I learned quickly that football is so much more than just a sport. Soccer is universal language. Really all you need is a ball and not much else. I was lucky enough to attend the Japan vs Holland game and it blew my mind to see so many people from Japan in Dallas. Holland fans throwing Japanese fans in the air. The energy from the Japan fans alone charged me up for the rest of the World Cup. They didn’t have to speak the same language, the love of the game was enough. This one game brought people from all over the world together. I can’t think of a single other event that would unite this many people together from various cultures, ages, and backgrounds.

Something else that moved me while watching this world cup was how much pride soccer can bring to groups of people. Soccer is identity. We all witnessed the way the Cape Verde team brought so much joy and honor into their island. I personally watched Mexican fans hold onto hope until the last possible second and inevitably get their hearts crushed. Before this summer I never quite understood why my boyfriend was a die hard Arsenal fan. I mean he’s not British lol so why did he love this team so much. But I now understand how being a fan of a team unites you to something bigger than yourself. Being a fan gives people something to look forward to, it gives something for people to hold on hope for. Plus it really does feel good to yell and scream together at a bar with other fans.

Anywho, I had such a fun summer thanks to many things, but needed to specifically shout out the summer soccer infiltrated my life. I may never be the same.

As always thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the photos <3

Candidly Angie is my online photo journal. I share thoughts and photo dumps every other week. If you enjoy my work subscribe so you never miss a post. My blog has always been free, but if you enjoy seeing my work you can show your support by pledging any amount.

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One thing I know I will miss the most is the mountains. Prior to this trip I didn’t know much about the valley. Over the course of 2 months I got more familiar with the area. Learned about the different areas, which areas are “nicer” and which areas are not as nice. Regardless of which area you are in though, anyplace in the valley you will find yourself surrounded by mountains. It’s not like the whisper of mountains that surround other areas of So-Cal. These mountains are close enough to taken up 70% of any background. I found myself in constant awe of them. I mean, they’re kinda hard to ignore. Regardless of how stressed, or tired I was from work, being outside, just driving around in the presence of the mountains brought me peace.

Another thing I’m going to miss is my evening walk. I got lucky with the place I stayed, it was in the perfect location for my time there. It was a decent commute to my work, gym, and all the fun things to do in Palm Springs. However, the best part was that it was right next to a park that easily became my favorite evening walk. Every evening as the sun began to set I would head out to Demuth Park. The park would fill with people doing recreational sports, families taking their kids to baseball, gay kickball games. The desert tends to come alive once the sun goes down. Technically it wasn’t the park that won my heart but the golf course that was right next to it. In the evening all the golfers would be finished and you were left with rolling green hills, that you could walk across, surrounded by mountains and a setting sun that lit up the scene with golden streaks of light. My cup was filled every single time I went on that walk.

The last thing that i’ll miss is my routine. I think I may have mentioned this before, but I really struggled at the beginning of this year. With both speech and photography being a bit slower, too much unstructured time was not very good for my brain. So having this routine during my time in Palm Springs where I went to a place to work for certain hours a day and worked on only those related tasks taught me a lot and reminded me that structure and routine isn’t all too bad. It was easier for me to be “more discipled” out there because I had this mandatory framework I had to follow. While I still love and will continue to prioritize the overall flexibility that freelance life gives me, there’s definitely a few lessons I can take away from my time and routine over there.

In the grand scheme of things 2 months is nothing, just a small blimp in my life, but it’s crazy how even just 2 months of immersing yourself somewhere can really leave an impact on you. During my time there my main focus was speech, and my routine but I tried to take pictures when I had the chance. I knew I really wanted to try to capture my walk, as well as some of the scenes of the mountains with the windmills that would always take my breath away during my drive home from work. I set aside time to go and make these images with my cameras & so all the photos shared here today were from that small blimp of time. I have a feeling that some of the views, memories, and experiences will be seared in my brain and heart for a while.

As always thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the photos <3

Candidly Angie is my online photo journal. I share thoughts and photo dumps every other week. If you enjoy my work subscribe so you never miss a post. My blog has always been free, but if you enjoy seeing my work you can show your support by pledging any amount.

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I graduated grad school during Covid & spent 1 year working in Austin before taking my very first travel therapy contract which brought me out to San Diego. Then I bounced back and forth between schools and early intervention for a couple of years all within San Diego. And recently, I decided to take a travel contract in Palm Springs, working in an elementary school finishing out the rest of the school year.

Sometimes I feel like online I only share one side of myself. I share my photos, my travels and and lately I have found many people are surprised to learn that I have this entire other career. I truly believe that I am only able to do photography in the capacity that I do because of my speech therapy career. My speech therapy job provides me with the security, and flexibility to be able to travel to not put too much pressure on my photo work & visa versa, photography also allows me to not be a full time burnt out therapist. They delicately balance each other out.

