When I first started my photography business in 2009, one of my top goals was to travel for shoots. Not full-time traveling, I just wanted to travel on occasion and take pictures. In 2012, I sat down to really work on this plan of traveling. Through 2009-2010, I was still working on figuring out what the business of photography looked like. I had just revamped my business model and my quality of work in 2012. Then, in 2013, my first destination engagement session would happen in Denver, Colorado. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of traveling to many locations for pictures. The thing I LOVE about traveling engagement sessions is that they are truly an experience. Engagement sessions are more than just a time for you two to get pictures. It’s a time of celebration of this time that you two get to plan your wedding. It’s a chance to incorporate a little personality in your pictures as well, capturing who you two are, what you like, what motivates you two, and so on. Traveling sessions can easily accomplish this. I thought I would make a quick blog post talking about some of my favorite locations I’ve personally been to.
Denver, CO Engagement Pictures
This was my first traveling session, so of course, it has to be number one. But it’s number one for more reasons than just that. The scenery was absolutely amazing. When I think of my ideal vacation, it’s not relaxing on the beach. In fact, to me, that sounds tough. I can’t sit down and relax. I get bored easily. I need to be doing something. The mountains, the snow, cool fresh air… that sounds wonderful to me! Additionally, we saw a moose during the engagement session. That made the experience even better!
San Francisco, CA Engagement Pictures
I love history and while I was familiar with the history of Alcatraz, I’ve never truly known about the WWII history of this area until I visited and saw all the bunkers and old military setups. It was a pretty surreal experience to me parking in part of a bunker where soldiers used to stand guard with machine guns wondering if this might be the day that we face an attack. Even more ironic, my rental car was a VW. While surreal and ironic, it was pretty amazing thinking how far we’ve come as people in terms of making peace with one another. My rental is a VW, a German car, parked in an old American WWII bunker in the #4 ranked city for the highest population of Japanese-Americans. I find that pretty amazing and so cool that we’ve come that far. Additionally, the scenery here was pretty amazing too!! The wind, though? I wasn’t much of a fan of the wind, but the scenery made up for it.
Las Vegas, NV Engagement Pictures
Las Vegas… this was an experience I’ll never forget! It was the week before New Year’s Eve, and WOW! Was it packed! This was one of the more difficult sessions I’ve ever done just because of the number of people, but it was definitely a pretty wild experience. The city provided so much opportunity for pictures. I do remember there was a public area that we were in, as we were taking pictures, security came out and said we couldn’t do pictures there. That seemed odd as we were in a public space. Then we go to The Cosmopolitan and we are given access to the Chandelier Lounge to take pictures. This made up for getting kicked out of a public space earlier. I wish I could have been there another day for pictures because there’s so much outside of the city I would love to photograph too!
Chicago, IL Engagement Pictures
While this isn’t a huge journey for me, only about 4 hours, it’s still a destination of sorts. Chicago is one of my favorite cities to photograph. In 10 years, it’s nearly been a second home to me as a photographer. One year, I think 1/4 of my wedding couples lived in Chicago, I was quite busy in the area that year. I love how much this city has to offer. Want the beach? You got it. More of the suburb look, Wrigleyville is amazing! Some hidden gems? Oh, they are all over! The touristy spots? You know we can do that. My favorite spot here will always be the planetarium view of the city though. I can’t get enough of it. It’s so peaceful and quiet at the planetarium, but just a mile away, mixed in with the skyline is the hustle and bustle of the city.
These are just a few of the locations I’ve been to for engagement pictures. For the sake of keeping this blog shorter, I’ll wrap it up there. Of course, there are an unlimited number of amazing locations in the United States. I mean, from downtown NYC to a New England Fall, from the mountains of Washington, and the beaches of Oregon. From the scenery of Yellowstone National Park to the white beaches of the Gulf of Mexico. The character of New Orleans, Austin, Charleston, and Laguna Beach. The incredible views of the Grand Canyon to the landscapes of Oregon. This country has so much to offer. I love traveling for sessions and weddings! I love seeing new locations and coming into a session or a wedding with fresh eyes. Often times, I’m not asked about traveling because couples assume I don’t. As I said, I love traveling for sessions and if you have a location you’d love to have your pictures at, let’s chat!