When You Fall In Love With Multiple Passions

Ever since I've started blogging just a little over a year ago, this burning passion of mine has opened doors to many other passions I had yet to discover. Along with blogging, I didn't realize until later on that it also went hand-in-hand with photography and travel, which were activities I never expected to fall in love with. Today, I can confidently say that I have many passions, but I wanted to focus specifically on two passions that enhanced my love for blogging even more.

Why I Love to Travel:

To put it simply, traveling feeds the soul when it comes to learning about different cultures and surrounding yourself with beautiful architecture, picturesque landscapes, and a brand new community. Traveling is a very broad term, as you can be talking about driving to the city next door or flying two continents away. To me, traveling is defined as getting out of your hometown and stepping into unfamiliar territory. Ever since I've started blogging and going on monthly road trips with passionate and like-minded individuals, I have fallen in love with admiring various sights I've never come across before. Not only do I find traveling therapeutic, but it's nice to take in the beautiful scenery while getting a breath of fresh air every now and then.

Additionally, by pursuing blogging as a full-time profession, it's important to keep your feed interesting and your audience engaged. Thus, one important responsibility of a blogger is to do research on potential photoshoot locations you'd like to shoot at. After all, I make it a goal to pair any of my fashion outfits with a matching background or landscape. It's still a work in progress, but I definitely want every single one of my posts to inspire or drive some sort of positive action from my followers. And to do this, you need to work hard to find the perfect place to take your photos all the while writing a caption that will strike the heart of your readers. When it comes to photoshoot backdrops, I'm a huge fan of colorful murals, minimalistic buildings, popular landmarks, and nature. A majority of these photos were taken in the heart of Downtown LA, which is the perfect place to find the coolest wall arts.

Why I Love Photography:

Photography is an art form, indirectly or directly illustrating the expression of emotions, color, and thought process of the photographer. I absolutely love photography because I appreciate every single photographer's way of capturing and editing their photos. Some prefer to enhance the vibrancy of colors in their photos, while others play around with cooler tones. Although some may view photography as a competitive field, I feel that the photography community is a very supportive environment that tries to help fellow photographers with honest feedback and helpful suggestions. I recently attended my first Instameet hosted by both Daniel Chang and Juliann Cheryl in Downtown LA and absolutely had a fantastic and memorable experience. Never had I had five photographers shoot me at once and it's thrilling to know that I was surrounded by both passionate and talented creatives who wanted to better their work with their fellow peers.

I still have a lot to learn when it comes to photography, but I can definitely see my progression from when I first started to today. For the first six months of using a DSLR camera, my pictures were all blurry and suffered from terrible lighting issues. Nowadays, my portrait photography is clearer and I've learned to play with different angles and lighting as well. Recently, I've been especially proud of my food photography and am stoked that I get to work with so many restaurants these days. Feel free to check out my food Instagram (@notsomisschealthy) - all of these food shots were taken by yours truly. As a learning photographer, I still have yet to take the perfect in-motion or hair whip shot. Sounds like I've got some goals to accomplish in 2017, haha!

Along with both travel and photography, it makes sense that I'll be lugging around a bunch of heavy equipment. On an average work day, I could bring anywhere from 1-3 work planners, my DSLR camera, my electronic device cords, my laptop, and more. As much as I love purses, sometimes a purse isn't quite enough to store everything you need in one go. In these photos, I am modeling one of the coolest backpacks I have ever owned from BirkSun - the Gunmetal Grey Boost 2 BirkSun backpack. In fact, this BirkSun backpack comes with a solar panel, charging your mobile device wherever you go - beach, festival, hiking, you name it. Because of its advanced technological features, my new BirkSun backpack is definitely a travel adventure buddy I will always have by my side.

Do you want to find out how to win your very own Mythos Black Birksun backpack (valued at $169) just in time for the holiday season?  Peep the rules below to find out how to enter.

[Rules] (Required)
1. Follow @missmisschelle and @birksun on Instagram.
2. Like this photo on Instagram.
3. Tag 3 friends on Instagram who would be interested in this giveaway on this Instagram photo.
4. Like my Facebook page (Search "Missmisschelle").
5. Leave a blog post comment below mentioning how you would incorporate a Birksun backpack into your lifestyle.  Don't forget to leave your full name, email address, and Instagram handle in your blog comments as well.  Also, if you follow me on any other social media channels, please leave your respective account names in the blog comments so that I can count your extra entries!

[Extra Entries] (Optional)
1. Follow missmisschelle on Twitter.
2. Follow missmisschelle on Pinterest.
3. Add missmisschelle on Snapchat.
4. Subscribe to missmisschelle's YouTube channel.

Please follow all of the required rules in order for your entry to be counted. This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only and ends in 7 days. Only 5 entries maximum per person.  No giveaway/multiple accounts allowed. I will be announcing the giveaway winner by replying to the winner's BLOG COMMENT below - be sure to check back after 7 days to see if you have won!  Good luck! :)

[Photography]
Polka Dot Wall - @ryanbyryanchua
Hotel - @comfycitychic
Rainbow Wall - @charmanderpoo

[Outfit Details #1 - Polka Dot Wall]
Dress: Francesca's Collections
Shoes: IPPO

[Outfit Details #2 - Fall]
Romper: TOBI

[Outfit Details #3 - Rainbow Wall]
Dress: Irene's Story
Shoes: Zooshoo 

[Outfit Details #4 - Hotel]
Top: Blessed Are The Meek
Pants: Synergy Clothing

Much Love,