Conclusion
A Word About This Post
At this point it’s safe to say this is the longest blog entry I’ve ever composed and quantity of pictures I’ve posted at once to-date, but what a fitting topic to earn that distinction; this journey was the largest logistical undertaking of any project I’ve worked on, and largest distance and combined number of destinations in such a short timeframe I’ve ever undertaken in any capacity. What a thrill.
Make no mistake, although this post appears as a vacation, it was anything but, and even my 3 spare days in San Francisco involved working with deliverables and coordinating with clients, and not just for this assignment, but for other projects for other clients upcoming or already in progress. There’s a good reason I barely got any sleep and was still a tense ball of stress even while I was “relaxing.”
Only a small sliver of the photos and videos I captured on assignment were included above even though I captured about equal parts of photos for Assignment and Personal - this post was created to highlight every detail of my personal photos from my over a week long journey in the travelogue you’ve just enjoyed, not showcase the assignment itself, as most of my readers will find those photos less interesting than those above. However, if you’d like to see more of my corporate work, similar to that which I worked on for this assignment, you can see more in my Retail & Architecture Portfolio.
As I mentioned in the first paragraphs, in post-production I prioritize edits for assignments before touching personal work. Due to scale, this often means my own vacation photos, such as trips to Rhode Island, often take me a year to edit and post, or modeling collaborations with friends have taken up to a half year. (ALSO: I’m a perfectionist.) In the case of this post’s pictures, it took me over two years to edit, and over another year to compose just the text you’re reading now (alongside arranging the photos for blog format as I write).
The photos I’ve shared with you today I’m incredibly proud of, just as I am incredibly proud of working with the PR Firm and multiple Ad Agency teams on the ground in Atlanta, Chicago, and San Francisco. This trip would be the first of multiple projects working with some of these folks, some of which can be found in previous posts from trips I documented much more timely than this.
The Three Cities
Whirlwind is a perfect word for this trip; if you can think of a better descriptor, let me know. Atlanta was such a whirlwind I didn’t even get to see anything except the airport, and that was for two clients! The Windy City swept me off my feet for a few hours downtown after a full day seeing and photographing every corner of ORD. But the city that truly took my heart was San Francisco, and it remains that way to this very day, as I write this four years later.
The journey above still remains my only visit to The Golden State. San Francisco enchanted me, and I can’t help but continue to wonder if the entire California Republic would hold the same magic to me; I imagine it will. California simply felt magical, and I feel that way still just looking at the pictures I shot there four years ago, and looking up all the places and rich history I haven’t gotten to witness in person yet. The weather was perfect, everything you see is beautiful, and every vibe I encountered was relaxed - all a stark difference from the city of power trips, ego-stroking, and self-righteous entitlement I hail from (and admittedly suffer from to some degree - sadly to survive you have to here… although there are times I enjoy DC’s BDE).
If you even slightly know me, you know I love the outdoors; a bucket list item for me is to visit every National Park. A difficult task for most, and one I’m not likely to achieve, and yet California is home to more on my top ten list than anywhere else; Yosemite, Death Valley, Joshua Tree, and Sequoia (note: Muir Woods, although maintained by the National Park Service, is a National Recreation Area, not a National Park; Redwood National Park is at the northernmost part of the state, well out of reach of this trip’s logistics). Others I’d especially like to visit outside of California include Yellowstone, Arches, and Denali.
Los Angelos has a scale I think I’m going to have to see to believe, and maybe even then still not quite believe it. LA has a reputation for personalities that rival the attitudes I dislike here in DC, however I’d like to judge for myself, plus the city has a ton of museums and trails I’d like to see, not to mention it’s just two hours from Joshua Tree National Park.
Flying over California and seeing how the landscape shifts from ocean oasis to dense forest to snowy mountaintops to arid desert, all coexisting at the same time, it just feels as though the Earth was kissed in California. Sightseeing on Google Maps just goes to show how much beauty the state has to offer, like the tranquility at Mono Lake I few over.
That magic at every turn is why, to-date, California is the only place I’ve been where I felt more at home than when I was at home, and the drive to never leave. Perhaps one day I’ll visit a place that feels even more welcoming, likely somewhere in Europe if I had to guess. Until then, San Francisco has my heart, and will always hold a special place for me for the impact it made on me.
Thank you, San Francisco; I didn’t leave my heart there, but you stole it anyway.
Compilation Video
In case you didn’t take in the video clips above, you can enjoy them in compilation form below.
Note, this video does not contain any of the video captured for client assignment.