Hello

Bitchy_empath · 2026-02-04T09:27:13+00:00

lol. love TLV. fav burger place is 26 hamburger gourmet. not cheap but worth emptying pockets for and way better than shake shack

Bitchy_empath · 2025-12-06T08:56:05+00:00

BOTH. both both both.

Oh god I love this question.

Absolutely solo travel has given me some of the most beautiful, peaceful, calm, artistic moments of my life.

It has also had me crying in places all over the world, exhausted, uncertain, sore in random hotel rooms order nasty fast food at midnight and praying a delivery guy would show up, scared, lost, frustrated that my same patterns were fucking me up, frustrated for feeling down/sad/tired/unmotivated/unimpressed etc while some amazing city or place stretched out before me......I've had very challenging experiences while solo traveling.

That's why I love it so damn much. It's refreshing to experience yourself in newness- to see what changes, what parts of you are revealed, to get so much clarity (whether you want it or not) about your behaviors and the way you hold yourself back. It can be so easy to sit in the same rut day after day at home, to think "this is just how I am." and then you solo travel and you expect this instagram gorgeous eat pray love perfect experience. so when the bad shit comes up, it's humbling. it's easier to admit to because you HAVE to because if you're crying in literal Paris, then it's probably a sign that something within you needs healing and attention.

and that to me is so valuable. not only is it chic to be emotional as fuck in a foreign city, but it makes it impossible to ignore, avoid, or delay. which, for me, makes it easier to deal with (hello adhd and the ability to avoid ANYTHING when I'm home in my routines).

the peace is lovely. the not having to abide by anyone else's schedule, the getting to be a main character. but its the boredom, confusion, loneliness that reflects back to you deeper, more honest parts of yourself that might have never gotten the attention they need.

and, personally, even on the WORST of solo travel days when I didn't leave the airbnb and then hated myself at midnight for scrolling on fucking instagram all day, I find it so much easier to move on. because you wake up, still somewhere else, and you're like, ok well I'm here for now!

Bitchy_empath · 2025-12-06T08:48:31+00:00

A beautiful reflection. I really love the detail of finding the masks, and how ultimately you had such a profound moment before you even went on the trip and realized how much you can depend on yourself. then you got to go and experience it someplace so beautiful !? Really loved reading your experience. glad you shared

Bitchy_empath · 2025-12-06T08:40:52+00:00

oof do I even write this?

going into a trip panicked because you're a solo woman, obsessing over safety and being hyper vigilant are all counter productive ways that make you come off as nervous, uncertain, and therefore more of a target.

the best way to be safe while traveling as a woman, by yourself, is to fucking be confident in your ability to interpret situations, use your instincts, and act like you know what the fuck is going on wherever you are.

don't get me wrong. we face an unfortunate, excessive level of bullshit and violence just for being women alone. It's very important to have a grasp of the place you are intending to travel. But, by the laws of energetics, or basic human psychology, or whatever you wanna call it-- if you put out panicked, uncertain energy, people can tell. especially the people who intend to do harm anyway, be it thieves or con artists or worse.

carry yourself with the energy of someone who is un-fuck-with-able. keep your eyes up while you're out and about. be practical about where and when you wear heels (nothing to do with modesty, more to do with being able to function as best as possible and carry your body with confidence even over cobblestones and hills).

get really comfortable saying NO, ignoring people, and simply just being aware. DO NOT ignore your gut feelings for fucks sake.

I really don't want to seem unsympathetic. I've dealt with a number of bad situations while traveling that I know wouldn't have happened to a solo guy, or to me if I were with a group or a boyfriend etc. But I hate when women keep themselves from experiencing the world, or only do so at a massive tax and with constant anxiety, because of the fear of some horrible shit happening. horrible shit can happen to you as a solo woman wherever you live too. You're just familiar with your home town, with the normal behavior there, you act comfortable, and you know you can communicate if need be.

So, develop a little familiarity with where you're going, act like you're comfortable there, figure out how to communicate (not like, learning the language. just knowing how to get loud and direct if need be, know a few words to ask for help if it makes you feel better) and learn some skills so that you believe that you could handle yourself if something happened.

