Photo Journal #27

Returning to Maine this time felt different—more emotional than I expected. When I saw my father’s image on a memorial, I felt grateful. My childhood was secure, protected by the unwavering love and care of my mother. Growing up, I never had to worry about the darker side of the world, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve seen just how many people prioritize personal gain at the expense of others. It’s been a harsh reality to confront.

Choosing kindness, I’ve realized, is far more difficult than choosing selfishness. It’s easy to be callous, to cheat, and lie, but it’s a lot harder to do the right things when the world has done you wrong. Life, to me, is about being moral, about caring for others. My mother embodied this belief. She went out of her way to be good to people, even when the easier path was to be indifferent or worse.

This trip to Maine reminded me of that goodness, the kind that still exists in people and communities. Meg and I ventured up the coast to explore the possibility of having our wedding here, in a place that held a special place in my father’s heart. It also brought back memories of my grandmother, who was such a guiding light in my life. She never judged anyone and was always a beacon of kindness. After spending time here, I can see where she got her gentle nature. Every person we passed waved at us—a gesture that, coming from New York, felt almost foreign at first. But it was too powerful to ignore. People here genuinely care, and there’s a sense of community that’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced elsewhere.

Even after being robbed a few times this past year and having my phone pickpocketed last week, I’ve found it easy to lose faith in humanity. But I’m ready to leave those experiences behind and find a place where I don’t have to constantly be on guard to protect myself and my family. Maine feels like the right place for us to say “I do”—not just for its beauty, but because it reflects the values that Meg and I share. This trip has reinforced that Maine might be the place where we can build something better, together.

Photo Journal #26

One of the best-kept secrets to gaining new business is giving back to the businesses you want to work for—without them even asking. Last year, I stumbled upon a soccer tournament where various clothing brands played against each other. You’d think these competing businesses wouldn’t get along, but every year, they set aside business and have an absolute blast in a friendly competition.

While walking my dog last year, I photographed the event and shared the photos that same night. Unexpectedly, those photos brought me a few new clients in the following months, just when I really needed it. This year, I happened to be in town again and knew I wanted to return and photograph it for an hour or so.

As I’ve said before, community is everything, but finding communities to photograph can be a huge challenge. My advice is to get out of your apartment as much as possible. It’s incredible what you’ll see happening out in the real world, and it’s a great opportunity to meet people who might need your services.

Photo Journal #25

What got you here won’t get you to the next level. What I mean is that if self-deprecation inspired you to create, it won’t serve you in the long run. For years, I beat myself up over how bad my photography was, and in the beginning, this criticism got me off the couch and out making photos.

Eventually, I started making money from my photography, but I was still focused on what I was doing wrong rather than on what I was doing right and could double down on. At some point, I looked around at the photographers I admired and realized that the niches they had fallen into were simply a result of doubling down on their strengths over the years.

As corny as it sounds, I’ve always loved the practice of making and curating images, even if it was just on a family walk. But the truth is, there are two parts to making images: one is the practice, and the other is how you feel about yourself.

Don’t let your head get in the way of your work. Making and enjoying the process is the most important part; everything else is just noise.

Photo Journal #24

Over the past few months, I’ve transitioned from being a freelancer with a few retainer clients in NYC to traveling and completely rebuilding my freelance career. The question I’ve been focusing on is straightforward: “How do I make money remotely as a freelance photographer?” The problem is, I don’t have a clear answer, but I’m experimenting with different approaches.

We started by leaving NYC to work on a personal project in Mexico, sharing the experience on social media. Then, I had my first solo exhibition, aiming to bring the photo and fighting communities in NYC together. As an added bonus, it subtly signaled to potential clients that I was freelancing again. Now, almost three months after the show, assignments are finally rolling in.

Here are the first five lessons I’ve learned from transitioning to remote work as a freelance photographer:

#1: Make personal work you're proud of. Share it often, and explain why it’s important to you or what you’ve learned from it. When I was trying to break into photography—and even now—I love learning things that can streamline my work or make it better.

