How I spent my summer
2021 vs 2020
At times 2021 feels like a continuation of 2020. Covid, natural disasters, and politics. But I think we've all somehow managed to continue on with life a bit and accepted what is now normal. Hopefully, your 2021 is much better than your 2020. For me, 2021 has been much better and completely different. 2020 was all about my miserable job because there was nothing else. No vacations, no fun, just work. 2021, on the other hand, has been all about living. Yes, I do work, and actually, I work a lot. But I love it. Unlike 2020 where all the trips kept getting bumped, 2021 has been filled with trips! I realize things are still bad, but for my mental health, I kind of stopped paying attention to an extent. Am I the only one?
So how did I spend my summer vacation?
Travel Sessions
One thing I love doing is out-of-state sessions. I love road trips with my dogs and I love shooting in gorgeous locations, making travel sessions a huge win! As you know, it's been freaking hot here, and I've been anxious to escape the heat whenever possible. First I went to Colorado, just north of Denver, in June for a short visit with friends and to do several portrait sessions. It was fun and beautiful, but uh, also very dang hot. Lesson learned, check the weather before planning a trip, especially when the intention is to escape the local weather. But it was still fun.
Here are a few images from my sessions in Colorado.
My second trip for travel sessions was at the beginning of August. I spent a week in San Diego for some portrait sessions and vacation. It was fantastic! The weather was cooler than I expected, my dogs got to play at the beach almost every day that I was there, I visited with some friends and I got to do 8 portrait sessions at beautiful locations. Here are a couple of the beach images.
Continued education
As if Colorado and California trips weren't enough... I finished off August with a photography workshop at my favorite dog event venue, Purina Farms in St. Louis, Missouri. The workshop was 2 full days of photographing dogs in action, and it was awesome! But in case you were wondering, you do not want to travel to the St. Louis area in August if you plan on spending time outdoors. It's HOT and HUMID. There were also some scary bugs, giant spiders, and ticks. But aside from that, it was gorgeous. Everything was so green and pretty it might make all that humidity and spiders worth it. I don't know about the ticks though.
The day before my workshop I was lucky enough to have another travel session! Again, so much fun shooting in brand new locations. Those images aren't ready to post yet, but, here are several from my workshop.
Calendar Contest Fundraiser
During the month of August, I ran my first calendar contest fundraiser to support Pawtastic Friends and their mission to improve the lives of dogs waiting for homes. If you're not familiar with them, I encourage you to check out their website and their facility. Pawtastic Friends has definitely filled a gap and is doing an amazing job enriching the lives of homeless dogs while making them more adoptable. The calendar contest entrants and voters raised $3400.00!
The rest of the time
I wasn't always traveling, I spent plenty of time in town. Where did I spend my time? Sorry to disappoint, but home working while listening to Audible books in the mornings and watching Netflix in the evenings. During my weekends, I spent time paddleboarding at Lake Mead, which by the way is a beautiful lake. People always seem surprised when I say that Lake Mead is clean, but it really is clear clean water. Yes, Boulder Beach is gross because of the dirty humans who leave their trash behind. But getting out on the water is a treat.
Other than paddleboarding, I just started taking golf lessons, dabbled in cryptocurrencies, and continued my TikTok addiction. That's about it.
I would love to know what the rest of the world did this summer. Even though I've been traveling, I've kind of stayed in my protective bubble, so I feel a bit out of the loop.
So what's next?
Another photography workshop! This one is in Breckenridge, Colorado in just a couple more days! I will definitely share some photos when I get back. But I'm only home for 4 days before heading to Duck Creek for my real vacation. This time no portrait sessions, just plenty of outdoorsy stuff. After that, I'm home with my head down working for the rest of the year.
This blog post is part of pet photography circle. To see more pet photography blogs on similar topics, click on to Jessica Wasik with Bark & Gold Photography, sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the 2022 Biggies Bullies pet calendar, and find the link at the end of her blog to continue through the circle.
6 Comments
Sep 17, 2021, 7:39:14 PM
Nicole Hrustyk - Thank you Elaine!
Sep 17, 2021, 7:37:38 PM
Nicole Hrustyk - Awwww that means so much coming from you. Thank you!
Sep 17, 2021, 1:22:34 AM
Elaine - Love your Colorado session photos! AND frisbee dogs! The workshop sounds amazing!
Sep 13, 2021, 10:14:19 AM
Angela Schneider - I empathize with you over the hot-as-hell days. It made wanting to shoot a chore some days. All of the things you're doing are REALLY making you grow as a photographer. I loved your work before but geezus, woman, your stuff is fantastic.
Sep 10, 2021, 7:36:48 PM
Nicole Hrustyk - Thank you.
Sep 10, 2021, 5:16:23 PM
Nancy - That dog with the purple Frisbee is awesome. Love that you you were able to get travel sessions