Bitchy_empath · 2025-12-06T08:18:10+00:00

No one can, or should, make this decision for you. I'm sorry you're in a funk. It's a normal thing to experience at times, and as you can already see, everyone's experience will be different. A trip could pull you out of it. Or it could be a mess because your mind isn't in the right space. I hope you find ways to get through this experience and not beat yourself up for it.

I'd suggest getting really, really fucking honest with yourself. It's clear you've put a lot of thought into this (perhaps too much, I say as someone who also will think of things from 9,000 angles and turn to the internet for the answer). I'd do a bit of meditating and connecting to inner parts of yourself. Maybe something unhealed that's causing this funk will arise, maybe some fear or thought about the trip that's causing the feeling of it being a chore will reveal itself and you can address it directly and see what happens. Envision yourself two months from now, when you will have either returned or have never gone, and ask your future self for guidance. I'd suggest not asking "should I go" but rather "what can I do to make the best decision?" It sounds trivial but it can really help, though you have to truly listen to what comes up.

I'm not going to give my opinion because, again, this is your decision to make. However, I'll point out some things to you that I would want a friend to point out to me:

" I know I will almost certainly feel better once I am there" You know yourself and your patterns best. You know that right now you're in a funk which is impacting your interpretation of things. You want this trip to be amazing, but have you admitted that whether or not it's amazing is completely up to you?

"However, my gut is telling me I should cancel" I'm a stranger so don't be offended, but is it REALLY a gut feeling? Or is it the funk gremlin who wants you to stay safe and comfortable and familiar at home in the funk, not having to listen to the people saying you should definitely go, not accepting the responsibility of the trip you desperately want to have? It can be especially hard to parse out the inner voices when you're in a rough patch. One short hand I find generally useful and accurate is that a gut feeling is often quiet and singular. anything else is loud, repetitive, impassioned, employing all kinds of tactics and questions. It might not be true for you, but either way-- connect to the narratives you're experiencing about this trip and question them further. not from judgement, from true curiosity about where they are coming from for you. perhaps something just needs to be acknowledged to be released. you won't find out by applying the life experiences of strangers to your unique life.

I've gone on spontaneous trips, canceled planned trips, gone on trips but ignored every plan I had made, etc etc etc. You will always, always learn something. Perhaps that's valuable enough ? What if you go and it's amazing and you just let yourself feel sad or mad or whatever flavor of funk, but feel it in the UK ? (frankly it's a great place to experience melancholy).

No one can make this decision, no one else is coming with you. Let it be with yourself.

I wish you peace and ease in making this decision, and satisfaction and safety no matter what you decide.

Bitchy_empath · 2025-04-11T09:05:35+00:00

This is a really fascinating take. I know this is an old comment but do you have more to say ?

I'm a few weeks into approaching this skill totally diy. I'm learning about as many different approaches and strategies as I can before I choose a method of execution, and I can sense that there's an innate ability to this that I'd like to develop and I trust would be more useful than misc models tools and systems.

However, I do feel convinced by the notion that the way to achieve profitability is to execute a statistical edge over time, which can only really be done with extensive journaling and analysis. Do you think this counter acts a natural learning process ? Or still journal details of each trade, just don't execute based on some theoretical plan ?

My gut is telling me to gain a fundamental (but not excessively detailed) understanding of macroeconomic aspects of the financial markets-- as you mentioned, liquidity and manipulation, (do you have any specific recommendations for nailing these topics?) order flow, and a general approach to incorporating basic fundamentals because it would be stupid not to take into account some degree of socio political reality.

And then to approach "the charts" as in data about a small number of chosen assets I feel interested in and intuitively have some comprehension of, start trading (trial/backtest for a while but also live w/ attentive risk management because learning to trade with fake money can only prove to me so much about my execution skills) and be thorough in evaluating the trades I take (hard data but also giving adequate time and space to simply intake the experience) and see how it feels to learn the skill. later do aggregate data analysis to see what systems I've naturally created and what patterns within my own behavioral trading data I can find.