#2: Don’t be afraid to cold email or set up random meetings with other creatives, directors, photographers, and artists. These people often share similar challenges or have overcome them and can offer useful habits for our line of work. Plus, I always leave these meetings feeling inspired and energized to create new work.

#3: Simple does it. Habits and consistency don’t need to be huge; they can be small actions, like taking one photo a day or sending one email a day to a client you want to work with. Over time, these tiny actions really add up. Like the best triathletes in the world, they didn’t start off running ultramarathons—they began with small runs that became easier and easier each day.

#4: Create content that addresses your potential clients’ problems. This has been top of mind for me lately. Make content that sounds like a Google search query, such as “How to share high-res photos with my designers.” This not only solves problems for other freelancers and businesses looking for freelancers but also helps build trust. It shows you’re an expert willing to help your clients improve their processes and ultimately make them look better in the eyes of their bosses.

#5: Navigate the challenges of remote freelancing. Before leaving our apartment in New York, Meg and I checked Airbnb and were shocked by the surcharges for short-term rentals. For example, $10k for an apartment in Costa Rica for a month—and it didn’t even have a stove, just a hot plate and mosquito nets. That’s way more than I was paying in NYC for a beautiful apartment with tons of amenities.

Faced with this dilemma, I decided to message several homeowners on Airbnb to see if I could trade photos for a discounted stay—and it worked. We found a place that was $8,000 per month on Airbnb, and we negotiated it down to $3,900. Still expensive, but we had saved up before making the trip. Recently, we discovered Furnished Finder, which is a much more affordable monthly stay website similar to Airbnb, but it’s for month-to-month stays, not just 1 or 2 nights.

If you’re seeking more freedom in your life, it’s not easy. But when you encounter these challenges, you have to get creative. Leverage your skills. Ask friends for alternative options. Many people have navigated remote freelancing before, and although it’s not easy, there are ways around the nonsense to make it more affordable and fulfilling.

Photo Journal #20

I've been debating whether or not I should make a post about this camera but I think it’s about time. The most common question I get about photography outside of questions about my editing process is often what camera should I get and in 2024 there are a lot of right answers. My response is typically “Why do you want to take photos or videos” and if the answer is a family photo album, for memory sake, or to have home video their is an entry level camera that has really blown me away for the past 3 months of owning is. https://www.dji.com/osmo-pocket-3 The Dji Osmo pocket 3 is a tiny little video camera that’s video quality is damn near my Canon r5 when shooting in good light.

And at $500 I think this is probably the best entry level video camera ever made. Other than an iPhone it’s the best camera for social media content and what I love about it v.s. your phone is that the storage is removable so you’re not wasting your money on cloud storage. Without going into all the bullshit specs camera companies try to sell you on it’s one of my favorite tools and I use it nearly everyday for social media content.

Do yourself a favor if you have a small business or want to capture family memories easily, get this camera.

Photo Journal #19

I recently committed to a challenge: doing something consistently for 100 days. Yesterday, while working, my computer notified me that I hadn't backed it up in 100 days. When I started this goal, 100 days felt overwhelmingly long, but that notification brought me back to the moment I last backed up my computer. I was packing for our trip to Puerto Escondido, and that memory feels like it was just yesterday.

This really put into perspective how long time feels going forward and how short it feels looking back. With small habits and consistency being top of mind lately, I’m realizing how much it helps to break our goals down into chunks of time and challenges. Whether it’s a week, 20, 40, 100 days, or a year, giving yourself a hard deadline to do something consistently can really be the switch you need.

For me, the deadline gets me moving as it reinforces a sense of urgency, but often the end goal is never to stop once it’s achieved, but rather to change your lifestyle completely.

