Archiving My Photography Class to My Portfolio

📷🎞️🦓
There is a particular kind of quiet that settles in when you finally sit down to gather the pieces of something you made. This week I found myself doing exactly that, pulling my university photography class work into the portfolio section of my website.

It felt less like housekeeping and more like looking back through a window at a version of myself still learning to see. Each frame carried a small memory, the light I chased, the mistakes I kept, the shots I almost deleted and now cannot imagine losing.

Photography has always been about noticing. The class taught me the mechanics, aperture, shutter, the patience of waiting for a moment to arrive, but the real lesson was slower. It was learning to trust what caught my eye and to give those images a place to live once the semester ended.

So the portfolio grows a little today. These photographs are no longer scattered across old drives and forgotten folders. They have a home now, arranged in a way that feels honest to who I was when I took them.

If you wander through the new additions, I hope you see something of what I saw. A striped shadow, a strip of film, a stubborn attempt to hold onto the ordinary. Archiving is really just remembering with better organization, and I am grateful for the chance to do a little of both.

Vintage Ilford MGIV Photo Paper Box 8x10

B+W Film Processing Guide by Prof. Leigh Kane

VIEW ENTIRE PORTFOLIO POST

I’ll Have My Pizza May-Bay Style

I like a plain slice. Always have. But somewhere along the way I started wanting it to taste a little more like me — and the two things I reach for more than anything else in my kitchen are mayo and Old Bay.

So one day I put them on the pizza. Together. 🍕🦀🥚

I call it May Bay, and it’s less a recipe than a habit I’ve stopped apologizing for. You take a plain cheese slice — hot, fresh, nothing fancy — drizzle mayo across the top, and dust it with Old Bay until it looks right to you. The mayo adds a creamy richness the slice didn’t know it was missing, and the Old Bay brings that salty, celery-and-paprika bite that makes everything it touches taste a little like summer near the water.

It sounds like it shouldn’t work. It does. That gap between “shouldn’t” and “does” is where most of my favorite food lives.

The May Bay “Recipe”

Ingredients (yes, all two of them):

Mayonnaise
Old Bay seasoning

Instructions:

Start with a plain cheese pizza slice, hot out of the oven.
Drizzle mayo across the top in thin lines.
Dust with Old Bay to taste. Start light — you can always add more.
Eat immediately. Repeat as needed.

That’s it. No crab, no tricks, no special equipment. Just a plain slice with a little extra pizzazz, exactly the way I like it. If you try it, I’d love to hear whether it converts you — and if it doesn’t, more Old Bay for me.

Summer Garden update end of June

🥒🥕🥗
End of June, when the heat loosens its grip and the yard goes quiet. The raised beds hold their shape against the day’s sprawl, cedar edges warm to the touch, soil still breathing from the sun. Vines find what they’re looking for, small tendrils hooking into the trellis like a steady handshake. Carrot tops feather the paths; the salad patch keeps its cool, a low green tide.

I water slow and let the light do its last work. Beads gather on leaves, then vanish. A bee drifts past my shoulder, unbothered. Somewhere a neighbor closes a door. Here, it’s only the soft scrape of a trowel, the faint sweetness of tomato stems on my hands, the small proof of planning made real: a cucumber with a pale bloom, the hint of orange shouldering up through soil, a bowl’s worth of crisp leaves.

These beds aren’t grand, just honest. A rhythm you can feel under your ribs—seed, care, wait, return. At the end of June, the garden answers in its careful language: not yet everything, but enough tonight. I set the hose down, look once more, and let the day close around it.

Wine day with bae

🍷🍇🏳️‍🌈
“Wine day with bae” felt like permission to slow down. Late June light, the kind that softens edges, found its way through the glass and warmed our hands. We didn’t plan much beyond getting here. That was the plan—let the Finger Lakes decide the rest.

The first pour was bright and easy, like a door opening. We took our time, letting the berry and stone settle on the tongue, listening for the quiet notes a busy week drowns out. Clink. Smile. A small joke that landed just right. The kind of conversation that doesn’t need to prove anything, just breathe alongside us.

Out beyond the patio, rows of vines kept their own careful rhythm, green upon green, patient and sure. A breeze lifted the edge of the afternoon, and with it, the sense that we were exactly where we were meant to be—two chairs, one table, the lake not far, the world briefly uncomplicated.

June carries its flags and its histories. We carried ours in the open, in the easy way our shoulders touched, in the quiet pride of being ordinary together. There was no grand lesson, only the soft relief of time well-spent.

We left a little lighter, lips stained, palms warm, promising to come back before the summer tilts away.

You should visit Lamoreaux Landing

Given THE Best On vinyl

I’ve been waiting for this one. Given THE Best finally landed on my doorstep, and the box is heavier than I expected. Four LPs, the muffler towel folded crisp, the shirt soft and a little oversized (it’s an L). And the cover. Kizu Natsuki drew something new for this, and in person it almost glows.

