Processed Photos

Hero Frames

Andrew Escay — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 10:00:23 GMT

What Makes a Day Worthwhile?

Isn’t the concept of a photo walk kind of weird? Like honestly. You commit to going out with the direct intention of taking photos. Random things, scenes, people. Then you end up doing this with other people, and sometimes feel like you’re paparazzi…for random people. It’s actually pretty unnatural. I didn’t realize this until I asked a friend who’s getting into photography to join us. She basically asked me “so you just go around and take photos?”. It sounds obvious once you’ve done it a few times. But in reality, it’s not that normal.

It’s actually something I still feel insecure about. Yeah, it’s become part of my weekly (or best effort) routine. But I still get anxious when I run into people I know outside of my photography circle. The questions come in like: “what are you doing?” “why are you doing that?” “did you get good photos?” The answers are often “idk,” “idk,” and “definitely not,” respectively.

So why do I still do it? Why am I willing to put myself out there and try to take photos randomly, going on walks, making a day out of it, without a clear end goal in mind? In my previous blog posts I’ve talked about “Why I shoot”. Photo walks are a big part of it. Ultimately, I want to continue improving and exploring this crazy, creative practice of photography.

So how do I know when I’m making progress? For me, progress isn’t about getting dozens of great shots. It’s about making each outing feel worthwhile. That’s where “hero frames” come in: any shot, from a day out of shooting, that makes me feel like my photo walk was worthwhile1.

The Reality Check

Remember those “definitely not good” photos I mentioned? I had quickly come to terms with the fact that getting photos that I considered “good” would be pretty hard to come by. I would stand in a scene or imagine a composition. Then fail quite regularly at achieving the look I wanted. I was lacking in both skill and experience. But one photo walk later, this idea hit me.

The Walk That Changed Everything

It was a solo photo walk I did in my first few months of photography. I decided, what better place to photograph than Manhattan’s own Financial District. Iconic architecture, a ton of people, and a very historic place in the city…it must be easy to get good photos right? Right?!

After almost an hour of being out, I was giving up. Each peek at my camera’s back screen, immediately after taking a photo (aka chimping), just chipped away at my confidence and hope. Walking aimlessly down the streets, I couldn’t seem to find a composition that was even remotely interesting. I tried different angles, different tropes, different photography hacks…nothing was working.

In my last ditch effort, I walked a near direct path to the next subway station. This would have me walking directly past the New York Stock Exchange building. I told myself I would only stop to try a couple more photos, but otherwise I was good to call it a day. I was giving up. As I had passed the NYSE building…I took one more look back. To my surprise, there was a scene that I wanted to capture that I thought would be remotely worth it!

It was two men on two separate benches. Both in bright neon shirts, just resting, both facing the iconic building. There was one problem…the stone benches were quite far away from each other…and I had a 50mm equivalent lens on my camera (for the non-photographers, imagine you’re using your iPhone’s camera at 2x zoom). I wanted to capture both men, both benches, and the building in the background. So I had to step back…waaaay back2. Here’s where my lack of experience comes into play. I wasn’t stepping back far enough. Every few steps I turned around and was still too close. Just as I thought I was getting somewhere…

And then it was gone. The scene was breaking apart. On one of the benches, a couple people started approaching one of the men with a neon shirt. It broke the scene that I had been observing for a bit. Until I realized what I was seeing. The people approaching were his family. It was his wife and kid, coming up to him. Moments later I realized another composition worth capturing and got this:

The Hero Frame

The Mindset Shift

Seconds after seeing the shot on my camera’s screen was when I thought of this concept for the very first time. I shouldn’t go out with high expectations. I don’t know what I’m going to encounter on the streets or at an event. I just know that trying to get one photo, one shot, one frame was going to be enough to make that whole day worthwhile! Immediately my energy and emotions of the day turned around. I felt accomplished and satisfied. I spent another ~30 minutes leisurely making my way to my subway station and trying to get a few more “bonus” frames on the way back.

How It Changed My Practice

This “hero frame” concept would be my driving force for a long while. Instead of expecting that I should be getting good photos, future photo walks had me thinking I need just 1 “good enough” one. It lowered the pressure for me and got me in a more open and motivated headspace. Each bad photo wasn’t proof that I wasn’t getting better…it was just the default. I just needed to find the one moment where I could maximize my skills and get something rewarding! After spending time looking through my archive, this is actually Hero Frame #4. I had a couple from my earlier walks and a couple after this. This was a pivotal moment for me.

