It’s officially summer on the East End, which also means we’ve entered the purgatory known as The Week Without School or Camp. Normally this is where I’d joke about accepting thoughts and prayers, but real talk: I’ve legit had so much fun with my kids this week. Turns out I, too, want to eat ice cream three times a day. Whimsical of me!

The only thing stopping me year-round is that I apparently have to watch my A1C now. Made an exception this week. Zero regrets. (My favorite ice cream in the Hamptons is A la Mode in East Hampton, if you’re asking.)

Summer as a lifestyle family and brand photographer also looks like this: jetting into the city for a rock and roll birthday party at Cafe Wha, frolicking around a vineyard at sunset tasting cake (that shoot drops next week, keep an eye out), and ending most evenings on the ocean beach with a family client and, if I’m lucky, a cute dog.

After every evening beach shoot, once the family heads out, I make myself stop and just stare at the waves, for at least five full deep breaths. That early evening beach is natural, quiet, and refreshingly un-scene-y for the Hamptons. It’s like hearing colors and seeing music.

But, girlies: it’s very easy to be chill and reflective when there’s zero cell service.

This Cafe Wha party was incredible! I haven’t stayed out that late in some time, admittedly, but I adore the birthday girl and I had the BEST time. The band was SO good that all their covers somehow sounded exactly like the original band, if not better. And I learned that in my forties, I am no longer attending nights out without earplugs.

I gasped hard when the amps first cranked, and then a kind waiter who saw my reaction said, “I’ll be right back.” He handed me a set of orange earplugs, swiftly, in his hand, like he was handing off illicit drugs. And now I’ve ordered Loops so that I’m forever prepared to party.

Help me pick what goes on my walls

Here’s something nobody tells you about being a professional photographer: You end up with approximately three gazillion photos. Travels, daily life, pretty things, the place you live. It’s an archive that is mega unhinged in size.

If you’ve tagged everything correctly (Ha! I have not), you can sort through it all and basically excavate art for your own walls. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing this week, with my ragtag, well, tags, and my Swiss-cheese memory working overtime to conjure up when I might have witnessed a magnificent sunset at a shoot in the last five years.

We have a couple of walls in our newly renovated house that are very much yearning for giant photos. And I mean giant. The kind you take in every single day. Which means the pressure of choosing something I actually want to look at forever is… a lot.

I narrowed my picks down to water photos, mostly abstract and landscapes. Photos I’ve taken over the years during family shoots, at the beach with my kids, just living life near the water. I mocked them up in frames.

I am too close to this project. Emotionally compromised. I cannot make this call alone.

I’m asking for a vote. Look at the images below, pick the one that speaks to you, and tell me in the comments. I will tally real counts and report the results in a future issue.

Your voice literally determines what I wake up and look at every morning, so no pressure.

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I got so many fun messages about my post on saving inspiration! Here are a few I thought you’d love. Keep sending me your sources and tips, and I’ll keep sharing!

How pretty are these Travel Palettes that Wink Design does? I love the idea of creating a visual callback from a place, using a few bars of color, and based on the found evidence of a special place. So good.

Glassette is a content-led lifestyle shopping site, and they curate gorgeous editorial features, often centered on color. Here’s my fave:

Did you know that the kids are saying “clock it” now? A young person told me this. It’s a fun finger clap when you like something! But make sure you’re doing it right, and know its origins, you old fogey.

This was a poignant list of Things You Can Say to Make an ADHDer’s Day.

This article is on the science of dark chocolate and why you should eat more of it! (gah!!)

Could not be more fascinated by this take on the 180 of branding from 2016 to today, and I have much more to excavate out of my own psyche and aesthetic here: “After years of corporate millennial blanding, consumer culture oozes into shape for a new generation.” -The New York Times

In my hometown of Santa Cruz, CA, there’s a literal roller coaster on the beach, It’s an amusement park called the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. This week, they operated their 70 millionth ride on the roller coaster I spent my childhood on: The Big Dipper!

If you enjoyed this post, would you heart it? Thank you!

Have a summery week!

hugs!!

Ana

Today is Monday, the day after Father’s Day here in the US. And I have a hack for you. (You can apply this to any holiday!) It’ll make you feel like the best friend in the world, will delight your loved ones, and it’s efficient AF.

This totally hits my whimsy note too because it’s giving me a beautiful memory to look back on before it’s even far enough in the past to be called history.

Here’s what you do.

If you celebrated yesterday by doing anything at all, I’d bet you took a photo. So right now, today, you’re going to:

1. Pick the best photo from yesterday

2. Order it as a photo gift, immediately

3. Hide it in the closet until you need it

The day you need it might be your anniversary. Might be your partner’s birthday. It might be six months from now when it’s the holidays, and you’re scrambling for something that doesn’t feel last-minute.

