Recently I’ve been working on a lot of the behind the scenes of running a business. Part of the process involves going through a old photos. I’m reliving travels, weddings, photo shoots, and adventures. I thought it would be fun to share my favorites from the past few years! Here are my top 10 favorite images I’ve ever taken!

#10

Emma and Peyton’s Bluestone Vineyard wedding was one of the first I was ever hired for. They went to JMU and chose a beautiful venue close to Harrisonburg in beautiful Shenandoah. During our time for portraits, I suddenly had the inspiration for emotional photos of the two newlyweds running up the hillside to show their excitement. With the mountains in the distance and the vineyard surrounding them, they held hands and laughed and twirled around running towards my camera.

This remains to be one of my favorite images. It shows the pure joy, excitement, and adventure that my soul is all about today. Every part of my business is pointed towards getting more images like this where my couples are carefree and filled with happiness as they marry the love of their life out in a beautiful setting.

#9

This photo is from my first engagement session up on Skyline Drive. I had known Alex for a few years because we played on the same Ultimate team. I was beyond excited when he and Sawyer hired me to photograph their wedding. When they said they wanted their engagement session up on Skyline Drive, I could have died of happiness. We hiked Little Stony Man and took amazing winter morning photos in the bitter cold and wind. We got to know each other and bonded over such an awesome experience.

Our car stopped at this overlook to get a few photos on our way back. Towards the end, I asked if they wanted to walk around with the mountains in the background. After this, I asked if they would run. We ended up getting this image, which is one of my favorites of all time. I’m in my favorite place in the world with some of my favorite people, and their excitement and love for each other shines through this adventurous image that I will love forever.

#8

Studying abroad in London during the summer of 2019 was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Adventures awaited us every day. I learned so much about Shakespeare and Elizabethan times, but also about England today and myself as a traveler. On our one free weekend, a new friend and I traveled to Dover to explore t[he White Cliffs. We took the train on Thursday night and went immediately to bed when we reached our hotel. Friday morning we woke up bright and early and walked the entirety of these amazing cliffs. At one point we accidentally hiked up a cliff side that was almost vertical.

Even though it was the middle of the day, I was determined to take some portraits of Caroline at this beautiful location. We found this reflective surface and took so many pictures, but this one is my favorite. Caroline is looking out into the distance towards France, her dress is flowing in the wind, and she has the biggest smile on her face. This remains to be one of the greatest adventures of my life.

#7

Everyone who knows me knows that I love Skyline Drive. You know what I love even more? Sharing Skyline Drive with friends. Just after finals in 2019, I took portraits of a few of my teammates in the National Park. We hiked Hawksbill Summit and took some of my favorite portraits ever. I use them constantly to this day. We wanted to watch the sunset at my favorite overlook, The Point Overlook, so we rushed back to the car and I sped down the road to make it on time.

When we got there, we walked down to the rocks and had the whole place to ourselves. I snapped a few images of my friends watching the sunset, then settled in to watch it myself. It wasn’t until afterwards that I fell in love with this image. This is my friend Crystal just peacefully watching the sun sink below the horizon at my favorite view in the world. The colors make me so happy. It’s filled with adventure and excitement, but a calmness that makes me stop every time I come across this image. There are some moments like this that I wish could last forever. I’m so happy that I can capture them.

#6

Dana and Pauline have been one of my dream couples from the very start. They’re so kind, loving, and fun to be around and interact with, even long after their wedding. We’ve had crazy adventures since the start of their engagement when Dana hired me to photograph their proposal and I missed it (that story’s here if you want to read that train wreck). We did their engagement session at their wedding venue, where I got lost on the way there and they had to send a search party out to find me, but we still managed to get some of my favorite images of all time.

This is their wedding, which was one of the funnest and craziest days of my life. My second shooter cancelled on me the morning of, we were hit by a thunderstorm right after the ceremony so we had to hurry through family formals and portraits, and one of my flashes died, but it was also one of the happiest days I’ve ever been a part of. After the storm blew through, we went out into the field next to the venue and the most magical sunset portraits with storm clouds rolling over the hills behind us.

This is the wide photo I fell in love with because it shows beautiful Shenandoah complementing that beautiful dress and their contagious smiles. This photo brings me happy thoughts and reminds me that I still have a relationship with all the vendors and with Dana and Pauline. I love photos like this because they remind me why I do what I do.

