Anyone who has met Holly can likely attest … this girl has a certain aura about her. An intoxicating presence, is what I might call it … you just want to keep spending time with her. Anyways, she’s a super fun person … and smart and talented and all that too.

We hung out one gorgeous Madison evening and shot some photos of her. Her dance moves and facial expressions cannot be beat … nor can her hair. She is an amazing professional blogger — check her out.  Here too.

Warm smiles & hearts, a beautiful connection, long hair blowing in nearly-raining air.

And a lake.

These are things I love and freak-out over … these things make for amazing sessions.

Lauren & Corey are completely awesome. I loved every single second I spent with them … great personalities. Cannot wait for their September wedding.

Thanks SO much to Becca of b.suite for her amazing hair styling … and to Jacinda Marie for her amazing makeup work!

I’ll tell you how it begins … with Megan and I driving through downtown … the windows down and The Lumineers up … looking for a patio and some beer. We’re later joined by all the FINDers for a farm-to-table diner dinner, Austin style.

And I’ll tell you how it ends (but doesn’t really end) … with over a dozen new friends like family … and my wanting a Polaroid SE 600 and a Hasselblad.

I won’t go into all the in-between … though that’s the best part. How we warmed to each others company instantly, ate BBQ and game sausages and food truck tacos, drank margaritas and Negra Modelos and Lonestars, saw a real life armadillo (!), relaxed with beer and rap in the park, touched strangers, made friends with a real life cowboy named Sam, talked til 3am night after night, danced around the kitchen, shot Polaroids in the bodega parking lot, and had our fair share of run-ins with the local police. All too good.

At the end of April I attended Jonathan Canlas’ FIND (Film Is Not Dead) workshop in Austin, Texas. What I learned about both film and business was invaluable. Jon (along with his workshop coordinator, Catherine Abegg) is full of knowledge and willing to share it all. His approach to teaching is collaborative … I never felt like he was judging or coming from a superior my way or the highway position. In fact, he and I do things quite differently (and like very different things) when it comes to shooting and editing. And though he had his moments of making fun of me (only because he liked me … or so he said haha), he also took a moment to hear me out on why I do things the way I do. I think we both tried to understand each other (though I’m a lot more stubborn and could argue for days, ha). In the end, I left being challenged by what he said and looking to make some real changes as well. What more could I ask for?

I told Jon and Catherine this as we were wrapping up and hugging goodbye … they truly have a gift for what they do with FIND. Every person in our group was amazing, but Jon and Catherine fostered the connections even moreso by being real and down to earth … by actually caring about every individual.  And, on top of that, by having a TON of fun. They were with all of us the entire time … we were all in it together. I just adore them both and learned so much from them (and honestly, everybody there) … especially in the down time after the ‘real’ workshop ended and we were all just chilling and connecting. I’ve been to workshops where I leave with a handful of new friends … but I truly left this one hoping to cross paths again with every.single.person.

So one thing Jon and I talked about was how maybe I shouldn’t write so much on my blog, haha (that whole viewer/reader fatigue thing) … but this was more of a testimonial to how much I loved FIND. A story I couldn’t tell in images alone. Are you still reading? Thank you.

Below are some of the frames I shot around Austin and of the other FINDers. (If you know me well, you know my preferred personal shooting is food & the lifestyle surrounding food … but I found myself shooting all that stuff on my iPhone … hmmm, I’m a work in progress … sorry, no food photos to share here.) I shot them on the same camera on which I taught myself photography back in high school — the Pentax K1000.  Not the greatest camera ever, haha, but I love that it’s old and that all the cliches about film … its magic and its perfect imperfection or imperfect perfection … are embodied in it. I accidentally opened my first roll of film (Kodak Portra 160) and got all these amazing light leaks. Going to do that on purpose more often now. Some film shooters might cringe upon seeing these … I didn’t edit them at all beyond how the (little, local) lab developed them. I shot a little underexposed … but hey, I love that Urban Outfitters catalog look … and I love these as well. And I’m still working on letting my images tell the story (as opposed to all these WORDS). What keeps film like magic for me is that you can’t delete the mistakes right away … they’re mixed in with all the proper stuff and you’re faced with all of it upon developing.  Maybe it’s cliche … but most/all cliches in life are true. Film is magic. And it’s not dead.

Catherine, Char, Chris, David, Ginger, Jon, Joyce, Megan, Mel, Michael, Nancy, Noelle, Sarah, Susan and Tracey … thanks for who each of you are.  Miss you already. Reunion Tour!

xx, AM

Something like a home that is not home is to be desired; it is found in the house of a friend. — Sir William Temple

I have a few friends I really consider sisters and Kaleen is one of them.  We pick up where we leave off and we have a comfort with one another that I’ve scarcely found.  Kaleen inspires and yet grounds me … affirms and yet challenges me.  I’ve known Kaleen for over 1/3 of my life now and I love her unconditionally.  We lived together in college and after … and time spent with her always feels like coming home to me. I feel similarly about spending time with her husband James and her daughter Char too … it’s always comfortable & fun.

You may recognize these guys.  I blogged about them last year in June, just 3 weeks after Char was born.  She is nearly a year old now … walking and sweeter than ever.  So much personality.  My time in Atlanta was once again too short. We exchanged stories, laughed & cried (mostly I did this at the airport when I had to leave), walked for miles & miles, talked night & day, dreamed together, made lists & flowcharts, got tattoos, went to the farmers market, ate chili-dusted fruit & tacos, shared many more meals and beers, soaked-up some sun, watched the Madmen premier, and hung out a ton with James’ super awesome sister and family.

I could write a novel about this little family … but I’ll save my words for future blog posts (since I plan to be chronicling their life for years and years to come).

It’s mid-afternoon and I’m waiting for my brother & his fiancee on the Huntington Beach Pier.  The first time I ever came here it was the US Open of Surfing.  This has me thinking of Ecuador and spending weekends in the coastal town of Montañitas … probablydefinitelymyfavoriteplaceanywhereever … and watching surfers all day from my hammock on a rooftop.  I love surfers, I love waves (who doesn’t, really?), I love the Pacific the most.  Anyways, back to Huntington Beach and waiting.  Salt water air & pelicans almost flying into my face & palm trees towering above…

Surfing is mostly about the wait.  Waiting & waiting … and then waiting for something to make the waiting worth the wait.  I used to think about surfing as those big waves and catching them constantly and all that action (I mean, those are the photos we usually get to see) … but watching today, I get the feeling surfing isn’t really that at all.  I’m standing on the pier, waiting to drink beer & eat tacos, and watching surfers waiting for their waves.  Maybe one surfer catches one of those huge show-stopping magazine-worthy waves and rides it out once in an afternoon of waiting.  His thrilled expression makes me think the wait was worth it. Granted, I’m here on a cold day for southern California.  There isn’t much action at all … tourists on the pier are bored, mostly. This definitely isn’t the US Open, haha.  And yet still & always, surfers or not, those waves to me are hypnotic and mesmerizing … a rhythm of which I’ve never tired.  I know many people feel the same. Pablo Neruda wrote, I need the sea because it teaches me.  I’ve found I agree — there is no better teacher … nor place to wait.

These are some of my favorite images ever. I took them over a 15 minute span of time with my iPhone & processed them with vscocam … surfers, waves, and both our waits.  I already made a book of these images … I can’t wait to get back there.

Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away. — Sarah Kay