Exploring with a cardboard box! - 9/18/2026

When I look at this picture, the music video for "American Teenager" by Ethel Cain starts playing in my head.

This is a photograph of a "Private Property. NO Trespassing. blah blah blah" sign. This is my favorite photo out of the bunch.

This was the first picture I took with my camera obscura, besides the ones testing to see how it worked. I think it is absolutely beautiful.

Somehow, this picture reminds me of the view I had from my last bedroom in California.

These pictures were taken using a homemade camera obscura. It was two cardboard boxes, adjusted so that one would fit tightly inside the other. The front wall of the outer box had a small hole with a magnifying glass attached. The front wall of the inner box was replaced with a sheet of tracing paper. Sliding the inner box would focus the projection, which was upside down. What you're seeing are flipped photographs taken of what was projected onto the drawing paper.

For these pictures, we went down to the Guadalupe River to try to catch the sunset. People were looking at me sideways because I was standing on the side of the road with my face in a box. The goal was to capture a serene and almost romantic scene, but instead I captured something more nostalgic and youthful. The camera obscura's effect resembles that of a VHS tape or an old camcorder. To me, these pictures read like a teenage memory. Someone in class said they remind them of summer camp.

While we were driving around, I fell in love with this little river town. There was so much charm and so many spots I want to revisit. It's only a few miles from my apartment, but it felt like its own world. I've always loved areas like this, and I have always been jealous that I didn't grow up somewhere similar.

I don't know if I will ever go exploring with a cardboard box again, but I'm happy I did because now I know about this town.