A Fuji-style Journal Through September

The Matchbook | 10.16.25

Brand new shoes for a great big walk…I’ll explain…

A month that was, a month that stirred and shifted and called itself September. A month where circumstance (and weather forecast) meant we had to leave our beloved Fujis behind when we flew to Scotland for 2 weeks to photograph 2 weddings. A mistake we now know we’ll never make again.

‘Twas a great month, filled with travel and hello and goodbye and so many magical things. I shall show you some of them that my humble little Fuji captured, though there will not be as many as usual. Onto it!

Click on the first and it’ll let you see them bigger and scroll through each one :)

September was HOT here in Montana, and heat means none-sleeves shirts for Lady G, it means Galoso ice cream (for those not allergic :*( ) at local live music events on Wednesday nights, it means sucking every last bit of warmth out of the forecast before the inevitable hits. If you are from Montana, you know precisely what I’m speaking of. We also stumbled across a Beautiful magpie that had left this place far too early, and I stopped to whisper words to it, to photograph it, to tell it I was sorry for the glass we put up all over this planet that reflects the sky. Then, our dear Gilly (girl, not dog) finally packed her things and headed to college in California. She also takes stunning Fuji photographs, and every batch she sends get better. Finally, Lady G and I had to drive two special passengers, my Mom and my Dad, to Bozeman to catch their flights to France. They embarked on an absolutely bonkers, amazing, inspiring journey to hike the entire Camino de Santiago, from St. Jean Pied de Port in France, all the way across the entire country of Spain, to Santiago de Compostella. Over 500 miles in 37 days I believe. As I write this, this beautiful Friday the 16th of October, they will be walking into Santiago, completing their journey. What sweet timing. Their boots are the lead in photo to this whole thing, brand new. I cannot wait to see them when they return home. I am so proud of them, so beyond proud.

Right before we left a few days later, we had to celebrate the one, the only,

Steven Brown

, or Beavs as he’s known, on the occassion of his birthday. Sarah made an amazing cake, and it was wonderful to ring in another lap around the sun for him. We have been babysitting my parent’s dog, Murtle, who is Gilly (the dog’s) biological sister from the same litter. All in she’ll have been with us about 45 days, and I don’t know what Gilly will do without her when my folks finally return. One last sunset walk before we hopped on our own plane to fly across the ocean once more to photograph two weddings in Scotland. What beauties they were, what a place that is.

For all our nerves about flying Ryan Air (from a billion horror stories), things actually went perfectly smooth and we arrived just fine and dandy, both directions. What did NOT go smooth, however, was the entire trip home from Scotland. After a night in Ireland, as we flew in and out of Dublin, we flew first to Boston only to circle for a long time, then finally land. We had a 4 hour layover, so we knew we’d be fine, but the moment we landed our phone’s buzzed with the notification that our next flight was delayed over 2 hours. That meant we’d miss the connection from Minneapolis back to Bozeman. 5 minutes later, the phones buzzed again saying the delay was now 3 hours and 50 minutes. 5 minutes after that, we were somehow automatically rebooked on a flight the next morning at 7:05am. It was noon.

$595 on an airport hotel (the only room left) that they told us we had to pay, we ended up in Boston overnight, and had to wake up and be back to the airport by 5am the next morning. Fast forward another exhausting 8 hours and we finally made it home to Bozeman, then drove the 1.5 hours back to Helena. A day and a half late. Still, it was amazing to be home after over 2 weeks away, and I still to this day find it so funny how comforting and peaceful the little routines we carve out for ourselves truly are. Home is home, nothing can compare, and all the adventure in the world cannot replace it. Home.

I adore the blurry twisty photo of Sarah walking as that was taken the evening we got home, we were both jet lagged, worn thin, and just so tiredly elated to be back it all felt like a blur.

September ended with soft sunset light, what felt like a million senior photo shoots to wrap up month, and more walks with two dogs, instead of one.

A beautiful month, and try as I might to not feel pangs of regret at not bringing the Fuji anyway to Scotland, I still do. I won’t make that mistake ever again, damn the extra weight, damn the needing a smaller rain sleeve to protect it. It’s worth it.

I hope YOUR September was just as lovely. I hope you love seeing and reading these little behind-the-scenes stories. I hope.

Lastly, a plea:

Things have dipped, pretty hard actually, on the paid subscriber front here. I know money is tight everywhere, and so I will just say this: IF you have it, and IF you love this place and want it to stay alive, your support would mean worlds and moons, truly.

I love you a lot.

Be good.