Ravens Roost, Charlottesville Engagement

The highlight reel vs the real reel of a destination photographer

Have you ever romanticized the life of a destination photographer you followed online? like no shame, go ahead and raise that hand if you’ve seen an Instagram post and thought “wow she gets to travel for work?! that must be the dream🙌”

I’ve definitely found myself here through the years believing that the finished product I saw online must = their life is sunshine & rainbows all the time…lol why do we do this?!

Getting to travel for work can be the absolute sweetest joy of an adventure but there are also so many more moving parts that you don’t see behind the screen when it comes to planning for them and traveling to and from. So I thought I’d share a little outtake from Jaden & Elizabeth’s engagement session that I recently traveled for and invite you into a little dose of the REAL reel behind the highlight reel you so often see! 😜

Here we go!

•10 min before arriving to the mountain racing the clock for our engagement shoot I looked down at my dashboard to find that I was almost completely on empty…at the top of a mountain…where the closest gas station seemed to be 30 miles back!..not my finest moment(!) but this happened😅

•prayed a big wild prayer and ended up finding a gas station in a little old town a handful of miles from where I was that didn’t originally show up on my gps (praise the lord)

•headed back to the overlook we were shooting at and on my drive up the parkway I saw a bear casually crossing the road 👀 and I just proceeded to the route pretending that was as normal as seeing a dog

•When I arrived to the top of the mountain, I met my sweet couple and just as we started our session it began to sprinkle…and then that sprinkle turned into steady rain…and then that rain turned into a wind storm…y’all, I’ve been shooting for the 8 years and it was like NOTHING I’ve ever seen before!!! Jaden + Elizabeth honestly deserve an award for being the most down to earth human beings and just rolling with the punches like it was no big deal!! amazed by them and their outlook on life☀️

*ALL THIS TO SAY* sometimes when you see gorgeous highlights online it’s tempting to wish you had “her life” or envy where someone else is at but just know with all good/glamorous things there’s always a little more to the story that we don’t see.

yes, it can be rad to travel for work, to visit new places & I’m so stoked for any opportunity I get to do this, but the big sister in me just feels like there is some one out there who may benefit from seeing this side of the coin:

—> that it can be a lot on your body to be traveling on the road often

—> that it’s not always as glam as the gram

—> and finally: having the title of a destination photographer does not make you more or less worthy/ successful

That might sound like the best thing ever to some of you and to others not so much, and that’s ok! I just want you to know~ what you’re signing up for~ before you’re knee deep in a career, lifestyle, relationship etc. and realize you were chasing someone else’s ambition and not your own.

A bit of a ramble, I know, but I hope more then anything this gives someone permission to stay in their lane and chase after the thing that truly fires them up, not just chasing after whatever seems like the most glamorous route in your industry!

xx side note xx are you the type of person who doesn’t let their gas tank drop below half way or do you live life on the edge and ride those miles for all they are worth?! thinking I need to not gamble with the gas in my car as much as I do LOL😅😂