Europe, in summary

I’m sitting in a less than charming hotel in south Georgia and Joy and Graycen are asleep. I should be too, but I’m reflecting on our recent travels. Yesterday morning we were in Milan, last night Chattanooga, and today...I'm not sure. We made it home last evening, picked up Graycen (a grand reunion for sure), and then today hit the road again.

I’m not really sure what forces caused it to happen, but somehow between last year and this year, lots of brides and grooms started asking us to travel for their weddings. Now don’t get me wrong, we’ve always traveled a fair amount, photographing weddings across the country—Ohio, Maryland, Georgia, Colorado, California, South Carolina, Mississippi, and of course our home states of Tennessee and Florida.

But this year has been different. Jamaica in early April, then Jamaica again two weeks later. In July, Silje and Crispin’s wedding in Norway marked our first European wedding. And then a few months later, back to Europe again, this time Paris, France, Aberdeen, Scotland, and Lake Como, Italy. And what a tour it was!

Previously, when someone mentioned the word “travel” my first thought was north or south in I-75 (like right now) to Florida or east and west on I-20 to Charleston. But man, have my eyes been opened. I didn’t even own a passport until two years ago when we went to the Bahamas for Kim and Matt’s wedding.

And there’s talk next year of planning a trip to the Philippines to visit Joy’s family, which would be amazing. I think after that we’d like to visit Spain, Greece, Switzerland, Egypt and Kenya (in no particular order), and then do some mission work in South or Central America.

I really must admit, that as much wonderful as France, Scotland and Italy were, it’s nice to come home. America is great…except for customs at Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport. Good grief, even the name is long. And after 13 days being away from the studio, and much more significantly, Graycen, I was ready to be home. Even if it was only for a grand total of 16 hours.

I've compiled a list. I can’t imagine who might be interested in this, but in case you are, here are the 10 things I learned on our trip.

1. Adventure leads to happiness.
2. It’s okay to sometimes be uncomfortable and not in control of every situation.
3. You can communicate with people who can’t speak your language by simply smiling and nodding your head.
4. As hard as it is to admit, I don’t have all the answers.
5. If you think rush hour traffic in Atlanta is bad, check downtown Paris from 5-6 pm. Even those on motorbikes use the sidewalks! No thank you, I’ll walk in the grass.
6. London Heathrow is not conducive to running…or anything else for that matter.
7. Sometimes it’s best to pay a little more and know you’re going to be taken care of. A cab usually gets you from A to B much faster than the wrong bus or train.
8. Fantasy Football doesn’t really matter (I just threw that in there because I’m in first place in our league!).
9. When photographing a wedding it’s best to try and blend in, even in the way you dress. Next time we shoot in Scotland I’m renting a kilt.
10. And finally, do you know how much work I could get done on a 3-hour lunch-break? I’m moving to Italy!
10.5 Gelato has officially passed dark chocolate peanut M&Ms as my favorite sweet indulgence.








It’s good to be "home." Sometime tomorrow we’ll get to Florida and on Sunday we have a great wedding in Orlando. On Monday I’ll be in NYC for a couple engagement sessions and then PhotoPlus Expo later in the week. After I check into my hotel, I think I’ll head down to Little Italy, walk into the first Italian restaurant I find and sit down, close my eyes (okay, maybe just one eye), breathe in the kitchen scents, and imagine I’m somewhere else. Prego!