Sessions: Georgia and Mareike at sunrise
Part 1 of a sunrise session with these two beautiful women, flat mates, and friends
Georgia and Mareike
This shoot was actually on Mareike’s last month in American Samoa. We woke up super early, before the sunrise, and met up by the beach in front of our houses. It didn’t seem like it was going to be a good sunrise at first, but we shot anyways, and something like an hour later, the sun shone magnificently, sending light flickering on the ocean’s ripples. I had Georgia and Mareike take turns doing portraits and shot them together too, so here’s just a few of them. I love all of these!
LifeProof underwater
I’m a LifeProof Ambassador!
I’m a LifeProof Ambassador!
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The Back Story
Remember how I lost my phone at the Nu’uuli waterfall several weeks ago? You can read that story here.
[Cliff notes: We narrowly escaped a flash flood and I’ve been a bit traumatized to go back to find it.]
I figured it was a goner at that point, thinking it would have been swept away by a stream or hidden deep in the muddy rainforest.
Well, 2 weeks later, my co-worker Val and I went back to show some visitors to the waterfall, and Val found my phone! I was so excited and relieved.
I inspected the phone and saw some mold behind the home button screen (it was an iPhone 6s so the home button has a small clear flimsy film that keeps the button from getting wet). I wasn’t keeping my hopes up that it would turn back on, and I had already ordered a new iPhone which was on the way. But just in case, I bought a small bag of rice, pulled off the LifeProof case and tucked my iPhone in the bag of rice. I went away to Apia for the long weekend, leaving my phone behind still sitting in rice.
Cut to a few days later… Ian and I just got back from our long weekend trip. I was putting my stuff away, and saw the bag of rice that contained my iPhone. Not thinking too much about it, I plugged it in to the wall charger, and saw that it was charging. I felt a little spark of hope, and showed it to Ian. He said to keep it charging and see what happens. It could have a damaged screen, or the buttons might not work, or maybe the camera wouldn’t flash, or the audio might just not work anymore. I wasn’t holding my breath… I went back to my usual lounging around and decompressing after time traveling. But then, a couple of hours later, I went back to check on the phone, and it was all charged up and seemed to be working like nothing even happened! Like, a technological Frankenstein!
Now that it’s working completely normally, I must admit. I low-key kind of knew that my phone was going to survive because it was in the LifeProof case.
I was going to go back to the waterfall the day after the flash flood but I felt a bit scared to go back. And then I was gonna try going back with Sara and Chase a few days later after work, but it was raining and again, I was still a bit terrified. I might have also been a tad bit lazy, but that’s besides the point. However, I knew better than to keep my hopes up after finding it 2 weeks later. I love my LifeProof case, but like I mentioned before, I thought it was a goner. So you can imagine how incredibly stoked I was to see it come back to life!
My friends jokingly told me I should reach out to LifeProof to get sponsored. Instead, I did what all millennials with an instagram account do, I posted on instagram and tagged LifeProof (in hopes they would see it). Well, they did! Someone at LifeProof messaged me asking to be a brand ambassador, and I was like YES! We corresponded on emails and yeah, I’m a LifeProof Ambassador now!
What does it mean to be a brand ambassador?
In my completely newbie experience, I’ve learned it means pretty much exactly what it sounds like–I rep LifeProof by using their products (which I already was doing before!). The cool thing is that they sent me a big box filled with a bunch of phone cases and a sweet new backpack, and in return I just had to send them a couple of photos that they could eventually use–kind of like as a real-life advertisement. I’m essentially telling my stories about how I use (and abuse) my phone, and how the LifeProof phone case has been a true life-saver! There really is no other phone case I would rather use.
*Just a note, they aren’t paying me to blog about this. I did receive several cases for free though and a backpack (!!!) which I think is very cool. Does this make me an influencer?! LOL the answer is no. I actually hate that word 😛
Stay close to the people that feel like sunshine
loved this sunrise shoot with Mareike right before she left for the Azores