Reviewing my 2018 year through my travels, photos and numbers | Adventurous Elopement Photographer | Traveling Wedding Photographer
Adventure Sessions - 16
Weddings + Elopements - 24
States visited (more than 24 hrs spent) - 18
Most visited state - California
Countries visited - 10
National Parks explored - 14
Longest stint in between travels - 46 days
Shortest stint in between travels - 4 days
Flights taken - 47
Rental cars rented - 16
Ed Sheeran concerts attended - 2 (plz more Ed)
Sophie Walks - 143
Dang. What a year. This year has been one full of adventure, work, travel, figuring things out, experimenting, shooting, learning and growing. The ways that my business has grown from beginning of this year to now is practically a 180 in the best way. With that has come a lot of personal growth, a lot of trying and a lot of failure, but it’s made for an exciting time.
Through creating this blog post, I’ve realized (I mean I already knew but I EXTRA realized) that I’m REALLY bad about taking photos in my own life, and REALLY bad of having photos taken of me when I’m in neat places. Majority of the places I photographed other people in this year I don’t have a photo of me in, so going into 2019 I’m going to try to prioritize that more. That being said, half of these photos are iPhone shots and muchhhhhh lesser of quality than others, but were here for the memz today, not the quality so come back next week if you’re looking for quality of images haha!
Above you’ll see my year wrapped up in numbers. Flights taken, parks explored, clients worked with. The photos are all in a scramble, and are a whole assortment of what this year really looked like to me, minus client photos.
Here’s a quick recap from month to month:
January
I welcomed the new year in Jackson Hole, WY with my childhood best friend, Madison. It was a spur of the moment trip (literally days before) but a blast. We skied, explored the Tetons, hot tubbed, saw elk, played in the snow, and were happy campers. However we did fall asleep at 10pm on New Years Eve so I’ll try to make it to mid night this year.
From Jackson Hole, I headed to Las Vegas where I met my friend (and now roommate!) Ally. We rented an Escape Camper Van and did a road trip through the southwest, hitting Sedona, the Grand Canyon (where we woke up to a snowy canyon one morning!), Valley of Fire, Death Valley and Joshua Tree. It was my first time in the last three and I fell in love with all of them. I woke up for sunrise nearly every morning (a record for Nicole) to witness sunrise in each of the places.
I came home for a few days and headed to Europe with Chad. Our orgiginal plans to spend half our time skiing in Switzerland and half eating through Italy were changed because of EXTREME snow in Zermatt, Switzerland where they literally closed the town down. So we ended up spending a day in Geneva and heading to Italy. We explored Florence, Amalfi Coast and Rome. There’s an entire blog post about that trip HERE, but Amalfi was my favorite. And stereotypical Italian food seriously lives up to the hype. Like hot dang.
February
February began with a trip back out to California where I spent a few days for shoots in Joshua Tree and headed up to Yosemite for the Adventurers Workshop. 2 days jammed packed with learning and adventure and that kick started what the rest of the year would be for me.
Mid to end of February I drove up to Boston with my friend Grace for a wedding, and spent the weekend exploring Boston, Segway tour included (definitely don’t miss those images).
March
End of March my mom and I headed on (what is now) an annual trip to the UK. We spent 4 days in Ireland + Northern Ireland and then headed to Scotland where we hit Inverness, Isle of Skye and Glencoe. Also blog posts about that here and here! Those were some of my favorite days of this year and solidified that I’m obsessed with Isle of Skye.
April
April was pretty chill - much needed after a very busy personal season, and work off season. At the end of the month, I headed to St. Lucia for a wedding + adventure session. 5 days in the sunshine with my second shooter Christie, and we spent the last two days exploring the island, getting stuck on a broken down boat, spending hours trying to get cash out of ATM’s and seeing the coolest waterfall everrrrr.
I also bought my Subaru Outback, Sheila, in April - adventure mobile woohoo!!
May
May I turned 24! It was also the start of wedding season. I shot a few weddings and stayed local - this was my longest stint of the year home. Went on lots of Sophie adventures, prepared for the upcoming busy season and put some serious work into my business.
