To travel is to learn.

 

 

To learn the smell of the earth in a new atmosphere.

To learn the presence of the stars at a different barometric pressure.

To learn the feel of the sun as it reflects off a color of ground that is not home.

To be in a place that is so removed from normal life and routine that it alters what the previous normal looked and felt like.  A way to reset and start fresh.

 

 

I live to learn and travel makes my life full.  So when I found out a client lived close to one of my bucket list locations I’d be traveling to, I offered to gift them a session.  Yes, it’s a little self-serving because I got to do what I love while doing what I love, but it made me so full!

 

 

After 10 days on the road with my sister for my birthday week, we met these two amazing people for a good time in Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California.  I’d never been there and had no idea what to expect . . . and I had no idea it would become a place I need to return to.  The sky, the earth, the smells, the feel; every inch of the place was unique to anything I’d ever experienced before. I could have spent days there.

 

 

And these two, Aubrey and William, were such a ray of joy to meet and play with. They were up for anything. They were super nice and fun. The love and connection they share is a thing all on it’s own – – an absolutely beautiful thing. And they let me just do me, which is rare. Work me is rigid and has everything planned out 25 steps ahead. Not-work me is something entirely different; I ride it all as it comes. I go by feel and run on auto pilot. So in this place, where everything was new, I got to experience it all through my lens. I haven’t done that with people in years. That is usually reserved for landscape where the variable is only light; not light, time, and humans. I was reminded of exactly how much I love what I do. I got to see and shoot differently than I ever get to on a normal day. I got to reset and use light differently. I got to enjoy myself without the worry of expectation. It was perfect.