Learning Trust during my first solo trip

Hey Badass Babes and Gents!

As you all know, I embarked on my first solo adventure in San Diego to celebrate my 26th birthday. My blog posts about the trip will be in the talks for awhile here as I still haven’t released all photos from the projects I worked on while I was in San Diego.

However, I did share some from my first location: Salk Institute for biological Studies.

The photos I will be sharing today are taken from the first day of my trip as well. They are taken my photographer Derrick 🙂 Pretty amazing how Derrick and I got together. Literally after my first shoot (at Salk Institute), I received a message on Instagram asking if I wanted to shoot with him! I agreed and we scheduled, originally, for Friday which was my last day. I went on my day completing another photoshoot–this time, at Torrey Pines Beach (photos coming soon!) then later on that night, while I was having dinner, Derek asked me if I wanted to shoot that night instead! Mind you, it was around 10pm. However, I haven’t done a night shoot yet so I was intrigued. I told him, I was up for it but I’ll have to suck my stomach in since I just had dinner! lol

We did our shoot at San Diego’s fashion valley. Of course, all the stores were closed but we wanted to shoot there for the lights 🙂

I had a really great experience working with Derrick. He was very respectful, easy going, and totally made me feel comfortable and safe. For a woman, that means a lot!

This leads me to talk about TRUST – One thing I learned during my first solo trip.
I’m not going to lie, I have always preferred working with women. I used to say it’s because I prefer to work with women but tbh, it’s because I was not comfortable working with men. From past experiences, the men who contacted me for work had a different agenda in mind. However, limiting my options to just working with women will make me miss so many opportunities working with talented men.

Though Derrick found me on social media, he approached it in a very professional and friendly manner. I did not have an ounce of doubt or fear from the energy that he gave out. I took a look at his work and I liked them so I figured this was a great way to exercise trust and stepping out of my comfort zone.

I’m so glad I collaborated with Derrick. As we spoke throughout the shoot he opened up about how hard it is for him to find models to work with due to them thinking he has a different idea in mind. He said he was very thankful for me giving him a chance and I am glad I did, too. As you can see, my very first night shoot was successful and we came out with awesome pics!

So that was one go the big lessons I learned during my trip– Trust. I love how I can relate it not only in my professional but in my personal life as well.

What lesson has traveling given you?
Share with me in the comments below 🙂

 

Xoxo,