Mr & Mrs Globetrot on Formspring

We get a lot of questions in our email that are travel or photography related. If you ever emailed and it took us forever to respond, our apologies. We used to give the excuse that we were traveling abroad and didn't have internet, but now that we're home, that handy excuse is no longer valid. We want to do our best to answer questions and get to know our readers better. If we didn't care about communicating with you, we wouldn't have a blog.

We created an FAQ post a while back to help answer reader questions, but we still get plenty of specific questions. Soooo, we've decided to give Formspring a shot. 

Formspring is cool because 1.) you can ask questions anonymously (a good way to satisfy your burning curiosity without revealing your identity) and 2.) the answers are all posted publicly so other people can benefit. Chances are, you and someone else around the world have the same question. Fire away.

- Julia & Yuriy

Our various locations online are multiplying like crazy!! Just when I think I have it all, some new social media phenomenon pops up. Other places you can find us:

Shop: Handle With Care 

Photography website: Yuriy Manchik Photographers

Julia's personal inspiration blog: Picture Party Blog

Travel blog: Mr & Mrs Globetrot

Bloglovin': Mr & Mrs Globetrot

Twitter: Julia / Yuriy

Facebook: Julia / Yuriy

YouTube

Flickr

Pinterest (Julia)

Instagram on the iPhone (Julia)

Formspring

Mr & Mrs Globetrot on Flickr!

We finally did it! I've spent the last couple weeks uploading all of our travel photos into a shiny new Flickr account. 

We've heard some really great stories of how the travel photos on our blog are being used. One student used them in a school project about Hungary.... one girl asked to use our travel photos in a church children's program... and recently we found out a school teacher has been pulling up Mr & Mrs Globetrot blog in class on a regular basis and teaching her students about places around the world. Incredible! Our opportunity to travel for 6 months was a blessing from God, not something we earned. We are so happy that other people find our photos and experiences useful and inspirational. We have thousands of photos from around the world that could be used in so many ways, and instead of letting them collect computer dust, we wanted an easy way to share them with the world. Flickr seemed like the right answer. All of our photos are now organized in easy-to-locate folders labeled by country, city, and event chronologically. As we keep blogging our trip, we will continue to upload all photos to our Flickr account. Feel free to use our photos for any personal projects (and please give us credit for photos).

Do you have a Flickr account? What is your favorite thing about it? Find us on Flickr so we can be friends!

Coming Home: A Scrapbook

People keep asking if we're excited to be home, with a very concerned look on their face. Of course! If I thought about it hard enough, there are many things to be depressed about now that we're home in rainy Washington. Traveling offers a freedom in time, culture, routine, and state of mind that you can't get at home. Freedom to visit museums daily, to sit for hours and watch people pass, to eat pastries on a daily basis, to not have a place to sleep at night, to rent a moped without a license and ride it barefoot. Traveling allows you to escape the people who put you down or intimidate you, the work/chores that tire you out, busy days, rushed meals. You're freed from listening to what anyone says-- you don't understand the language!  When traveling, there's no such thing as looking forward to the weekend. You don't even realize what day of the week it is.

But we've been too busy adjusting to life back home to think too hard about the negatives. We have plenty to be excited about at home. As much as we love to travel, there's something about home that's always tugging and eventually pulls you home. As much as we love living abroad in unfamiliar places, we have too many goals and aspirations at home that we couldn't accomplish if we ditched the country for good. So we're happily moving onto the next chapter of our life in Seattle-- the start of our married life at home, moving in together for the first time, and working together from the home (the same home)! It's been a bumpy start, not because we're fighting over what we're putting on the mantle or what needs to be donated to Goodwill, but because there's just so stinkin much to do and people to see when you've been gone for half a year! Here's a helter skelter of images from our first week home, mostly from our little point and shoot camera and even some from my cell phone.

We had a fantastic last meal together on Koh Phanang island. A warm night. We sat outdoors with our table overlooking the ocean and we tried not to think about how cold it'd be back home. Chicken basil, penang curry, Tom Yam soup, breaded shrimp, white rice, and mojitos. (We don't usually order this much! It was a special occasion.) The next day, a bittersweet drink at a rooftop bar overlooking the city of Bangkok on our last night before flying out.  

Two flights equaling 15 hours total and a 12 hour layover in between got us halfway around the world. There were sleepy moments, sad moments, bored moments, anxious moments, so-excited-I-could-hardly-stand-it moments.

Our first (and biggest) project upon arriving home was unpacking. Not just our suitcases but our entire condo-- all our belongings were in moving boxes while we were away. We've never lived together before, so trying to fit our stuff into one home is a delight (expect for fitting our clothes into one closet). We still have a long ways to go.

Then there were the little things-- like getting cell phone service, forwarding and reading mail, doing laundry, digging out the winter clothes, filling an empty fridge, picking up miscellaneous household items, getting a joint bank account, changing my legal last name to Manchik, running errands of all sorts, sending off the first packages from our new shop Handle With Care. You'd think our first meals would be all-American since we've been away for so long, but nope... first we went out for Mexican (pictured), then Hungarian, then Chinese teriyaki... 

We were suddenly in such high demand. We were invited to dinner at Yuriy's parents' house, at brother's house, at grandma's house... we loved it. We missed home cooked food and got to meet our brand new baby niece, Liana (Yuriy's brother's first child). In exchange for food, we shared stories of our travels and family crowded around a laptop to see our endless photos (I guess the blog wasn't enough!). 

...and despite our long to-do list at home, we took off on a weekend trip to Idaho (where I grew up) to see my side of the family. We carpooled with my ex-roommate Ally and one of our bridesmaids (who is also from Idaho), and I almost felt single again. Yuriy slept in the back seat while Ally and I chatted in the front without pausing the entire 7.5 hours to my parents' house. The weekend was filled with my mama's delicious cooking, a lot of playtime with nieces/nephews, catching up with brothers/sisters, a family sushi-making night, dates with friends (single ones and married ones), and meeting new babies and puppies! 

Is 6 months really that long? Countless friends have become engaged since we left home. Or got a boyfriend. Or got married (and we missed it). We have friends and family who had babies. Or got pregnant. Some have moved homes. Some have changed jobs. Our church expanded from one campus to two. Kids have grown like weeds... the bald baby now has hair. It makes me sad to think how much we've missed out on at home to see the world. We're definitely not done traveling, but we're certainly sticking around home with the people we love most in between our escapes. 

- Julia

Bittersweet - Heading Home

Unless you follow us on Twitter (Julia, Yuriy), you probably don't even know that we're headed home this weekend. Being a sad topic, we haven't been bringing it up too often on the blog. Now as we sit at the airport with a 12 hour layover in Seoul (before heading to Seattle), there's no avoiding the topic. Instead of being negative about it, we decided to come up with a happy list of all the things we're looking forward to at home.

- friends & family -- first and foremost!

- meeting our new niece, Liana (Yuriy's brother welcomed his 1st baby on 02/11) 

- our very own Ikea bed -- better than any hotel bed

- having a closet 

- free internet at all times (we're usually hunting for cafes with internet in every city we visit and get deeply disappointed when our hotels don't have wireless)

- tennis

- rock climbing

- mountain biking

- kayaking (what can I say.... we haven't been very active these past 6 months)

- driving our own cars (on the right side of the road!)

- cell phone service -- I don't know if I remember how to text fast

- cooking at home

- a washing machine

- Starbucks -- we made a promise not to have it abroad (even though its all over the place), though we cheated once on Christmas Day

- church & worship -- we've been listening to sermon podcasts, but it's not nearly the same as being there every Sunday

- mama's cooking

- nieces and nephews

- our hammock on the balcony

- teriyaki restaurants (Yuriy's fave lunch and Seattle has loads of them)

- decorating our first home together -- we lived separately prior to the wedding and can't wait to combine our tastes

- riding bikes together

- garage saling this summer

- having a blow drier and hair straightener (just Julia... hopefully)

- revisiting our favorite happy hour restaurants -- lamb burgers at Barolo, in particular

- a decent shower 

- jigsaw puzzles -- one of our favorite things to do on a quiet evening at home

- a fireplace (goes well with the puzzles)

- my guitar (Julia)

- having an office desk

- getting mail (and digging through the pile from the last 6 months)

- customer service at businesses -- America does it best

- legally changing my last name to Manchik (Julia)

- wearing my engagement ring (Julia) -- didn't want to take major bling traveling so I took it off and left it at home just 3 days after the wedding!

- wild blackberries -- only in sweet ol' Washington State

- sending off our first shop orders!

- having a coffee pot at home -- and no more Nescafe! (so many countries served this instant crap when you ordered coffee)

- buying Yuriy a new car -- we sold his before the trip 

- buying new electronics -- laptops, phones, iPad (we've fallen behind from the pack)

- snowboarding (Julia) & skiing (Yuriy)

See? There's a lot to look forward to! (and a lot we'll miss... like exploring new cities, eating yummy food every day, taking photos of charming streets/buildings, meeting new people, learning history, touring the world's biggest cities, sleeping in late, having long days with no plans, warm summer weather, laying on beaches......)

It's mind boggling that we will be home in Seattle by Sunday afternoon. It seems like it's all part of an old past life, but nope, it's the life that still exists.

Just so you know, we have a LOT left to blog about. We somehow fell behind on our posting (maybe we were busy traveling and enjoying ourselves) and are still writing about our time in Ukraine which was in December. Sifting through thousands of photos and writing about such incredible experiences can only be rushed so much. Since December, a lot has happened. We left blistery cold Europe for sunny Asia (visiting Hong Kong, Thailand, Laos, Singapore, Indonesia) and completed our around-the-world-trip by driving down the Australian coast (checking out Sydney, Melbourne, and everything in between). So you can probably imagine how many photos we've accumulated! We can't wait to share it all here, so stick around. 

Now we have a 10 hour flight to catch and some tears to wipe away. 

- Julia and Yuriy

Get Ready!

We've been keeping a big secret.

Tomorrow, March 1st, we want to share a new website with you that we've been laboring on for the past few months (yes, working while traveling!).

Please be sure to come back tomorrow for more information and a chance to win some free goodies right here on our blog. We are so excited to share!

Hint: it's travel-related

What's In My Suitcase?

We have received many emails asking how in the world we packed for six months of traveling. It wasn’t easy. This was my first time traveling for such an extended period of time, so I can’t say I’m an expert, but I thought it would be fun to share my experience. And forewarning-- this post is intended for girls (from one girl to another). Boys just don't have these issues.

Before the wedding, the last thing I wanted to think about was packing a suitcase for six months abroad. It would have been wise to pack far before the wedding and alleviate some stress. Rather, I saved it for the night before we left (which was 3 days after the wedding). I dread packing for trips like I dread the day after Christmas. More, actually (and unpacking is not better). But this was no weekend trip. This was a half a year, several seasons, too many countries. I needed to pack for active days of hiking and biking, as well as for hot dates with my studly new husband in swanky city restaurants. I needed to pack for winter and I needed to pack for summer. And if I packed anything more than one medium suitcase, I wouldn’t hear the end of it from my minimalist, backpacker man.

Sacrifice//

I carefully considered what items I could sacrifice. I decided I could get by without a purse, without boots, and without a hair straightener. These were all bulky or heavy things that I could do without. I didn’t even think about leaving behind my laptop, iPhone, and a couple of books. Sure they were heavy, but I would give up some space to bring the things that would keep me sane.

Less Bulky//

I packed a little bit of everything—shirts, sweaters, shorts, pants, dresses, skirts. But I think the trick lies in packing less of some items and more of others. I only packed one light jacket because coats are so bulky, but I packed several light sweaters and cardigans because I could layer them under the jacket in cold weather and wear them alone over shirts and dresses in moderate weather. I packed only one pair of jeans and one pair of black pants because pants take up so much room in a suitcase, and honestly I could wear the same pair of jeans for a week with different tops and nobody would notice. I packed a lot of dresses because they’re so light and easy to pack a bunch without taking up much room at all. They also work in warm and cool weather if you have tights/leggings and a sweater to throw on top. Not to mention dresses are just fab.