For a while I felt torn between speech therapy and photography, like I had to eventually pick one over the other. That speech therapy was my “day job” and I would work my way to doing photo full time. But more and more I feel strongly in that I want to be a full time photographer, for many reasons but also mainly because I love being a speech therapist. I love the kids, the impact I make, the families that I get to work with, working on a team & the lifestyle of working in the schools. Yet in the same hand, I don’t know if I could ever be a full time speech therapist either. Even though I love being a speech therapist, the institutions that we primarily work in are flawed. Most of them are focused more on productivity and reimbursements rather than the intervention and connections. It seems like burnout and full time SLP tend to go hand and hand. Perhaps it’s true that a part of me is scared to commit fully to something. But I really do feel like both parts make me who I am.

Since starting this Palms Springs contract I’ve been loving the routine that the job has given me. I struggled at the beginning of this year after my first full year of self employment. It was slow season, so not many photo gigs were happening and my early intervention clients were dwindling down. I constantly felt like I was not doing enough for either one of the jobs thus feeling like I was failing all around. The large chunks of free time were just filled with task avoidance, anxiety and a self loathing cycle. Here, my days are structured, when I am at work I really just focus on speech work tasks, and then I do photo things when I get the chance. While I do feel like my ‘photo side’ has fallen a bit on the back burner this time is opening my eyes to the importance of systems, and learning how I operate best.

I don’t have to sacrifice the freedom and flexibility of self employment for the structure and routine of a school day. (for benefits though, that’s another story…) I can experiment with how to implement a bit more routine and urgency with photography work. I currently have less than 2 weeks in my contract as a full time working therapist and then going to rely primarily on photography income over the summer. Perhaps this will create the urgency I need… Regardless I know figuring it out is going to be a journey and an on going project but one potentially the greatest project I will do in my life.

There is something very magical and captivating about the desert. I have a list of photos I want to take with my film cameras and I am determined to get all the shots during my last two weeks. For now here are the rest of my favorite iphone photos of the desert.

I hope to continue to share more things beyond photography. As always thanks for reading & I hope you enjoyed the photos <3

talk soon!!

Candidly Angie is my online photo journal. I share thoughts and photo dumps every other week. If you enjoy my work subscribe so you never miss a post. My blog has always been free, but if you enjoy seeing my work you can show your support by pledging any amount.

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Tip 1: Shift your mindset. I’ll say it again, traveling doesn’t have to be 2 weeks in a new country, it doesn’t have to involve planes. I am positive there are places just an hour away that haven’t been explored. Even if you have been before, treat everything as if it’s a new experience. Maybe you haven’t been with this specific group of people, or maybe you’ve been but didn’t get to try that one restaurant. With this mindset the world is your oyster and your own city becomes your playground.

Tip 2: Check your credit card points! A lot of our little trips were made possible by the Amex rewards that gave us ability to book our hotels for free. We once took a little trip up to Long Beach, because we needed to use the credits before they expired. & I was sick and had no business going on a “trip” but actually a nice sleep in a hotel with room service was exactly what I needed. & on the way up we stopped and got a delicious bowl of pho in Garden Grove.

Tip 3: Take transit to keep costs low! We live in San Diego so there is pacific surfliner that allows us to take the train all the way up to San Luis Obispo. We love taking it to LA, it allows the both of us to be able to relax and not have to worry about driving and parking. Then once we’re there we just try to take the bus or walk around. It definitely takes longer getting around via bus but you really can’t beat the price of a $2.00 ride.

Tip 4: Museums & state parks! Art museums, train museums, history museums. They’re a great place to just wander around in awe. I will always leave an art museum reminded of the fact that if there is one thing were meant to do on this short time on Earth it is to create. I left really inspired after visiting Alejandro Cartagena’s SFMOMA exhibit. Similar sentiment with state parks, they are under rated. Skip the crowds of people at the national parks and head up to a local state park instead to get your nature fix.

One of my most recent trips was to the Bay area. I flew to Monterrey for an engagement session and then met up with Luis in San Fransisco for a little weekend getaway. Most of the pictures shared in this post were taken from that trip. It was Lunar New Year that Tuesday and even though it was raining that didn’t stop the festivities. In total we probably had around 30 hours in the city but to me it was just enough time. I think there is something about a change of scenery that really gets the juices flowing.

Anyways, wishing everyone a belated happy new year. I hope you all ate some delicious food, spent time with loved ones and put out some good intentions for this firey year ahead. Now, get to planning some weekend trips!

As always thanks for reading & I hope you enjoyed the photos <3

Candidly Angie is my online photo journal. I share thoughts and photo dumps every other week. If you enjoy my work subscribe so you never miss a post. My blog has always been free, but if you enjoy seeing my work you can show your support by pledging any amount.

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After seeing that and doing a couple of youtube deep dives, I kept my eye on fb marketplace for Voitlangers and lucky for me there was one for sale in San Diego for a fair price. Specifically it was the Bessa R4A which is known for being very compatible with wide lenses. Impulsively I bought the camera.

The lens that the camera came with is a 75 mm lens which isn’t exactly compatible for the camera. The tightest frame lines for the camera was 50mm so for a good while when I shot with this camera I had no way of properly composing my image in the viewfinder. There were definitely many rolls that came back leaving me disappointed.

But then occasionally I would get some good rolls back which would encourage me to continue to test and try it out.

During our trip to Japan I was able to finally get some lenses that were more suitable for this specific camera. I bought one extra wide lens; 21mm and then one standard 35mm lens. However the photos back from my Japan trip were the ones that I was most disappointed with.

I know objectively these are not bad photos. I think I just held an expectation in my head of what the outcome would be. Perhaps I thought that with a “Leica dupe” it was going to make any photo I take amazing. (I do believe the resolution of some of the Japan photos had to do with a Japanese film stock that I was using).

Yet I continued to keep trying and shooting, taking it on a trip back home to Texas and attempting to take a picture everyday. This was the roll that redeemed the camera for me again. Crisp photos, beautiful color, good exposure.

As I write this, I am realizing that, it’s not that the camera has changed, or my subjects have changed. It really all stems from my own preconceived expectations. For whatever reason, I expected this camera to make my photos better. & I am reminded that this up and down; the disappointing rolls and the redemption rolls is the whole reason why I love shooting film.

You don’t need to have the best gear. What you need is patience, and the ability to let go of expectations and embrace what’s imperfect. What matters most is that I am slowing down, observing, reflecting and growing. All this to say I love my new old camera, and excited to shoot more with it in 2026.

As always thanks for reading & I hope you enjoyed the photos <3

Candidly Angie is my online photo journal. I share thoughts and photo dumps every other week. If you enjoy my work subscribe so you never miss a post. My blog has always been free, but if you enjoy seeing my work you can show your support by pledging any amount.

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When I lived in City Heights, one of my favorite spots was Super Cocina, a cafeteria style restaurant that serves a wide variety of Mexican comfort food. They have over 200 dishes that rotate daily from stewed meats like Puerco Enchilado to menudo you really cant go wrong.The moment you step inside you know your meal is going to be good, it feels like stepping into someone’s home.

Super Cocina has been a part of the City Heights community for over 30 years. It began in 1988 as a small chicken shop inside a grocery store down in Barrio before moving into it’s current space in 1997 and expanding into what it is today. The shop was started by Fernando Sanchez and is now run by his son Juan Pablo who continues his family legacy.

Juan Pablo started working at the chicken shop when he was just 11 years old and has witnessed so much change over the years through the shop. The way the city has changed,streets redesigned for more cars and less pedestrians. The way people’s palates have changed, expanding the shops’ reach to more people yet also driving up the cost of goods.

Despite things changing all around, something that remains the same is their food. The employees that work at Super Cocina make their own hometown recipes, there are no recipes. They cook from the heart, guided by instinct, memory and sazón. It’s something that can’t be replicated, and why Super Cocina is so so special.

Excited to be stepping back into this project. Stacey who helped put together the physical book version of mom&pop put me in contact with Juan Pablo. & has continually given me the must needed nudge to pick up this project again. I am so grateful for the chance to have been able to sit down and chat with Juan Pablo. Learning about the history of these local shops always fills me up in ways I cant describe. He also sent me home with loads and loads of delicious food.

More to come soon!

As always thanks for reading & I hope you enjoyed the photos <3

This is part of an ongoing passion project of mine called mom&pop where I talk to and photograph small businesses that I discover and love. If you liked the story be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the next one (-:

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I have a backlog of photos and projects that I would love to share with you all from last year. Starting with my trip to Japan in November! We split our two week trip between Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo and then managed to squeeze in a bike packing trip across the Shimanami Kaido. The entire trip was filled with sweet memories, delicious foods, and wonder. The bike trip, even though it did not go as planned was still one of my favorite parts.

The Shimanami Kaido is a 70km cycling route in the Hiroshima Prefecture of Japan. The route connects Japan’s main island to the Shikoku island and spans across 6 different smaller islands. For our trip, we took a train from Osaka to Onomichi, started our ride there, stayed in a guest house around halfway through and then finished the next day biking to Imibari where we then caught the train from there to Kojima for a quick stop before ended up in Kyoto.

Going into the bike trip, it didn’t seem like that much. I was thinking it was going to be chill, we were going to have E-bikes, we’d have so much time to take it easy and explore. But after the trip I just kept saying to Luis; I cant believe we did that. We were definitely pressed for time, didn’t make as many stops, & we were sweating and pooped. Yet the views, and the things we were able to do will live in my brain forever.

While the entire trip was a highlight, one thing we loved doing was staying at this private little guesthouse. We were picked up near the beach and brought to the sweetest home. Our host made us breakfast and dinner which was so filling and nutritious, exactly what we needed for long day of biking.

Writing this has me reminiscing and I miss it so much!!! I am counting down the days til I get to return to Japan and do this ride again. & if you ever want to plan your own trip to the Shimanami Kaido (highly recommend) here are my recs!

• helpful google map when mapping out your route

• A reddit post to start planning

• Our bike rental company

  • and then we used WAKKA to ship the bikes back to Onomichi after our ride

• Our guesthouse stay <3

Hopefully won’t be too long before you hear from me again. Let me know if you would like to see more Japan pictures~

As always thanks for reading & I hope you enjoyed the photos <3

Candidly Angie is my online photo journal. I share thoughts and photo dumps every other week. If you enjoy my work subscribe so you never miss a post. My blog has always been free, but if you enjoy seeing my work you can show your support by pledging any amount.

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So my boyfriend and I recently moved in together and he is a professional chef. People love to ask me if that means he just cooks for me all the time. & while he does cook amazing meals at home, I equally enjoy cooking and preparing a meal for him. My go to is to cook something Chinese, I take inspiration from my mom’s cooking growing up or try new recipes based on whatever ingredients that we have.

Luis is great at whipping anything up, and making it look and taste better than something you could get in a restaurant. I seriously am so lucky.

I get a CSA box every other week and we try to only spend money on protein. Having a CSA subscription not only helps support the local farmers but I feel like helps us cook what’s in season as well as forces us to try to use what we have. I’ve had a CSA subscription for over 2 years now and have never looked back.

It’s been a busy fall so far! I have been maintaining a speech caseload of 13 kiddos, and taking on almost any photography opportunity that comes my way. Which has included corporate headshots, a stressful corporate event, many sweet film mini sessions and a little photo pop up event. We are gearing up to head to Japan in November & I could not be more excited. I am really looking forward to turning the brain off, and taking pictures just for fun. Oh and eating of course!

I know this is a little different from the norm but I’ve enjoyed putting together & it has helped me break the little no posting spell so maybe you’ll hear from me again soon.

As always, thanks for reading & I hope you enjoyed the photos (-:

Candidly Angie is my online photo journal. I share thoughts and photo dumps every other week. If you enjoy my work subscribe so you never miss a post. My blog has always been free, but if you enjoy seeing my work you can show your support by pledging any amount.

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I’ve always admired food photographers. I think I always came from a place of envy, like wow they get to take pictures, sometimes travel AND be around food? I never really understood what it took to do that. That sometimes to make a book, it’s like 3-5 days non stop shooting with multiple people, making the food, styling the food, multiple light sources with assistants helping make fine tune adjustments. I mean I’ve taken photos of food here and there, and trust me, I can take a mean iphone picture of a dish but I’ve never really been apart of the entire production start to finish.

Since I’ve started my little studio lighting journey. I’ve been curious on how food photographers use lighting in their shoots. What lighting are they using, how many lights etc. I know I could probably find everything I need to know via youtube university and just practice with Luis but what’s the fun in that? I learn best from others and through experience. So, I reached out to some food photographers in San Diego that I admire like Luke from Farnam West & Jim Sullivan. Lucky for me people have been more than willing to meet with me and let me work with them, showing me a thing or two.

Can you tell how the last batch of photos looks more “professional” than the second batch? A lot of the second batch of photos were taken on film though so maybe it’s not a fair comparison but regardless, I feel more confident and better yet, curious to shoot more food and learn through practice. I’m excited to see what my own style looks like in this world. These were a collection of my favorite food photos taken this past year.

As always thanks for reading & I hope you enjoyed the photos! <3

Candidly Angie is my online photo journal. I share thoughts and photo dumps every other week. If you enjoy my work subscribe so you never miss a post. My blog has always been free, but if you enjoy seeing my work you can show your support by pledging any amount.

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Day 1

We leave San Pedro and head east. We stop in Vegas for lunch and then finish in Enoch Utah. Right outside of our stay we find this little trail, tucked away in a residential area. There were pytroglyps on the trail. To my surprise at the end of the trail you have these sweeping views of the orange and red rocks of Utah. It was a lovely reward for our first day.

Day 2

We started in Utah and finished in Colorado. Before heading out of Utah, we made a quick stop at dead horse state park. Made the mistake of booking our accommodation for the night in Vail which required us driving through switchbacks for at least an hour in the pitch dark to get to our stay. But before it got dark though we randomly found Rifle Falls State Park in Colorado, and we were treated to a wonderful view of waterfalls that was only a .4 mile walk from the parking lot. Day 2 was definitely a day for the State Parks.

Day 3

This was the most dreaded day, in all my research and planning there was absolutely no where to stop in Nebraska. I think I drove for 7 hours straight with the help of the Hamilton soundtrack and we just blew through the state. Nebraska…. the good life!

Day 4

We ended the previous day in De Moines and headed out to the city! It took us til the afternoon to get into Chicago. I felt instantly revived being in the city after 9 hours of nothing in Nebraska. Unexpectedly ran into a childhood friend there and visited another one of my best friends. We all grabbed dinner together and finished the night in a piano bar.

Day 5

The original plan was to leave Chicago and drive to Pittsburgh but we both felt like we didn’t have enough time in Chicago. So we made the executive decision to just spend an extra day in Chicago, relax a bit and then the following day drive straight to New Jersey. The following day was pretty rough, but there were 0 regrets about spending an extra day in Chicago. It felt like a little mini trip within the trip.

Day 6

We finally make it to Jersey. A 13.5 hour drive from Chicago starting at 3 in the morning. Jersey surprised me, it was greener than I expected it to be and also felt very quaint and homey. Alyson gets the keys to her new place and we begin to get her settled in. Bonus, got to enjoy an ice cream cone at the diner where the final episode of the Soprano’s was shot!

Alyson moved to jersey to complete her residency. I find it insane that she just had to drive across the country and then barely 48 hours later had to start a new program, in a new place, treating patients. But if anyone is doing that, it’s her. She’s one of the most resilient & brilliant people I know, and if 3 years later she decides that she wants to move back to the west coast, I will fly over there and help her do it all over again.

As always hope you enjoyed the pictures <3

Candidly Angie is my online photo journal. I share thoughts and photo dumps every other week. If you enjoy my work subscribe so you never miss a post. My blog has always been free, but if you enjoy seeing my work you can show your support by pledging any amount.

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The month of July has literally flown by. It was filled with lots of travel and quality time spent in the great outdoors. Ive fallen a bit off the regular posting schedule, & I’ve been feeling bit torn. At times I feel like having the consistent schedule forced me to come up with different ideas, and helped me just get things out there. But on the other hand, I’ve been into this overall idea of slowing down; scanning my own film, taking long walks, reminding myself that not everything has to happen right away. This shift does change my writing process a bit. Personally, my brain works best with a deadline, so this concept of sitting and working on a written piece over time, going through multiple drafts, fixing and editing is new to me. All that to say, that I may try to lower my commitment to one post a month for the rest of the year to allow myself to slow down and try a different approach.

On the topic of slowing down, A project that has been in the works for the last 4 years is finally here. My very first magazine!

I unintentionally started this project in 2021; when my parents sold their business. I wanted to take some pictures of my mom in her warehouse to commemorate all the memories spent there. It was the end of an era & honestly the photos were more for me than for anyone else. When I moved to San Diego I just began asking small businesses that I loved and would frequent if I could photograph them and listen to their story just for my own little personal project. I remember the first few times being so nervous and awkward and then later on feeling more comfortable that began asking business that I wasn’t familiar with. Initially I shared the photos and stories on IG and then eventually housing them here on Substack. I didn’t really have an end goal for them, I really just loved doing these stories, hearing their stories, gifting the photos to the businesses and sharing my favorite spots.

In June 2024 I met Stacey Edelstein, a creative director and community organizer in San Diego. We were originally working on a different project together which didn’t end up panning out but while on a phone call with her I briefly mentioned my little project to her. She loved the project and wanted to help turn it into something physical. We started meeting regularly in Aug of 2024, talking about what mom&pop could become. As her own personal passion project she designed the entire booklet. Now a year later it is something tangible and real and in my hands.

It’s crazy to think how this thing which started initially as a personal archive has grown into this. I am so so grateful to the small business owners who let me into their worlds, and to Stacey for helping me bring this project to life in the most beautiful way. If you have been following along since the early posts or are just now joining, thank you for being here. Here’s to all the moms and dads who sacrifice so much everyday to keep their shops alive. Your shops make our neighborhoods more colorful, your stories are beautiful. I am excited to keep collecting stories, to keep making art and keep shopping local.

I have a limited amount of this first edition, so they will mostly be shared in places local to San Diego. If you’re interested in getting your hands on one I have a few copies on sale here.

As always, thanks for reading

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Previous mom&pop stories

Edie’s Tires

Sin Lee Grocery

New Life Laundry

El Tigre Churros Y Platano

Pack Ratt Records and Junk

Replay Toys

Earthwell Refill

Little Mama’s

Cafeina

I was gifted a scanner by some friends who were moving away & for months it went untouched, I needed to get missing parts, I had to learn, I never had the time, there was a lot of friction. Eventually I found the time & I also had 2 unscanned rolls that I shot while in Texas motivating me to finally teach myself how to scan my own film.

I almost always will take photos I get back from the lab and pass them through lightroom again to just get the colors, exposure and contrast just right. So, I was enticed by the ability to make your own adjustments when you scan your own film.

I used a flatbed scanner to scan the film. Took the film out of the sleeve, cut them in 4s and scanned them in one by one. It took me more than an hour to do the first roll and a little less than an hour for the second. Both people and youtube videos warned me about the dust but I didn’t know it was going to be that stubborn! I also concluded after this experience that I don’t think I’m meticulous enough as a person ensure that everything is done correctly.

All in all, I’m very glad I did it. Definitely was more frustrated and had little patience during the process but looking back I am happy with the photos. minus all the dust…. (which I didn’t edit out of these photos so you can see what I meant). I am honestly not sure if I would do again… But maybe slowing down is the whole point. If you scan your own film I would love to hear your thoughts, and if you have any tips tricks or videos. Perhaps I’ll give it another shot.

Hope everyone is doing alright during these hard times. Everyday there seems to just be more and more bad news. I hope you are all taking care of yourselves and others to the best of your abilities. Life has been a lot lately but let’s remember to slow down, continue to create, and find ways that we can be brave and show up for those who may not have a voice.

Candidly Angie is my online photo journal. I share thoughts and photo dumps every other week. If you enjoy my work subscribe so you never miss a post. My blog has always been free, but if you enjoy seeing my work you can show your support by pledging any amount.

Subscribe now

I think I want to be a mother. People always tell me, since I work with children, that I would make a great mother. And as an speech therapist I get see and interact with a lot of mothers every day. I see a lot of different types of moms, so many different parenting styles, some more involved, others more hands off. One thing for sure though, most mothers seem tired.

My mom had me when she was 26. So compared to that standard I often feel like I am behind. People reassure me though by saying the times have changed, things are harder now. Inflation, the price of housing. That’s always a big one, like how am I supposed a child if I don’t have a house? or a yard? or a garage??? My mom likes to tell me to bring the child home first and then the rest will follow. I mean I guess in a way she’s right. I don’t think one is ever 100% ready for a baby.

I read this book once, called Braiding Sweetgrass, and in one chapter the author described her years as a mother. She wrote about years of obsessing over this pond because she wanted her girls to be able to swim in it and enjoy it. So she spent any free time she had scraping the algae and gunk out of this pond on top of being a single mother of 2. By the time she had finished, her girls had gone off to college. When I first read it I found it heartbreaking. Mothers pour so much of themselves, sacrifice so much for their children, only for them to grow up, and not need you anymore. But now reflecting on it I find it beautiful. Children growing up independent means you as a mother did a good job.

“caregiving for my little pond spills over to caregiving for other waters. The outlet from my pond runs downhill to my good neighbor’s pond. What I do here matters. Everyone lives downstream. I have shed tears into that flow when I thought that motherhood would end. But the pond has shown me that being a good mother doesn’t end with creating a home where just my children can flourish. A good mother grows into a richly eutrophic old woman, knowing that her work doesn’t end until she creates a home where all of life’s beings can flourish.”

Heartbreaking, exhausting, and beautiful, the role of a mother is something that is life altering. And even if I’m not sure when that time will be for me I know for a fact that I respect all mothers. You all are the real MVP’s making things happen every single day.

All photos are digital and taken from portrait sessions this past year

As always hope you enjoyed the photos <3

Candidly Angie is my online photo journal. I share thoughts and photo dumps every other week. If you enjoy my work subscribe so you never miss a post. My blog has always been free, but if you enjoy seeing my work you can show your support by pledging any amount.

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So the following week when we were in San Fransisco I shot on the same roll thinking it was empty. To my surprise when I finally got my film developed, the Carmel photos were there! I had accidentally shot on the same roll twice. This was not intentional whatsoever but the results turned out to be so so cool.

What’s even funnier is that I had been thinking about double exposure and wanting to try and experiment with it for an eventual substack post. I guess my camera knew I would take forever getting to it and just did the work for me.

Just wanted to share this happy little accident. I feel like because this happened it makes these photos even more special. Two back to back trips to the Bay all captured on one roll of film. <3

Let me know your favorite photo in the comments! I am torn between the first photo with the cows and chinatown or the last one with the mirror and beach.

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As always hope you enjoyed the photos~

Candidly Angie is my online photo journal. I share thoughts and photo dumps every other week. If you enjoy my work subscribe so you never miss a post. My blog has always been free, but if you enjoy seeing my work you can show your support by pledging any amount.

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Carmel by the Sea is this quaint little town in Northern California. Imagine a small town feeling, everything is walkable, everything seems hyper local but then add beautiful sweeping views of the Pacific ocean. The entire time we were there I was wondering “is this place real?!”

We visited Carmel by the Sea for little weekend getaway / late valentines/early one year anniversary celebration. Our trip was in collaboration with La Playa, a stunning hotel located in the heart of the town that was recently renovated. We traded a couple nights of stay for some photos of the property.

I had never shot hospitality before. But I decided to try and shoot my shot. I reached out and asked if they wanted to collaborate. My thought was; worst case scenario they say no, best case scenario we can cut some vacation costs. Odds played in our favor and off we went! I was instructed to capture some specific items but generally just nooks and crannies around the property.

Our stay at La Playa exceeded expectations. Everything from the common areas, to the rooms, to the view was stunning. Not to mention the amenities like the complimentary breakfast, free shuttles and warm chocolate cookies every night. It was a very easy property to photograph, and photographing nooks and crannies specifically happens to be my favorite thing to do.

Younger me would be beside herself to know that I was able to travel by taking photos. Now that I have hospitality in my portfolio, who knows what future opportunities will be available. I’m writing this more for me but also for others, photographers or not; take a chance. Send that email, post that video, talk to that stranger! You really really never know what will come out of it.

As always hope you enjoyed the photos <3

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Candidly Angie is my online photo journal. I share thoughts and photo dumps every other week. If you enjoy my work subscribe so you never miss a post. My blog has always been free, but if you enjoy seeing my work you can show your support by pledging any amount.

Looking back at the picture it’s crazy how some of these landscapes are just miles apart. How can a place be so dense and crowded yet have these beautiful parks with sweeping views.

I guess in a way they go hand in hand. You need them for balance. The parks are an escape from the overstimulation of daily life in the city. People need big open spaces to breathe and escape their smaller apartments. The open areas easily become an extension of people’s lives.

