Project 12 Portraits | Editorial

This month was really tough for me! Our theme was “Editorial.” All of us had all sorts of ideas on how to interpret this in terms of photography, and I am betting the amazing girls in my group all did way better than I did on this one! After brainstorming time and again with Emily on how to do this, we finally went with the definition that seemed the most basic that we found on the Academy of Art University website, that editorial photography is imagery that conveys a story through pictures, and it is normally published to visually connect the viewer with the accompanying written word. So we chose to document our spring break girls’ trip to Santa Barbara—not a stretch of my normal work by any means, but still it was a great way for me to think about storytelling with my work—something I am really working on becoming more intentional with.

We started out on an iffy note—the day before, Emily woke up with the flu. She’d been feeling a bit off the night before, but was fine when we went to bed, so when she slept and slept the next day I just attributed it to her being a teen. But when she was still asleep at 3 I decided that was plenty and I woke her up to discover a feverish and miserable girl. But by then we were past the cancellation period at the inn, so we decided she could recuperate just as easily in their soft and snuggly bed as she could at home, so we packed to leave the next morning. And in the morning, she seemed much better, so we even met our friends for coffee before heading out on the drive south! The car was packed complete with pillow pets to snuggle with in the event of feeling miserable.

After a gorgeous springtime drive to Santa Barbara, we arrived at our destination, the beautiful Simpson House Inn, just in time to unpack and head downstairs for wine (and water!) and appetizers.

Then we headed out, walking into town to have dinner at the delicious Opal restaurant where we chose an outside seat to enjoy the lovely weather.

That night we stayed up in a somewhat failed attempt to watch the blood moon eclipse. We had an ideal vantage point: It was chilly, but we had our own balcony and the lounge chairs were cushioned and perfect for gazing up at the beautiful sky, but I say failed because about 18 minutes before the eclipse was supposed to be at its most spectacular, the clouds rolled in, so we gave up and went back into our warm room! But still it was fun.

The next morning we woke up late to the sun pouring in and our private breakfast being set out on our balcony. Delightful!

(See the lounge chairs in the background? That’s where we watched the eclipse!)

Em was still feeling fairly well, so we walked into town to do some shopping and have lunch at one of our favorite Santa Barbara restaurants, Pascucci, where they make the most amazing creme brulee.

But all that walking pushed Emily over the edge, so we headed back to the inn in the early afternoon and except for evening appetizers again (which was to be our dinner), we spent the rest of the day in our PJs in our room just reading, relaxing, and curling up in the most amazingly soft bed watching our absolute, all-time favorite show, Gilmore Girls!

(Oh—and I bought myself a stuffed bunny to keep the others company, because I just couldn’t resist her adorable fabric ears and how insanely soft she is—so they all curled up in bed with us…)

The next morning we woke up to another lovely breakfast before it was time to pack up and head back to reality. It certainly wasn’t the most exciting trip we’ve ever had, but it was peaceful and perfect nonetheless!

As always, please continue on in our little circle to see what Christine came up with; I am so excited to see these this month!