Lauren Randolph - Travel, Work, Photography, and Making it Happen All Together.

Lauren Randolph has figured it out. She has the job she loves allowing her to do the things she loves. Her skill has always been in finding the magic in the everyday - the colors, the people, and the environment as a source of inspiration. It's a skill that's allowed her to take her photography on the road - not as a travel photographer but as a photographer that travels. 

Photography is one of the best jobs if you would like to travel for work. All you need is yourself, your camera, the ticket to ride -  and you have an entire commercial campaign. We've asked Lauren a few questions about her experience over the past two years with her major increase in travel.

Our first question for anyone who travels for work is if they travel for fun too, without a job taking them there. As it turns out she was just in London for the first time and soon to be back in Berlin to continue her project on the U-BAHN Railway.  In March/April she has a trip planned to Italy with her mom and sister, their first time to Europe. All on her own time and dime. She says “I've always had a very wanderlust side to me - taking cross country roadtrips, camping up the coast, finding any and every excuse to travel as a good one. Recently I've been fortunate enough to get the opportunity to travel for jobs - which I actually really love. I always carry my camera with me every where, but it's nice shooting with an assignment in mind. I've been lucky to be hired by brands and companies who allow me to still shoot and see what I want to when traveling. To me it's a win/win.”

Sometimes when you travel for work you are set up with travel plans and accommodations. Lauren Randolph explains “I just recently returned from a trip to Hong Kong. This was a city I've always wanted to visit, but was honestly a bit intimidated. It was great to go for work, because I knew I would be well taken care of - however, I got the opportunity to venture out into the streets on my own and really soak up the vibrancy and culture. Along the same lines, I'd really love to visit Tokyo on assignment someday.” 

She still has Greece and Ireland on the personal travel bucket list. “One so photogenic - white buildings, sprinkled along the cliff side, spilling into the ocean - and older history than I can even fathom. And Ireland because it's in my blood. Both sides of my family have Irish roots, and I'd love to spend time just exploring the country sides, and taking in the landscape.”

In her current trip to Europe she decided to turn her London stop into an extended week on her way to Berlin. A chance for a new city on her way to one that has her heart. “ I fell in love with Berlin last year, after spending almost 2 months working with The Lab Magazine and Generator Hostels. I've been back a few times since, and the city always seems to show me a new side of it. It's a city so rich with history, yet so diverse, and currently going through such changes. I can't get enough.”

On her first visit to Berlin, Germany our LaurenLemon started the hashtag #whileinbetween on Instagram along with fellow photographer, Michael Schulz aka @berlinstagram. “We worked together for Generator Hostels last year, and we needed to find a way to engage the online community. We asked people to share their in-between travel moments using the hashtag, because travel isn't just about the destination. I think there's something wonderful about being able to find beauty in the passing moments of travel as well. Since then we created a @whileinbetween account where we feature the best travel photos from around the world. The hashtag has since been featured by Instagram, and the account has over 14k followers.” 

The last important question to ask any traveler is - Which place has the best food? “Believe it or not, I actually really love the traditional German foods. I grew up eating bratwurst and sauerkraut, so it feels like comfort food to me. However, some of the best food I had was when working in Stockholm. Dishes were so well prepared and presented.”

Here are some travel tips from Lauren Randolph - @LaurenLemon. 

- Pack snacks. You never know how jetlag will effect your eating schedule, and you also don't know if you'll love the local cuisine. 

- Stay hydrated! Fly with an empty water bottle so you can fill it up on the plane. This is the only way to stay fresh and well on a flight. 

- Look up airline prices. Where's the cheapest place to travel abroad? Why not go there, surprise yourself. Sometimes the best places to visit are the ones you'd never expect.

Follow Lauren Randolph on her adventures online - 
laurenlemon.com/instagram
laurenlemon.tumblr.com
photolauren.com 

Kevin Necessary Talks Traveling For Work

Kevin Necessary shared with us his work from a studio shoot in Beijing and Shanghai China and his own street photography. 

“I have been to China before for shooting. The most interesting thing to me is the diversity between living in the city and living just outside. You go from Ferrari's to hoarse drawn food carts in a hurry. The lifestyle of people in the city is full of commercial shops and outside is family and friends, thats why I like it out side.”

