summer's over

Candid shots
shot @ Mount Olive, NJ

Being completely in the moment at the exact right time, it feels like such a rare thing.

Other times, you have to push for certain things to happen and sometimes, things happen to you too suddenly that push you to make the decisions you have to make.

I’m in another state of transition and I’m wondering what my next steps are and where I want to push things towards. But, in the extra time, I’ve been letting myself take in life little by little again. Finding joy in everything that I felt like I was starting to lose. I lost myself this year and a lot of it was in trying to make better choices that really just allowed myself back into complacency and it wore me back down.

I’m feeling like myself again with new experience to work with — actually, a lot more as I think back on now because too much has happened and I fell back face to face with the person I was trying to grow away from to begin with.

By this time next year, I want to find myself in a whole new place that I never thought I’d find myself and to be honest, — for the first time in a long time — I don’t feel like that’s too far off. I just have to keep reminding myself if the small things don’t work out how I see them right now that it’s still going to be fine.

I always end up where I need to be.

/ / / / / / / / / /

CIDEWAYS
Practice Sessions
Rockaway, NJ

I’ve had some extra time on my hands to dig through some old photos and edit ones that I never got to for whatever reason(s). I realized that I don’t really post too much of this kind of stuff as much anymore, which I decided is a little weird considering that I tend to do a lot of work like this.
This set is just a small collection of some random outtakes, BTS and just hanging out shots.

#MARCHFOROURLIVES

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
- Martin Luther king Jr.

Morristown, NJ

There's something magical about being apart of moments that you can feel the energy in and know they're something so much bigger than you. It didn't hit me until later on until I started looking through these the fact that it was a Saturday and these are what kids were putting their time and effort in. This is what kids feel they need to do today. That's where we are and it shouldn't be.

just get up and go.

How fitting that a small break from reality and to grab some mental sanity would be to simply wander off into a snowstorm all the way down to the lake.
I wasn't sure if I'd end up with even one good photo from the adventure, I was just pushing my luck.
Yet --
Somehow, trudgning across town on foot, getting beaten down by blinding snow gusts and wind that never stopped -
I walked up to the lake.
Everything a pure, brilliant and blinding white and in the middle - just open space. It didn't seem like a lake, just a dark whole. The closer I got, the waves of the lake slowly made an appearence uderneath the darkness of the storm hovering over it.
No photos will ever do it justice and no words I could find right now could explain the magic of the whole scene that I was walking into.

There's just something magical about making your way through fresh snow. It doesn't matter if you're driving or just walking through it.
Everything's covered and out of a fairy tale, like a coma state or purgatory - it all looks like a dream and feels like one.
To focus on whats around you. To breathe in deeply. To enjoy the moment. When you forget about everything else in the world and even the conditions feel as if they couldn't hold you down.
The amazing beauty that nature gives us in all of its forms is the greatest medicine.

The conditions were something else, but I just kept shooting and shooting.

Past the first few shots I got, I couldn't see anything going on with my camera. The plastic bag I had it in was becoming just as snow and water covered as I was, making it even harder to know if I was even capturing anything worth it, or if a single one would even show up not a blurry mess.
But, I simply didn't care.
I just kept shooting and shooting, until the weather finally got to me.

Also, above is my friend Ash. ( ashcapvisions.com )

Right before I stepped out the door, I texted her and said, " if you're not busy, I have to walk by your house in a little bit to grab some smokes... let's go to the lake."
Props to her for answering and being about it, ready to go as soon as I got over there!

It was good to just get out, battle new circumstances and just create to create. Just let my soul find some peace and balance in just making something, whatever might come out.

Not only am I really stoked on all these images and just the freedom felt of the other day, but - in the middle of facing the storm, especially getting right next to the lake - we somehow managed to throw together a quick and completely spontaneous concept that I'm excited to share (tomorrow's blog post).

It's amazing the blessings around us. I've been in a really strange spot for some months now, but these are the things that keep me feeling alive the most.
Thanks if you made it all the way through!