This realization is actually the backbone behind this project I call “processed.photos”. These “hero frames” were originally planned as chapters of a book (who knows, I still might make that), but for now, I can’t wait to show the rest of my early hero frames with you all - stay tuned!

The Journey Continues

Recent Photo Walk Photos from @romedelrosario

So while photo walks are still quite weird, it’s still essential for my process. Especially because I love to shoot street (the why is coming in a future “Why I shoot” series post). But this “hero frame” now centers my approach whenever I do go out. It gives me something realistic to target and works as chapter markers in my overall photography journey. I’m excited to continue documenting and sharing both these chapter markers and my thought process while passing each checkpoint. It’s deeply linked to the spirit of this whole project and I hope that you (yes you reading this) enjoy and follow me along!

Stay tuned for all the work I continue to tee up and please feel free to send over feedback on anything! So what makes a photo walk feel worthwhile for you? I’d love to hear about your approach!

Why I Shoot: The Three Discoveries That Hooked Me

Andrew Escay — Fri, 23 May 2025 12:21:45 GMT

As I mentioned in my last blog post, part of my process is finding my photography's soul. To make progress on this, I have spent a good amount of time reflecting on a few key "why's". This first post explores my general "why" for photography. So why keep reading? If you're here as a fellow photographer, maybe some of my why resonates with yours (and I'd love to hear if it does or doesn't). If you're a friend who's curious about my photography hobby and why I've dived so deep into it, this post is a look into my process.

Discovery 1: How a Camera Changed How I See

I first found myself investing deeper in photography when I decided to buy a camera and explore my city more. I very quickly realized that being somewhere nice and having a nice camera wasn't enough. I struggled to find the right way to capture what I saw and even build the confidence to point my camera at things I noticed. This made me realize photography was going to be much harder than I'd initially expected.

A photo from my first ever photo walk with my camera. Struggling to point straight ahead and mostly just took pictures of buildings.

What had immediately changed for me was how conscious I was of my surroundings. Not in a vigilant way, but in an open and curious way. I started reacting to light falling on objects or sounds that might indicate something was happening. I started to be way more present and observant than I've ever been.

I also found myself noticing things in varying degrees of detail. Sometimes my eye would be drawn to a whole wide scene, something like a busy city scene or a vast landscape. Other times, I would laser in on a sticker on a post or a texture on a wall. And other times it would be a combination or interplay of the two. In some ways, it felt like one massive city-wide scavenger hunt.

It also started making me more observant beyond the context of the photos I was taking. Some days I'd just be walking around without seeing specific photos or frames, but I'd be way more sensitive to something that could become a photo. And sometimes those make me regret not carrying my camera in that moment.

This first excitement and new found sensitivity towards the world around me was the first big draw and the first component of my "why".

This was the very first photo I took where I discovered 'hero shots' and felt that scavenger hunt excitement I described.

Discovery 2: Getting Obsessed with the Technical Stuff

After opening my eyes to the world more, my brain immediately became obsessed with the technical aspects of photography. Like many aspiring photographers, I started to learn to shoot in full manual, taking control of my camera and mastering all the different settings.

Photographers today argue whether it's really necessary to shoot fully manual. Admittedly, modern cameras are really good at guesstimating what we want to shoot and how we want to shoot it. But I wasn't satisfied with just using my camera "optimally".

I found myself curious about the settings, not just to get my desired photo outcome, but also because the actual physics and engineering behind it fascinated me. I was finding myself questioning why the aperture's f-stop affects depth of field. How a stop of light is consistent across shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. What ISO is and why is there also ISO in film? All of this got me digging deeper and deeper.

As a data practitioner in my day job, it's no surprise I was curious not only about how things worked, but why they were the case. I wanted to learn not just how to use my camera, but why certain tradeoffs are optimal. I wanted to know that the photos I made were because of deliberate choices, not happy accidents. Each missed shot frustrated me more and more. I knew it wasn't the camera's fault, so the only option I had was to analyze what I did wrong. And the only way to analyze this was to learn as much as I could about cameras.

This obsession actually translated to everything. My entire project named "Processed Photos" was born out of my constant exploration of the how and why my photos were the way they were. This led me to meticulously studying my exposure settings and reflecting on what had gone wrong, so I never made that mistake again.