Either way, you’re going to look like a genius. (A thoughtful one!) A beautiful callback to a day that already happened, already mattered, already made you happy. And when it shows up later, it’s going to feel like the most clever, unexpected gift in the world.

Do it now. Thank me later.

As I’ve mentioned before, navigating ADHD as a mom in midlife is usually a story of chaos and things I meant to do, even though I wanted to follow through. So when I can manage to crack the “I forgot” code, I do my best to repeat it into habit!

Stashing away the excellent gift in advance means I remembered, and I care. And — I didn’t forget!

Pick One, Order Now, Hide It

• An effing classy, small metal, desktop frame from Artifact Uprising

• A slightly larger gallery frame, for the wall (I have these everywhere in my house)

• A customizable old-school slip-in photo book (paging millennials!)

• These tiny fridge magnets, displayed in a chic grid

• These tiny photo albums?! I stuck these in my kids’ stockings last year to great fanfare

My pick if you want zero decision fatigue: This more substantial desktop wood frame. I have and love these!

P.S. Now you may be wondering, and surely my husband is wondering as he reads this, doesn’t hiding gifts in a closet make me a bit of a hoarder? The answer is kind of. Yes. Kind of.

Hoarding implies keeping things you don’t need and don’t know you have. This is keeping, but the payoff is good. (If you remember where you stashed it, bahaha…)

If you keep and stash consistently but not daily, then it’s under-control hoarding! Hoarding with heart. Should that be the name of my forthcoming memoir?

More on why I’m an emotional hoarder in an upcoming post.

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More Ways to Use This

This hack isn’t just for hiding gifts in the closet. Once you start thinking this way, you see the opportunities everywhere.

1. For your kids

This Friday is the last day of school for my big kids. I’ve got albums on my phone already sorted: Beau’s kindergarten year, Colette’s second-grade year. I’m ordering photo books from both. I don’t do anything fancy with it; I just dump in the photos from each iPhone album and let it build the book. Then I present the kids with their books on the last day of summer, right as they’re gearing up for the next school year. A little closure, a little excitement for what’s next.

2. For work

After a big activation or event, print a small photo of your boss looking good and give it to her at the office party.

If you’re a photographer who delivers digital galleries, take a top tier shot, print it, frame it, and hand it over at the next session. And if you’ve got a family who books you every summer, go back into last year’s favorites, pick the one you know they already love, and turn it into a little keepsake, like a little faux Polaroid print. Bring it to this year’s session. They will not see it coming in this ephemeral age of pixels.

3. For yourself

Pick a photo of yourself, mom, one where you think you look good and everyone’s happy. Doesn’t have to be recent. If you’re doing a spring clean, redecorating or setting up for summer, and you’ve got a desk or a corner that’s yours, make sure there’s a photo of you on it. Go find it on your phone right now, send it to print, and have it up in your home by the end of the week.

I’m going to take my own advice and print this one:

Here’s the one I’m ordering! It incorporates our fun day at the airplane show with a cute Papa selfie.

In Sagaponack, the Antique Airplane Club of Greater New York hosts an open day on a farm in Sagaponack, where the families gather to watch beautiful small planes land and take off.

The planes park there every Father’s Day at 9 A.M., and some pilots even let your kids sit in them. A wonderful hidden Hamptons secret that my friend Kim whispered in my ear!

Have a wonderful last week of school!

hugs!!

Ana

From the very first humans huddled around a fire watching the same flames flicker, we have been fundamentally, cosmically unable to resist turning to the person next to us and going, “Are you seeing this s**t right now!?” Every mosh pit, every courtside seat, every funeral, every New Year's Eve countdown is that same ancient impulse to share something powerful, in current clothes. Blue and orange clothes, if you're anywhere near NYC this week! After this week in New York, I gather the thing we actually can't live without isn't food or shelter or whatever; it's witnesses — other people who can confirm that yes, this is really happening, and yes, it’s absolutely incredible.

As you may have heard, the New York Knicks are the GOAT. The city, as I walked through it yesterday, was a sea of giddy bodies in blue and orange. As a person who doesn’t follow the sport, I would like to say to Basketball: I am more than impressed. I am blown away by you! The way your sport has brought humans together is nothing short of epic. Being a witness to this moment with all of you basketball fans has been a total high.

I was in the city for a shoot, and walking around Central Park yesterday before the game, you could smell it, hear it, and, of course, see it. One out of every three people was dressed in head-to-toe blue and orange, and the Silvercup Studios sign (and every other lit sign) was colored blue and orange.

I briefly took this video on the 59th Street bridge on my way out of town Saturday night! Here’s more amazing art:

And! The art stemming from this joy is brimming with feeling. When people are so moved by something that they freely, joyfully create, it is the most fun to consume. Which brings us to a mini list below of some of the most beautiful and deeply felt artwork I found from Knicks Week.

