This year has been of many first for us, both personally and professionally.  As we continue to grow as husband and wife, our dreams and life ambitions continue to grow as well.   One of those life ambitions is to give our boys the best life and experiences possible.

A first for us this year was to take a family vacation together!  As we’ve shared in the past, we’ll head out of town at least once a year together to reconnect as husband and wife.  However, this year we choose a family vacation with the boys and Ryan’s immediate family to Isle of Palms just outside of Charleston, S. Carolina. Don’t worry, since our marriage is a high priority, we’ll do a low key getaway from Cincinnati in December.

Another first for us on this vacation, was to leave our “big” cameras at home. Instead, we decided to take our 15+ year old film cameras on vacation.  Neither of us have shot using film for a very very long time!  We’re taking at least over a decade. This was a way to step back to the basics and not focus on photography but being together as a family. 

The adventure of using a film camera was a learning experience.   Here are our top lessons we learned while shooting film on vacation:

• You have to truly think about the image you’re taking.  Each snap cost money!
• Keeping track of rolls of film is stressful!
• Knowing how settings and ISO work are the key to capturing decent images!
• Waiting on see your images SUCK!
• Since our lens were manual focus, we had to really be on par with our sharpness!

Now… here are a few of our favorites on black and white film (which is the only film we brought with us)! Please keep in mind… these images are not edited! They only thing we’ve done to them was to straighten up a few crooked photos. We wanted to maintain the integrity of what we captured. Also, film has tons of grain… embrace the grain!!!!

Our vacation started at 5am as we did our first family photo session since the wedding at Folly Beach in Charleston.

After family photos… Ryan napped and Nicole, Jacob, & Caleb headed to the beach for some fun in the sun! Caleb is our water baby/beach bum… so this was his “happy” place.

Micah- Our youngest nephew

Samantha- Ryan’s sister

Elijah- Our oldest nephew

We went to Patriots Point for our first full day adventure!

After a hot day walking around on Patriots Point, we finished off the day with a sunset cruise to find dolphins!

We toured the oldest plantation in the area, Magnolia Plantation & Gardens.

Thanks Jacob for taking a photo of us… even if your dad didn’t smile!

The boys were not “feeling” getting their photo taken…hahahahaha

Downtown Charleston… we just walked around!

Jacob wasn’t miserable… he was being a “angsty teen” but we sat at the bar to eat… and he had unlimited pops. Honestly, we have no idea how many he truly had since the bartender kept his glass full!

Our 4th of July was spend on Ft. Sumter… except for Caleb who opted to stay back at the house and spend the day on the beach or in the pool.

A few images from our horse draw carriage ride through downtown Charleston… during a torrential downpour!

Oh… you know we’re a crazy cat family… so, we had to get a few snaps of the fur kids when we got home!!!

We hope you enjoyed this snippet of our vacation.  Normally, we share a huge travel blog post when we go somewhere new, but since we didn’t have out “big kid cameras” the only images besides the black and white film we shot, were cell phone photos… So, this time, we’re going to pass on a full vacation recount. 

Have a Great Day,

Nicole & Ryan