by Emily Wenzel | Feb 10, 2015 | Travel
This is the first time I’ve been to the Rheingau in a season other than winter. It was also my 8th trip to Germany (in eight years). It seems like a lot, but at the same time, seems like I’ve barely spent any time there at all. Considering four of my trips to Germany came during the time I lived in Prague in 2008, they’ve been spread out fairly well over the past few years. Our last trip was the longest, visiting the Rheingau, Munich (and Dachau), Bonn/Cologne, Hamburg, and (my favorite) Berlin.
Every time I visit, I get this feeling that Germany could be a great place for us. It just feels so right to be there. I took the train from Paris to Frankfurt, and when I got off the train in Frankfurt, it was like coming home. Things made sense and I was back on familiar ground. I could order in the bakery and understand the ticket machines. I knew what was in my food without guessing, and the crowds were back to being orderly and polite. Yay!
Except for my first – brief – trips to Germany, I’ve always had H with me. Which means I’ve always had a translator and a dictionary when I get overwhelmed by speaking German. This time, I was mostly on my own. To my joy (and husband’s amusement upon my return), I was mistake for a native German speaker twice! They too were foreigners, but unlike me, both lived in Germany. And I rarely had Germans try to speak with me in English, which I’ve had happen before. Never fear, there will be no posts in German. 🙂
If you like these photos, you can purchase one or more for your own home! You can find them here, in my Personal Work folder. All my work is printed by a professional lab and shipped directly to you. And then you’ll have a little slice of Germany hanging on your wall.
If you’re thinking of getting married in Germany and are looking for a wedding photographer, please send me an email at emily@emilywenzel.com. I’d love to be a part of your day. [Bonus! I’m fluent in both English & German.]
by Emily Wenzel | Jan 30, 2015 | Travel
Oh Paris. I wanted to love you. I wanted you to be the city I dreamed of, the city that inspired to me travel when I read about you so many years ago. But, you’re not that city. You’re great and you’re quirky and you’re filled with fun things, but we just didn’t jive. My heart wasn’t in it. It’s not you, it’s me has never felt more apropos. And I think that’s why I couldn’t love you. Because I wanted to love the pre-war Paris, the Hemingway Paris. But that Paris doesn’t exist anymore. And it doesn’t help that I can’t speak French, so I felt completely lost. When I took the train to Germany, it was almost like coming home. I knew how things worked and I fit in.
I still love the view from Sacre Coeur. That church will always have a special place in my heart (but I’d forgotten how many steps I had to walk up to get there). But while I think you’re nice, you don’t compare to the laughing, outgoing people of Munich. Or the artsy, hip vibe from Berlin. Or the layers of history and culture of Prague.
What saddened me the most about Paris, was that even though I stayed in an apartment out of the city center, an area that seemed to be mostly students, and not tourists, I still saw tourists everywhere. However, I’m still glad I came. And I’m still glad I gave you a second chance. And I will say, your gardens are top notch. I could spend weeks wandering through your gardens. You’ve given me so many ideas for my own garden. I guess that has to be enough.
All photos taken on my Nikon FG-20 with Portra 400. Most of them are available for purchase as prints here.
by Emily Wenzel | Dec 19, 2014 | Travel
It’s been almost three months since we went to Alaska. H had an opportunity to go up there for a work trip, so I bought a plane ticket and tagged along. We were there for four days, and while I worked for part of the trip, we also did some exploring around Anchorage, I went on a glacier tour, and we rented a car to drive down Highway 1 on our last day.
I knew I really wanted to see some glaciers, but after looking at a few options, I wasn’t sure I could rationalize the cost. I could take a cruise out of a couple different areas, or I could fly on a helicopter and land on a glacier, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. They were all expensive options, and I was debating just not going and hanging out in Anchorage. H had been to Alaska before as a kid, and he decided I needed to see the glaciers, so he took matters into his own hands and booked a trip for me. And it was possibly the coolest thing I’ve ever done. After a bunch of debate, he booked me a 26 glacier cruise with Phillip Cruises. And I was a fan. I’ve already posted all over my Instagram feed, but I mean, I held a glacier in my hands!! As far as crazy and cool travel experiences go, this was in my top five.
While H was at his work conference, I would work during the day. One day, I was (luckily) working away on the main floor in the cafe (because the internet was a bit spotty in our room on the 16th floor) and I felt a bit of a rumble. I’d noticed planes flying near the hotel the day before, and at first, assumed it was a plane. Turns out, it was an earthquake! Once it started getting a little more forceful, I realized it was an earthquake, but no one else in the cafe was doing anything. So I just stayed put! Later H called me and made me leave the building for about 5 minutes. Turns out, Alaska gets thousands of earthquakes every year, but most of them are small, and in areas that are far away from civilization. This one, a 6.2, was about 100 miles from Anchorage. It was kind of entertaining, in retrospect, because my chai didn’t even spill!