My friend Nikki Ascher’s Zeeland Brand made this tee shirt that was worn and photographed in Vogue this week!

The Gasp Test

You don’t need to analyze it. You don’t need to justify it. You just need to notice when your body does the thing — the little internal ooh — and go, yes, this rules. Saving it.

That’s the gasp test. It works every time.

I spend so much time waiting for permission to care about something — waiting until I’ve researched enough, understood enough, have a good enough reason, or (cringe) asked enough other people for their opinion, unconsciously averaging out their responses to calibrate my own.

But intuition doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t explain itself. It just shows up as a small interior flicker. The gasp test is just the practice of catching that flicker before your brain talks you out of it.

Look for it! This is what I’m doing when I’m saving inspiration.

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What Actually Makes Me Gasp: A Few Examples

Since we’re here, let me tell you the specific things that get me every time!

1. Color drenching in interiors. You know when a room is painted one single color — walls, molding, ceiling, all of it — and then everything in it follows suit? The bed frame, the bedding, the furniture, every surface just fully committing to the bit? I will never plan to do this in my actual life, and YES, I know that now they’re 99% AI and I simply do not care. I love them. It’s obsession-level.

2. And then there are painters’ palettes. Not the finished work — the palette after. My friend Inslee Fariss does this sometimes, and it is genuinely one of my favorite things on the internet. The combinations are wild and unpredictable in a way no mood board tool could ever generate for you. It’s a remnant — of a specific human, in a specific moment, making a specific thing. There’s no recreating it, and there’s no planning for it, and that’s exactly what makes it so gooddddd.

And that reminds me of something I would absolutely add to any inspo board, a Katherine Wolkoff photo I became aware of when I worked in art and fashion in my twenties: Deer Beeds. Like, what’s leftover when they get up and are gone.

In both cases, there’s something beautiful and meaningful not in the thing, but in the remnant of the thing having happened. Super into that idea!

Pinterest, Instagram? Camera roll! Right?

Of course, we should talk about platforms and best practices for the actual saving of gasp-worthy stuff — maybe you’re still on Pinterest, maybe you use saved boards on IG, or maybe you’d let me talk you into screenshotting your saved IG board, printing it out, cutting it into squares, and gluing it onto an IRL inspo board. (WHAT. Yes, I’ve done this. It’s so fun.)

But you’re not limited to those. For something fresh, try this leveled-up version of Pinterest called Cosmos (here’s my board, below) and an amazing color palette generator called Coolers that I’ve been obsessed with for years (via the inimitable Maria Piessis!)

Coolers is free, stupidly fun, and majorly addictive. It’s a color palette generator, and the whole experience is basically: hit the spacebar, watch a new five-color palette appear, decide in half a second if it’s the one. Here’s one I made just now, which feels very good to my eyeballs in this minute:

Once you’ve landed on your palette, something kind of wild happens: you start seeing those colors everywhere. In your coffee. On a stranger’s jacket. In the light at 4 pm. It’s not magic; it’s just focus — your brain has been handed a filter, and now it’s applying it to everything. And suddenly your inspiration isn’t random anymore. It’s a picture of your current vibe.

I use all of these devices above. I save to an album on my phone if it’s for a specific open project (my next week’s Substack, my son’s Kindergarten show), I save to IG Saved boards for open-ended things like “Japandi interiors I like”, “Renovation tips” and “The Next Time I’m In Tokyo”, and memes. And I play with Pinterest, Cosmos, and the rest of the internet when I just need to be inspired and zone out on a scroll of beautiful things.

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But the most interesting thing about deciding what to save — and what to do with it later — is that it hones the skill of figuring out what you actually love. So, my one and only tip is this: First, save with wild abandon, without worrying about what it signifies or means. Save a lot. Then, look later at everything you’ve saved and see what the emerging patterns are. Because when you smoosh it all together on an inspo board, something clicks: you can suddenly see the thread that ties it all together. It’s a genius reveal you’re giving yourself.

My six pics for this week: an inspo board (made from last week’s content!) with two of the saves in motion! Made with the Esti iPhone editing app. Try it and report back!

I’ll do a part 2 if you like! I realize I didn’t really explain my “…and do something with it” process, and now the post is too long! Drop a comment here if this sparked you, and I’ll continue the conversation.

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I have a post in drafts about trends — specifically, why they're best observed with a kind of Buddhist detachment, hold the hatred. Women of a certain age (aka my age) love to complain about them, and I have a heartfelt reframe. That post isn't ready yet, but in my research I found a 'stack I can't wait to share. This New Slang post is an easy, clever, well-researched POV on the design history and cultural appeal of dressing monochromatically — which is basically my interiors color-drenching obsession, but make it an outfit. (eee!)

Though I literally live here, it is hard even for me to keep track of all the businesses in the Hamptons that changed hands this year. Here’s a great round-up of what to do out East this summer, boasting bits even I didn’t know about!

My friend and longtime client Jen Galante Han’s love letter to Substack, and why it’s the better destination for fashion, vs. Instagram. I always feel like she writes directly to my personal brain, and I love that feeling.

Jean Godfrey June (another beauty I met when I photographed her 11 years ago!) on WHY she chooses clean beauty. Such a great piece.

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If you loved this, heart that cute little heart, and share with a friend!

Thanks for reading, and GO KNICKS!

hugs!!
Ana

Back in the day, it was extra compelling to have a photo appear right in front of you, especially when a normal print took days. Instant film felt like a magic trick.

And IMHO: digital photography didn’t kill that magic. Not even a little.

The whir of the camera motor, and then — pop — it just slides out. Like a toy! A very fun, very whimsy-inducing toy. (I said what I said.)

Since becoming a professional photographer with frequent kids as subjects, I’ve used Polaroids — and yes, “Polaroid” became the word for the whole category of instant film, like Kleenex or Xerox — in all kinds of my photography sessions, as a distraction, as an add-on. But in 2026, instant film has been genuinely optimized, and I think Fujifilm’s Instax line is absolutely brilliant for kids.

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Okay, yes, Instax film is lowkey robbery, not gonna lie. But the cameras are genuinely so cute, everyone from toddlers to full-grown adults loses their mind using them, and watching a photo develop in real time will never not be a serotonin hit.

My favorite part is that you can hand the instant print to someone to take home, but first, photograph it with your iPhone! They get to keep the print, and you keep it forever. Best party trick going.

The only problem: you will end up with a towering stack of Instax prints and absolutely no plan for them. An album works, technically. But let’s be honest — albums live on shelves. Hard to remember to open them.

What if you put them on your wall instead?

I just made an Instax frame using some old wrapping paper I had lying around, and I’m going to show you exactly how.

If you try it, let me know! I’d love to see yours, and I’ll post a few in a future issue. If you’d like to get all the supplies for it, here’s the link. I listed some awesome solid-color wrapping; I’m especially into the matte silver. (You’ll also need a pencil, scissors and wrapping paper of your choice; link above to what I picked!)

LAZY VERSION: If the above feels too onerous, pick up these cute colored frames!

1. Eadem Le Chouchou Exfoliating + Softening Peptide Lip Balm is the softest, smoothest shiny gloss I’ve found in a while, and it has this ridiculous applicator shape that I absolutely love. Plus, I learned about it from someone IN THEIR TWENTIES, and I’ve since noticed many youngish people sporting this poufy pout-glosser. Good products often go viral for good reason, not just “because it’s cool”, though safe to say, this gloss is cool.

2. Instax mania (photo of the craft I'm working on, in the IG video above!)

3. I’ve been thinking a lot about this article. I’m not a shoe girl. I’ve always been a handbag girl. But even I’ve noticed lately that I really… don’t need one? I pretty much just always have my phone, and my purse stays in the car. But as my friend Lauren aptly observed, “we millennials hold FAST to our designer handbags”, don’t we? I certainly did for a long time.

4. I’M SO SORRY, but I really do love the smaller bubble of the “private equity water”, the viral influencer-peddled Loonen Water. It’s got a less-agro mouthfeel than my beloved Pellegrino, and I truly would buy it again. HOWEVER, overall, the taste of Pellegrino keeps it my #1; despite the bubble size, because the mineral flavor is top-tier.

5. Where to buy the prettiest and most unique peony roots, like this “Angel Cheeks” variety I grew on Shelter Island and transported to Sag Harbor. And yes, this photo is of my actual hand holding actual peonies I grew and was on my way to deliver to a friend.

6. The book I’m dying to read but haven’t yet: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. It’s a biting, suspenseful satire about "tradwife" internet culture, toxic narcissism, and the performance of womanhood. Gulp! The premise of an influencer sent back in time alone is worth a go, but I’ve heard so many people recommend this book that I feel extra compelled to add-to-cart.

I just found out that Charlie and Sons turned part of their luxe, massive plant nursery into the most gorgeous coffee shop — there’s a greenhouse to sit in, an adorable little shop attached, and it’s giving Secret Garden (a book I loved!). Run, don’t walk, and get the $8 Olla latte. Trust me on this one. All the Instax I used in today’s Six Pics and the Instax frame project were shot there in the garden.

That’s all for now! Would you heart this post if you liked it? Next week I’m writing about how to gather and organize inspiration for work and life. If you have a burning desire to tell me how you do this, comment below, and I’ll add it to the post! It’s going to be such a fun one.

Hugs!!

Ana

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When a friend recently had major surgery, the community rallied around her immediately and fully, with understanding and total no-strings-attached help. It was absolutely amazing.

Unfortunately, there are more occasions to show our strength as a community. Fortunately, this beautiful community immediately stepped up with love.

Sag Harbor is grieving today.

We lost one of our own, a beautiful 6th grader named Cesar Albarracin Guncay, taken too soon in a tragedy on a school trip. There are no words for what his family is walking through right now.

I met Cesar last year when he was a fifth grader; I was photographing him for the school’s Wax Museum project. He was a wonderful person. Our community is gutted.

As a community, we show up. That’s what we do. I’m proud to be a part of the Sag Harbor family. Tomorrow, everyone is wearing blue, for Cesar.

A GoFundMe has been set up for Cesar’s family. This is the link. If you can give, give. If you can share, share. Every bit of it matters.

I love this village and the people in it. Hold your kids a little tighter today.

🤍 Please share widely.

Ana

You’ve heard of whimsy, right?

Whimsy is a term that’s been trending lately on social media, including TikTok and Instagram. It has caught fire across all generations, not just the “Zillennials,” as The New York Times suggests, but with people of all ages. It’s similar to Marie Kondo’s “spark joy” movement, but instead of focusing on organization, people are seeking out things that have no other purpose than, well, FUN.

Although the word “whimsy” is not my favorite (maybe it needs a rebrand?), I do appreciate its onomatopoeia, and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE it as a trend. It’s about having side quests, making things, being intentional and creating quirky rituals.

And it’s not just sprinkles in your coffee.

In one of my fave examples, people are using this viral original TikTok video where a concerned Sean Anthony Bryant is encouraging his overly negative friends to lighten up, “and some of y’all need more whimsy…” as a fun, trending audio behind a video of themselves romanticizing their lives in some way, and it’s fun to search for! Once you start looking, this whole whimsy idea will have you hooked.

I’m apparently an adult (I object!), so I have to use self-discipline not to ALWAYS choose the fun option throughout my day. But the recognition that there’s value in fun, that there’s a visceral benefit to making it all make less sense, is SO GOOD.

One of the many things that lights me up is… being extra! The weird little things I notice throughout my day make me happy.

The gorgeous shadow on an ugly wall, the green plant against a green wall, any little happenstance beauty-thing, something that sparks something, and creates a tiny moment of (fine) whimsy. A moment of FUN. I let those things matter. And I want that for you, too.

I also don't want to get so sparkly that I lose sight of where this idea came from — it developed as an antidote to people having a really hard time. That's worth sitting with. One of the ways I work through something hard (like a midnight freakout) is by getting loose, letting go of my inner critic, and making something. What helps through a hard place is, truly, whimsical s**t.

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Here are some of the micro-rituals I use to add whimsy to my life:

I’ll heart my own sent-bubble in a text chain to a friend – it always makes them laugh. (And me, too!)

I type “PARABENS!!!!” instead of “Congratulations” because the iPhone will still do the confetti explosion and it sounds somehow MORE enthusiastic in Portuguese. (Thank you for starting this trend, Susan Passoni!)

(I swear I do other things besides texting.)

I do a little shoulder shimmy and a hair flip when I spritz (ONE SPRITZ!) of my favorite perfume after my shower, which feels like it helps spread the fragrance molecules around?? Listen, the science isn’t important.

This is the most ‘80s thing ever, but in the summertime, if there are “daisies” in the grass (ahem, weeds) in the lawn, I love to make daisy chains with them. What a DIY picnic-party hack. You need long-ish, natural nails to pierce the stem properly and thread the daisy through! No gel nails, people.

The other day, after coming home from a business trip, I left a little car I had bought for my son out on the stairs, on the edge, at a height I knew he’d see it. Letting him find it instead of handing it to him felt like the sparklier option. He squealed with delight when he saw it!

I only manage it about a third of the time, but I love sending handwritten cards and thank-yous. I’m obsessed with stationery — calligraphy, quality cardstock, letterpress — and I put real care into finding a card that the specific person I’m writing to would genuinely enjoy. The latest one I bought is this one! I would even write a letter to my future self, on nice paper.

I love to go on solo dates, tie bows on things, and surprise a friend with something they love, and I think I’m going to try all of these things, including star-shaped ice cubes.

Being playful doesn’t have to mean buying something. It can also mean taking a photo!

I once read, “This is a great shoes and socks flower” in a gardening catalog selling plants and seeds. I never forgot it.

How delightfully unhinged is it to wonder what the shoes and socks of a flower might look like? They mean to say it’s a short flower that grows densely, and it’s great to be seen underneath a flower that has its blooms higher, but I went feral with it, and here’s what I made.

Send me a message or post a comment and let me know. (And heart the heart, if you liked this post!)

Playfully yours!!

