Here it is. My first blog post since my Xanga account during the early to mid-aughts.

I figured I’d start this as a way to complement and comment on my various photo endeavors, whether it’s offering a behind the scenes look of a photoshoot, discussing and promoting other photographers, or just publishing a photo series from time to time. And who knows, maybe I’ll eventually announce a few chances where you can win a free stuff and promote the hell out of my store once I get my shit together.

But that’s all stuff for the future.

I’m really here today to share a photo series and since it’s Labor Day Weekend, I thought it’d be appropriate for my inaugural post to focus on the end of summer. As I wrote in an Instagram post last week, the sights and sounds of fairgrounds and carnivals always reminded me of the waning days of summer, going all the way back to when I was a kid growing up in the suburbs of Washington, DC.

Why do fairgrounds remind me of the end of summer specifically? For practical reasons, the Montgomery County Fairgrounds (near where I grew up) always arrived in August, with school right around the corner. But even more than that, it signified the end of that instance of childhood. No matter what, the following summer would feel a little different. You get older, you start doing older people stuff, and the things that you once gravitated to as a younger kid just seemed uncool. Childhood’s fleeting because there was always this rush to grow up.

For this photo series, I rode the Q Train to Coney Island over two consecutive nights in late August to try and recapture that feeling of the end of something wonderful and the beginning of something unknown and new. I’m hoping that this collection reminds you of childhood memories long gone, just like it did for me. It was a real treat to take in everything as an observer, knowing that people around me were making memories every night and those same memories would be looked upon fondly as the years pass.

A few of these photos are presented for the first time ever, not because they weren’t good enough, but because I tend to vary my posts quite a bit on Instagram to keep followers engaged and I don’t think it’ll do me any favors to post two photos that are so similar to each other in quick succession. In a way, this blog offers up plenty of chances for me to produce photos not seen elsewhere in order to provide context.

Also, Instagram compresses the hell out of my images, so you get much better quality photos on my site. This is important.

Hope you guys enjoy this collection!

[note: since music is a huge part of my life, I’ll be including some songs that pair well with this collection of images. it’s like wine, but in song form.]