Photo Journal #18

I’ve spoken about it briefly in my Instagram posts, but Meg and I have decided to leave our apartment in NYC this year, and it's for different reasons than you might think. For starters, we want to see what else is out there before we settle into a place for the long haul, but most importantly, we want to honor our values as a family. We love nature, time spent together, making things, and we want to focus on our health. The problem with our life in New York was that we only saw each other in passing because we were trying to build our schedules around our work while being fair to our dog. 2024 for us is about getting back to the most basic things that made us happy as children while still focusing on our careers.

Although that sounds all well and good, we’re three months into not having an apartment, and it is not as easy as we’ve anticipated. As I write this from a sublet in Brooklyn, NY, the cold hard fact is that we need money to live, and what place has more money than NYC in America? Not many.

Which brings me to my next point: a lot of people view NYC as a free ATM, like they can come here, try out for an acting gig, and get on Broadway, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I like to think of this city more like a piggy bank, where you need to deposit more than you’re taking out; otherwise, you’ll overdraft your account.

For example, the photos below were taken on a Sunday walk. I knew there was a soccer league where all of the teams were owned by brands, meaning the players were primarily owners, directors, designers, etc. So I wanted to walk by and grab a few shots. After about 20 minutes of shooting, I edited the photos the same night, posted them to my Instagram story, and tagged the companies. To my surprise, a bunch of them reposted my work, and some of them booked me for shoots in the following weeks.

This is why giving to your community is at the heart of NYC and at the core of finding new work. Anyone can sit on their computer and send emails all day, but someone told me when I was first starting out as a photographer, “Show, don’t tell,” which has been some of the most sage advice in my career. Although I think this advice leaves out an important detail that I’d like to amend: you have to use your skills to show and give back to those you want to work for. By taking these soccer photos, I didn’t ask any of the companies for work; instead, I just gave them a little gift, and people love good photos of themselves.

Photo Journal #17

"Simple does it."

These words hold more truth than I anticipated. Observing the seamless movements of my Jiu Jitsu friends, particularly their coach, I realized the power of mastering the fundamentals. The coach's approach was methodical, relying on impeccable posturing and unyielding pressure rather than flashy techniques. It struck me that success lies not in grand gestures or momentous breakthroughs, but in consistently executing the basics flawlessly.

As I navigate through my own career in photography and business, I am reminded of the importance of focusing on the little things. Instead of seeking a singular miraculous solution, I am dedicating myself to refining my craft, enhancing my discipline, and streamlining the essential aspects of my work.

In this pursuit, I aim to cultivate a well-rounded proficiency that can withstand the tests of time and challenges. Ultimately, I am coming to understand that true success stems from mastering the fundamentals and consistently striving for incremental progress in all facets of life.

Photo Journal #16

I woke up with thoughts again—wild realizations and dreams of experiences yet to come. It’s funny how fast 30 years can go by, yet how long it feels at the same time. Just 100 years ago, I might have had a house and four kids by this age. Despite this, the inner child in me remains, just in a different way. I can feel my priorities shifting. I'm becoming more determined to trust my creative abilities to figure things out. Recently, I've realized that almost everything is “figureoutable.”

This realization leads me to my photo show and why I decided to do it. I wanted to bring my community together and promote my work, but in hindsight, I see that I also did it to prove to myself that I could overcome this challenge with little help.

From the inception of the idea to the date of the opening, I had only three weeks. That left me with very little time to curate my photos, edit everything, assess my budget, decide how to hang the pieces, find sponsors, set prices for prints, and figure out how to deliver the prints to customers. The list of details you have to consider when having a show is seemingly endless.

One of the most challenging aspects was hanging the prints on the walls without frames and without damaging the prints. Faced with this challenge and just a few hours left to hang the images, I figured out how to make a template using plastic and a Sharpie to know where to place the nails in the wall for each print size. I used nails and magnets to hold the images up without puncturing the paper.

These challenges were the most rewarding part of the entire process of having a photo show, more so than people seeing the work. It was a bit of medicine for my self-esteem at a time when I needed it most. Overcoming these self-imposed challenges reminded me of the strength and creativity I have within me.

