Galapagos- Trip of a lifetime!

We just returned from a trip of a lifetime. We went to the Galapagos with my parents, my brother and his family and my family (except our little one who stayed home with her other amazing Grandma aka “MeMa”!)

It was a spectacular trip from start to finish (minus our plane’s detour back to the mainland, when we were over half way to the islands, due to “something wrong with the plane”!!). But we made it safely and experienced the all the majesty the Galapagos have to offer. If you have any interest in wildlife, the Galapagos need to be on your must visit list. It is a magical place, where the animals do not have the “fear” gene and don’t realize that they should be afraid of humans at all. We were the ones backing up from them, it was honestly astounding. Even though we returned on Sunday, it already seems so surreal. It was truly a trip of a lifetime.

It brought me back to my beginnings in photography. I studied Biology AND Photography at CU- I know, it’s a crazy combination that I can attribute to my parents, my father is a Chemist by training and my mother is an artist. When I was in college I had the dream of becoming a National Geographic Photographer (and still do!)… but that career isn’t 100% compatible with a young family, so I will keep that dream alive and maybe someday I will be able to fulfill it in some fashion.

After college,  I was an amazingly lucky woman to have the chance to study with Thomas Mangelsen one on one and then Joel Sartore at a workshop through the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops…they both taught me so much, and have been such amazing inspirations to me.

During our trip it was really fun to reconnect to one piece that originally ignited my love for photography (and I loved relearning the biology behind it all too!).

Here are some of the highlights…

And a big thanks to Janet and John for waiting patiently for their wedding images while I was gone!