I asked him what some differences were shooting in studio and with clients in other places like China as opposed to hometown Los Angeles. Turns out there are many. Craft services “One day it was fermented fish heads with goose intestine soup. Luckily I speak mandarine so I order out.” as well as “Client style is all about the relationship, many nights at the bar and many cigarettes(I don’t smoke but its offensive to say no).” All the way down to longer shoot hours and the equipment. He has an office in Beijing and shoots there regularly, he's seen a huge variety of differences. Seem’s working in a foreign country is just as much of a cultural experience as traveling for fun.

When asking about this association with work and travel and where they blend Kevin says, “I do one family trip a year with no camera and one photo trip with.”  And with the rest - “I always have a camera with me. It’s not just a profession. I always take a few days to explore and take photos.” Traveling for photography allows him to be drawn to third world places for the colors and the people.

Born in Los Angeles, a childhood in Lake Tahoe, and then back to L.A. - this perhaps draws a line between the range in his photography - studio vs. surroundings. Finally, I asked him where he would want to be sent for work. His reply? "Outer space, I’ve been to most countries." We'll work on that, Kevin. 

 Kevin Necessary's work with BYD (Build Your Dreams) and Volkswagen. 

“It was about -15 degrees in the studio that week. No heat, just the lights. we all stood around the lights for warmth. Cameras kept freezing and the windows of the car kept frosting over. I had to put the camera in a running car outside to defrost, bring it in, then after about 10 frames the shutter would freeze solid.”

Operation Christmas Child - Lauri Laukkanen

As the Holiday's come to a close and the New Year begins it's good to be reminded of more than holiday leftovers, getting back to work, and putting away the Christmas decorations. It's never a bad time of year to pay attention to those in need. Our photographer Lauri Laukkanen had an amazing opportunity this year ----

Four months ago, in August 2104, the Finnish division of Operation Christmas Child contacted me, and asked me if I would be interested in joining them on their gift-distribution trip to Romania in December. My family has been preparing shoeboxes for the Operation Christmas Child-project every year for the past 5-6 years, so the organization and their cause was already familiar to me. I was more than happy to join them on this trip, and after making sure I could fit the trip in my calendar, we locked the dates, and four months later I was sitting on the plane, flying to Romania with the team 

Our trip lasted ten days. We arrived in Cluj, Romania on Saturday the 13th of December, and stayed in that part of the country for the first four days. On Wednesday we spent about 10 hours in our van driving from Cluj to Vaslui (the poorest county in the whole of European Union), where we spent the remaining five days. 

In Cluj we delivered gifts to local gypsy-churches, villages and families. We were able to visit a gypsy-village called Pirita - they don't allow visitors to enter their village so the the local church hadn’t been able to visit them before. But they made an exception with us when we told them about the shoebox-gifts that we would be giving out to them. This village was one of the saddest places I’ve ever seen in my life. People living in shacks built out of cardboard boxes and other trash. Dogs, cats, children and adults all living together in a muddy, dirty, and wet environment. Children walking in old dirty t-shirts, without shoes. But I’ll never forget the joy and happiness that I saw in these children’s faces when they received their Christmas-gifts! It was their first real Christmas gift, ever. 

The best part about this trip to me was the fact that I got to work and connect with small children. I have always loved playing with kids, and fooling around with these kids was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. Bringing joy to these children felt amazing, and taking photos of them (and selfies with them) seemed to amuse the kids almost as much as getting the shoeboxes did. :)

As a whole, the trip was pretty tough, both physically and emotionally. We worked around 10-12 hours every day, and spent a lot of hours commuting from one place to another, driving on some of the worst roads in the world. Watching these people live their lives in some of the worst conditions I’ve ever seen, was also a very tough thing to go through, emotionally speaking. But even in these bad conditions we always saw happy children, eagerly waiting for their gifts. And that’s what made this trip really worth it all. :)

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This here is one of my favorite photos from the trip - it was taken in the village called Pirita – that muddy, dirty town. In the middle of the crowd, I spotted this girl, patiently waiting for her gift, while people around her were running, shouting and trying to make their way to the men handing out the shoeboxes. For a brief moment, her eyes connected with mine, and I smiled to her. She looked back at me and smiled a little. This was a beautiful moment that I won’t ever forget. 

Another photo that I like a lot, was also taken in Pirita. This photo tells the viewer a lot about the life and the living-conditions of Pirita. The boy is holding the hand of his mother, who is pregnant, waiting for another baby. Their clothes are old and dirty. The ground is muddy. And behind them, in the background, there are a lot of people just like them – all living in the same poor conditions.

Each and every photo I took on that trip has a long story behind it, and it would take a hundred blog-posts to go through all the stories, but here are some of my favorite moments that I managed to capture during our trip: