You guys … Matt Wertz.  Need I say more?

He is a favorite.

Enjoy!

Happy Tuesday folks. Anything new exciting happen lately? Me neither … pretty ho hum here lately. Which I’m not complaining at all - I’m usually a fan of the low key. 

Right now as I type up this post, my roommate and I are sitting around with our laptops watching “Alias.” What a life we lead. 

Anyways. Here are 5 Things going on right now: 

1  I RECENTLY PURCHASED A TATTLY - The other day I was browsing various Shopify templates (big announcement to come later) and found myself at the Tattly shop. 

For those of you who don’t know what Tattly is, it’s designy temporary tattoos. Kind of like when you get the fake tattoos at the bottom of the Cracker Jacks box. I found myself impulse buying this particular tat. You get 2 for $5! I’m sending one to my sister. Our parents would totally flip out if we got tattoos. I’m excited about the possibilities here.  

2  JON ACUFF’S NEW BOOK IS OUT - I only have a few favorite authors/speakers (Donald Miller is a top favorite) but a fairly new favorite is Jon Acuff. His first book, “Quitter” is GREAT. You should read it. And I’ve heard him speak a few times - quality content with the right amount of humor.

Well, he just released his newest book “START” - check it out HERE. 

3  THE NEXT RIGHT STEPS - Right now I’m sort of at a crossroads. Between narrowing down the specific type of photography work that I want to do and my bills beckoning my name (student loans - bah!) I’m thinking about moonlighting as a waitress.

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to make ends meet. I waited tables all throughout college, so I guess this would be me waiting tables to help pay for college. At least for the time being. Every bit helps.

This will have to do for now until I [fingers crossed] get a photography agent. I feel like those are the next right steps. So yeah. Keep me in your prayers! 

4 NELLY + FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE - Say what?! Yeah.

5  EVERY DAY IS A TINY BOBA DAY - You guys, I think I’ve reached a new level of Asian-ness. I’ve been drinking Boba y’all. BOBA. I remember my aunt introducing my sister and I to this about 10 years ago and we were like “um no thanks.”

And now, a decade later, I find myself going to Sawtelle all the time for Boba. That place is always popping. It’s kind of dangerous how close it is … that and Blockheads?! And the Kogi Food Truck every Thursday?!  

OMG. I’m getting hungry now.

Um yeah. So here’s the anticipated newest single from Daft Punk. I’m feeling a very strong Snake Juice vibe here, but a couple minutes in we can hear the veritable sound of Daft Punk that we know.

Anyways. What do you guys think? After awhile it kind of grows on you.

I’m going to go listen to Harder, Better, Faster, Strong now. Take in the old with the new. 

More Walking Dead goodness … in the form of Beth Greene! I just absolutely love acoustic sets and well, if you have the opportunity to get a live performance with Emily Kinney, that’s just awesome.

I love her voice. Goodness.

Anyways. There you go.

Hey friends. I’ve been super out of it lately and I blame it on traveling. It really takes a lot out of you … I’m just barely fully in recovery mode.

Anyways - I noticed that everything I wanted to post about lately were actually about photography inspiration (which is a nice break away from TV and other life things). So yeah, we’ll just go with it. 

1  I LOVE GLENN’S INSTAGRAM - I’ve been super obsessed lately with The Walking Dead (if you haven’t noticed) and so after the conclusion of the season I decided to finally Youtube interviews and do my fangirl duty to stalk the actors’ Instagram accounts.

I’m still a HUGE fan of Daryl (even though the one scene that Katie caught was of him eating a rat and cutting off a walker’s ear - that happened to be the exact moment I said he was hot). But I also love the Glenn & Maggie dynamic. They’re the ones that I would “ship” … if you get what I’m saying.

Anyways - Steve Yeun (who plays Glenn) has the BEST Instagrams!  I think you should follow him.

2  ALSO THIS - Thanks to Moo.com, I’ve came across this lovely series by Austin Tott. He matched tiny pieces of hand-illustrated body art with dreamy backgrounds. 

And I love stuff like this.

I need to do something like this. Some sort of personal project. 

It’s going to happen.

3  I’VE DECIDED THAT I’M GOING TO MAKE SOME SIGNATURE PRINTS - Recently when I was on the very top floor of Powell’s (that’s where they keep all their photography books) I noticed a lovely photo that was framed and signed. And well I decided I wanted to do something like that.

When you’re lost in the world of custom portraits and photography assignments, sometimes you never create for just you.  And well, I have a few favorite pieces that I think I’m going to start printing as signature prints. 

I’m still in the culling phase of my book … might as well pick out some of my favorites for this too.  

(ps - if you have any favorite prints of mine, please let me know!)

4  INSIDE GLIMPSES / SHOT KITS - So this new blog launched recently where it gives us inside peeks of certain shot kits of professional photographers. And well, it’s awesome to see what they have! 

It definitely helps me figure out what I want to shop for … because I definitely need a shot kit update! More reasons to shop? This may be a bad thing. But it’s an investment right?! 

Yes and no.

Check it some of my fav’s: Benj Haisch / Max Wanger

5  COLLECTIONS / MORE INSPIRATIONAL PHOTOGS - I love the idea on cohesive works among photographers. One that I’ve been found on Skillshare is Bethany Olson. She has an amazing eye to create natural-lit portraits with an exploration feel to it all. 

And not too far from Bethany Olson is Cory Staudacher (I’ve always known him as @withhearts from Instagram).  His work is awesome.

And not far from him is Kyle Steed. Also amazing work (mostly illustrations). And from there … you get so many more artists.  And I love that.

And honestly, it just keeps going. 

I love that it’s never really competition when you’re just creating art. 

That’s what I have to keep at. Passion projects keep this whole thing centered. Otherwise work just begins to suck the joy out of it. I’m praying that I keep finding new inspiration.

Anyways. That’s it. Bye!

I’ve got to go watch me some Parenthood!  RYAN YORK IS BACK … queue the tears. And what’s going to happen to Joel & Julia?!  AHHHH.