My new tradition for the Christmas Holiday involves a road trip up and down the 101 in California, all the way from my home in San Diego up to the redwoods of Eureka. Last Christmas, while I  had all the intentions of bringing my Viking dress to shoot near the rocky shore, I left the whole dang thing at home. Luckily I did not make the same mistake twice.

So continuing on this year’s writing energy and combined with last year’s month’s productivity, I present another photoset!

Let me preface these images with two statements with the first being that my photographer was a first-timer. Having a secured a camera to borrow for the day, my boyfriend quickly started to comb YouTube for some quick tutorials about DSLR operations. After a few hours with, I can safely say that the Nikon D3300 w/ AF-P DX 18-55mm VR Digital SLR – Black has a very gentle learning curve and clearly has potential for way more than could be cobbled together in an afternoon. These images have some minor retouching and a bit of cropping, but very little as (mentioned previously) I have the photo-editing skills of a small child.

The second statement is that I am not a comfortable model. Posing for convention photography does not really prepare you to be the only person in a forest trying to look like part of a larger scene. I am truly more comfortable making a ridiculous face in a sea of strangers than I was in the forest. I want to get much better at this going forward, so bear with me as I stare blankly… a lot.

Those things being said, I am bursting with pride over these images. Patrick’s Point State Park in Trinidad served as the perfect setting, with lush greenery providing a nice contrast to my blue dress. We climbed up to Lookout Point and then all the way down to the ocean for those gorgeous cliff shots. The last image in the set, which is currently the banner on my front page, may now be my favorite picture ever of myself (which just sounds vain, but roll with me).

I know I have a ways to go before I am posting professional-level images, but I am so happy to have taken these steps forward to be able to share them here. Thanks to anyone who made it this far!

Comment below if you’d like to see more detail on the dress. Of course, I will be posting more about this as I pick the embroidery project again, but let me know if there is any interest in other information about it.