Now, I ask myself, what other obstacles can I put in front of me that I can use my creativity to overcome? There is immense satisfaction in facing challenges head-on and finding ways to overcome them. What challenges can you impose on yourself and face with determination?

Using your skills to trade: Photo Journal #15

A few months ago, Meg and I left our apartment to spend a month in Mexico. We weren't sure what we'd do afterward, but we knew NYC wasn't aligning with our family values at the moment. Don’t get me wrong I love NYC, but that's a story for another time. Since late February, and for lack of better words, we've been living like nomads, facing challenges that have pushed us to adapt and learn quickly, which was the main reason we left.

We wanted to break free from stagnant routines that no longer served us, and this lifestyle has forced us to grow. It reminds me of my college days when I had to be resourceful as a freelancing student. Recently, I started writing again and reflected on those times. I remembered a simple email I used to get new things I needed for camping trips that I couldn’t afford. “Dear Company, I’m a photographer based in Brooklyn New York and I’m going on a camping trip to ______. I absolutely love X product and I think it would fit perfectly in this photo series. If you’re interested here’s a mood board of my work that shows what I’m thinking for this shoot.” And as long as you set clear expectations (ex. 10 photos and an IG post) and over deliver on that promise you now have that thing you wanted and you may even have a new client.

It's been a while since I traded for anything because I got tired of people not paying me for my work and assuming I'd shoot photos for products. While living off trades isn't feasible, it can be a great way to supplement your work and build your portfolio or get things you need. For example, I needed beer for my photo show. Instead of spending $1500, I traded social media posts with a local brewery, which supplied 240 beers for the opening reception, leaving us with plenty of leftovers and happy guests.

The key takeaway here is that we are surrounded by products at all times, even in the middle of the woods as the pictures below show. It’s okay to take advantage of your off time to get some things you may need in exchange for your skills.

If you're in a creative field or own your own business, there are always opportunities to barter, especially in your personal projects.

Photo Journal #13

Yesterday, I used an AI image editor to create alternate versions of my photos. The results were both amazing and terrifying. Some images, especially those with faces, ended up looking like horror film stills. I had the most success with obscure, blurry images that didn't prominently feature faces. Nonetheless, waiting for the new images to develop was enjoyable; it reminded me of waiting for film to be developed.

What really impressed me was that Dall-e, the software that generated the images from my photos, provided four variants of each image. Seeing them together made them feel even more powerful. This highlights the potential of repeating the same image with multiple subjects and having a well-defined process.

The color accuracy was also impressive, and I will definitely take away color palettes from Dall-e's interpretation of my colors.

While this was a fun experiment, I don't see myself using AI in my commercial photography anytime soon. However, I do believe that AI will soon become a mainstay in commercial advertising and the art world.

In each slide the first images are interpretation of my photos made by Dall-e.
In the second slide is a screen shot of my reference images.

Photo Journal #12

It’s been a 4 months since I’ve last posted on here which feels strange because I used to post on here nearly everyday.
I like the idea of keeping this going though because it serves as a time capsule for my work.
If you take the time and dig back far enough you’ll see a younger more eager photographer’s work and part of me misses that struggle.
There were days when I would work back to back manual labor jobs and just have an hour of sunlight left to take my photos for the day and I’d never miss photographing that last hour of daylight.
As you grow in this career you start to see your other contemporaries making unspoken rules for your work to take place.
For example magazines, agencies, and other creatives often won’t work with you if you don’t have a full team of people to accomplish your vision.
I understand this but I also love the idea of focusing on the individuals story and who they are as a person when I am taking their photo.
As corny as it sounds photography is a dance and when you have 20-30 people on a shoot that dance has a lot of moving parts in order for it to work properly.
So for me I like to take each shoot as it is somethings need 50 people some things need 2 you can’t put a one size fits all blanket over your process.

All the best,
Atticus