Eventually, I decided I wanted to make a book that documented my first year of photography. It would explore "hero" shots that show a progression of my work and my ability to nail the shot better over time. That book is on hold for now. I still might make it, but I learned something in this phase that explains why this book idea transitioned to my Instagram profile plus this blog.

In this phase of my "why", I had believed that the key to taking good photos was mastering my technical skills. That beautiful things just had to be noticed (discovery 1) and that I just needed to have the skills to capture it (discovery 2). But I soon came to realize that both of those are just the prelude to photography. I had believed that I was already in the process of taking good photos, photos that mattered, or could matter. Now I've come to realize that both of those were just the beginning of a much longer journey.

A common “Central Park” photo early in my journey.

A “Central Park” photo I took a year later.

Discovery 3: Realizing I'd Just Started Playing the Game

Once I got that "aha" moment of realizing that I wasn't close to mastering photography, that I had literally just started playing the game, my why shifted one more time. I started to explore more inspiration, beyond just Instagram "bangers". I started to find photographers that made work that excited me or put me in awe. I started discovering bodies of work instead of isolated photos. I started thinking about cohesion and collections.

This was when I also invested in a photography mentorship program with Jakob Lilja-Ruiz (@portra_papi) and bought more photo books. This is when I saw photo work that wasn't always technically perfect, but was cohesively impactful. I was learning more and more that good photography was not at all about technical skill. Technical skill is learning how to hold a paint brush, mix pigments, and throw it on a canvas. That doesn't make you Leonardo Da Vinci. That just makes you competent, not great.

This suddenly shifted everything. It made me realize that it wasn't just about a beautiful scene and the skills to capture it. It also requires being able to hone your style. Developing your taste and training your eye. Learning how to tell stories with the photos and represent multiple sides of that story. Incorporate depth and at the same time clarity. Introduce humor and enhance drama. Capture moments and memories, not just snapshots.

This is by far the hardest part to learn. For one, it's the hardest to describe. Some artists take the approach that the source of art is largely spiritual or found in a dimension that's beyond us (my takeaway from Rick Rubin's "The Creative Act") while others believe artists have processes that can uncover some of the mysteries behind the art (something I'm actively discovering and exploring now with Adam Moss' "The Work of Art"). Regardless of which it is, or which combination of the two, the undoubted fact is that the artistic process is equal parts incredible and difficult.

This was something I never would have thought I would explore in my life. Growing up, I always was interested in very analytical and technical things. Consumer technology, debate, analytics, and software. None of these really scream "artist". And while calling myself an artist is a massive stretch, by any standard, I am still genuinely curious and want to dive deeper into this.

Continuing to explore and uncover the artistic process, and the discipline as a whole, feels like the key to finding my soul. This realization connects directly to what I wrote about "soul" in my previous post - that cohesive meaning I'm still searching for in my body of work. By taking inspiration from the greats that have come before me, by continuing to be inspired by the great work of others, and by actively exploring what my process might look like, maybe I might just discover my process that leads me to my work's soul.

Looking Forward

My photography why has grown over time. Both in the number of whys and the depth of each one. So why do I shoot? I want to get good at taking photos that matter. I want to see the world, engage my analytical brain, and explore an artistic side that I never thought I had. There's so much more to learn and discover and that's what keeps me constantly excited.

So what's next? I have a couple more "Why I Shoot" posts planned. Most of these will dive deeper into specifics of my practice or niches that I am drawn towards. Some future posts might be "Why I Shoot Film", "Why I Shoot Leica", and "Why I Shoot Street". Each why I explore brings me closer to clearing those three bars I set for myself: consistency, confidence, and soul.

If any of my whys resonated with you, feel free to drop a comment, send me a DM, or share this with your network! I also want to know what your why might be and where we might differ.

I'm not a photographer, I just take photos

Andrew Escay — Sun, 11 May 2025 17:42:36 GMT

If you’re reading this, I’m Andrew! I’m an aspiring photographer and have been obsessed with learning, understanding, and discovering the intricacies and complexities of photography’s process.
After spending the greater part of a year noting down observations and gathering my thoughts, I finally found this topic which felt like a good first post to publish. What I’m about to share acts as both (a) the cornerstone of my curiosity and (b) the consolidation of my learnings to date. Before we dive in, I do want to say thank you for being here and I hope you find it worthwhile!

