As I am sure many of you know, we got back late Saturday night from our European adventure. I have been so excited to tell you this Little Love Story about our trip, but also somewhat hesitant. “Why?” you ask? Well, we kept getting comments and texts like this: “We can’t wait to hear about your trip and see the real photos!” I am assuming iPhone photos don’t count as “real” photos? If so, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we… (brace yourself)… we traveled to Europe with just our iPhones in hand… no “real” cameras… not even a point-and-shoot.
*Pause to allow the shock to sink in.*
You still there?
Oh goodie.
I know some of you could not care less about that statement, but some of you just died a little inside. It’s hard for you to understand how professional photographers, with access to some of the most advanced photography equipment, could travel to one of the most beautiful places on this planet, with only an iPhone in hand. The answer is in that sentence. Photography is our profession. While we absolutely love our job, it is exactly that: a job. We decided that on this trip, we would leave our work at home and take the photos in our minds and hearts instead of on our cameras. We allowed ourselves to take a few iPhone photos per day just to help us remember all of the beautiful places and memories, but mostly we just enjoyed the moments. We didn’t worry about lighting our photos perfectly or choosing a best lens, we simply would pull out one of our phones, snap a photo, and go back to adventuring. It was so freeing. We were able to genuinely enjoy our time together with more seeing, more talking, and (my favorite) more holding hands.
I cannot deny the importance of having photos. Photos have a special way of helping us remember things that we may have forgotten otherwise. It’s why I love our wedding photos. I probably would have half of the memories from our wedding day if I didn’t have the photos to remind me of specific moments and little details. The key for this trip was balance. We needed to balance enjoying our break from work while also taking enough photos to remember. I definitely don’t need photos to remember the day we adventured the streets of Paris wearing matching shoes, or the day we biked around the wall of the teeny-tiny city of Lucca, or the wedding anniversary we spent in an Italian farm house learning to make homemade pasta from a chef named Giuseppe. I don’t need photos to remember those things because they were so special to me, but I am so thankful I have them.
So, I will now share some of our photos… our “real” photos. They are photos that are poorly edited, may lack artistic vision, and break all of the compositional rules of photography, but they are photos that hold so much more meaning to us because we were able to enjoy the moments between them. We hope you enjoy them as well.
Leaving our baby and flying to Paris.
Venice.Cinque Terre.
Lucca. (Our Favorite!)
Florence.
Our 4th Wedding Anniversary.
Finally back home with our baby.
***For more of our Little Love Stories, click here.***