My Nephew and his friends are pretty great humans. And if i’m being honest I miss going to events and seeing them either on stage or at parades or getting an award for being good at things. And of course, my archives are FILLED with photos of him, but I picked this one for this project because it seemed like during this time hearing from a teenage voice was also important. These months of covid craziness and lack of structure have been challenging, but it seems no matter your age there are things that people are suddenly getting to do where they wouldn't have had the time before. Like enjoying nature despite being an indoors person most of your life. Or getting to a Black Lives Matter protest with friends.

The activism I see in Max, his friends, and my friend’s children inspires me. It gives me hope. And that is something we need, especially lately.

The night they were all inducted into the National Honor Society.

Max || High School Student.

1. What is one notable change in your life since Covid19 has changed how we are able to do things? Prior to COVID, a lot of my life revolves around school, and now it seems like such a small piece of it, maybe because I’m spending significantly less time doing work or even thinking about school. I’ve also been able to get back into nature, which, with my busy schedule, is something I’ve never gotten to do before.

2. What has been most challenging? I’m such an extroverted person and I’m really used to seeing people all the time and being in constant contact with my friends. This disconnect has been hard, but I’ve found other ways to communicate with them.

3. Have you found any silver linings you care to share? Like I said earlier, I’ve been able to reconnect with nature over the past few months. I’ve gone on dozens of nature walks, with friends and family. I’ve been finding time to do things that I wouldn’t normally be able to do, and I’ve actually been enjoying it.

4. Are there any shifts you are hoping to stay in place as we move forward? The only thing that I really enjoy is that there are limits of how many people can go into stores. Going into stores is so much less stressful when there’s less people. I also like how food services are using free delivery lol

5. What are you most looking forward to being able to do again? I want to have a sleepover with my friends, and go out to eat, and just go on spontaneous adventures again.

6. Anything else you want to share..? I guess the only thing that I’d want to share is that a lot of people don’t know what the Trump Administration is doing to our health care system right now. They just repealed Obama Administration protections on trans people that banned doctors from denying care to trans patients, in the middle of a pandemic, and I think a lot more people should know about it.

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Well Summer is here! As of tomorrow Max will officially be a Senior. Here’s hoping to slightly less interrupted year for the class of 2021! ❤️❤️

I haven’t known what to say lately. I have half written blog posts sitting unfinished. Then things got a little crazy and our cities and towns are in a holding pattern and people are being forced to stay home. Simple, mundane tasks now need to come with a strategic plan and a dose of caution. So my blogging silence has become even more so.

I have watched others panic, others adjust, new ways of working being implemented. The hardship and uncertainty getting to so many, and yet making us all better somehow. At least that’s my hope.

So, while I have a backlog of jobs to blog, my ongoing lovebutnotalways relationship with blogging is at another crossroads. A reminder that we photogs don’t always need to be showing what we are getting paid to do. We can share other things. Real life. Feeling uncertain. Business mistakes. Camera experiments. Images that don’t align with our current business or brand (many will not agree with me on this, but it’s ok for us to loosen the reigns every so often). I am here, working from home (which is my normal) but feeling a little isolated at this point and trying to make sure I don’t fall into a funk. Every image I want to share on the insta shows something we are not supposed to be doing right now, and I wobble between is this a thing I should be sensitive about and not share or is this a thing I should share with the reminder of hope for things we will get back to? YES. Both.

So, maybe this is the time to blog fun, happy life moments. Or images I love but don’t know where they fit in with what I do normally. A time to share and work on my craft/style/vision. This is a scary time for so many of us, but the artists are here to remind you that creating will help you through it. Creating whatever it is that brings you a slice of happy or calm or focus or even control (because that is what some may need right now) and it helps shift your brain and use parts you don’t always use in your everyday, working, living, cleaning, provide for your family kind of way.

Today I feel like I need go share some COLOR. Maybe another day it will be some gritty Black and White…

This photo of my nephew is what grabbed my attention today, both for the colors and for the feel. Plus, it’s so very Max.

Last year when the Neph hung out with friends for his birthday. Will they get to do that this year? Maybe on Zoom…

Be good to each other. Take care of you. Find a place to put your focus and let’s see what good we can put out into the world. We got this!