I have this problem, it comes with the territory of being a *complete* crazy person, where I blog-stalk people other photographers and want to have their lives. I want their perfect styled shoots and their perfect vacations and their perfect lives because that’s what you see on their blogs. My life is never that way. It’s always windy and overcast when I try to have a styled shoot and my life is a little too chaotic to be perfect. Some days I’m ok with that… most days I complain to Alexis about how I want to be someone else. ;]

Insert Palm Springs.

I blogged several months ago about my great desire to go to Palm Springs. If I’m being 100% honest I want to go to Palm Springs half because of the great memories I have there and half because when other photographers and graphic designers go to Palm Springs it looks so glamorous… and by glamorous I mean it speaks to my inner hipster.

So, a few weeks ago when the opportunity came up for me to photograph a wedding in Palm Springs I convinced– or begged a few friends to tag along and make a weekend of it. Rent a house, explore the desert… you know, graphics designer & hipster photographer stuff. My dream come true.

I started off pretty well, dragging my friends into the desert at sunset and making them model for me. This is what true friendships are made of. ;] But the reality is, it takes a lot of work to be glamorous.. and to be a hipster. And I don’t need any more work added in to my life. So this past weekend instead of taking a million pictures to post all over social media or trying to pretend I’m something I’m not I woke up at 6:30 every morning. One morning I went for a run through the Movie Colony and the other mornings I just woke up, poured a cup of coffee and sat outside with my feet in the pool listening to the silence and watching the sun rise.It was everything I needed.This is where I spent my days. I started reading the book Love Does by Bob Goff and because I’m annoying and I want you all to read it I’m going to share a quick paragraph:

Watching Ryan lose himself in love reminded me that being “engaged” isn’t just an event that happens when a guy gets on one knee and puts a ring on his true love’s finger. Being engaged is a way of doing life, a way of living and loving. It’s about going to extremes and expressing the bright hope that life offers us, a hope that makes us brave and expels darkness with light. That’s what I want my life to be all about– full of abandon, whimsy, and in love. I want to be engaged to life and with life.

That’s all I’ve got. Even though my desire to be a hipster is great, sitting outside with my feet in the pool, a cup of coffee beside me, a book in hand and the first rays of sunshine turning the mountains pink I was inspired to be engaged and to live my own life of adventure, even if it doesn’t look like someone else’s.If it was possible, I have now fallen even more in love with Palm Springs.