SEPTEMBER 18, 2026
BATON ROUGE, LA
FUJIFILM XE-5
Louisiana is forever home in my heart, even if it is not exactly the most luxurious state on earth. Baton Rouge in particular occupies a weird spot in my soul, because my time there from 2015-2021 was marked with extreme highs and multiple lows in my life. If I had a list of top-ten life lows, about 6 of them would have come from those years. It was a time that was spent trying to rediscover my soul, which was made even more difficult by the bruising I got from engineering school. Yet, the spirited lifestyle of LSU made those two particular darknesses brighter, and I did find a certain level of deep healing wearing purple and gold. Therefore, it’s always sort of a weird love affair coming back for a visit.
Despite the lows, I would argue that one of my highest highs also come out of this town, and that's all the time spent cutting my photography teeth while my nose wasn’t in the books. I explored almost the entire city with a camera in hand. It was arguably my favorite way to take a study break next to driving down river road at night, or doing anything with my Tiger Racing teammates.
For this trip, I went back to ground zero where my love for photography bloomed to obsession in 2019: downtown Baton Rouge. This was where I did my first ever shoot with my beloved Panasonic GX9, taking some of my favorite photos I’ve ever shot. I wanted to relive that moment a touch, so I went to the same location, this time with my Fujifilm, and re-shot some of those compositions done in 2019.
Admittedly, it wasn’t as magical as the firs time I shot there, but getting the chance to wander, rethink my time in that city, and at least remember some of the magic with the Panasonic was enough to make the trip worth it. The drinks with friends afterwards helped liven the day up as well.
For editing, I’m still experimenting with new styles, this time less focused on the “filmy” look and moreso lightly experimenting with color + exposure in post. Normally I like deep, inky blacks and saturated colors in my photography, but inspired by James Popseys, I decided to move towards a more over-exposed look.
And now for some images:
