No. 0001 // I Woke Up at 5am and Didn't Hate it
Your Fun Friend starts a Substack.
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.
my girls. sisters becoming besties 🌸 // pink dogwood outside the John Jermain Library, Sag Harbor
me in my element — photographing two kids i love dearly // the rippling pool got me, it always does
my oldest, camera in hand — me with mine // two artists, two cameras, one very happy 8-year-old in sequins 🪩
Mini-shoots in the Hamptons are coming! Hit reply if you want to be added to the list — subscribers get first access.
NYC mini-shoots are also happening. Hit reply and say something witty. I’ll add you to that list, too.
Need photos for something? You can now book a free inquiry call and tell me all about it.
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.
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!
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hugs!!
Ana
Love your writing! So clearly you. Combined with your photos…perfect.
Congrats on your launch!! So happy to be included in this first issue and excited to read more!! xoxo