OOO: Postcards from O‘ahu

Textures. Views. Rest. Tiny people in big nature.

If you read last week’s essay, you know it was all about rest—a reminder that not all rest is the same, and that doing nothing isn’t always resting.

This week, I’m sending you some ‘postcards’ from Oahu as a gentle invitation to pause, even in this season that so often urges us to set goals and do more.

Hey, you made it to the end—I have a little secret for you! I curated these postcards poolside. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I’d send anything out this week, but I couldn’t resist sharing these textures and views of people surrounded by nature.

I’m always working on a few photo series. One is a collection of doors from around the world (the goal is to capture numbers 1 through 100), and another is called The Measure of Her.

I get why people love street photography—I’ll snap a few scenes myself now and then—but there’s something about stepping back and capturing the sheer scale of Mother Nature that fascinates me. Seeing a tiny human dwarfed by the vastness of the ocean, a ridge, or a mountain—it shifts everything into perspective.

Without someone there, scale can feel abstract. But those moments of awe—when we see how small and delicate we are, yet still willing to paddle out into the waves or hike to the heights—those moments remind me how extraordinary we are, too.