#5

This is a photo of my best friend Nicole and her rescue dog Sky. I’ve talked quite a lot about the importance of photographing your relationship with your dog, but it took me a while to realize that one of the most important dogs around me hadn’t been photographed. This fall, I got Nicole to bring Sky to the JMU Quad for a photo shoot. We ran around playing with toys and giving Sky all the attention. I took plenty of photos of Sky by herself, but I really wanted photos of the two of them together.

This is one of my favorites because both of them are smiling and enjoying each other’s company (or at least we like to pretend Sky was doing that). It shows the most iconic building of our school to give it a stamp in our history, and the trees behind them give just a hint into the beautiful autumn we get to experience here in Harrisonburg. I love Nicole and Sky and I love being able to give them photos that they and I can cherish forever.

#4

Besides the White Cliffs of Dover, my favorite adventure from studying abroad in London was visiting Hampton Court Palace. We went as a group for the history of the building, which was undoubtedly fascinating, but I stayed for the gardens. One of my classmates and I walked around for FIVE hours after the rest of our group left. I’ve never seen so many gardens of different kinds, shapes, and beauty. We fell in love.

This rose garden ended up being our favorite. We visited it three times before we finally left. Over the years, I’ve grown a love for flowers that I didn’t have before. This was definitely the peak of that love. I intend to go back to this garden and show it to everyone I can. I’ve never been filled with so much peace and happiness from plants as I had in that moment. Just looking at this image reminds me of the insane joy I felt from standing in that spot looking out into the sea of color.

#3

The only thing that brings more joy than proposals are proposals of your friends. Colin asked me to help him surprise his girlfriend Savanna with the proposal. We cooked up a whole plan for a Galentine’s Day photo shoot with Sav and her best friends on the Quad on Valentine’s Day. Colin lived in Texas at the time, but he flew in the night before. I told the girls that I would get individual photos of them and that Sav would be first.

As she looked towards me, Colin walked up behind her and surprised her. Sav screamed, then started jumping around and crying. In the video that one of our friends took, you can hear all of us crying. This is my favorite image from the whole series. Even though there’s a girl walking behind Sav, I love that peak of excitement, her hair flying in the air, her knees bent, and her hands covering her face. It was an emotional day for all of us and I was so lucky to be part of it. I get so happy whenever I see these images, and I know all of our friends do too.

#2

I love adventures more than anything in the world. I love road trips and go on a few every year. Most are small around Virginia, but every year my best friend Nicole and I go on a long road trip with just the two of us. We plan on visiting every state together and seeing the whole country through the windows of our cars. This past summer, we saw the entire Northeast USA and even went into Canada.

This photo was taken somewhere in northern Vermont just as the sun was setting over the greenest place I’ve ever seen. I managed to capture the moon over the road in the distance. I focused the photo on this flag that says “Road trips make me happy.” I got it for Nicole a few years ago, and she’s had it in her car ever since. This whole image takes me back to all the fun adventures the two of us have had together over the years and gets me excited for all the adventures we have to come. It embodies the spirit of adventure and happiness that the two of us crave and find in each other.

#1

My favorite image I’ve taken over the past few years is this simple landscape. I took it while on a road trip with my mom through Skyline Drive, Blue Ridge Parkway, and the George Washington National Forest. We stopped at almost every overlook and view over those four days, and I took countless photos just like this.

I didn’t edit the photos until months later, and even then this photo didn’t stick out to me. This was a few years ago before I found my niche as a Shenandoah adventure photographer. Just as I was starting to find it and discover my true “why” behind my brand and my life, I was going through the photos and found this one. It isn’t the most technically correct landscape, but I suddenly fell in love.

Everything just clicked for me. I loved the greens and blues of the mountains and the whites of the clouds. The rolling hills and the hint of something more over the horizon suddenly captured my attention. I loved the trees that gave so much texture and possibility to the landscape. I posted this photo again and again on my Instagram until the rest of my feed had the same colors and the same mountains. This photo really started it all. This is what my work looks like today. I didn’t know it when I took the photo, but it has been one of the most influential photos I’ve ever taken because it set me on a path to where I am now, and I LOVE where I am now.

Photos can do this for you, even when you don’t mean them to. Photography can change your life and set you on a path to discovery, adventure, and love, and all for things you never thought you’d want.

I hope you enjoyed my walk down memory lane and my explanations behind my top 10 photos I’ve ever taken. I hope it inspires you to do the same. Look back at your photos and see if you can pick out the ones that mean the most to you, not just the ones that are the most popular or most beautiful. It might just help you figure out your “why.”

I’d love to open up this conversation with you. Start it here!

Want to get to know me a little better? Check out me Meet Sydney page!

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