Entering Autumn

We have officially entered Autumn as of 6 days ago! What an exciting time of year! For many it's the time of year to start slowing down after summer, the start of the football season, pumpkin spice everything, cozy meals, layered outfits, windows open with a perfectly cool breeze flowing in. The leaves are starting to change colors and slowly fall, until later in the season they fall like water; seemingly never-ending. It's a beautifully weird time of year, because in ways life seems to slow down and it feels like you can start to breathe again after a busy, but hopefully good summer. Yet at the same time, life often feels much busier to me. I think it's because many of us have our regular seasonal activities planned like football games, family get-togethers, traveling, shopping days, and whatever else we might do every year, which all feel pretty easy going, but we often try to pack too many plans into this fun time of year. This year my goal is to still do a lot of fun things, but to go with the flow a little bit more, and to be intentional with my time; allowing time for slow and meaningful moments as well as the bigger plans.

Regardless of whether or not this feels true to you, I believe Autumn is a beautiful time of year (foliage aside) that we should all try to really lean into for many reasons.

As we enter this season of Autumn I encourage you all to lean into this season of friendship, of family, of serving others, of generosity. I encourage you to look for opportunities to be kind to the people in your life and to strangers alike. Make it a point to serve people. whether that be by making them a cozy home cooked meal or dessert, or by buying them something small but meaningful that made you think of them. And don't underestimate the power that something such as a handwritten letter has! In this day and age of immediate messaging power at our fingertips and from something that is pretty much always within two feet of us, writing and/or receiving a handwritten letter means more than any text message could. Plus its fun and enjoyable for both parties, and there really is just something about it that feels much more proper than immediate messaging on phones. Enough on the handwritten letter for now lol, I'll have a separate post on that alone! My point is, do more meaningful things, and not just for yourself, but others too. Use this season as life slows down a little, to spend it more with family, friends, and all loved ones.

Also, be INTENTIONAL with your life and pull yourself out of the screens to live in the real world for a change. Learn to cook a new meal (maybe something seasonal), spend an afternoon with someone you don't get to see enough but wish you did. TRAVEL whenever you can!! Even if it's only within a couple hours of home. DRESS WELL. Write and journal in the mornings and evenings. Use physical media more. Live the best life you can and continuously look for ways to improve yourself and your life!

Embrace Autumn and embrace the beauty of life!

Photography Update:

This last week September 20—26, 2026, I took my Pentax K1000 to Art Prize in Grand Rapids, MI and shot my very first roll of black and white film! Kodak Tri-x to be specific. In my time of shooting film since January of this year, simply put, I have fallen in love with the format! It is predominantly the only way I take pictures since my trips to Florida back in April and May. I occasionally use my digital camera, but whenever I do, the photographing experience truly just does not feel the same. In this time, I have shot as many rolls of film as I can afford, and it has paved the way for tremendous growth in my work and it continues to do so with every roll I shoot. Only 36 shots per roll of film and a high cost throughout the entire process to even receive the final photos, but entirely worth every penny.

I plan to send out the Kodak Tri-x and a couple other rolls of film later today and I am pretty pumped about it! I am certain I got what should be lots of good pictures as it’s pretty hard to go wrong with shooting in the city, but I’ve also never photographed on B&W so you never know, maybe the whole roll is terrible and there is no usable pictures. But hey, that just part of the process (especially with film) and the only way to get better, grow, and learn, is to fail over and over. I have certainly learned that a lot in my short time of photographing on 35mm.

Updates on the black and white will be posted on here and the results shortly after on Instagram.

I am still trying to decide what to shoot this week, but honestly most of the time I don’t go out with a plan, I just shoot what I see in the moment and in a way that looks best through the viewfinder. Updates on everything in a couple weeks!

More to come soon!!

-Alex