Ana

I am genuinely having so much fun on Substack, like, actually. (If you’re finding me for the first time this week — hi! — I’m a professional photographer, and I live in Sag Harbor. Read more about me in post No. 0001)

Today, let’s do photos first. Why not!?

And now: How I solve my midnight freakouts.

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Everyone asks me this when they find out I’m a photographer: Do you hate AI? Does it freak you out? Don’t you just feel like the best to ignore AI with confidence? (Well, as a woman, please don’t ignore it, or women will be left out of the boardrooms determining our futures. Read more about this reality in my friend Patricia Assui Reed’s latest excellent post (here).

No, I’m not afraid. I’m not threatened. I’m not even annoyed.

The speed at which our culture is changing around us to be AI-native is genuinely jarring to me — I won’t pretend otherwise.

Over the last six months, I’ve turned my healthy curiosity about AI into a self-directed research project.

Here’s the part people don’t always know about me: every single one of my many hats sits on top of a head with ADHD.

And some essential adulting things were simply never attainable to me before.

Ways of organizing myself.

Ways to finish a task before I burn out on it, got frustrated, and turned that frustration inward.

Ways of feeling things too deeply and letting those feelings cloud my judgments and reactions. (Midnight freakout #1!)

After experimenting (a lot!) I have found a few totally rad AI tools, and honestly, things that felt impossible are now often within reach. That’s not a small thing. That’s a life-altering upgrade-thing.

Here are three ways I use AI every single day to feel more in control and capable of managing my busy life.

1. For me, procrastination is seldom laziness. It’s the feeling that a task requires more time than I have right now — and probably more than I’ll have later — which activates a very special flavor of ADHD stress spiral.

So I talk instead of typing.

I’m a fast typer, but that’s not the point. The point is, I can ramble into my phone while I’m watching my toddler, while I’m driving, at midnight when I’m spiraling about everything I didn’t finish. (Midnight freakout #2!)

Run-on sentences, bad grammar, total chaos — it doesn’t matter. I end up with something started. And something started is everything.

Dictation works for writing. It works for to-do lists. It especially works for the midnight freakout list, which is a real genre in my life. I’m not going to remember which undone thing needs to happen first. So, my Substack draft is due Wednesday, and I haven’t started. My camera kit needs to be packed for Thursday. I need to sweep the next four weeks of client bookings and confirm deposits and details. Summarize that into action items, add to calendar — done. I can sleep.

Dictation gets the thing out of my head and into a shape I can work with. That’s so helpful, so DIFFERENT. It’s a thrill. I used it to start writing THIS POST. At 3 a.m. while driving my baby back to sleep after a night terror, I opened my app and started just talking, by saying, “I want to write about how my AI fascination has changed my life, and I’m going to ramble on until a thesis forms.” My midnight freakout turned into a midnight productivity moment.

Once I get going, I talk in circles and tangents — but somewhere in the blah-blah, a real idea always surfaces.

2. This one is a pivot into my inner world, but it might be the most useful thing in my life right now.

I have a client who responded to my pricing as if I’d personally insulted them. I need to write back professionally. But I am, in fact, kind of insulted. So I brain-dump the situation — what happened, what I need to say, what I cannot say — and ask for a professional edit. What comes back has all the necessary information, but none of my feelings. I don’t sound pissed. I don’t sound like a pushover. I sound like someone running a business.

I’m realizing that I’ve wasted countless hours micromanaging my own emotional landscape in professional settings, without realizing it.

I am a chronic people-pleaser in writing. Left to my own devices, uncomfortable emails become a series of “so sorry, no worries, totally fine, I can wait” — even when I cannot wait and it is not fine. AI just… removes all of that. What’s left is an email that actually moves things forward. I get the booking I want at the rate I know I’m worth, or the clean exit I’m relieved by, without three days of emotional labor to get there.

3. Okay, this one is a little different, but stay with me.

I’m in the middle of a bathroom renovation, and it’s going too quickly for a designer to get involved. BUT! If I drop a photo of the empty room, the mirror I like, and the tile I like into an AI tool, I can see what it might look like together.

It’s not perfect. It’s not going to look like a spread in Architectural Digest. But I get to iterate. I get to be the creative in a moment where otherwise I’d just be guessing — or worse, deferring to someone else’s vision.

That part matters to me — a lot.

Could this newfound addiction to AI come back to haunt me? Absolutely. Probably in ways I can't see yet.

Keeping our voice in the room as women, our dignity for all human beings, and our care for the natural world while AI transforms everything is a conversation that needs to stay loud.

THAT AND right now, I’m a photographer with ADHD who is sleeping better, fighting with fewer emails, and actually excited about her bathroom.

I’m optimistic.

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Four AI apps I actually use every single day because they make my life easier — linked below if you want to try any of them.

