It feels like a decade ago that I graduated college on my couch then walked around the empty campus with a friend and a mini bottle of champagne, because somehow it was almost a decade ago.
That was towards the end of my first big 5-year chapter and that, in and of itself, feels like such a different world the one we're in now. But here we are, welcome to my first 'blog' post!
If you don't know me.. hi 👋 I'm Ethan, I'm a sports photographer and "Creative Workflow Nerd" according to my email signature. Today, I'm starting a new chapter and choosing fun over the grind.
I first got my start in photography back on high school yearbook. The contractors we had hired to cover sports didn't have the best coverage so I took it upon myself to check out the yearbook's Canon EOS 5D and shoot a soccer game. I posted the full gallery on Facebook, people liked them, I kept covering the games.
I took that inkling of storytelling with me and grew it with The Hatchet, my school's student newspaper, taking on as many sports assignments as I could and eventually finding my way into the Sports Photo Editor role by my second year.
On a whim, I applied for a photo internship over at the Washington Team and suddenly I found myself in the NFL, MLB, NBA, WNBA. Quite a turn from running to the field over from my high school parking lot.
Like many, the pandemic pushed me into quite another turn, after the send off into the wonderful wide world of adulting, graduating college on my couch. I lost some opportunities in sports, stayed in DC one year longer than I had planned on, pivoted to tech via Apple Retail and eventually moved to Colorado for a change of scenery.
When I moved out to Colorado, I had no guarentee of a job at the time, I knew I had to make the change though even if it "wasn't the right time". Low and behold, I was able to transfer stored with Apple and thus made it to the end of my first 5-year chapter, employed and starting my free trial of adulthood in a state where I knew one single person.
That next 5 year chapter was a rollercoaster ride. I went skiing for the first time, on the second time I had a full yard sale, headlined by a complete ACL tear. In recovery for that, I learned how to prepare for and execute fire evacuations while on crutches. After I got off crutches and wrapped the beginning of my medical insurance experience, I got to test drive the car insurance experience after totaling my car in a freak late-May snow storm.
Between no car payment and getting out of an apartment lease, I figured that was a good time to celebrate my first year in Colorado by leaving Colorado and traveling around a bit. I'd highly recommend Amtrak's Coastal Liner journey down the West, absolutely stunning.
I came back to Denver though and called that home for the last 4 years of that chapter. And oh my god, were those quite the 4 years. I'm talking high highs, and some serious lows. New friends, internal discovery, healing, building, rediscovering photography and lots of paddleboarding, pickleball and cooking. Balanced, of course, with heartbreak, loss, doubt, endless patience testing, complicated weirdness, bureaucracy and wayyyy beyond F.I.N.E-ness.
Today, I'm marking the end of this chapter. I've gone out with a bang and after spending some time this year figuring out what and where is next for me. Right now, it's figured to be as a newly minted EU citizen living in Amsterdam.
Next week is the beginning of a new chapter and the vibes are.. something between a silly goose mentality, standing on real-real business, and making some cool shit happen that's been sitting in my brain for far too long.
This chapter is about having more fun in the process. Let's call it my "Living in Stereo" era.
