It’s been nearly eight years since my first visit to Barcelona. It was June of 2015 and I was headed there with a group of colleagues for what was maybe my 5th or 6th meetup for Automattic. I was less than two years into the job and I had yet to discover my (annoyingly expensive) … More Barcelona 2023
After my foray through Europe in July my plan was to spend some time getting back into street photography in NYC, particularly with my analog Minolta SR-T 102 and my first roll of color film. I had some friends and coworkers in town and was excited see the results of the vibrant city streets on … More Summer ’22
I had a couple more posts in the pipeline from February that I had originally planned to publish this month, but with the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in NYC about to surpass 4,500 as of this writing—and confirmed coronavirus-related deaths up to 35—it seemed prudent to take a moment to address what’s been happening … More Coronavirus in NYC
One of my favorite things about New York has always been the diversity. Not just in individual people, but in all aspects of the city which are constantly evolving to support the ebb and flow of different cultures, lifestyles, and perspectives. Each block pulses with its own personality and character, and moving from street to … More 8 Million Stories
Portraits can be a divisive topic among photographers. Some folks enjoy the ease of working with a posing subject, while others find the results a bit too contrived. I count myself in the former camp, though my approach is often a little unorthodox 🙃 I prefer natural, available light sources to studio lighting or a … More Portraits
After a long summer, this month marked my return to Orlando, FL for Automattic’s annual all-company gathering: the Grand Meetup. It was my 5th GM (having missed a previous year for wedding season) and professionally it was one of the more productive GMs I’ve attended. The flip side is that I didn’t take nearly as … More Grand Meetup 2019
Each year I’m reminded of the fact that summer is my absolute favorite time to be in NYC, so it’s quite fitting that I’ve already spent half of June traveling outside the country’s borders… Don’t misunderstand me, though. The only thing I enjoy more than summer in the city is exploring abroad, and getting in … More Tunis & London
After a quick trip to Vegas with a handful of colleagues last month, I joined the rest of my Automattic teammates at the beginning of April as we descended on Central America for our most recent meetup. Previous visits to the region had only brought me as far as Mexico, but this time around I … More Pura Vida
It’s that time of the year again when all of Automattic gathers together in one place for a week of coworking, projects, classes, and socializing—the types of interactions typical for most colleagues, but which are unique for us due to our distributed nature during the other 50 odd weeks of the year. While the previous … More Grand Meetup 2018
Back in April, after an exhaustive search, I acquired a new lens—what’s commonly referred to as the “dream lens”—a Canon 50mm f/0.95. As someone who typically shoots wide open at f/1.4, the relatively enormous aperture makes this the fastest lens I’ve ever used. Indeed, for a lens nearly 60 years old it’s still one of … More New York is for Dreamers
It’s been about a decade since I’ve spent any meaningful amount of time in Washington, DC after leaving the city and my alma mater, George Washington University, for NYC in the late aughts. This fact came up over dinner with Dominique during a recent visit to New York when she mentioned that she had never … More 8 Hours in DC
A fair amount has been written covering the history of the Jupiter lenses, so I won’t go too deeply into it here. Suffice it to say, as the Soviets invaded Germany at the end of WWII, a factory producing the Zeiss Sonnar 50mm f/2.0 was ransacked, and the equipment and lens designs were sent back … More Jupiter-8
As I mentioned in a previous post, my recent trip to Greece was the first time in a few years that I tried to shoot exclusively in black and white. Most of my lenses are well suited for monochrome and as fun as it was to change things up, sometimes there’s just no substitute for living … More Athens in Color
February was a particularly busy month for me professionally with a series of work trips that happened to stack up back-to-back. I began February out in San Francisco followed by a brief visit to Charlotte, North Carolina, and then I ended the month in Athens, Greece. This was my first visit to the Mediterranean since 2014 … More Athens in Black & White
It’s been over two years since my last trip to San Francisco. As with previous visits, I was only in the area for a few days and with even less free time on my hands than usual. Taking advantage of California’s famously gorgeous weather (it was ~30° F in NYC at the time) I spent … More Golden State, Golden Hour
Over the holidays, I spent about a month traveling around the Western Cape of South Africa primarily in Cape Town proper. It was my second trip to the Southern Hemisphere, but my first visit to the African continent and my first holiday season spent on the beach. The festive atmosphere of New York during December … More Cape Town
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