"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone..."

Summer 2013 is coming to a close. I use to think that summer would go by so fast when I was in high school, I had no idea that when you’re older it goes by even faster. This summer has been such a good one to say the least. I traveled, met amazing people and learned a whole lot.

 One of my favorite trips I took this summer was to Nashville for an internship-styled workshop with one of my ALL TIME favorite photographers, Sarah Barlow and her Art Director Stephen Schofield. 

For those of you who aren’t familiar with their work, Sarah and Stephen are the geniuses behind Taylor Swift’s album photography, RED.  Let me just start off by saying, Sarah is the sweetest, most humble, down to earth girl ever. She makes you feel like your best friends moments after meeting her. Stephen is so genuine and so passionate about what he does. It is always refreshing to meet people who live out their passions while wanting to help others achieve their dreams. 

I’m not going to lie; my trip to Nashville was completely out of my comfort zone. Traveling half way across the country by myself to meet a group of strangers, to stay in a house that I never even been too, was not typically something that seemed appealing to me.

However here is 4 things (out of the many things) that I learned:

1: Traveling by yourself is freeing, highly recommend it.

2: Sometimes things turn out better than you could of imagined, the "house", turned out to be a mansion. 
3: Your passion may bring happiness into your life, but it doesn't mean anything unless you use it to love and help others. That's where true joy comes from. 

4:Last but not least, Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. 

This was a major lesson that I needed to learn and I’m so thankful that it was this amazing weekend that taught my scaredy-cat self to do things that I wouldn’t normally do.

Not only did I learn life lessons, I learned so much about photography in the Fashion and Music industry. 

During my time in Nashville I was blessed to meet 11 photographers from all over. People from Canada, California, Virginia, to Illinois to Texas and many other places. It is amazing the connection you can have with, lets be honest COMPLETE STRANGERS, when you have a common interest or goal in mind. With in the first hour we were talking like we had known each other forever. Not only were are some of the sweetest people, they are extremely talented. I can’t wait to see what the future hold for all of them. 

I could sit here all day and write about all the amazing details, like when I saw fireflies for the first time (don't judge) or the dance party we had at 1 am, or how we got to photograph amazing musicians. But lets just leave it at, it's safe to say I made memories that will last a lifetime.

Here's a glimpse into #THEinterns2013.. 

[[P.s: most of these photos weren't taken by me or are iPhone photos.]]

  

xoxo,

Beth