Archive • Andrew Hager's Newsletter • Buttondown

EOD and a Newsletter Overhaul

December 27, 2023

Chesapeake Bay on 35mm film This newsletter is dead. Long live this newsletter. JK but I will be using a different newsletter platform starting next year...

Ehhh, sorry for the sketchy link warning

December 6, 2023

I tested the link for my print shop in that last newsletter and my iPhone Gmail app gave me a very scary “this link may try to steal your identity” warning....

December 6, 2023

Holiday zaniness is upon us. Does it feel like your friends and acquaintances are peddling their hustle and side-hustle goods and services more aggressively...

November 22, 2023

I took a break from the newsletter last week so this week I'm just going to do a little round up of what I've been up to. A bunch a stuff. A Mack truck...

Last Wedding of the Year

November 8, 2023

The end is finally here! Shot my last wedding of the year on Saturday. It was wedding #37 for me. It was a doozy. I couldn't have asked for a funnier couple...

Lil' Vermont Trip

November 1, 2023

Lil' Camera Window, Quechee Gorge, Quechee, Vermont Starting when I was about 10 my family made a bunch of trips to the Vermont/New Hampshire border so my...

Rustic n' Rainy

October 25, 2023

Second to last wedding of the year and it was in a tiny little rustic venue and it rained the entire day. Big recipe for photographer stress. I definitely...

Mid-October Round Up

October 18, 2023

The end of busy season is close! The energy is shifting for sure. I'm trying to chill out a little. I only have two weddings left this year and a whole bunch...

October 12, 2023

Something I wanted to write about this week is how wild it is that people allow me into such personal, intimate moments in their lives, whether for weddings...

Keep It Stupid, Simple

October 4, 2023

I'm giving myself a rest day so this will be a brief newsletter. I don't want to use too much brain power on it. Brevity, in 3, 2, 1... Friday I drove to...

Last Day of Summer, First Day of Fall, and Some Travel Portraits

September 27, 2023

The best dance floor grandma I've ever shot Had a busy weekend of shoots. The season changed, everyone everywhere is sick, and someone told me "All the...

September 20, 2023

View from my hotel room, Albany, NY I had a big trip this weekend! Last fall I was hired to do engagement photos with a couple that lived in Boston. The...

September 13, 2023

Summer Camp Dance Floor Whew. Crazy times. In the past week I have done an engagement session, two weddings, my son started kindergarten, I purchased a new...

September 8, 2023

Crazy busy this week with shoots, edits, and buying a new car. I'm just going to share some film photos from the past month. These ones were shot on the...

Fish Hatcheries, Muscle Cars, Raccoon Skulls, and Apple Orchards

August 30, 2023

Another busy week. Four shoots. The four things in the title of this newsletter played a big part in each of the shoots but none of them are featured in any...

August 23, 2023

Whew, lots of driving this weekend. South Berwick (not far) on Friday for an engagement session, Rangeley (really far) on Saturday for a wedding, and...

Some golf and the last island trip of the year (maybe)

August 16, 2023

Me in the eye of the hora Another bonkers weekend. Headed out to Bethel on Saturday for a low-key, golfy (https://bethelinn.com/) wedding. Both bride and...

Olive Garden Wedding

The title is a joke. Click bait. I didn't really shoot at an Olive Garden. What I did shoot was a very nice, very FAMILIAR wedding. I've written before about...

I was UP THERE up there

Full Moon outside of The Bingham Motor Inn The adventures continue. This past week I visited my 3rd and 4th islands of the year and drove way up north on...

Burnout, Trolls, and Good Light

I have to admit that I've been feeling a little bit of burnout lately. Lots of shoots, lots of travel. I'm feeling tired, uninspired, clumsy, forgetful. I...

Breaking The Rules

On Saturday I shot Laura and Kevin's wedding. They are the couple from last week who I referred to as "impish" because they flat out refused to any...

Three Engagements

No weddings this week but I had plenty of adventures doing some engagement sessions. Three sessions with three very different couples. Session 1 The first...

So Many Shoots+More Island Exploration

Been going full speed since the last newsletter. I'm going to do another day by day breakdown because that's all I can manage. THURSDAY I drove out to the...

Had another crazy week. I'm going to do a day-by-day breakdown of what I did this weekend. Thursday I had an engagement shoot booked in Gloucester,...

