September 3, 2026 8:33pm

A Lot Has Changed in a Few Days

It has only been a couple of days since my last update, but quite a bit has happened.

The biggest thing for me is that I finally have business cards for Michael Ladd Photography.

That probably doesn't sound like a huge deal, but it is to me. Until now, when I met somebody while I was out taking pictures and wanted to tell them about the website or what I'm trying to do, I had to explain everything and hope they remembered the website.

Now I have something I can actually hand them.

The cards point people back here, where they can see my photography, the Community Gallery, and what I'm trying to do with this project. Hopefully they also make it a little easier to get the word out about donating a photograph for mental health awareness.

I've also spent quite a bit of time in the late evenings cleaning up the website.

The MISC gallery is completely gone. I never really liked having a place where photographs went simply because I didn't know where else to put them. In its place is a new gallery called Human. It gives the photographs I've taken of people a proper place on the site.

I've also continued going through the other galleries, removing things that don't need to be there and trying to make the site represent the photography I'm doing now instead of just filling it with pictures.

The Contact section has been updated as well. I'm available evenings and weekends if someone is interested in having me take photographs, and people can also use it to contact me about Community Gallery submissions or anything else related to the project.

I'm also going to start doing something I've been thinking about for a while.

I'm going on YouTube.

My plan is to start taking people along with me on some of my photography walks on the weekends. Nothing fancy. I'm not trying to turn myself into a photography teacher or pretend I'm a professional. I just want to bring a camera, go somewhere, take pictures, and let people come along for the walk.

Maybe somebody watching will decide to pick up a camera and go outside themselves. If that happens, then it was worth doing.

The bigger goal hasn't changed.

The first camera has already been handed out. I still want to find a way to fund more working cameras and put them into the hands of people who might benefit from photography but may not otherwise have access to one.

The Community Gallery is still open. If you're a photographer and would like to contribute one photograph in support of mental health awareness, I would still love to have it.

There hasn't been some huge breakthrough this week. No giant grant announcement. No company showed up with a truck full of cameras.

But the website is better. The business cards are here. I'm still taking pictures. I'm going to start taking the camera and this project onto YouTube on the weekends.

And one last picture from me.

I caught this little guy today. I know he's probably just eating, but when I looked at the picture...

Me too, little buddy. Me too.