My Favorite Travel Images of 2018

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12.31.18
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THE FINAL COUNTDOWN 

It’s the last day of 2018 and I thought it would be fun to look back on the past year and relive some of my favorite travel moments from the year. It’s interesting because I do something similar to this every year and every year my favorite images are almost always different from others. I try not to let emotions play into the selection but it can be difficult. You’ll see what I mean 🙂

I had a fantastic year of travel and so blessed to be able to experience everything that I did. I’m lucky enough to have visited the Europe, Caribbean and of course different parts of America. So let me know what you think. Click on each image to read the original blog post:

drone, mavic pro, california, san diego, fiesta island, birds, selfie, fly, dji, bird, seagulls, practice, socal, water, beach, island, dog island

One of my very first drone images from San Diego. Taken around this time last year, I loved being in Southern California in the winter time. I got my drone at the end of 2017 so I was just practicing flying when I took this image. I really didn’t think much of it until I saw that bird fly below close to the water. With the placement of where I’m sitting and that bird, I love how everything lines up. Definitely expect more drone images from me in 2019. I’m hooked!

Ocean Beach, San Diego, California, ca, travel, visit, west coast, socal, palm trees, reflection, sunset, purple, ob, tides, water, waves, beach,

When preparing for the trip, an image like this was definietly on my list. This was taken at Ocean Beach, San Diego during sunset. I quickly realized that when you’re photographing the beach, you definietly have to learn about tides. In order to capture this, I had to make sure it was low tide and at that time of the year, it was right around sunset. I remember trying to photograph something similar during sunrise and it was impossible. The water was crazy high and wavy. I just love palm trees and seeing the reflection in the sand makes me even happier.

Salk Institute Architecture, salk institute, biological studies, la jolla, san diego, california, architecture, researchers, torrey pines rd,

SALKKKKK! I don’t know what it is about this place but everytime I see an image from it I just want to scream, ‘SALKKKKK’. It is probably because I seriously fell in LOVE with the Salk Institute for Biological Studies when I visited. The architecture is absolutely amazing. This is definietly on my list of places to go back to while I’m in San Diego. I already have ideas of how to capture it differently.

But honestly, how does anyone get any work done here? I feel like I’d take every lunch break outside.

Click here if you’d like to see the video from our trip to San Diego

shenandoah mountains, old rag, raIn, thunder, lightning, trees, hike, trail, ponchos, mud, rocks, trailhead, summer, to do, virginia, va,

On Memorial Day weekend, my cousins and I spent a beautiful day on the Old Rag trail in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. It was perfect because on the way up the mountain was super hot, steamy and humid. As soon as we were about to hike down, it started to downpour rain. At first it didn’t seem like the most ideal conditions, but once it started raining hard, it was like this amazing release of steam off our bodies. It felt so nice but that was also the day Andrew and I realized how important good footwear is on a hike. Soon after this day, we both bought proper hiking boots for the first time in our lives. Crazy how long it took us considering how many hikes we’ve been on.

Those are two of my cousins in front of us, wearing ponchos, avoiding the rain and not waiting for anyone to catch up. LOL.

flamingo beach, gopro, hero 5 black, aruba, caribbean, island life, under over water, beach, caribbean ocean, visit, renaissance island, vacation, gopro accessories

And in the past year I acquired a new GoPro! Shoutout to my friend, Larry for being amazing. It was perfect timing too because I got it right before our trip to Aruba. I spent the week leading up to the trip shopping for GoPro accessories. Isn’t that half the fun of GoPros? Finding new places to put them? LOL. If you are curious to see what I got, check my gear page. Everything is listed there.

So when my girlfriends and I spent a morning at Flamingo Beach, I was super excited to see what I could capture with the adventure cam. I love the reflections in the ripples of the water. Flamingo necks are so crazy LOL.

Click here if you want to see the video from our adventures.

Eagle Beach, Aruba, caribbean, island, island life, drone, from above, blue water, white sand, beach, divi-divi tree, tropical, floaty, watermelon

Another image from the drone! Let me tell you, flying in Aruba is a little scary. Because of where it’s located in the ocean, there’s always a constant breeze. It’s nice when you’re laying out, trying to catch a tan on the beach but it can be stressful when you’re trying to fly your drone above the water. As soon as I would take off I could see the drone sliding back and forth. It took sometime but I love the way it turned out.

This image was a 3 person collaboration. LOL. 1. Me, the photographer. 2. One of my best friends, Ariana who’s posing  for the image. 3. Hannah, who brought and blew up the watermelon floaty. It all worked out perfectly.

San Francisco Weather, san francisco, bay area, mission district, bernal heights park, fog, karl the fog, weather, summer, fogust, local, neighborhoods, workout

San Francisco, you foggy, hilly, city you. Love you. And I’m so glad I got to visit again this past year. It had been a while since I’ve been to Northern California and the entire time leading up to the trip, I was hoping for fog. And I definietly got it! But it was superrrr foggy. Like so foggy that it was difficult to see 10 feet ahead of us sometimes. Not really the type of fog I was hoping for. But either way, I loved walking up the hills and seeing viewpoints like this. What’s so great about the city is that you can see them almost everywhere.

