The first half of 2025 was marked by an uncharacteristic amount of domestic travel for me as I bounced between New England and the Bay Area for both business and leisure (or “bleisure”), and just generally catching up with friends. This was all a slow build to my first international trip of the year: Portugal. … More Lisbon and São Miguel
Japan. It’s a country that’s almost always been on the top of my to-visit list, but until recently the closest I came to journeying to the island nation was a poorly timed trip that was derailed by the start of the pandemic. Since then, I hadn’t prioritized a vacation to Asia and my travels over … More Tokyo 2024
The vast majority of my photography experience has been digital. When I first began messing around with this hobby I started small, opting for a Sony point-and-shoot as an easy travel companion. Eventually I moved on to a Fuji interchangeable lens camera as I began mixing and matching different types—and eras—of glass with different camera … More Florence and Chianti
As sure as the annual summer heatwave that descends on NYC, I recently found myself back in the Bay Area once again for work, and to escape the humidity of the East coast. My last blog post from California was in early 2018, but I’ve been back at least one more time in 2019 before … More SF 23
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 haven’t done much traveling over the past few years since, like most people, the pandemic completely transformed my day-to-day life and for a long time going overseas was just not in the equation. Other than a brief visit to the Bahamas in January 2020 just before the Covid outbreak, my last time leaving the … More Europe on Film
It’s been quite the week. I’m still struggling to put into words all of the anger, sadness, hope, fear, inspiration, compassion, and determination that I’ve been experiencing lately. That these feelings which I, and others like me, have lived with our entire lives are now being distilled and compressed into such a short timeframe is … More Black Lives Matter.
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
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
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
Fall has all but come and gone which means this year’s Automattic Grand Meetup is just a few weeks behind us. The company returned to Whistler, Canada, though this was my first time in the region as I missed last year’s meetup to attend a friend’s wedding. Having been two years since seeing most of … More Whistler, CA
I’ve been to Scotland before. Following a work trip in 2015 I spent a short time coworking and traveling around Europe with my pal Clicky Steve who was nice enough to let me crash at his place in Glasgow for a few days. Now, a couple of years later and on the way to another professional … More Edinburgh
After roughly a week and a half in Australia, we spent my last full day on the continent checking off another item from my trip’s bucket list. We set off Monday morning to take the train back down to Fremantle, then caught a ferry to a small island off the coast of Perth known as … More Rottnest Island
2017 has ben an…interesting year, to say the least. We are truly living in a strange new world that many of us are continuously trying to come to terms with. Abnormal is the new normal and reconciling this fact with my usual expectations and guiding principles has been a tremendous challenge. While I’ve been doing my part to stay … More Bat Country
When we finally hit 5th Avenue, the scope of the march became clear. The chanting crowd stretched for blocks as far as the eye could see with no apparent end in sight. Unprepared tourists were caught by surprise as they stumbled out of department stores lining the avenue and made futile attempts to walk against the … More Part 3: United We Stand
The enormous volume of people crowded together in one place rendered cell towers all but dysfunctional which made it tough to get my bearings. After crossing a few more blocks of marchers at a standstill, I finally came across a group that was making some progress (if rather slowly) heading West along 42nd street, and I joined up with them. Access … More Part 2: The March to Mordor
On Saturday, I joined the 400,000 people in New York City (and the over 3 million people across the country and around the globe) marching not only for women’s rights, but also in direct protest of the recently inaugurated 45th President and his party’s insidiously dangerous platform. It’s rather difficult to put the experience into words, but suffice it … More This Is What Democracy Looks Like!
A week ago we had the first significant snowfall in NYC, or at least the first one in which I had the wherewithal to bring my camera into the city to catch people battling the flurries. We tend to live in a state of denial when snow first begins accumulating and it’s always entertaining (in a ludicrous … More Snow Days, Fluorescent Nights
At long last, 2016 has finally come to an end and the new year could not begin quickly enough. As rough as the past 12 months have been, it’s important to remember that we have some very challenging times ahead, but for a few hours on December 31st we can be forgiven for setting our worries … More New Year’s Eve
Each year during the holidays, the MTA takes a break from its usual soul-crushing inefficiency to treat New Yorkers to a bit of subway nostalgia by operating a handful of vintage train cars around the city. I’ve seen them in passing over the years, but never took the opportunity to have a closer look, but this year was a … More Vintage Subway
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