• Wisprflow — My go-to texting dictation app. It gets loaded as a “keyboard” in your phone, and it makes dictating a text sound normal, not insane. Eliminates run-on sentences, slots events into order, uses proper title case and grammar, and I almost never have edits when I review it before pressing send. In fact, if you speak with proper “reading with expression”, Wispr will sense where to put your commas! Unbelievably helpful.

• Granola — AI notepad for meetings. It runs in the background and returns a clean, thorough summary. Game changer for anyone whose notes normally look like a squirrel disco.

I’m great in the room, I love face time with a client, but I’m so “on” that the meeting often ends with me saying to myself afterward, “What did I say exactly?” This saves me by providing the info I need for a thoughtful follow-up.

Another time I used it was like a party trick — I tested how long it could record by using it at a full two-hour happy hour. I announced that I was using a new app at the start of the convo, and since AI is on everyone’s mind, people were so into it! Then I sent everyone the summary after. It recorded every part of the convos, minus all my lame jokes! What a win.

• Chat GPT — Best for quick fact-finding — the kind of stuff you'd normally just Google. And their image generator does my absolute favorite "make this room have THIS tile floor…" bathroom renderings.

• Claude — Yes, Claude, the buzzy favorite of Spring ‘26 (who my friend affectionately calls Clive, as though she’s made him HERS).

Claude is the AI I rely on the most. I use Claudey-Claude for email editing to improve professionalism, for dictating an idea and asking for my ramble to be formatted into a to-do list or draft, and for thinking through problems out loud by having the AI ask ME questions about the kind of answer I need. It’s also what I use to strip the emotional baggage out of a client email at 11 p.m. when I should be asleep.

This is how the midnight to-do list gets out of my head and into something actionable.

If you try any of these for the first time, I’d love to hear how it went! Send a message or post a comment, so others can see.

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1. Body Doubling Session — Coming in June, an opportunity to feel supported and motivated to tackle your own tasks by doing so across from another rad person.

I’m hosting my first-ever community work session, which people call “body doubling,” and it’s a practice I find TRULY helpful for productive work.

90 minutes on Zoom: 10 min intro chat, 70 min heads-down work, 10 min closing chat. Theme: Attack the one mundane thing that’s been on your to-do list for weeks. Admin, research, insurance, whatever you’ve been avoiding. Bring it. Get it done.

Interested? Hit reply! I’ll tell you more.

2. Hamptons Family Photo Sessions — Book Now for Summer

Opening the calendar for July, August, and September weekend sessions. Spots drop on Memorial Day Monday — and there aren’t many. Mark it.

3. Small Business Branding Photos

I’m deep in it with my entrepreneurial clients right now — making genuinely iconic, first-of-its-kind work for their personal brands.

If this is you and you want something people actually remember, hit reply — I’d love to tell you more about how it works.

4. Guest Post

I was a guest writer this week on the Blue Balloon School Substack (songwriting school). I photographed brand photos for BBS and spent time with them, and I really got to know their business. Then, my own kid started lessons with a teacher there, and it went really well! I loved this interview; I got to write about my own life and history alongside the experience of photographing them. I’d love for you to read it!

Also, if you’re a Substack publisher, consider guest-writing for another creator — it’s a very rewarding creative collaboration! (thank you, Blue Balloon!)

Share Six Pics I Clicked // Ana Gambuto

How do you save your inspiration when you find it? I’m always curious how other people organize the stuff that moves them. Tell me below.

I keep a saved folder on Instagram specifically for accounts that stop me mid-scroll VISUALLY — the ones I want to return to, think about, extract energy from in the best possible way. This week I’m sharing six of them with you.

As I mentioned, I’m doing some fun renovation on my house, and I’m super into beautiful home inspo.

This was a long one — is anyone still here? Tap a heart if you made it this far. I have more to say, actually. There’s always more.

Until then, wishing you many cherry-blossom stomping moments around town. I like to kick them around like confetti.

hugs!!

Ana

Hiiiiiiiii!

I’m a professional photographer, and if I’m in your life personally, I’m definitely the fun friend. Not available for a run. Very available to try a controversial new beauty product, eat somewhere impossible to get into, perform a skit, make up a song on the spot, or film a quick happy birthday video for someone who lives far away. Any unhinged side quest you’re enthusiastic about — I’m your girl.

I was raised by the waves in Santa Cruz, CA, and then spent my baby-adult years stomping around New York City. Now I’m in Sag Harbor with a husband I adore, three darling kids, and a garden I’m deeply committed to. I work with clients here in the Hamptons and head into NYC every week, which has turned out to be the exact life I find satisfying, bursting with non-stop energy. Thriving.

My new obsession is weekly writing as a hobby, which I realize sounds like something a person says right before they get really into sourdough, but I promise it’s more interesting than that.