Baker Beach, San Francisco, california, beach, golden gate bridge, pacific ocean, golden gate national park, fog, west coast, california, travel, things to do, sony, update,

Another foggy San Francisco image but I love how simple this one is. There were quite a few people out here fishing on this morning on Baker Beach but this guy was the only one who climbed on top of these rocks to do so. I loved how he was being framed by the Golden Gate bridge with the water surrounding him. There were other people were on the beach fishing but actually in the water. I saw it and my jaw dropped. I was cold enough just outside the beach, I couldn’t believe people were actually standing so casually in the water. Man, I really hope they caught a lot of fish!

Click here if you want to see a video from our trip to northern California.

Rauma River, Åndalsnes, sunset, reflection, norway, travel, romsdal county, rauma, views, norwegian, Møre og Romsdal , oppland county, Lesjaskogsvatnet, Lesja

Now on to our biggest trip of the year, Norway! Andrew and I spent a week in this beautiful Nordic country and it definietly was not enough time. I am really looking forward to going back again and exploring more of the country. This image is of Andrew looking out in the distance at the beautiful fjords at sunset. This is one of my favorite images because it’s actually one of Andrew’s. He never wants to be in pictures because he never thinks he looks good in them. So I was super surprised when he asked me to send him this image so that he could use it as his iPhone wallpaper. First of all, this guy only has the manufactured iPhone wallpapers as his background. Second of all, he never likes images of himself. So when he asked me to send it to him, at first I joked with him that there would be a licensing fee, but then sent it to him immediately. I was super honored that he had it as his lock screen for like 2 weeks. Then it switched to some motivational quote and that was the end of that. LOL I’m just glad he liked this image that much, even if it’s only of his backside.

Another fun toy I got this past year was a 70-200mm zoom lens for my Sony A7II. I had that lens for my Canon camera but finally got it for the Sony and quickly became obsessed. I just loved the compression and being able to see things like I never had before. This image was taken at Trollstigen (troll’s footpath) in Rauma Municipality, Norway. What you can’t see is that this is an extra windy road with lots of hairpin turns. With the 70-200mm, I was able to capture a close up of just one of the turns and purposely waited for a car to drive by to give it a little more context.

It was crazy driving on roads like this because they are spread all throughout the country but eventually Andrew and I both got used to it.

I mean, I like this image so much that I used it as the leading image for my guide to Road Tripping Norway.

Trollstigen Skywalk, drive, street, views, norway, viewpoint, northwest, national tourist route, åndalsnes, unesco, trolls road,

Another one from Trollstigen. I didn’t realize how much I liked that one spot before this but it really was incredible. I really enjoyed the drive up but the views from the viewpoint were so much better. If you were looking down at the road, this image was taken just looking up and a little to the right. I thought the people posing for a picture in their orange and yellow raincoats were perfect. Just the color pop I needed to make this otherwise dark image more interesting. I think I like this image so much because the people are just not that obvious. They are kinda easy to miss but once you see them, it’s really cool. Plus they look so tiny compared to their surroundings. Just shows how massive these mountains are.

Åndalsnes, mountain peak, birds, mountains, fjords, west coast, norway, rain, weather, snow, romsdalsfjorden, romsdal, fjord, molde, vestnes, haram, midsund, nesset, rauma

This image was taken on one of our last days in Norway. If you know me, I’m always on bird duty meaning I’m making sure there are no birds around which was actually pretty easy because after a few days I realized there weren’t many birds in Norway. It is too cold for them? Either way, I was no complaining. So I thought it was real interesting when I actually saw these birds flying from a distance. It’s like they were flying in formation just for me and I was happy to have captured it. I don’t think I would like this image as much if it weren’t for them. Yes, the tones are very nice but the birds is what makes the sky look interesting and what takes up most of the image.

Seneca Rocks, West Virginia, hike, trail, alltrails, airbnb, road trip, wv, thanksgiving, pendleton county, eastern panhandle, mouth of seneca, north fork south branch potomac river, seneca creek, monogahela national forest

On a spur of the moment last minute road trip to West Virginia, I was lucky to have hiked the Seneca Rocks trail with these two ladies. The trail was a lot shorter and easier than I thought it would be and the weather was perfect fall temps. Since it was so last minute, I had no idea what to expect. I’m so glad we actually did it! The view was amazing! And who doesn’t love a pre-Thanksgiving climb up some rocks?

Baltimore-Washington International Airport, BWI Airport, baltimore-washington, international airport, exterior, terminal, new art, washington dc, martin luther king jr memorial, anne arundel county, maryland, md, bwi, holiday travels

I love airports. I always think they are the best places to go to people watch, there’s always somewhere to go or something to do and I just think each one is so unique that I could never be bored. But because of this image, BWI Thurgood Marshall airport is now my favorite out of all of them. They actually hung one of my images up on the outside of the terminal! I’m still pinching myself.

Other than the Martin Luther King JR Memorial image in this image (is that inception?), I still really enjoy the composition of everything. I saw this man sitting and looking out onto the terminal but I purposely waited for that cart to drive by so that all the points of interests would line up. I think it makes it feel more airport-y too.

So there it goes, my favorite travel images of 2018. I had a lot of fun compiling this list. Mostly because I got to relive some of the amazing memories and sights I was blessed to have this past year. I didn’t even realize until now that I visited California twice in one year.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting my favorite images from Washington DC. Until then, hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year’s eve. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do 😉

Let me know in the comments below which image was your favorite.