10.18.13 : ruby beach.

The last day of my trip was a bittersweet one to say the least. It's impossible for me to adequately put into words the emotional changes I went through over the course of the time it took me to make my way from San Diego up to Vancouver. In between the legs of my journey, I left San Diego for good, saying goodbye to the almost four years of friendships and memories I'd made there. I can't think of a better way to have ended it than with the trip I unexpectedly embarked on up the coast.

Every day behind the wheel helped to grow my confidence in myself and being alone on such an ambitiously unplanned journey. For every moment of loneliness I felt, I had at least twenty more moments of intense happiness and gratefulness at my surroundings and the ability to be witness to the ever-changing scenery around me.

I've got one more special blog post coming from my last moments on the beach. For now, here are the last photos from my journey up the coast.

don't go chasing waterfalls.

I know that this is completely unprecedented for me, but I decided to post another one of my "assisted self portraits" from my trip to Canada last year. Using the same technique as my previously posted photo…I got all my settings and framing worked out and then stuck my camera in the hands of my buddy Jeff, who had hiked up to the waterfalls with me. As you can see from the photo, I was ill-prepared wardrobe-wise for hiking. This year, I plan to be better equipped. At least I was fashionable, which makes for all-around better artsy self-portraits like this.

stopping in canada.

I did a project last year with a friend where we took weekly self portraits and posted them every Friday. Sadly, it tapered off and I was unable to post a few of my favorites that I took for the project while on a trip to Canada. I'm gearing up for another trip up north again this year and was reminded of those shots. This is my favorite of them. I actually made my friend Jeff pull off the highway to explore this little area for some photos. I'm glad I did, because I walked away beaming that I'd gotten my shot. Since I was without a tripod or remote, I chose all my settings and got my framing all worked out and then set the camera in the hands of Jeff to act as a human tripod and he shot off a few rounds before I decided he'd probably gotten something usable. I can't wait to see snow again. My soul is ready for some real winter.