Roads symbolize journeys. They take you to new places, and often allow you to see beauty along the way. Here are a few of my favorite roads from my travels:
Approaching a vineyard in Napa Valley.
Hawaii by Road
Hula-hoopin’ along the Road to Hana in Maui.
The drive up to Wormsloe Historic Site, near Savannah, Georgia.
Road winding through the red rocks of Sedona.
The Finger Lakes of Upstate NY.
This week’s #FriFotos theme is colorful, which can mean so many different things in travel. It can be a beautiful sunset full of reds, oranges, and purples. It can be the turquoise waters off of some exotic island. It can be the vibrant hues of a rain forest or the subtle tones of the desert. It can even be the style of your photography, kicking the colors up a notch. This is typically done via HDR (high-dynamic-range imaging) photography, which I am dying to learn! It makes for very vivid pictures. I always get home and realize my pictures aren’t nearly as vibrant as I remember places being, so I want my photography to match the beauty of destinations in my mind. I’ve been having a lot of fun with this on Instagram lately, so make sure to follow along @bytesizetravel!
But until I learn more about HDR, here are a few of my favorite photos from some very colorful places I’ve visited:
Hawaii
A beautiful hibiscus flower in one of the most beautiful locations on earth!
Savoring Napa Valley
The colors of Napa Valley are truly breathtaking–and the scenery is pretty good, too!
Chihuly Garden and Glass
I love just about everything having to do with glass, and this place in Seattle is incredible! If there’s one name people know is glass, it’s Dale Chihuly, and he has put together a colorful, magical world at the foot of the Space Needle.
Rainbow over Costa Rica
Costa Rica is extraordinarily diverse and colorful, and this rainbow was a special treat on our way out of this beautiful country.
Cactus!
I love the flowers on the prickly pear cactus so prevalent in Arizona.
This week’s FriFotos theme is Caribbean. I’ve only been to the Caribbean once—on our honeymoon to Saint Lucia in February 2013. We stayed at Sandals La Toc, which proved to be a truly bizarre experience. They say the devil is in the details, and that was definitely true of this place. It was a lot of little things that made us disenchanted with this tropical retreat. From the photos on the website looking drastically different from reality to the the pool guy scaling the 6-foot wall of our “honeymoon hideaway” at 5 a.m. to stand outside our bedroom window to clean the pool, it just didn’t quite live up to our expectations.
The best part of the trip by far was the day we spent with Ray from Karay Media. We’d booked a photo shoot with him to do a “trash-the-dress” session. I wanted those gorgeous beach wedding pictures without actually getting married on the beach. Ray came to our resort to pick us up, and whisked us away on a daylong adventure, complete with beaches, waterfalls, and a sunset swim. It was magical, and we now have beautiful pictures to prove it!
Love in St Lucia
Such a tropical paradise!
Posing in St Lucia’s Botanical Gardens
Trash the Dress Photo Shoot in St Lucia.
St Lucia Photo Shoot
St Lucia Sunset Kiss
Here are more pictures from an earlier post.
This week’s FriFotos theme is “Entrances.” For me, that means passageways into something new and exciting, or catching a glimpse of beauty.
Outside a chalet in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.
The entrance to Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle, Washington.
A peek through the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.
A glimpse into a beautiful cave along the Na Pali Coast in Kauai, Hawaii.
Entrance into a garden at Middleton Place in Charleston, South Carolina.
A moment captured from the entrance to a vineyard in Finger Lakes Wine Country, New York.
And just for fun, I’m standing at the entrance to Google in Palo Alto, California!
I’ve been posting “Photo Bytes” for a while now—giving you a glimpse of a destination. Each week, there is a themed photo sharing event called FriFotos, which is just plain fun, so I’m going to start sharing my favorite photos each week based on that particular theme. I hope you enjoy Photo Byte Fridays!
This week’s theme is Black and White. I love photos that are completely devoid of color. There’s something magical about them. They have a timeless quality. They’re a perfectly preserved memory—a captured moment from journeys gone by.
Timeless tranquility in Charleston, South Carolina.
Unwavering oaks of the South.
The journey ahead in Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia.
A fleeting sunset kiss in St. Lucia.
I love creating black and white photos of places that hold a lot of history. They’re recognizable. Everyone knows the stories they have to tell. But it’s as if the life has been removed from them, and they stand silent, frozen in a moment.
Alcatraz sits in the San Francisco Bay. This was during the 2013 government shutdown when National Park land was closed, and thus, no one was able to visit the island—which made it all the more eerie. I was able to visit the following year.
The USS Arizona Memorial is anchored over the sunken ship in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
“No day shall erase you from the memory of time.” -Virgil
It was a swelteringly hot late-August day—one of my very first in Italy—and actually, one of my first travel adventures ever. My study abroad in Italy marked a lot of firsts for me. My first time out of the U.S. (aside from a few visits to Niagara Falls), my first time on a plane, and my first long-term travel stint.
Everything was new and exciting! There was a lot to take in in 16 weeks, and I was determined to make the most of it. And I did it all at lightning speed.
I see this lone seagull sitting here, soaking in his surroundings, and I find myself wishing I’d taken the time to do the same. When you find yourself in a truly enchanting place—such as Cinque Terre—take a few moments to just “be.” Those are the memories you’ll hold onto. Those are the moments that find their way to your heart and make you fall in love with a new place.
Cinque Terre, Italy
Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre, Riomaggiore, La Spezia, Italy