In May of 2022, knowing that I had about 3 months left to my stay in New York City, I bought my first “real” camera - a Canon M50 Mark II, an entry level mirrorless digital camera. I had purchased this for one main reason: Force myself to get out of my apartment (and frankly play less video games) to discover what else NYC had to offer. Little did I know that this was going to be the start of a 3 year (and hopefully more) journey of being obsessed with photography.

In that time frame I’ve taken about 26,000 photos with dedicated camera gear, and a lot more casually on my phone. I’ve shot events, joined photo walks, and attended photography talks. I’ve owned a number of different cameras (10 that I know of, but I could be forgetting some) and lenses. Shot on different formats: mobile photography (for over a decade), digital photography (past 3 years), and film (my most recent obsession). And yet, at the end of all this, I still don’t think I’m a photographer.

At this point, if you’re still with me, you are probably in one of two camps:

“You’re a photographer, cut the B.S.”
“Ok, I’ll humor you, what are you trying to say?”

I want to start by saying that I’m not trying to gatekeep the practice or label what photography is. At its core, anyone who takes any and all kinds of pictures is a photographer. This is something I still personally believe. But what I mean when I say “I’m not a photographer” is that I haven’t personally cleared the bar that I am setting for myself. This is not about creating a "standard”, instead it’s about my personal journey and the progression path I’ve set for myself that I want to hold myself accountable towards.

For those who know me personally, they know that I’ve picked up and dropped many hobbies and interests over the years. And while photography has been one of my longest, I’ve come to realize how early I still am in this journey. I’m constantly finding way more things I still have yet to learn, and way more sources of inspiration that I can continue to draw from.

So why do I have a personal bar I need to overcome? It’s because I’ve started to care really deeply about this hobby and I want to find a path to my own personal fulfillment throughout this process. So what does it take for me, Andrew, to call myself a photographer? I’ve boiled it down to 3 key things:

Consistency.
Confidence.
~~C…Soul.~~ Soul…just Soul…I couldn’t find a third C 😅

Why these three?

Consistency

Among all experienced photographers I’ve encountered, and look up to, consistency is universal. This isn’t just in terms of the quality of their final work. They all have workflows and practices that they’ve developed over time. They are constantly doing something photography related at regular intervals (ex. editing daily, shooting daily/weekly, etc.). And they’re showing up, day in and day out, to take photos. As much as I love taking photos and I love using my gear, I’m just honestly not consistent. I’m not consistent with shooting, editing, and/or curating. There’s a lot of room for me to grow here and this is one of the bars I need to clear!

Confidence

The same photographers I aspire to be like all have a level of confidence in their craft. This confidence can manifest in a number of different ways. Some are those who have full confidence to take on the streets and go for any shot, regardless of what it takes or who they’re getting in the way of. Others show confidence in their craft by putting themselves out there and working with individuals or brands to create art and/or content that’s valued highly. And others don’t do any of the above but they are confident to call themselves photographers because they believe in their work and what they’re doing. I want to build my skills in each of the scenarios I mentioned above. I don’t know yet where I want to take my photography, but I do know that there’s value in building up my confidence and valuing my work!

Soul

Lastly, and most definitely not the least, is soul. When I look at my body of work to date, I don’t see and I don’t feel a strong motivating force behind it all. It just feels like a lot of different photos. Some aesthetically pleasing, some have meaning because of the event itself, and others are just snapshots of my day to day life. All of these photos are valuable and meaningful intrinsically, as long as I still find value in keeping them, but there’s just no cohesion or clear meaning. I’m constantly reflecting and trying to define why I take photos. The answer may change through the years. The answer to my “why” may not ever make itself evidently clear, nor may it ever be easily described. But what I do know is that I’m currently in search for that soul and eventually the outward expression of that soul, which is its voice.

So why do I feel like I have to clear these bars to label myself a “photographer”? Can’t I just be a photographer and also know that I have room to grow and areas to build towards? Honestly, yeah why not? It’s really up to personal preference and, honestly, all of this is made up anyway haha! I’ve just come to develop a deep and profound respect for all the greats in photography that have shaped this art form. And in my own way, I’d like to honor that by working on those 3 key points above before I feel I’ve earned the right to call myself a photographer.

So what’s next and what does this mean? This is now my personal roadmap for my photography journey. I’m going to be spending the next part focused on chipping away at the 3 aspects of consistency, confidence, and soul. Feel free to follow along if you’d like to see more of my journey unfold and come to life!

If any of this resonated with you, I’d love to hear from you and hear your thoughts! In particular, I’d love to hear what bars you’ve set for yourself (if any).