For most of my life, I thought that I would end up somewhere soon with roots and certainty. Then, my freshman fall I studied abroad in London, and wings began to grow where I always planned for roots to be. As the plans began to crumble, the love for adventure awakened. London was the most pure form of freedom I had ever felt. Not only was I away from curfews and family dinners, but I had an ocean between me and any guidance. I was in a whole new culture, dropped into a totally new world. Every tube stop was terrifying and magical. From London, I explored solo-travel by going to both Berlin and Rome. Then, during fall of my junior year, I flew back to Rome to fall in love again.

Apparently, adventure is addictive. I re-discovered this when in October, just a month into my classes, I felt itchy. Antsy. Like I needed to go. So, my camera and I drove two hours to Vermont.

My camera makes me brave. In my "real" life, I am awkward and silly, sensitive and insecure. Being behind the lens of my camera makes me feel like someone else. It's a bit like Clark Kent as Superman...how ridiculous is it because he wears glasses in his day-to-day life, everyone just sees Clark Kent? My camera is my cape: It flings me from being Olivia to being a photographer.

It's a shield and a sword; it feels equally safe and brave. Every picture I take feels like a challenge, something to explore.

So, this October, my camera and I decided to mosey over to Vermont and have a three day adventure. Together, our alarm went off at 4:30 every morning just to catch the right sunrise. We would stay in the same place for hours just to get the best light. I slept less during my weekend "getaway" than I do during finals, but fall in Vermont is maybe the most beautiful time to be part of the world.

I love this one because it looks like something more than it is. The blur on the background is simply from the camera setting, not from any computer editing. And the red leaf being pierced through the middle feels so symbolic. To me, it looks likes a heart.

There actually wasn't a lot of foliage in Vermont, the season came late. But this one red tree in a sea of green sang to me.

The residents of this small town all leave their summer canoes here for winter. The ones in the back have been almost grown over. None of them are locked down, none have their owner's name on them.. It spoke to the trust and magic of the town-- that they are all so certain of each other they leave their valuables in public, for months, without fear.

Secret: this is my favorite. I love the composition. I love the sunburst. It was one of my most proud moments as a photographer, and I'm not sure if I'm just overly attached to it or if it might actually be good. I think that, often, we think photographers just hit buttons and that's it. This took maneuvering, climbing the hill behind me for the angle, making my shutter-speed just right to capture the sun and the blue of the sky.

This is Jenne Farm, and it's the number one most photographed farm in America. This was shot right around 6 am... the sun came up and over the hill, and everything began to light up. If you look closely, you can even see the cows in the pasture. I normally try to avoid things that are overly photographed, but sometimes things are simply too lovely to resist.

These fall leafs in the creek made me so happy. I love the burst of color under the movement of water. These slow-shutter shots don't look great unless you have something still in the photograph to show the movement. Luckily, my leafs volunteered to do that for me.

I'm unsure about this one. I love the leafs, I love the water movement, I love the scene. It feels awkward to me because the story was so different. It was crowded at the waterfall with a highway behind me (well, as much of a highway as there can be in Vermont). But this feels like I just stumbled upon something wonderful. Photographs are amazing because, since they're what was really there, we think they must be what really happened. But sometimes they can crop out and edit an entirely different story. I like mine to be honest, but this one feels like a bit of a trick.

To me, the combination of the morning fog in the distance and the American flag in the breeze makes for a heroic morning scene. I love graveyards because there are so many stories, so much life buried. This felt like a glimpse of something else.

This road is a photographer's dream-- is an s-curve (see?). It just... makes everything look beautiful, like you're stepping right into the journey. I wrote about how much work goes into some photographs, but this one did all of the work itself. I just clicked.

This is my best donkey friend, Marc. He was just too cute not to share. I actually went up and petted him, but his cuteness distracted me from getting any up close picture

What I love about this is that, though you can clearly see that they are leafs, for a moment it almost looks abstract. Then, after a second, it looks like a wishbone in a sea of colors. Photographs might show you exactly what is there, but even that can be doused in a little bit of fantasy.

This is the little red leaf that could. It grabs your focus because it is out of place. When you look at it, you have to wonder where it fell from. Which tree? The leaf tells a story, an adventure of falling and landing, and the photograph lets us peak in the middle of it all!

Again, there are magical moments that are worked hard for. I worked hard to get this framing. I try to see things differently, not just a snapshot but something more than that. Something exciting, something that feels like you're peaking into a different world. This shot feels interesting without being messy, and I feel really proud of that.

And again, there are moments that just happen. To paint the scene: it was 6 am and freezing, and it was questionable whether sunrise light was worth it. It was. It always is. All I had to do was set up and show up, and then the light painted the whole photograph for me. I just had to be there.

A photography professor once told me to never mix black-and-white images with color images because the black-and-white always looks dull in comparison. I disagree. Here, there is a bright living flower surrounded by dark, dying ones. Some images don't need to be in color to have a story.

This was my attempt to play with focus. What should be the subject isn't, and what shouldn't be the subject is. The subject is fuzzy, but it still manages to tell us some sort of story. Every time I see this, it makes me grin.

I think when your share your artwork, you always feel vulnerable. Every image has a story, a place and a moment. Some takes hours, some take seconds. Sometimes I just... miss the shot, and other times I'm there at exactly the right moment, the split second that creates something beautiful.

Elizabeth Gilbert wrote, "If you're alive, you're a creative person." I believe that. I believe that our magic lives within us all, and it's just the medium we pick up to communicate that. There are terrifying questions that come with creativity: am I good enough? Is this a job or a hobby? Is everyone better than me? And we just have to... turn those off sometimes. We have to silence all the voices telling us we can't, pack up our cars, drive to Vermont, and wake up at 6 am to keep chasing the light.

You can find more of my photographs here!