Announcing Same Ghost

I’m old enough to have seen the transition from film photography to digital. Before I went to Italy with my high school Latin class, I received a Fuji 35mm camera as a present, to memorialize the trip. For the most part, that was the kind of occasion I took photographs—on special trips, because buying film and processing film was expensive.

My dad got a 5-megapixel Nikon digital camera around the time I went to college. And because I like to explore new things, and my parents are often entertaining enormous groups of people (30-50 at a clip!), I wound up documenting a lot of lake parties and family gatherings with that Nikon. Most of those pictures were functional, but every now and again I caught something special.

The first time I really got any attention for photographs I’d taken, beyond the standard “That’s nice,” was when a cousin of mine got married. I hung around the edges and snapped what I could, and one particular black-and-white photograph really stood out to everyone who saw it. I got requests to have it printed, and I started to get a lot of compliments on my eye.

I went to Australia and New Zealand between freshman and sophomore years of college, and that’s where my Fuji gave up the ghost. I was taking the last shot of my last roll of film: a Maori war canoe in the bay, with Rangitoto Island in the background. Focus, press the shutter, and then hrrrrrrrr. Grinding as it chewed up the whole last roll of film. None of those images survived, but I had plenty from the rest of the trip.

When I got back, I kept borrowing that Nikon, and shooting everything I could. Eventually my parents let me take it to college myself, and that’s when I really started thinking of myself as a photographer.

These days, the Nikon’s retired. But digital photography has come a long way since then. And the best camera to have, is the one you have with you. That means taking a lot on my iPhone 7, whether with Halide, Hipstamatic or just the Camera app.

I’ve put together a portfolio site of all the images I’m most proud of, over at Same Ghost. Right now you can view and share the images I’ve published, but there’s more fun announcements to come, too.

I’m really excited to share my photographs, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.