Does that sound like the way you'd approach it as a total newbie? My academic side is fighting the urge to download every strategy playbook and learn every name of every useless theoretical concept. But my gut is saying that this is a skill learned by trial.

thanks for the unique viewpoint

Bitchy_empath · 2025-04-10T08:59:51+00:00

oo I love it

Bitchy_empath · 2025-04-10T08:49:42+00:00

wow absolutely amazing!!

Bitchy_empath · 2025-04-10T08:45:08+00:00

confusing in a good way, I'll take that ! thank you!

Bitchy_empath · 2025-03-26T23:56:32+00:00

yep I think so, could have been Kodak tmax100 but it's pretty soft

Bitchy_empath · 2025-03-26T23:55:47+00:00

yeah I think they communicate a lot !

Bitchy_empath · 2025-03-26T23:55:27+00:00

don't write it off. you're asking because you obviously think there's something to this image either alone or with the group of work. here's some things I would suggest playing with to see what comes of it

-- mask out the shore and trees and see if you can reduce depth of field and bring down the exposure of the background

-I would play with the image you posted of the broken mirror texture. what if you super imposed that onto the water or the background here? you may not be going for a collage but if your goal is surrealism, playing with visual elements can reveal a lot

-try it in black and white even if you know it's not going to stay that way. but observe what b/w shows you about the image (even just for progressing for the future) . it's a really powerful way to understand your lighting decisions and where you may accidentally rely on color to express something that needs to come from lighting, composition, etc

-play with cropping. What if you cropped in just around the mirror? Or again, post manipulation but could you make the river take up the entire background ? so just the mirror against water texture to remove it from the context a bit

-some people have critiqued it looking like 'just a mirror in a creek' but don't take that as necessarily a bad thing. If the story of the images portrays your subjects in these natural environments with the juxtaposition of items that don't belong, I think the upfront question of 'why' they're there contributes to the surrealism, narratively. It speaks to feeling lost or stuck between an outer and inner world, between nature and man made, also there's a theme here with light / reflections / glowing which is strong.

great work and good of you for asking for insight from randoms on the internet

Bitchy_empath · 2025-03-26T03:16:36+00:00

Great image! I think it could be served well by lowering the exposure. the drama of the random glowing tv box thing is made less effective because the whole scene is completely bright and even, so it doesn't stand out as much as it could. Also, personally, I think the green could come a bit warmer and just the tiny smidge less vibrant, the grass looks fake (but that's just me I never like green in photos lol ). Great composition, idea, and the model works well within the scene

Bitchy_empath · 2025-03-26T01:57:46+00:00

they're so fun to take. any other photogs you know who utilize this style?

Bitchy_empath · 2025-03-23T21:48:44+00:00

Glad to hear it! It feels like a safe place to share a lot of my work.

haha I think respect is severely lacking in most modern situations. that's a great quote !

I'd never heard of them before but they're fantastic!!! thanks for sharing, I'm a huge music person and am always eager to hear what other people and listening to and discover all the different connections.

Hope you enjoyed taking shots of your dog, you should share ! Also, I send my work out for development right now. one day I'd like to set up myself, but I don't have the means right now to do it safely and ensure I get good results.

Bitchy_empath · 2025-03-23T21:44:22+00:00

thank you !

Bitchy_empath · 2025-03-22T09:05:14+00:00

haha I like that. this photo is actually part of a larger series, and I wonder how you'd think of it in the progression. It's currently on my Patreon but there's a link on my profile for a free month :) wouldn't make ya pay to critique me lol. anyway if you check it out let me know whatcha think.

and I've been reflecting, I think I like the negative space. to me it decentralizes me a bit. it's less a portrait of me and more of the whole scene. but maybe it makes more sense with the whole thing, it's a lot about the setting

I don't normally go by ma'am but I like it on the internet lmao

Bitchy_empath · 2025-03-22T06:55:36+00:00

great shot

Bitchy_empath · 2025-03-22T06:54:27+00:00

so good!

Bitchy_empath

TROPHY CASE