Soaked Shoes and Confetti

This weekend I shot two weddings. Very different weddings with very different vibes. Saturday was at The Seacoast Science Center, a place my kids love with...

Teenagers, Surprise Rainbows, and Saw Ceremonies

Stupid weather we've been having lately, eh? New England was mostly spared from the Canadian Wildfire Hellscape that hit most of the east coast earlier this...

Lost Without My Phone

Last week was supposed to be pretty easy. I had just a wedding and an engagement shoot (and two postponed shoots due to weather). It would have been smooth...

Okay, here are my stats since the last newsletter: 5 shoots 2 weddings, 2 family sessions, 1 engagement session 490 miles driven 17944 photos taken As my...

Had a quiet and mellow weekend so I thought I'd write a quiet and mellow newsletter post. This was my last free weekend until the end of July so I wanted to...

I've said before in this newsletter that when I'm photographing for fun or for friends I try to slow down and work more deliberately as a way to train myself...

Another Week, Another Mellow Wedding

I had another small, quiet wedding this past weekend, and I got a few new lights. I also spent some time testing the new lens I wrote about last week while...

It's Wedding Time Again

I shot my first wedding of the season on Saturday. It feels like it's late in the year to be starting but things really pick up after this. It was a super...

Little New Hampshire Trip

On Saturday I had maternity shoot booked in Manchester and I tried to leave extra early to get explore a bit and maybe get some photos along the way. The...

Feeling Resilient

Last week was full of some serious ups and downs. I had two assignments and they both offered unique challenges. I had a casual portrait session which mostly...

Trip To Florida

Last week I flew on a plane for the first time since before the pandemic. It was pretty weird! I headed down to St. Petersburg to hang out with my sister....

James and Lilly hanging out while the trees burn. Remember a couple of months ago when I was waxing poetic about a silly tree in our yard dying? Well now all...

You Stir Up Too Much Trouble

Oxford County Pleasantness Well, I really screwed up. I joking let ChatbotAI white my newsletter last week but if ever there was a time to do it it would be...

Two Shoots and My New Robot Copywriter

Blah blah blah, AI, blah blah blah. Are you sick of people talking about/dreading about artificial intelligence? Yeah, me too. The AI image generators are...

Last week I took part in my first ever styled shoot, set up by Leah from Leah's Lens Photography. Styled shoots in the context of the wedding industry are...

And just like that my slow season has ended. I did a two-part bar mitzvah shoot last week and this week I have a bunch of fun shoots as well. I shot a bat...

Shooting With The Diana Instant Camera

February 23, 2023

I took a couple of weeks off from this newsletter and that's okay. Things have been very mellow. We went on a little overnight trip to Bar Harbor/Acadia...

Testing Out The Mamiya RB67

February 2, 2023

When I was in art school I had a ton of access to really great gear. It was my first exposure to studio lights and modifiers, pro-level DSLRs like the Canon...

RIP To My Favorite Tree

January 25, 2023

When we moved into our apartment last summer I was immediately smitten with this big, sad locust tree between our driveway and the neighbor's property. The...

Birthdays and Book Binge

January 18, 2023

Not much to report this week. Didn't take many pictures because we were all sick and then we were busy planning and executing an excellent 5th birthday party...

January 11, 2023

I think that a lot of people think of wedding photography as being kind of a "normie" genre of photography. To an extent that can be true. Search Instagram...

January 4, 2023

Goofballs Happy New Year! I got to close out the year with two nice shoots and now I'm back in the "chill zone." On Friday I did a portrait session at...

The Gulch / Highlights

December 28, 2022

We are in The Gulch/The Gooch/the liminal space between Christmas and New Years and as always it feels weird. I have been sidelined with a weird cough/chest...

100 Isn't Happening / Lens Test / End of the Year Best Scams List

December 21, 2022

There's no way I will achieve 100 photo assignments this year. It's okay. Resting is okay. Sickness and weather have resulted in many cancellations so it...

Apparently Every Person In The World Is Sick

December 14, 2022

Fun week! I had two shoots (#93 and 94) and Photo A GoGo happened. The photo show as great. Huge turnout. We brought our kids and they were very well...

The Countdown Plus Attempted Family Portraits

December 7, 2022

As I mentioned in an earlier newsletter I am very close to reaching my goal of shooting 100 photo assignments this year. My criteria is that it needs to be...