plan

All photos available for print and licensing >

Devils Garden in Arches National Park at sunrise. The best part about this entire trail was that we were pretty much by ourselves. Hardly anyone was out there so early in the morning. I felt like I had the whole park to ourselves. But we did run into a few chipmunks, deer, etc. They were cool.

If you’re interested in doing the hike, it’s pretty easy. For the most part the land is flat and the trail itself is well marked. The rock formations were great because they provided some shade underneath that hot sun. However, had I known earlier we would of been able to see so much more than we did. There was kind of a split in the middle of the road around this huge rock. Andrew and I didn’t know which way to go so we kinda decided to just walk back to the car and try out some other trails.

Which leads me to the question, how much research do you guys do before you leave for a trip? I have an idea of the things that I want to see when I visit a new place. I’ll mark them on a map and figure out which is better, sunrise, sunset, or during the day. But I’m not sure if I do enough research like how to get there or how long it will take. I kinda leave to when we arrive at our destination to figure that kinda stuff out. Partly out of laziness but partly because I know things always change. Road closures, construction, etc. Sometimes those things can be hard to predict. For the most part it works, but had I known the Devils Garden trail went a lot further out, I would of been able to see some more really cool arches. Oh well. You live and you learn.

All photos available for print and licensing >

Rarely do I shoot night time images. I love them for the same reasons as I love shooting sunrise. It’s the time of day that you’re usually by yourself. You feel the freedom to just wonder (with a good flashlight). Everything is usually so still and quite. But there’s one good reason that I don’t shoot it that often. It’s because I’m such a morning person now that staying up late is so difficult for me. LOL. For the same reasons of why I hear people who never shoot sunrise, is the same reason why I hardly shoot nigh time. Especially the time of night where you can really see the stars shining bright, usually around 2 or 3am. Man, oh man do I wish you could sleep all during the day, wake up in time for sunset and stay up all night til sunrise and be able to function like a normal human being that way. In other words, why can’t the world just revolve around my photography schedule? Just kidding. Not really, but kind of.

This was shot in Davenport, California at Shark Fin Cove. A beautiful location in the middle of the night or during the day. Now that Andrew and I are on our trip together, I’m hoping to shoot some more night time images. Nothing is guaranteed because we are planning on some cool stuff during the day too. Hopefully I can squeeze in a cat nap so we can take some night images like this. Nothing like sitting in the middle of no where with a whole bunch of stars lighting your path.

Since I shot this on a Rokinon 14mm lens, I am not able to see what my aperture setting was. I’m assuming it was as wide as I could get it at 2.8 but I know for sure that it was 8 seconds long at ISO 2000.

All photos available for print and licensing >

When you’re having a good hair day and you want everyone to see it so you pose for the camera. LOL

Another one from one of my favorite places in the whole world, Höfn, Iceland. When I plan my next trip to this tiny island, I definietly want to spend more time in Stokksnes. One morning was not enough. Ideally, I’d like to spend a couple of days. What’s weird though is that it was the hardest place to book a hotel room. One minute we looked at a place and the next minute the same place blew up in prices. When I say blew up, I mean it went up by $500USD in less than 5 minutes. Sooo crazy! And then there were a lot of other places that weren’t even open for business at the time. Its such a small little town but I can see why the demand is so high. It’s amazingly beautiful here. And the horses were seriously an added bonus. They weren’t behind any kind of fence. They were just out here roaming. Next time I need to bring carrots and lure some of them on to the beach. How amazing would that be?

For this image, I was so happy to have my Sony a7ii. Its just so light and compact that it was easy to try out different points of views. The peak design hand strap made it even easier. Most of the time I had my camera down low like at my waist so I could get the horses to look very large and the background a little smaller. Especially with that huge mountain range, a lower point of view is ideal for this look. The thing that made the hand strap so great was that my camera was able to securely get down low, but my body didn’t have to. I was not about to kneel down into that grass. Do you know how much horse poop there was?

All photos available for print and licensing >

Am I the only one who never knows how to pack clothes for New York City? I mean you check the weather and it will say it’s 80 degrees. So obviously I’m going to pack t-shirts and tank tops.  But once you’re there, it actually feels like 65. It’s the most deceiving thing ever. All the tall buildings and walking through the shadows make it feel so much colder than it actually is. But above all else, sneakers is an absolute must. Props to all the women who walk around the city all day in high-heels. You have my respect, big time.

This image was taken en route to Grand Central Terminal from the New York Public Library. One of my favorite parts of walking through the shadows of all the tall buildings is seeing the different kinds of reflections. Reflections in puddles, reflections in glass windows, etc.  It’s almost like a game to find some really cool ones. But I thought this one was particularly cool because you can see so many different building reflections in this one building. The sun burst to the side of it was just an added bonus that I didn’t even notice until I was shooting. No idea what the name of this building is but I believe it was on 42nd street if you wanted to check it out for yourself.

My camera settings for this image was F22 1/15th of a second at ISO 200. The only reason my aperture was so small was because I wanted to make sure I could get the sun flare to be as large as possible.

So while you’re walking around the city, definietly make sure to look up AND down whenever possible. You won’t be disappointed. You may find special treasures like this that make you really happy 🙂

All photos available for print and licensing >

I just saw that Capital Weather Gang has predicted an even earlier peak bloom date for the cherry blossoms this year. It’s a little nuts that they will be peaking in less than two weeks! This makes me very, very excited. I’ve already been seeing some flowers blooming around the city while driving around. You can’t tell but I have the biggest smile on my face right now 😀

If you’re interested, I created a cherry blossom guide last year. Click here to see it.  All the rules still apply. Hope to see some of you guys there 🙂

This image was taken last year behind the Smithsonian Castle. I feel like that little area of the city is my own secret garden. I can go there in the morning and there will hardly be anyone else there. They seriously have some of the most gorgeous blooms in the city. These pink magnolias trees are some of my favorites. They’re all lined up in against this path way that goes right down the middle of the garden and they are just so stunning when you see them in person. Its also very beautiful when all the petals have fallen on the ground. Seeing the ombre effects on the pedals all spread out, it’s like you’re walking on sunshine. Cue that beautiful 80s music video.

If you want to visit the Smithsonian Gardens you will also find much more behind the Castle than just the Magnolia trees. They have tulips, roses, and cherry blossom trees. Although my personal preference is to shoot the cherry blossom trees by the Tidal Basin and Washington Monument. I love photographing those flowers against memorials. Theres something about the dainty flowers against the marble stone that’s just so beautiful to me.

So excited for spring to be here and grateful for the warm winter we had so we can enjoy the flowers so much sooner 🙂