 18: Award-Nominated!
I sometimes joke that Iām an āAward-Nominated Photographer.ā Itās a cute dig at the world of Serious Photography, while letting you know that I donāt take myself too seriously. That said, I must admit that Iāve been having a bit of regret the last few days over my lack of engagement throughout my career. Living in my own world has its perks, but you gotta play the game a bit sometimes, too.
Early in my career, I attempted to do what youāre supposed to do. I was faced with rejection and made a decision that you canāt lose if you donāt play. This protected my ego for a time, but now that Iām an aging photographer posting to a blog with an audience thatās primarily Chinese ai-Bots, I gotta wonder if it was the right call. Okay, so thatās a harsh assessment. But in many ways, Iām back where I started in my photography career. Iām now focusing on things I want to focus on and doing things I want to do. This is giving me an opportunity, of sorts, to do things differently this time around. One of the things I aim to do is play the game. Not obsessively ā Iāll never be that guy ā but a little bit. Learn the names; meet the faces; submit to the awards and the grants; attend the shows.
You gotta play the game.
2026 02 06: Louisville b/w
This is an iphone snap (edited to look less like one). I also made some images with my āreal camera,ā however, those files always take longer to get to. Maybe I need to change my workflow; maybe Iām just lazy and the phone is too convenient to compete with. Whatever the case, Iāve decided to be less picky about which images I choose to share around here. Previously, I was pretty firm on only using shots made from my Ricoh. These days, Iām using that camera a bit less than I had been, and instead shooting more with the phone again (yuck!) along with my Canon R5. The real camera. That I hope to swap for a Fuji GFX one of these daysā¦ but thatās enough gear talk for the week.
2026 02 03: My B/W Era, an Update
The motivating force for making this post was that Iām currently in a bit of a black/white phase, as a contemplated back then (point one). Itās been fun and I like how itās training me to visualize scenes in a different way than I would normally. Perhaps Iāll make a zine of the work down the roadā¦ but really, it has me seeing more potential for more thought-out and focused black/white projects.
Traveling (point two) remains my favorite thing to do when time allows. Having just returned from a job down in Louisville, I was able to put one day into my abstract Illinois Wandering project (point three), which led to a few decent images and even more grand ideas. I havenāt yet been able to figure out how to make this practice make money, though perhaps in time the images that are made from the trips will pay off in various ways. Photography as a job is always an abstract journey! While previously the commercial jobs were paying the bills, lately they have been few and far between (point four). Itās stressful financially but has allowed me to explore my own artistic impulses, which is rewarding in other ways.
While you might think the lack of jobs has allowed me huge amounts of free time, the exact opposite has been true, as Iām forced to fill in the gaps with other money-making endeavors (really, itās mostly me scrambling to make enough money to cover my studio rent each month, which is a significant use of my time). Pivoting my career towards video (point five) and/or becoming a āCreative Agencyā has been a serious consideration, but one that Iāve resisted and made a point to avoid if at all possible.
My longer term outlook on the creative field has me continually looking towards art instead of commerce, which likely goes against most peoplesā logic. I see too many headwinds to continue solely down the path of commercial photography without going crazy in the near future. Iād rather scrape by doing things I much rather enjoy.