On Succession, which returns to HBO August 11, Nicholas Braun plays Cousin Greg—the adorably awkward courtier thrust inside the Roy family media conglomerate. Given that he plays the audience’s surrogate—the naive normal lowered into a snake pit of power and wealth—there is something appropriately sweet about the actor himself playing a similarly awestruck role as he shot the HBO drama.

While filming the show’s pilot, Braun was so impressed by the shooting locations that he started snapping behind-the-scenes photos. Using the 1974 Pentax K1000 he bought in New Mexico while shooting 2016’s Whiskey Tango Foxtrot—and a film-loading technique he learned on YouTube—Braun began assembling a Succession photo diary.

“During the pilot, we ended up in embassy buildings, mansions, the streets of New York,” Braun explained to Vanity Fair. “I just felt like, I may as well take advantage of these great locations. And then as we got closer—the cast and me—I felt like this was such a good way to capture this moment that we’re all having together.”

While filming the show’s second season, Braun invested in a Leica Q—which, he explained, “is a real, real dope digital camera.” Every once in a while, Braun said that he curates a small set from his photo diary to send to the cast. “We shot for seven months this year, six months the year prior. It’s a lot of time to be spending together…and it’s really nice to be able to give these to people, these moments captured.” While his costar Sarah Snook loves the camera, other cast members can make memory collecting difficult—particularly Kieran Culkin, who, Braun said, “usually likes to give me the finger in his photos, or something to sort of make it unusable. I know I’ve got to be careful about shooting him.”

Ahead of Sunday’s season two premiere, Braun teased that his character will continue struggling within the Roy family, specifically “with being taken seriously. He wants to be a little bit more of a threat, but then he's also not sure really whether he can kind of throw out his moral compass to do what he needs to do to be in this group. It’s kind of an inner battle for him—he doesn’t know exactly how deep he can jump in.”

In anticipation of the new season, Braun shared 10 stills from his Succession diary—taken everywhere from Six Flags to Scotland—exclusively with Vanity Fair. If you look carefully, you may even glean a few clues about what’s coming next.