Hello, it’s me! I haven’t taken photos or posted much at all since the beginning of COVID. Honestly, this has been a much needed break for me. I’m constantly working. Always go go go. Anyone who knows me knows I’m the definition of workaholic. This year, I made the decision to step back from the business. It wasn’t hard like I thought that decision would be. God just has this incredible sense of timing. I still love my clients. I still love creating beauty through photographs. I’ve just taken this time to restructure my business. I’m still excited for Story Told Photography’s future. It’s full of heart. Sometimes, we all just need a break to refocus. I’m grateful for this time. I hope you all have found ways to better your work and yourselves. 2020 has been a wild one.
Father’s Day Weekend we had planned to travel down to West Virginia to visit my dad, but with COVID cases increasing, I talked to Dad and we agreed to come down a little later. Hopefully we can all get back to visiting family and friends again soon. I couldn’t take that risk.
Andrew and I had still hired a puppy sitter for the weekend though. We decided it would be good to get away for a night. As I mentioned, I hadn’t utilized my camera in a couple of months, so I wanted to bring it along to practice before my upcoming sessions at the end of this month. I decided to only take my 35 mm since I didn’t want to lug around a bunch of equipment. We packed up and headed to camp at McKee Farm in Frazeysburg, Ohio.
Frazeywhere? I had never even heard of Frazeysburg. I didn’t want to camp around a bunch of other people. If I’m going to camp, I want to be a bit more isolated to relax and enjoy nature. It would probably be a good time for me to point out that I have never really camped before, just in my dad’s backyard as a kid. If I had to go to the bathroom, I could just run up to the house, and when I got tired of the tent, I could just run from the creek up to the hill and crawl into my cozy bedroom decked out in carousels (Mom made me the prettiest bedroom).
After saying goodbye to our fur children, we set off to this random farm we had booked on a whim. Andrew was pretty excited to pass by the Longerberger Basket Office Building (it look so sad now). The roads went from asphalt to gravel and dirt. We arrived at McKee Farm, immediately lost cell service, and I reminded Andrew that this is how every good horror movie begins. I was excited.
My horror movie fears evaporated quickly when we met the farm owners. They were genuinely kind to chat with us, tell us a bit about the farm and show us around, and they even let us pick a different location than we had originally chosen.
After we set up camp, we decided to explore the farm. I loved discovering all the big and little beauties on the land. From the gorgeous white barn and farm house to the sweet sprouting crops and wildflowers, this little get away had so much to discover. We only had time to explore about half of the farm! There’s so much more.
At the recommendation of the owners, Andrew and I witnessed the most magnificent sunset over the flowing hills. The stars were vast and bright as we gazed up from our tent that night.
Andrew had been asking me to camp with him for as long as he’s known me and he was so proud of me for staying the entire night. I’m sure I’ll end up going again, but for the immediate future I’m leaving the camping up to the boys. I guess I will always just be grateful for air conditioning and warm showers. I guess I have the same philosophy as John Pinette.
HUGE thank you to Alli for watching our fabulous fur children while we were away. <3