It’s very different from where I grew up in suburban Texas. There, everything is bigger. Bigger houses, bigger cars, bigger highways. We had more private space, like backyards and driveways but less shared space. Perhaps this is why I’ve always been drawn to bigger cities, I love walkability, third spaces, the joy of people watching in the streets.

I’ve always romanticized living abroad. I want to be somewhere more walkable, more green, more “balanced”. But I think i’m starting to learn that maybe no place is perfect, every place comes with trade offs. Maybe, the perfect place is the one you’re in right now. A place where you can be and notice the small beautiful moments that actually make life worth living.

Anyways, that was a whole lot of thoughts for some film photos. I hope these pictures from Xiamen remind you of the places you’re from, the places you’ve visited and how all the places you’ve been shape how you see the world.

As always hope you enjoyed the photos <3

Candidly Angie is my online photo journal. I share thoughts and photo dumps every other week. If you enjoy my work subscribe so you never miss a post. My blog has always been free, but if you enjoy seeing my work you can show your support by pledging any amount.

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Edie is the wife of Carlos who first opened the store. Jesus, the son of Edie and Carlos remembers him and his siblings helping out around the shop as early as 14 years old. Carlos, the original owner, has since passed but Jesus continues to work the shop while Edie is also still involved by handling the paperwork side of things.

Their main shop is actually just a few doors down from my house. For the last couple of years I would pass by these guys as I turn into my parking spot. They always waved, said hi, let me know when my brake lights are out, they’ve realigned my tires, and made suggestions to who I can trust to detail my car.

Open 6 days a week from 7-5, these men work hard. There is a reason they are so well loved and have continued to be so successful all these years. They barely do any marketing for the shop, the majority of their clientele are by word of mouth. Go in there any day and there are always people shuffling in and out, sit around and you’ll see that they treat everyone like family. Not only are they friendly but they work effectively and quickly. They handle it all from oil changes, to tire alignments to any kind of car issue you may have.

I feel like in North Park, businesses come and go constantly. These days it seems almost rare to find places that operate with such honestly and care. So it’s nice knowing that places like Edie’s have stood the test of time and continues to exist and be successful one tire at a time.

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the photos <3

This is part of an ongoing passion project of mine called mom&pop where I talk to and photograph small businesses that I discover and love. If you liked the story be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the next one (-:

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An old college friend Dorian who does amazing editorial, beauty, and pageant work allowed me to assist for him on a shoot for Miss CA USA over the summer. It really was such an eye opening experience. There was makeup artists, hair people, Dorian and me. I’ve never been apart of a team for a shoot. We made magic in a conference room of a hotel. The experience showed me how much goes behind shoots like that, and that w/ studio lighting you can make anything happen anywhere.

After this one experience I sought out my own studio equipment. I didn’t want to invest too much up front since I didn’t know what direction I was going to go. During my TX to CA road trip I very fortunately came across some of the same lights that Dorian used at a pawn shop in Arizona. I secured two Alien Bee lights for 150 bucks, and then the next month or so got more equipment like triggers, a modifier via fb marketplace. Another fellow photographer gifted me an old backdrop stand. I think grand total I’ve spent 400 dollars for all my equipment.

My current apartment gets lovely light in the kitchen/dining room area and once my roommate moved out I took over the dining room area, using it as my studio space. I’ve had a handful of people now come into my little studio to shoot, as well as sessions that are just test shoots, trying different lighting set ups and combinations. It’s been so lovely working out of my home like this. If I forget a battery or an SD card it’s just in the other room. I set up the hour before and don’t have to leave my home, it’s pretty great. & I’ve always been pretty surprised by some of the results I’ve been able to achieve in the small space. Here are some photos from a test session where my friend Mstah.Freeze came together and showed many different possibilities using 2 strobes while the lovely Devyn modeled for us.

There honestly still so much for me to learn. I would love to be in a place where I can feel confident on how to light something using only studio lights. I feel like it’s been a lot of trial and error. But reminding myself that it’s going to take time. It’s so easy to compare yourself to others but ultimately, I am the only person I should be comparing myself to & as long as I am marginally better than I was last year then we are headed in the right direction. May we never stop experimenting and trying new things.

As always thanks for reading & I hope you enjoyed the photos.

Candidly Angie is my online photo journal. I share thoughts and photo dumps every other week. If you enjoy my work subscribe so you never miss a post. My blog has always been free, but if you enjoy seeing my work you can show your support by pledging any amount.

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Friday January 31st I had a little opening night party for my first ever solo show at a coffee shop in San Diego. All the photos were from the last three years of traveling back to China, highlighting what daily life in China looks like. It took over a month to plan and pull off. It’s hard to believe that it even happened. It’s also weird to call it a solo show bc the entire thing was not a task I could have done alone. I had so much help along the way from such lovely people in my life. I just wanted to document the event so I can remember it forever. Let’s start from the beginning

Early December:

I was sitting at Coffee and Tea and had the thought, it would be cool to have my photos up on the walls. The idea of having displaying photos of China just in time for Lunar new Year popped into my head. I sent an email to Coffee and Tea with my idea, thinking why not? worst that will happen is they say no. They respond saying sounds great and we plan a date to meet and discuss a bit more. I leave the meeting feeling excited but incredibly overwhelmed. It was going to be really cool but there was so much to do in preparation for the show.

