Travel with Hunter and Sarah – Phoenix/San Diego 2019
April 5, 2019
Happy Saturday friends! For those of you who follow us on Facebook or Instagram, you probably know that last month, Sarah and I took a working vacation out West! It was such a blast and we wanted to share a bit more about our adventures, so we’re starting a new “series” called “Traveling with Hunter and Sarah”! We know that as we travel more and more for weddings, photo sessions, and our own personal travel, this series will grow!
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Travel and the EDGE
So it all began with our flight from Charlottesville to Phoenix on a Thursday afternoon. We worked a half-day before heading to the airport, which made for a very, very long night. By the time we landed in Phoenix and laid our heads on our pillows at my brother Tanner’s house, it was 1:00 am Virginia time! For those of you who know us, 1:00 am is late. If we’re not shooting a wedding, we rarely make it to 11:00 pm!
However, we used our travel time wisely; Sarah listened to a business audiobook while I got busy working on post-production for Mark and Liz’s wedding that we had just shot a couple weeks before we left.
Our first night in Phoenix was short. We only caught about 5 hours of sleep before our alarms went off and we headed over to the conference center that The EDGE was being held at. This three-day conference for entrepreneurs and business-owners was what prompted this Western adventure after all! Those three days were long and hard, and a whirlwind of shooting and editing.
However, it was more than just an off-season photography job for us. As you probably know, event photography is not something we do very often. In fact, even though this is our third year at The EDGE, it’s one of the only non-wedding events we capture all year!
But everyone in that room had paid hundreds of dollars to be inspired and encouraged by some incredibly high-level businesspeople, and we were being paid to be there and learn from them! All we had to do was take a few (thousand) photos while we learned. In addition to Dean Graziosi, the event’s creator and keynote, we heard from (and photographed) Rachel Hollis, Anthony Trucks, Brendon Burchard, and Chris + Heidi Powell. We learned. A lot.
But we also shot a lot! At the end of three days, these were our totals: We were inside the event hall working for just over 36 hours; Sarah and I combined took more than 5,200 photos across our three cameras; we culled those down to 1,300 of the best and delivered them almost live so that Dean and his team had access to the full gallery about an hour after the event ended.
Desert Adventures
With The EDGE finished, we could enjoy the rest of our time out west! The next morning, we celebrated a successful event over brunch, then (as photographers are wont to do on vacation), we spent the afternoon scouting around the Phoenix area for potential photoshoot locations ????
We were blessed to not only be staying with my brother Tanner and his girlfriend Jess, but Jess was kind enough to let us borrow her Jeep Wrangler for the entire week we were there! We felt right at home cruising around Phoenix, and overjoyed to finally feel 70-degree temperatures and the sun warming our faces. Keep in mind it was snowing the day we left Charlottesville.
Afterwards, we went back to Tanner and Jess’s place and hung out by the pool and tested out their Ping Pong table while we waited for them to get back from work!
The next day, however, our sunny desert paradise was transformed into a rainy mess. The way the roads and parking lots flooded with water, you’d think they had never seen rain before! But it didn’t hinder us one bit. We started the day (as always) with a cup of coffee and, to our surprise, the best breakfast burrito we had ever had! Shout out to Maverick Coffee in Scottsdale for really coming through with their breakfast.
Then, it was off to OdySea, Phoenix’s aquarium! It was the first that Sarah and I had ever been to an aquarium together, and I apparently had no idea what I was getting myself into. For those of you who know Sarah well, it won’t surprise you when I say that Sarah’s inner kid really came out. She ran excitedly from exhibit to exhibit, yelled “SO COOL!” at dozens of sea-critters, touched everything we were allowed to touch (and a few things we weren’t – you can see from the photo below she did not enjoy touching the manta ray), and obsessed over the sloth for at least a half-hour (While I stood at a distance and wondered why there was a sloth at an aquarium).
