A friend of mine, Matt Van Swol, was hired by a tourism company to take a trip to Jackson County, North Carolina to take some photos for them and promote them through his instagram page. He texted me and asked if I wanted to join, and of course I said yes. This is a sampling of his photos and mine (any photos without my watermark were taken by him).
Some days, I just need to get outside. Usually there's something going around around me - or occasionally in my brain - that I need to get away from. So my sister and I hopped in my trusty Subaru and drove 140 miles up to Signal Mountain, TN which is just outside Chattanooga. We hiked an out and back trail to Edward's Point, and on the way back to the car ventured down a side trail to Rainbow Falls. All in all, it was about 5 hours of driving for 8.5 miles of hiking, but it was worth every minute.
As I finished work for the afternoon, I took note of the sky; no clouds, warm day, and a slight haze on the horizon. This could be perfect for a sunset run. So, seizing the rare opportunity that I had to just watch the sunset with no agenda, I ran by my brother's house and grabbed him to come with me. We had an hour to get where I wanted to watch from, and we made it just in time. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.
I spent 10 days exploring Costa Rica with my friend Matt. My main goal for this trip was to see how little I could spend as research for an ebook I'm writing on travel. As a kind of preview for the book I made a video that kept track of all my expenses. Of course, I also took some photos. But because video was the priority for this trip, the number of photos suffered.
For those of you that don't know, Monaco is one of the smallest countries in the world coming in at just over 2km² but it is also one of the richest countries in the world. I spent a week in Monaco and felt completely out of place. It only took a couple of days before I was ready to get out of the city and find some waterfalls or trees. Unfortunately, Monaco is entirely city. One of the benefits of Monaco being such a rich country, however, is that every so often they have a car expo and all the fancy cars go for a drive through the streets in a seemingly continuous loop. It was a fun surprise to run in to during my countless walks across the country.
Late afternoon/sunset stroll through the Monastery of Saint Naum; located on the water of Lake Ohrid in Macedonia, just across the border from Albania. I think part of the reason I'm so obsessed with this photo set was the amazing lighting that sunset offers. We couldn't have arrived at a better time, or asked for better lighting.
In March, I took a trip to the city of Cancún in pursuit of warmer weather, the ocean, and prettier places to take photos – especially with my drone. Unfortunately, it rained the entire time and I was only able to take one photo.
187 days later, I boarded another plane, to the same location, with the same goals. However, this time, I accomplished those goals.
I won’t go into all the details of the trip because it would be long and boring, and also you can watch videos of each day on my YouTube page. What you need to know is that this was the opposite of the first trip in almost every way. There was beautiful weather for the few days that I was down there, and I was able to spend some time with the ocean. Along with a couple friends, I rented an Airbnb that overlooked the beach.
We spent every day on that beach, in that ocean, or by that pool. All in all redeeming my last trip down to this beautiful part of Mexico.
Oh yeah, and I got that drone shot I wanted.
I know this picture is pretty lame, but it has a major story behind it and that is why I post it. If you care to hear part of it, keep reading.
This is the front door of the apartment I stayed in while in Cancun, Mexico. It belongs to a man named Rodolfo Cruz, who lives here along with his brother, his sister, and her boyfriend. They were all being generous, despite the fact that the entire apartment wasn’t much bigger than my current living room. I had never met him before stepping out of the bus station in downtown Cancun, but now he’s my best friend in Mexico.
I went to Mexico for a weekend mainly for the photo opportunities, but due to absolutely awful weather and some pretty serious dehydration this was literally the only picture I took while down there. As disappointing as it was for me, it wasn’t completely awful. Those memories are mine and solely mine now, which in this digital age is something unique, and frankly, unappreciated. I have stories and mental pictures, but those are things that can only be shared in real conversations.
If you want to know more; ask. I will always have stories to tell.
