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I was in Florida for a few days last week working on a travel piece and exploring Citrus County, which is about 2 hrs north of where I used to live in St. Pete, and where I sadly haven’t spent nearly enough time. It’s stunningly gorgeous. I got to spend time on the water, hiking and biking some trails, and seeing all sorts of wildlife (manatees! alligators! an eagle! a hippo!). Now, I have no idea what this beautiful accident on my iPhone camera roll is of, but I see several different things in it and I feel a certain way about it. It’s an aberration and also a mood. Plus, I like its imperfectness and its ambiguity enough to share.
Aside from home, here are 5 things I was looking at and loving this week:
APhotoEditor is taking the pulse of the state of freelance photojournalism. Give yourself some time to take this survey — but please take it! (Deadline 5/19.)
Shoutouts to some great work by friends: Kholood Eid gives us the personal and the powerful with The View from Palestinian America, Pete Kiehart documented two of his favorite things, bicycling and Ukraine in When Racing Returned to Kyiv's Velodrome Amidst the Chaos of War, I’m still thinking about that Damon Winter photo of the pigeon and the paper Trump cutout, and fellow Florida Gator Carlton Ward Jr. recently spoke at UF’s graduation about the Florida panther and helping create the movement to protect the Florida Wildlife Corridor, and more importantly on shared paths.
Ansel Adams stamps and stamp-related things (Field Notes!) from the USPS.
The New York Times Style Magazine has a great culture issue and the theme of the most recent one is Beginners — from debuts to do-overs, what it means to start an artistic life — at any age. I loved the section where they asked 80 artists and creative people what they’re working on next and the Advice on Beginning.
I recently discovered and have been enjoying long-time National Geographic photographer Annie Griffith’s Substack. She’s got some raw and real posts (like the one about losing her son on the Mall in DC on the 4th of July!) to hilarious behind-the-scenes moments on assignment (like running out to make a sunrise picture on assignment only to realize she’d forgotten to put on pants!). So good.