Greece

Not a day goes by that I don't feel extremely fortunate for what I do. Sure, some days it's difficult to find the motivation to edit hundreds of images and I get stressed about paying taxes and running a business, but in the end I get to do something I love and get paid for it. I'm also extremely fortunate to be mentored by an AMAZING photographer who has taken me under her wing and is pretty much the other reason I had the guts to quit my job and pursue photography full time. I'm so lucky to have met Sasha Gulish and even luckier to work with her on some amazing jobs. One recent job, for example, was in Greece this past September to photograph an event where I pretty much went around photographing the Royal Mykonian Hotel on Mykonos so we could print them out as souvenirs for guests to take home. I know, it's almost unfair to call it a job. I mean, just look at this place.

Granted, it wasn't all sunshine and beautiful views the whole time. I had to travel with 6 huge bags to carry all of our gear over, and of course British Airways lost the ONE bag that had all my clothes and toiletries. Fun fact: BA will ONLY send their lost baggage on BA flights. And when you're flying from London to Mykonos there's only one flight per week. So I spent five days without my baggage, which when you're working a job and have to be ready to do anything and everything, can suck. To top it off, Mykonos is not a cheap place to buy replacement clothes/makeup/toiletries/shoes. I had to ask multiple people where I could buy a bra, which for some reason they didn't know what a bra was (or they were just pulling my leg) so I ended up showing my bra strap to lots of strangers to beg them to tell me where I could find one of "these". That was fun.

Other tricky thing about working Mykonos was the mentality towards urgency in getting things done. Many of the grecians we interacted with were super friendly and welcoming, but very relaxed and nonchalant. When you're working a job where the timeline is everything and must be followed to the T, it's really hard and frustrating to have to explain to someone why you have to be somewhere now instead of in a half an hour. The main phrases I encountered were "It's no problem for me",  "No" and "I don't know." It's really fun to hear those responses when your in a panic because the bus left you and your stranded in the middle of nowhere.

But, at the end of the day, this was my "office" for the week, so I really really couldn't complain. Even if I did wear the same outfit for five days straight.