My Trip to Slovenia | Personal

My Trip to Slovenia | Personal

When I left for Slovenia I never imagined I would leave with a 4-week old baby back at home. The last month has been a difficult, surprising, and beautiful time. When Willow came home I had to make a lot of decisions about what I would keep and give up this summer – with constant travel booked, I knew I couldn’t make it all happen. I decided to forego every trip except this one with The Good Story for a lot of reasons, but leaving her at home is one of the more difficult things I have done.

I traveled to Slovenia through Venice, Italy, to photograph the Reach Global European Division Conference. Reach Global is a missions organization that has workers all around the world. Every two years they hold a conference to encourage, equip, and refresh these people who selflessly give all of themselves to serve hundreds upon thousands of people. To say it was an honor to in turn serve these missionaries is an understatement – I am truly in awe that I was able to participate in such an amazing endeavor.

The first few days of the conference were extremely difficult...

Working for Carol + Frank | Business

Working for Carol + Frank | Business

I never talked about it too openly on social media or my blog, but I shared some on my Instagram stories that I picked up some work in the off-season on product photography. Part of my fear in talking about it was in how much I was learning - and in all honesty, I did not start out doing my best work! Taking pictures of products is a completely different world than wedding and portrait photography, and I felt like I was thrown into the deep end without knowing how to swim.

Eventually, though, as all things go, I picked up a lot from looking at other websites, watching established photographers work, and playing around with different lighting and setups. I also had a great team of people to help with the design and style (not my strong suit, especially at first!) and together we were able to pull off some beautiful work.

Today I wanted to share some of my favorites and 'debut' the Carol & Frank line on my blog because I love it so much! I think if my house could be filled with their product I would be more than happy :) Enjoy something completely different on today's blog!

How to Overcome Jet Lag | Monday Musings

How to Overcome Jet Lag | Monday Musings

I wrote a blog at the end of June talking about all my travels coming up this summer, and right now I'm in the thick of going back and forth between the East Coast and other countries! The craziest part of the whole summer is my back-to-back international travel, from a week in Slovenia to a few days in Italy to Japan just a couple days after that. I knew jet lag would be a big factor in my exhaustion, but thankfully I have handled plenty of travel before so I am starting out on the right foot.

For those who are new to any kind of travel, though, I have plenty of advice for staying alert, awake, and high energy even when time zones change and sleep doesn't happen. So in light of all the travel that is coming up for me (and you!) this summer, here are my best tips for overcoming jet lag.

1) Stay hydrated...