One afternoon we visited the Anchorage Museum. I didn’t take many photos because it was dark, but it was so wonderful! They have a Smithsonian exhibit and I really liked the whole museum.
On the last day, we rented a car and drove down Highway 1 to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, where we got to see moose, elk, reindeer, musk ox, and more that I’m probably forgetting. We also pulled over a half dozen times to take pictures because Alaska is just that pretty, dang it.
And then we flew home, over the glaciers I’d seen just a few days prior on the cruise.
Whew. What an adventure. And what an inspiration. I wrote a little other piece, but I’m going to save that for another day. Because I’ve blathered on enough. Here are so many pictures, including one of a rainbow!
These were shot on my Nikon FG-20 with Portra 400, Ektar 100, and Ilford XP2 400. You can find most of them for sale in my personal work gallery on my proofing site.
by Emily Wenzel | Nov 28, 2014 | Travel
Alaska. There are a million things I want to say about our trip to Anchorage, but I’ll save them for the next post. For this post, I wanted to show off a couple things you can get this weekend during my first Black Friday deal!
Today through Monday, December 1st, all the prints in on my website are 30% off (canvases are 20% off). So if you were a 2013 or 2014 client, or a guest of a wedding in 2013 or 2014, click the Clients link above (or here) to grab those discounted prints.
If you’re not a client of mine, but still looking for some great art at a fantastic price, I’ve started a gallery of my personal work here, which is filled with photos shot on film this year – Portland, the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and Europe (which I haven’t even blogged!) are in there.
Here’s a little sneak peek of the awesomeness you’ll find there:
by Emily Wenzel | Nov 5, 2014 | Travel
After a whirlwind summer, I wasn’t sure how my body was going to handle my trip to Europe. Two weeks of visiting family and friends, of traveling almost every day seemed like a lot. But overall, it was a really great trip. I spent a lot of time offline, and the disconnect from social media was good. It wasn’t a “social media fast” but a diet. Which has give me perspective on just how much time I’m spending on social media each day [a lot] and how I really need to assess my priorities in life, both offline and online.
All in all, it was a great trip. I realized that, while Paris is pretty, I’ll never love it the way I wanted to love it when I was 12. And that, given the chance, I’d move to the Rheingau in a heartbeat, but not Munich. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Munich, but I don’t want to live there. And my Czech host family and friends are amazing, it was so wonderful to see them (and my favorite Czech cities) again after six (six!) long years. I came home with a cold, which I don’t recommend. Flying while congested is hard on your ears.
Anyway, all in all, October was crazy and wonderful and I’ve got lots of stuff to share with you in the next few weeks.
I’m running my film to the post office today, so it’ll be a couple weeks before I have photos from my Europe trip. In the meantime, here are a few of the film scans from my trip to Alaska. All shot on Kodak Portra 400 (color film, the black and white images was changed using VSCOfilm). I’m furiously editing up the last few weddings of the year and trying to catch up on blogging everything. The good news? I’ll have lots of beautiful summer images to show you during our long, dark winter.
PS – I have to say a huge HUGE thank you to everyone who reads this blog, sends clients my way, or has booked me for their photography needs. It’s been such a blessing and honor to work with you all, and I’m so excited that I’m already 25% booked for next year, all thanks to you wonderful people. I love you all so very much. <3
by Emily Wenzel | Oct 8, 2014 | Travel
I’ll be out of the office for the next two week. I’m traveling to Europe to visit my family and friends there, so I’ll be a bit slower to respond to emails. I’ll be back in the office by Halloween. Before I go, I wanted to post some more film images from this summers’ travels. I shot film for my recent trip to Alaska, and I can’t wait to get the scans back and share them with you soon! I’ll try to blog (I’ll have time on the trains and planes, possibly) while I’m gone, but I don’t know how often I’ll be able to connect to the internet.
xoxo,
E.
It felt a little silly to bring my film camera, since we were in Winthrop for Heather & Danny‘s wedding, but I love this little quirky town and it lends itself to film.
Left: H in Winthrop, he’s a trooper always posing for me while I’m fiddling with the camera. Right: H & Bryan after their first trialthlon this spring, in Moses Lake
I made H pull over on the side of the road, and I climbed up on the back of our car to get this photo of Mt. Hood. He thought I was crazy, standing on the car on the side of the highway, but he still pulled over so I could do so. Thanks babe.
This one I’m going to print up and put in my house. The White River falls were so stunning, and I shot this image with the last frame on the camera, so I didn’t know if it would turn out or not.
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