07/04/2026
Today’s the day everyone posts flags and fireworks, but let’s talk about the version of this holiday I actually believe in.
Eight years ago, I was at a concert with my daughter. She wasn’t even a full month old, and the sun was setting behind us in that exact kind of golden light I still chase in photo sessions now. We were both smiling and for a moment it was as if nothing in the world could touch us.
It’s kinda crazy to think where we were 8 years ago, or 80 years ago, or TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY years ago. Somehow there’s arguably both more and less freedoms now.
I’m a q***r small business owner in the heart of the country, good ol’ Oklahoma City. I don’t have to even say how difficult that can be in today’s climate.
I take photos of q***r couples in love, families that don’t look like the ones on stock photo websites, BIPOC clients who deserve to be photographed with the same warmth and care as everyone else, women in the middle of divorce, reclaiming a body and a life that’s finally their own again, and everything in between.
None of that really fits neatly into a red, white, and blue graphic. But it’s the most American thing I know how to offer: the belief that every single person, regardless of who they love, what they look like, or what they’ve survived…deserves to be seen as fully human, and fully worth photographing.
So today, it’s less flag waving and more believing people deserve dignity, safety, and the right to exist EXACTLY as they are.
Because that’s the version of freedom I’m celebrating. Happy Fourth, friends!