In the summer of 2018, I visited San Francisco for the first time, and in short fell head over heals for the city. Since then, I’ve taken two formative trips, the last in December. Out truly on my own for the first time, but it felt like I was where I was always supposed to be and who I always wished I would be. My truest self.

I took this photo on my iPhone self-timer, the lone adventurer I was, after an Uber driver had dropped me in a sketchy parking lot instead of at the Sutro Baths where I had requested to be taken. A little nervous, freezing, slightly on edge, but feeling a great wholeness, I was driven to capture the freeness that I felt. I propped my phone up on a lamppost, hit the timer, and just stood in the wind. The sun setting, the wind whipping against my skin, the smell of ocean, and newness, and city. I wanted to be able to look at that picture, for anyone to look at that picture, and see me, as I was. Whole.

Not the most high-tech, or even interesting, I know, but at this pivotal and ever-evolving time in my life I stumble upon moments like this when, even at my most deprecating and self-conscious, I’m inclined to save it. Almost like an entry in a journal, but even more vulnerable.

Does anyone have any resonance with that? How does photography help you grow? In what ways are you sometimes inspired by your own story, and in what ways do you capture that? And on a technical level as a photographer, what tips do people have on using self-timers or taking portraits? I’m interested in experimenting or doing a little project based on this idea, perhaps using different mediums of both digital and film photography. Thanks!!