My first week on the job as a YourHub photojournalist covered hundreds of miles, included visits to several Starbucks, contained a few well-placed exclamations at the maps app on my fancy phone, and resulted in many, many photos nestling into my archive.

In short: I love this gig. It’s very tiring, but so rewarding. I’ve met more people, heard more stories and seen more new places of the wider Denver metro area than ever before. YourHub largely focuses on the community, hyper-local stories of the front range. Which means lots of driving. Which also means my new BFFs are the car, Old Man George (see also: Dan’s car which I will continue to spend quality time with until I find the right car for myself), and the voice that navigates me around via the Google Maps app. I don’t think she has a specific name. I’ll call her Maude. She gets mad at me when I “go off the grid” (see also: use my eyes and brain and determine a more appropriate route without consulting her first; this results in her forgoing specifics and instead voicing this constant retort: “Make a u-turn. Make a u-turn. Make a u-turn.”). Again, well-placed exclamations.

As I am shooting much more consistently now, I’m going to try and include several “last week in…” posts of my time as a YourHub photographer. Today is the first edition.

To see all the great work the YourHub staff is creating week after week, including my comrade-in-arms, co-shooter extraordinaire, Seth A. McConnell, definitely check out the YourHub site.