June
Begining of June, my friend Sarah and I took off to Rahobeth Beach with Sophie and my new adventure mobile. We (I) thought we were super cool with my new all wheel drive rig, so we drove onto the beach, had the best 2 hours, played with Sophie in the waves, and watched the sunset, and then my said adventure mobile got stuck in the sand TWICE and the only other people on the beach had to dig us out. Learned that Sheila has boundaries ;)
Shot some more weddings.
Flew to Zimbabwe! Spent 9 days on the ground in Zimbabwe with an incredible group of people, planting gardens, connecting with Zimbabweans, eating a ridiculous amount of food, and watching a lion eat a rack of ribs. Epic.
Came home, shot a wedding and drove to Maine to meet my family! Spent some time with them in Acadia National Park, drove to Mystic, CT on the way home. Fell in love with Acadia all over again. We spent the 4th in Bar Harbor, which has some of the best fireworks in the country and it was the most perfect all American 4th of July filled with hot dogs and hiking.
This was also the month that Google became the #1 source of traffic to my website - a HUGE goal of mine for 2018, and the stoke. was. high.
July
Mid July I headed to Washington to shoot a wedding and shoot a bridal session in Mt. Rainier NP. That was my first time at Rainier and I almost cried it was so beautiful. I came home to shoot a wedding, and flew back out to the opposite coast, but north to Banff national park in Canada with Chad. We spent the week exploring Banff, Jasper and the surrounding areas. Also almost cried at how beautiful those places were. Oh, and saw a grizzly bear. Whaaaat.
August
From Banff, I headed to Washington for a wedding and quick family visit, and then headed to the Oregon Coast for a few shoots and some solo ‘splorin. One of my favorite days of the summer is when I had a whole day to just take my time driving up the coast, stopping, hiking, exploring, collecting agates. It was the best. Also solo camped here - a little sketch but highly recommend. From Oregon I headed to Lake Tahoe for a shoot. My first time there in the summer and hot dang that’s a gorgeous place.
September
September was the start into the last two month push of busy season. This month and the next were probably the two craziest of my year. More weddings locally, an elopement and adventure sessions in Acadia, followed by a few days of hangin up there with my mama cause she tagged along! After that I headed to Sequoia National Park for an elopement - my first time there and completely shocking. From Sequoia I flew to Asheville to meet Chad for a few days of hanging. Although I was sick the whole time so really didn’t take photos there.
October
October started with some weddings locally and then took me back out to California. Sessions in Solvang and the coast, then up to Yosemite for another session and an elopement, and then a flight to Sedona for another elopement. That was a crazyyyy few days but I loved every second of it. Beach to mountains to desert in the same week and worked with some great people. Came home and wrapped up October with a trip back out to Washington to film my “secret” project that will be done very soon!
November
November held my last elopement of the year in Zion National Park - I love Zion and I got to see some new parts of the park this trip which was great. Came home and drove to Shenandoah NP for an adventure session. We FROZE but holy smokes we got a beautiful sunset. The rest of November was me signing a lease, editing my life away and shooting a few sessions locally.
December
December started out with a last minute trip to Colorado with Chad! He had vacation and we found cheap flights so we headed to Keystone for a few days of skiing. And spent a day in Rocky Mountain National Park which was a blast.
My last journey of the year was a little drive over to Cape May, NJ for my last wedding of the year.
PHEW. I’m exhausted typing that. It was a crazy year for sure. I was figuring out my boundaries, growing my business in exciting ways, and learning a ton. Going into 2019, I’m trying to be slightly more intentional about my time and scheduling, but so far it’s stacking up to have some incredible adventures within it too. Ireland, Scotland, Austria, Mexico, Iceland, Norway all to come in the next few months. AND Chadley and I just bought a teardrop camper, so you know some adventures are about to get goooood!
It’s a crazy time of life, but really pretty exciting living it day to day, and looking back at it in a lump sum at the end of the year.
Thank you for following along, supporting me, working with me, and showing up. Couldn’t do it without all of you!
Looking to plan an adventure elopement or destination wedding? Shoot me a message below and let’s get planning!