The day culminated with a lot of tears when we visited the sea turtle exhibit and saw the rescued turtles that had been injured by boat propellers and other human activity. Overall, our three hours were 10/10 fun and 9/10 emotionally and physically exhausting haha!
That evening, we went out with Tanner and Jess and their other roommates Jeremy and Teresa to a restaurant called Steak 44. It was by far the nicest and most expensive meal that Sarah and I had ever eaten, but we have absolutely no regrets! Steak 44 is the type of restaurant where people valet their Rolls Royces and Bentleys at the door, and Sarah and I’s Hyundai-Sonata driving selves rolled up without a care in the world. We were on vacation, and we had budgeted for special occasions such as these!
The following two evenings, we drove all across the Sun Valley with Jeremy and Teresa, and Tanner and Jess for their desert lifestyle sessions!
We found ourselves far north of town to capture the beautiful wide-open desert scenery with Jeremy and Teresa, and in the center of Phoenix to feature some of the stunning rock formations and the tropical oasis that are characteristic of Papago Park with Tanner and Jess.
Oh and of course, #SheldonSandwhich!
A few of our favorites are below, but you can view the blog we wrote about these sessions here! Desert landscapes aside, we still think our subjects are the most beautiful part of these photos ????
We spent our last day in Phoenix hiking Camelback Mountain. I may have understated the difficulty of the hike a bit to Sarah. In fact, there may have even been a few labored accusations of “You lied to me! *heavy breathing* This isn’t a hike this is mountain climbing!” but hey, we survived with only minimal sunburn. All jokes aside, we had a great time spending the day being active and in the sun, and posted our first ever selfie-talking-to-the-camera-together-video on social media from the top of the mountain!
To the West Coast!
The next morning we were back to the airport just as the sun was rising so we could be in San Diego for breakfast! We then went straight to the San Diego Zoo, which we had heard was one of the best in the entire country! We were not disappointed. Five hours, two sky-tram rides and several fuzzy Koala butts later, we exited the zoo just as they closed (yes, we shut down the Zoo).
When we left the zoo, we found ourselves in Balboa Park, which completely encloses the SD Zoo, and is more than two square miles across! We spent the next several hours scouting locations and walking the museum district of the park up and down, preparing for Sarah and Tim’s engagement session the following afternoon. Once we finally felt prepared for that portion of their session, it was off to dinner for some Pacific Coast sushi, and even to a dessert shop for a decaf cortado and some cake to finish off our first night in California!
The next day, we woke up early and were off to Coronado beach, a small island town across the San Diego Bay from downtown SD. We spent the bulk of the day relaxing on the sand, never going past our knees in the freezing Pacific. Finally, the evening arrived and it was time for the second job that inspired this entire West Coast adventure: Sarah and Tim’s engagement session!
As you can read about in their blog, we began the session back at Balboa Park, then moved on to Coronado beach for the grand finale. It was certainly a challenge for us working in two brand new locations, both of which were pretty crowded on that beautiful Saturday evening.
However, we love a good challenge, and we think their photos turned out all the better for it! Once the sun set and we were officially out of light, Sarah and Tim were kind enough to invite us out to dinner with them, and we shared a few more laughs and stories in our final hours in SD.
After yet another short night, we were back on an early flight for Charlottesville. Since we were flying on a budget, we ended up being seated halfway across the plane from each other. Since I don’t sleep well on planes, I just went right back to work, this time editing Jennifer and Michael’s wedding photos. I think Sarah napped.
Overall, it was a whirlwind of a trip, but for us it was the perfect mix of growing and discussing our business, shooting, and relaxing with friends and with each other. Despite the fact that we were physically tired when we returned, we were emotionally invigorated in our business, and we’re already looking forward to our next journey!
Thanks for getting to the end of this very long post! Until next time,
Hunter + Sarah
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Well, that’s it! Thanks for following along, and check out the links below if you want more adventures with Hunter and Sarah!