September 24, 2017

So Cal Wedding Photographer Experience

Y’all. It’s been literally years since visiting California, and oh man. It’s totally different having a Socal wedding photographer experience! I came out to Los Angeles for a photographer business workshop, and you guys… California is SO good for the soul. I mean seriously.

I don’t know if it was the food, the fresh coastal air, or good company, but it was perfection!

If I were to shed a little honesty with you all though, I have to say I’ve never slept in so many random parking lots during the day in my entire life, except maybe as a kid… totally not the same. I couldn’t sleep the night before due to the complete and utter excitement for being California bound, so… I decided staying up was the best idea. Around 3-4am I hit the road for So Cal, and about 4 hours into the drive I had to pull into a random McDonald’s parking lot to catch some zzz’s. Classy, huh?! I thought so too.

I ended up pulling out my pineapple pillow and laying my front seat all the way down, then slept for a few hours. Apparently the whole “your body knows when to stop” thing is accurate, because my body was ready to completely clock out for a bit. I woke up right around lunch time, and continued on the road to the beach. There was little care for the destination so long as it brought me to the ocean!

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Well, apparently minimal food, a full can of organic rock star, and minimal sleep takes a toll on the body, because I ended up starting to feel incredibly sick. This was, thankfully, after making it about 30-40 minutes in Long Beach so I could catch some fresh air and scenery before getting stuck in a car again.

Sadly, I was on my way to meet up with a previous bride and groom of mine, and their family, for dinner when I started feeling even more sick to my stomach. There’s not much that’s worse than not knowing if you should pull off to the side of the road during LA traffic, or to just keep pushing forward. I ended up pulling over and into another parking lot. Nap time in a random parking lot part 2 commenced. If you can guess the ending of my first day in California, you’d guess that I sadly didn’t get to have that dinner date with my previous clients after all. :'(

Thankfully, come that late night, I was feeling a little better, and the next morning I was able to visit Malibu. I mentioned to my Airbnb photographer workshop roomie about taking an hour drive for breakfast on the pier before our workshop, so we did! SO worth the drive time!

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The rest is history right?! Oh, and some crab wanton guys with a grapefruit radler and rice!!

I’d go into details about the workshop I attended but…. you might just have to attend your own Hustle + Flow to find out. 😉 Needless to say, I have a lot to think about, and a lot of areas to adjust in my business to help me reach the success I’m working towards!