I'm terminally online, and I'm not even a little sorry about it? My phone is basically tuned to the top tier of what's being shared at any given moment — but I come at it with curiosity, a real eye for what's actually funny, and an overwhelming need to tell everyone I know.

Enter — my shiny new Substack.

Every issue: six photos I use to tell a story. Six pics that clicked for me. It might be a thing from my life, a full-on personal essay, or just a random collection of curiosities, things I’m noticing, the stuff that doesn’t make it onto Instagram. Part photography, part ADHD diary, part handbook for using your aesthetic to make daily life happier.

I figured out that paying attention to uncommon things is both my job and my superpower, so I made a newsletter about it.

1. my girls. sisters becoming besties 🌸 // pink dogwood outside the John Jermain Library, Sag Harbor

2. me in my element — photographing two kids i love dearly // the rippling pool got me, it always does

3. my oldest, camera in hand — me with mine // two artists, two cameras, one very happy 8-year-old in sequins 🪩

1. Mini-shoots in the Hamptons are coming! Hit reply if you want to be added to the list — subscribers get first access.

2. NYC mini-shoots are also happening. Hit reply and say something witty. I’ll add you to that list, too.

3. Need photos for something? You can now book a free inquiry call and tell me all about it.

4. SAG HARBOR — save the date. Saturday, May 9th at the Church, 11 am–3 pm. I’ll be at the Sag Saturdays pop-up alongside local businesses, all hanging out to gab with the community. Stop by — I’d love to see you.

   Okay, yes, I want this.

   ---

Of course, since I had somewhere important to be in the morning, I was inexplicably awake at 5 a.m. I’d argued with a friend that afternoon, and I was sleepless with thoughts of what I could have said, but didn’t.

I read somewhere that if you can’t sleep, you’re supposed just to lie there until you drift back off. But I was so awake, my eyelashes were twitching.

This was December. Heavy and cold in the way only December is. I decided just to get up.

I crept out to the kitchen in a pitch-dark house — I’d left the blessed phone on the nightstand and couldn’t risk waking the baby by going back in. I found myself with an empty Apple Note open on my computer, much like this one, and I just started to write.

That was the beginning.

The next morning, I got up early again. Not by choice — a bad dream had yanked my daughter out of her sleep — but I rose easily, because my laptop was waiting. I padded out carefully, wondering, “Is this who I am now?” I was secretly looking forward to creating some whimsical ritual around my morning pages, something I could narrate later at parties, delivered with a casual hair flip.

I couldn’t really remember what I’d written the night before. I opened the note eagerly, honestly kind of expecting something exquisite on the page, because writing at 5 am is something Real Writers do, right? Surely my friends Jess Soffer and Susan Passoni do this. Surely Real Journalist Rachel Bowie does.

The blinking cursor giggled at me. The draft was… terrible.

Ah, well.

This is the middle of the story.

I read recently that a glimmer is the opposite of a trigger — something small that moves you. Not setting you off, but setting you forth. A little puff of propulsion toward something unknown, but something good.

I got up early a total of five times. And then, I didn’t.

Now it’s May — late sunsets, later bedtimes, and early mornings are rare. But knowing I did it, knowing I can, is a glimmery reminder that writing from the heart is good for the brain. It quiets a racing mind and closes the thought-loops that torment. If I don’t write, those loops stay open, stealing bandwidth. When I feel lost, the morning pages are there to bring me back.

A little noticing. A little writing.

Puff. Forward. Puff. Forward.

The story isn’t over. New chapter dropping every week on Six Pics I Clicked.

The tabs that live in my head rent-free!

BOOKS // Last week I went to Brooklyn to see a writer I love, Kaitlyn Teer, read from her new book Little Apocalypses — essays about motherhood and climate change that will make you cry happy tears, sad tears, and probably both at once. Genuinely inspiring. I loved it. She was interviewed by my friend Joanna, and the two of them together were so funny — Joanna always asks the best questions. What a treat.

BEAUTY // I scream if this product isn’t in my purse for some reason.

I was born with two fluffy sections of frizz exactly like Krusty, on either side of my head. They’ve been on active duty since childhood, and even in midlife, they’re resilient and ever-present.

The DAE Styling Wand is basically a giant mascara wand filled with styling cream — and it just puts the hairs in their place. No crunch, no fuss, no questions asked. I use it every single day, and I cannot get over it.

What a note to end on. From the bottom of my frizzy heart to yours - thank you for reading down this far.

Not to make this a whole thing, but I'm finishing this edit at 5 am. Again. (Eee, I love a full circle moment!) Today, the stars aligned, and I woke up early! I wonder if my subconscious just couldn’t resist.

I’d love to know: Who’s your favorite read on Substack? Leave it in the comments!

Send Six Pics to a friend if you think it’ll make their day. Or tap the heart at the bottom.

hugs!!

Ana