Closing Out a Summer of Photography
Lisbon - 2026
It pains me to say it, but the summer of 2026 is over, just like that. It was an interesting summer: unseasonably cool throughout May, with the warmth not really arriving until June. This was discouraging, as summer is easily my favourite season; however, once the warmth started to set in, I made the most of my time with leisure and travel.
It’s hard not to feel like this was one of the fuller stretches of photography I’ve had in a while. On days when I didn’t feel like shooting, when the drive didn’t seem worth it, or when the light wasn’t looking great, I pushed myself through it. I’ve stayed back enough times to miss prime opportunities when the weather clears up, and I’ve regretted not being out in the right place when I should have been.
The Fall Sets In
My summer usually concludes with one final trip for the year. That end-of-summer/beginning-of-fall trip, when the temperature noticeably changes and the crowds thin out a bit. This year, I don’t believe that will happen. I have other commitments that need to take priority, and a trip right now would stretch me thin.
September reminds me of New York, and I’m not exactly sure why I’ve related it to these cooler mornings. I’ve been there enough to feel comfortable getting around, knowing the distances, what you can walk, and what is best left to the subway. The sounds and chaos of NYC are organized confusion at its best. It’s the city’s character. I guess my timing matches up with the fall weather that sets in. Mornings require a sweater or a light jacket. I guess landing in NYC more than once in September has done that to me.
Now, if I have a coffee on my deck in the morning, I think of New York. As I stand out there, I can hear the distant construction machinery in the background; probably fall road work. I hear the traffic on the nearby highway. It’s funny how we relate events and locations, how we connect these things. In a way, it gives us comfort, but at the same time, a sense of loss of a time past. When will I be able to experience it again?
Portugal Set the Tone
As I noted, May was cool, and it didn’t actually start to feel like even spring until June. Soon after June hit, I set off on my first summer journey: Portugal. A return to familiar places, but with some new destinations as well. Fifteen days across Portugal, which included Lisbon, Coimbra, Nazaré, Aveiro, and Porto, shot JPEG only for the first time on a trip that size. Early mornings in Lisbon, before the crowds arrived, gave me some of the quietest and most surprising moments of the whole trip. The city has a completely different character when you remove the daily crowds and busyness.
Furthermore, the stillness of Coimbra on Portugal Day turned an ordinary travel day into something I didn’t anticipate. And the weather in Porto, unpredictable in a way Lisbon rarely is, turned out to be fantastic. June really is an excellent time to travel here: the weather can be hot, but not unbearable like July and August.
That trip became the raw material for a whole summer’s worth of writing and reflection, and there is still more to come. Nearly everything I published in the months after traced back to something that happened somewhere in those fifteen days, a technique, a mood, the pacing; that is exactly what I want out of my travels. The obvious things: the memories, and reflection, and the photos, but also the unexpected that I can carry forward.
The Seaside Pastel Recipe
Not long after getting home, I refined and shared my newest recipe. I didn’t want to do this in Portugal, as I didn’t want to treat it as a testing ground for a recipe I hadn’t tested yet. But Seaside Pastel is a recipe built around the specific warmth and ease of summer light, the atmosphere I was experiencing across the Portugal trip. I wasn’t trying to recreate one particular scene when I built it; I was trying to create a feeling, the particular quality of light late in a warm afternoon, the sense of a day arriving at its conclusion, the general ease that comes with travelling somewhere warm and unhurried.
Existing recipes evoke similar feelings, but this one was mine. Everything in it came from my experience and emotion.
It ended up debuting in Peggy’s Cove, close to home, beautiful, and a perfect subject to showcase it. The recipe was all about the light and mood that shows up anywhere the conditions are right, and it became a reminder of how I build recipes: starting from a feeling rather than a location.
Photographed the SLS
Along with the travel, I was contacted to photograph a pristine Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, and I’ll admit I was a bit nervous. Not because I didn’t think I could do it; I knew I could, but because my car photography over the summer was limited. It’s interesting how I can get hooked on travel and everything to do with it and the photography, and my car photography sits dormant. Still, once I have the opportunity to photograph a car like this, the focus and excitement all come back.
It’s safe to say travel and car photography take a completely different mindset and approach, and this shoot was one where I shot RAW and had to work with layers, using lighting and processing those layers through Photoshop. None of that applies to my travel photography.
What’s Ahead
As summer concludes, I find myself thinking about what’s ahead, and I feel that there are destinations I need to visit again, with a new eye and a new approach to my photography. Comparing the photographer I was a few years ago with the one I was in Portugal this year made that clear. After a summer of slowing down, solo travel is a version of travel I’m starting to enjoy more and more. That’s not to say travelling with someone else is bad; it absolutely is not. In fact, sharing experiences is one of the best things you can do for yourself, but you can take a different approach when you are by yourself.
I’m already mulling over ideas for what’s next. I haven’t been back to Rome since that same 2018 trip, and to Prague since 2019. Both places are on my list to revisit. I’ve changed enough as a photographer that it’s time to look at these past destinations with fresh eyes.
Something feels right about closing out this summer with ideas in mind. It will keep me occupied over the winter months as I go back and forth on ideas. This summer sharpened my thoughts on pacing, building work from feeling rather than location, and how differently I travel now compared to a few years ago.
This summer gave me a trip and a new recipe, a rare car to shoot, and a good, honest look back at how far the work has actually come.