This is the analog version of the best album that dropped back in October 2024, every theme and insert song from the anime pulled onto vinyl. Limited box, ESJL-3170. The kind of thing you don’t expect to actually get your hands on.

I put on KIZUATO, lower the needle, and wait through that first crackle. It’s the same song I’ve carried around in earbuds and late-night tabs for years. But on vinyl the air gets involved. The quiet between notes sits heavier. I feel it in my chest, the old ache that taught me how music can hold a hand you can’t reach.

Four discs is a long conversation, so I’m in no hurry. I flip through the sleeves and let the art lean against the turntable. The shirt catches the afternoon light. All of it says the same thing: you were here for this once, and you still are.

There’s a quiet joy in making room for something you love, in letting it take up space without apology. 🏳️‍🌈👨🏻‍❤️‍👨🏽 And when Side A ends, I’m already reaching for the next one, grateful for the memories, the room fills back into sound and asks me to stay longer.

Given THE Best (ギヴン THE BEST), catalog ESJL-3170 is the vinyl box set version of the best album collecting the theme songs and insert songs from the anime series Given. The original best album came out October 2024, and this analog edition released May 14, 2025. It’s a fully production-limited release, and it’s already sold out at CDJapan.

The details:

4 LPs (12 inch) in a box set
Newly drawn cover illustration by the original manga creator, Kizu Natsuki
Bundled merch: an album-exclusive T-shirt (size L), a muffler towel, and a rubber band
Artists: given / syh and CENTIMILLIMENTAL (V.A. compilation)
Price was 20,000 yen (22,000 yen tax incl. in Japan), roughly US$125
JAN/barcode: 4547366723212

The first song, opening LP1 Side A, is “KIZUATO” (キヅアト).

Repalted Posts

Happy PRIDE everyone

Happy Pride. 🏳️‍🌈

This year we got to celebrate it twice over, as husbands and as a team. On Thursday we were at Schuyler Pride, and on Saturday Angel and I had lunch at the Corning Museum of Glass and then walked over to the SoFLX Pride Street Festival. Flags moving in the wind, music threading through a street full of people who felt, for an afternoon, like neighbors.

We’ve been husbands in a thousand quiet ways (coffee, errands, brushing shoulders in the kitchen). Pride is when we get to bring that out into the sunlight and let it glow. Hand in hand, heart to heart. #husbandswhopride

To the ones who paved this road, the ones dancing on it now, and the ones still finding their way: we’re here, we’re us, and we’re not going anywhere. Happy #PrideMonth. 🌈

Zamartz is Proud to have sponsored Southern Finger Lakes Pride 2026, handing out 50 free flags at Schuyler Pride alongside Goldenrod Preserve and Flags for Good. 🏳️‍🌈

Another year with my cute family

Another year with my cute family.

2025 wasn’t a great year for many people. For us, I’d call it an “okay” year—and honestly, okay still carried plenty of warmth. When I look back, what stands out most are the wholesome, silly moments: hosting our first friends’ dinner, and Joy and Dyson splashing around in a tiny kiddie pool like it was the best day on earth.

As the years pass, remembering a specific point in time gets harder. That’s why I’ve learned to **keep a few key moments—little anchors—**that can bring you back instantly. Photos help. Objects help. And for me, art helps most.

A Visual Time Capsule: Our Growing A to Z Art Collection

I’m a visual person, so this growing collection of A to Z illustrations has become my way of holding onto the moments that matter. It’s also a gift I love giving Angel—something meaningful, personal, and tied to the life we’re building together.

This year’s piece symbolizes:

The hope I have for our growth in Montour Falls
The love of our puppy babies (Joy and Dyson)
Building our next chapter with the Goldenrod Inn

And yes—there’s an Easter egg in the illustration: can you spot the goldenrod in the artwork?

Why This Matters to Me

It’s easy to let time blur. But I don’t want these years to disappear into a vague “back then.” I want to remember the tiny, ridiculous details—the laughter, the chaos, the small wins, the ordinary days that turn out to be the important ones.

This artwork is one of the ways I’m choosing to remember.

What I’m Looking Forward To

Montour Falls continues to feel like possibility. The Goldenrod Inn feels like a dream that’s turning into something real—step by step. If 2025 was “okay,” my hope is that the next chapter is steadier, brighter, and built with intention.

If you’re building something too—whether it’s a home, a family, a business, or just a better year—I’m rooting for you. 👨🏻‍❤️‍👨🏽🏳️‍🌈🐶

Bastianilkk Sabastian Delgado Illustration - Original

Bastianilkk Sabastian Delgado Illustration - framed

Illustration by Sebastián Delgado