I'm writing this post almost a week after the day in question, but strangely, I can still see every minute of the day clearly. Perhaps, this is because our excursion to Howth played to each of our senses.
Immediately after disembarking the train, we were hit with a sudden pleasant silence; a melodic hum of waves crashing punctured every-so-often by the oddly harmonic call of seagulls - an auditory break from the constant buzzing of the city.
Read MoreI slept like a rock the first night here, but ever since it's felt like I'm sleeping ON a rock. It took so long to fall asleep Monday night that I accidentally slept hours later than I meant to Tuesday morning and woke up at 11am. I didn't want to waste any more of the day, so I went straight to breakfast grabbing a sausage roll and coffee from a cafe down the street. I'd initially planned to eat there but on this busy morning there were no tables, so I got food as takeaway and started walking back to the hotel, resigning myself to eat in the lobby. Happenstance intervened, and I walked by a cathedral right as my laden hands were about to drop my phone and food, so I quickly dashed to the steps to readjust before continuing walking. But, then I took a bite of sausage roll. And another. The food was so delicious and the steps and walkway so peaceful that I decided to simply enjoy my breakfast right then and there.
Read MoreBecause of its latitude, Ireland sees little daylight during the winter months with the run rising around 8:30am and setting at 4pm. The sun also remains low in the sky, casting a constant golden light throughout the day. As someone who is most certainly not a morning person, golden hour at noon is definitely a concept I can stand behind!
Read MoreOur very first introduction to the country was landing on a runway fenced in to keep out the cows not 20 feet away. That was a new one for me! We made a beeline for the hotel where Dad and Jake stayed (and Jake slept for the next 6 hours until dinner) and I set off in search of transportation to my shoot an hour away. I'd worried most about the flight delay because I'd scheduled a family shoot for Sunday late morning, thinking that would give me plenty of time to adjust and get my bearings, but having to learn on the fly was just as well.
Read MoreI started off my first full day in Portland bright and early, catching the bus at 7:30 to get over to Cathedral Park for my first session. I was really hoping that since it was actually 10:30am in Asheville I might have an easier time waking up, but no such luck. So with bleary eyes, I transferred to the MAX along with every other person in Beaverton and attempted to not stick out as we bumped and jostled our way along. I certainly can't speak for everyone, but whenever I travel I always feel this need to look as un-touristy as possible (perhaps a reflex from being an American abroad), but trying to look unmoved as I repeatedly jolted from side-to-side, white-knuckling the hand rail, was a bit difficult. It did wake me up though!
Read MoreWhereas 2016 was the year of international travel for me, I've spent 2017 exploring cities a little "closer" to home. Initially, I got the idea to spend a weekend in the nation's capital because I wanted to take advantage of Allegiant's new direct flights out of Asheville (the reason for my NYC trip in February) but I also wanted to make it a girls' weekend with my mom. As this [$87 round trip] flight would've landed us at BWI and we'd planned to stay with family in South Riding, VA, we would've had to take a 2.5 hour metro trek from the airport to their home (totally worth it to me!) but in the end we decided to simply fly out of Knoxville and pay more. So, from the outset, the trip was shaping up to be different than I'd originally planned and this was only the first of many surprises!
Read MoreWhile I try to stay pretty on top of my blogging and social media, there is certainly something to be said for putting away the technology (except my camera, obviously!) and enjoying the moments, so that's what I did for the rest of my Portland trip. Though I arrive back in Asheville a couple days ago and am now headed to Columbia, SC to shoot the first round of the women's NCAA tournament, I had too much fun in Portland not to share.
Read MoreTo me, the best thing about traveling is getting to unravel the many layers of a place; getting to know the people, the culture, the history and ultimately the city's character. As people are very obviously not one-dimensional, so too are cities many-layered and today was one of those days where I got to see Portland from many different perspectives.
I started the day at the not-so-enjoyable hour of 5:30 am (I can feel myself slowly getting used to the time difference which made for a difficult morning) and made my way over the river - using 3 different buses, I might add - to meet Jen and John for their engagement shoot. I was pretty proud of myself for not only making it there, but actually getting there early.
Read MoreIf I spent any significant amount of time on my hair, I could not live in Portland. From the moment I walked the girls to the bus stop until I drippingly returned in the late afternoon, water fell from the sky in varying degrees of intensity until I gave up and put my now-birds' nest in a bun. Mind you, I do have a rain coat with a hood but I can't manage to get the thing to stay on. Oh well, small price to pay! My first day here was about as "Portland" as I could get. I woke up around 7 (hooray for going back a few time zones!), walked my cousins to the bus stop where we said hi to the resident ducks, then set off to figure out the transit system into downtown. Though taking the MAX significantly increased my travel time compared to driving, its pros far outweighed the cons as all I had to do was figure out where to make a couple connections.
Read MoreI'll be honest, I didn't focus on photography today. Between the race, the frigid cold and the bacon coma I didn't have enough brain cells to scrape together to take all of the photos I might have wanted. But, sometimes I have to remind myself to enjoy the moment while I'm in it as well as when I'm looking back at it through my images, so today was a good reminder of that lesson.
Read MoreOrdinarily on a trip I would want to get up earlier than normal to catch my favorite light, but I was having none of it this morning. I apparently slept through sirens, garbage trucks and slamming hotel doors while dreaming about ice cream and woke up to the mid-morning sun spilling around the curtains. Since most of the mornings on this trip will all start inordinately early, I was happy to have the rest.
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