Rest of Dec

I went to China to travel and visit my family. I was going out taking photographs trying to make new work but also in the back of my mind the daunting task list of the show was looming and being in China made me feel like I was falling behind on getting things done. One night I sat down with my friend Carina who has a good eye for design. She helped picked which images to display, and how to lay them out. Having the images picked was a huge weight off, thank you x100 Carina <3.

Early Jan

Finally back in the States and here is when the real work begins. I finalize the photo selection, determine the sizes and reformat all the photos. I visit different local print shops and get an idea of how much things are going to cost and what my options are. Finally I order all my prints from the best print shop ever at Vivia Prints. The prints arrive and Luis’ family help me take the photos down to Tijuana to get them all custom framed. My friend J helps me design the most perfect flyer to promote the opening night party.

Final week

The pictures are in! They look great, at this point I’m feeling pretty good. The flyer is out in the wild, I get my pictures taken for Coffee and Tea’s blog. The final daunting task on the list is installing the photos in the shop. I had many doubts and second guessing during this time but once again, could not have done it without help from friends. Thank you to Diana, Sam and Emily for helping me get the photos and final touches up on the wall. & Luis for providing constant reassurance. The few days before opening night I went with Luis to help prepare the food that would be sold at the event. Luis planned to make bbq pork buns and a mushroom Congee. The night before opening night we stay up til 3 in the morning making the bbq pork buns and continue cooking right up until a couple hours before the event.

The night of

There was definitely a low grade nervousness throughout the entire night. I imagine this is what one might feel on their wedding day just overwhelmed with attention and love. No idea who to talk to or what to do with myself. I was surprised by the turn out, many small prints were sold, sold out of food, and Diana played great tunes throughout the night. & of course I photographed my own event hehe

It’s honestly still a bit of a fever dream. I still can’t believe we managed to pull that off. What a way to ring in the year of the Snake. Now that it’s all over I’m feeling not only proud but just so grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful & talented people.

Here is a super cool video @mstah.freeze made recapping the night!

& to my subscribers, for real, thank you for keeping up, believing in my work & allowing me to believe in myself more. This little corner of the internet is the best <3

Candidly Angie is my online photo journal. I share thoughts and photo dumps every other week. If you enjoy my work subscribe so you never miss a post. My blog has always been free, but if you enjoy seeing my work you can show your support by pledging any amount.

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the best i can do is a clay frog

shop, project, and life updates from jhuanghimself

By Johnathan Huang

My brother is a very talented and sweet human bean living in NYC as a full time ceramicist and artist. Both of us recently have been feeling really frustrated with Instagram. Nowadays it seems like you have to use Instagram in order to promote your art and get your work in front of more eyes. It’s seen as this great tool. I mean my brother himself has had great success. He spent the last couple of years making reels of him doing ceramics with a couple videos going viral and him getting his work in front of more people. So there is no doubt that this tool works but it is also a tool that is incredibly draining to use.

For me personally every time I am on the app I find myself playing the comparison game. Comparing my work to other photographers, my success to other peoples success, my relationships with other people’s relationships. It’s exhausting yet it’s really hard to get off. My mom always says “just don’t use it” but it’s not that easy. In order for me to not use Instagram I have to physically block the app using third party apps like Freedom or Opal. Even the built in screen time restriction that Apple has isn’t enough.

Ideally, I would like to leave it all together. I took a real break at the end of last year, where it was completely blocked from both my phone and computer. It was the first geunine prolonged break I’ve taken from the app since I first made my account in highschool. During the break I noticed I missed sharing my work, and missed knowing about some local events going around but ultimately I had more time on my hands, I had mental clarity, and was able to tackle some larger projects instead of fretting of posting regularly. During my break, Substack was also feeding me articles of other artists who pulled the plug and deleted their account entirely. I ultimately got back on to promote my first solo show I did at a local coffee shop (more on that later). And since getting back on, all the same feelings as before come flooding back.

All this to say I am still figuring out how I want to be on Instagram. Maybe one day I will be bold enough to pull the plug completely, but right now I am going to keep trying to have to blocked during the week, have posts queued up to still share and promote my work. It feels ridiculous to even be feeling such feelings about an app. But I know I am not the only one feeling this way. I mean at the very least I know my brother feels a similar way. Even though we are living thousands of miles away from each other it always gives me peace thinking of my little brother who might be feeling the same feelings as me, trying to do similar things while navigating this weird little life.

All photos taken on Fujix100V in his Studio GoodjobClay in Brooklyn NYC.

A little different than my usual writing but I’m here to experiment and explore. As always I hope you enjoyed the photos <3

Candidly Angie is my online photo journal. I share thoughts and photo dumps every other week. If you enjoy my work subscribe so you never miss a post. My blog has always been free, but if you enjoy seeing my work you can show your support by pledging any amount.

Subscribe now