journal

Last year, I made a Destination Photography Bucket List on the blog. This year, I looked back on it to see if I had made any progress. I shot 8 of the 20 locations on the list! Not half bad for a year! After a full calendar year had past, I was inspired by my journey to look ahead to new travel and reevaluate the list! Some remained on the list and a few new venue-related locations popped up. Here it is folks!

May 4, 2018

Destination Wedding Bucket List | Wedding Photographer Kir Tuben

This was one of my favorite shoots from my trip to Cuba. Because I focus on weddings and real couples, I rarely work with models and oh man was it a treat! This lovely human knew exactly what angles to rock and gave bridal a whole new edge.

March 28, 2018

Cuba Editorial Shoot | Havana Bridal Session | Chucha

Being a Division I swimmer, I have ALWAYS wanted to do a water session with one of my couples. But it’s not the easiest thing to convince couples to throw on bikinis and go for a dip when the closet body of water is the Potomac River. I was lucky enough to capture Ellese & Dave’s proposal during their trip to Banff this summer. Since Ellese is a wanderlust like me, we naturally started planning our next adventure. Since we had our eyes set on Tulum, it was a cinch to snap some engagement photos during the front end of our trip when Dave could visit for a few days.

March 21, 2018

Tulum Beach Engagement | Mexico Wedding Photographer | Ellese and Dave

On my plane ride over to Cuba from Ft. Lauderdale, I sat next to a stranger who described how her parents met. She said they were at a party and her father looked up, saw this woman across the room and and thought ‘Oh, there she is.’ This is nearly the exact same story for this darling Cuban couple.  

March 5, 2018

Cuba Wedding | Destination Wedding in Cuba | Ernesto and Jeli

WHAT A PAIR. This was my first photo session in Cuba and I was like a kid in a candy store. Ishak & Felix’s natural love and vibrancy set the tone for the whole trip. We snapped these at sunrise before their trip to Paris (which was the first time on a plane out of Cuba for Felix). Their infectious smiles and kind spirits shine through in these portraits.

February 27, 2018

Cuba Sweetheart Session | Destination Wedding Photographer | Felix and Ishak

I absolutely adored Nicole & Jamie’s wedding. Having never met me in person, these two hired me on the spot after a 20 minute Skype session and a positive recommendation from Jamie’s sister, Jen. We clicked immediately and from that moment on, working with these two extremely awesome humans was a delight! 

February 22, 2018

New Orleans City Park Wedding | Pavilion of Two Sisters Wedding | Nicole and Jamie

There are few things I love more than travel. I have wanted to go to Cuba since I was a Sophomore in college. My thesis advisor at Duke, Alex Harris, did a series of photographs in Cuba for his book The Idea of Cuba and I was obsessed ever since.

January 31, 2018

Cuba Travel Tips | Destination Wedding Photographer | Personal Post

This was probably one of my favorite weddings to date. Liz is a close friend of my sister Kristian’s and as soon as she got engaged, K was all about that referral. I sat down on a random weeknight to Facetime Jordan and Liz to see if it would be a good fit and BAM, it seemed like we had been friends for years.

December 26, 2017

Cliff House Maine Wedding | 80s Theme Wedding Party | Liz and Jordan

When I think of the term “power couple” these two come to mind. Caroline is a Duke grad from Idaho who I weirdly met in our Freshman year Spanish class. She just made the Forbes 30 under 30 list for being a media queen. If you don’t know what that list is, you should know it’s harder to get on that list than to get into any Ivy League college. Bam. Dan is the sweetest guy from New Jersey and works for Deloitte. While the two now live in San Francisco, Dan is in New York a ton for work and their jobs take them all over. The future Gadinos decided to snap engagement photos where it all began: Duke University.

December 12, 2017

Duke University Engagement | Duke Gardens Engagement Photos | Caroline and Dan

Sometimes when you meet someone, you just click. That’s how it was with this girl right here. Morgan Sessions and her husband Blake are the bees knees. We met while traveling to a film photo workshop in Provence, France. From the moment I saw her pink hair I knew we’d be fast friends.. I also knew I just HAD to photograph her!

November 16, 2017

Pink Hair Bride | Alternative Wedding Inspiration | Morgan and Blake Sessions