Versatile//

I tried to pack items that could be dressed up or dressed down depending on the occasion. For example, a good thing to have is a top that will go well with a skirt and jewelry to go out on a date, but can also be worn with shorts and flipflops to the beach. I avoided taking anything that could only be casual (think a sporty Nike top) or that could only be dressy (think sequined, silky top). I took quite a few pairs of shoes, but made sure each pair could be worn with jeans and a dress (excluding my sneakers, which I wouldn't wear with a dress).

Neutrals//

Don’t pack things that don’t match with a lot of pieces in your wardrobe. Yes, that means leaving your abstract 80s shirt and fuchsia heels at home. I packed a lot of neutral colors like black, brown, tan, and white for versatility. This will help you create the greatest amount of different outfits with your limited wardrobe for an extended time. Neutral shoes, neutral tops, neutral belts, neutral accessories. 

Accessories//

Accessories—don’t feel like you have to leave them at home because they’re extra baggage. They really help you jazz up an outfit that you feel like you’ve worn a dozen times too many in the last month. Just pack the thin chain necklace, not the chunky beads bigger than gumballs.

Extra Bags//

In addition to our suitcases, we each brought a messenger bag for our laptops. We also packed a small backpack so we could take it on day trips. Here I am going on about how I packed, but actually, Yuriy was the one with the small suitcase and I was the one with the medium suitcase. His packing job was incredibly impressive! However, we picked up some extra things once we got to Southeast Asia because we couldn't resist the cheap prices, so Yuriy had to upgrade to a bigger suitcase (same size as mine). We also added one more backpack because our suitcases were too heavy for flying (darn 20kg limit for checked bags). Now we each have one suitcase, one messenger bag, and one backpack. Not an easy load when there's a lot of walking involved (but it could have been worse). 

-    

This is what our luggage currently looks like with our upgrades.

What's In My Suitcase* : 

7 shirts (6 short-sleeve, 1 long-sleeve)

6 tanks

3 white camisoles

1 jumpsuit

6 dresses

2 skirts

4 shorts

2 pants (1 jeans, 1 black)

5 sweaters/cardigans

1 jacket

3 nightgowns

2 jammies

1 light cotton robe
1 towel

2 swimsuits (bikini, one-piece)

8 panties

4 bras (white, nude, black, strapless)

3 socks

3 belts (1 for pants, 2 for waist)

1 scarf

1 pair of tights

1 pair of leggings

6 pairs of shoes (2 sandals,1 flipflops, 1 oxfords, 1 Toms, 1 sneakers)

1 curling iron

1 bag chock full of toiletries

1 accessory box (jewelry, headbands, etc)

1 mini leather backpack

* As already mentioned, I did some shopping in Thailand and added quite a bit to the list above to take home.

What’s In My Messenger Bag:

laptop

books

notebooks

iPhone

headphones

eye mask/ear plugs

cross-stitching supplies (hoop, thread, needles, scissors)
a growing postcard collection
random maps, tickets, and such

[Items in photo below were not included in my list.]

I mentioned before that I didn't bring a purse, but I did bring a mini leather backpack instead. Best decision I ever made. It was the perfect size for a small camera, phone, money, notepad, and pen when going out daily. It's small and flat so I can easily slip it into my suitcase, unlike a purse which doesn't really flatten. A backpack is also much more comfortable to wear for a long day of walking rather than carrying a purse, not to mention my hands are always full with a camera. This little backpack was a $6 thrift store find!

Must always beware when your husband is a photographer. 

Mistakes I made/things I learned:

-- We weren’t expecting to run into real winter weather, but when we decided to detour to Vienna, Budapest, and Ukraine in December, we were very much unprepared for snow. We had no choice but to go shopping for boots, hats, scarves, gloves, and winter socks. But I would rather do this than carry all that winter gear around “just in case” and then the weather never gets cold.

-- I packed one dress that I always felt was too fancy (and no shoes dressy enough to go with it) so I never even wore it! Pointless baggage.

-- I brought a hairdryer but found that it didn’t work anywhere because it was too much voltage to go through a foreign adapter. Instead of carrying the brick around for six months, I chucked it (it was really old anyway). I relied on hotel hairdryers or air-drying my hair (most commonly). Next time I won’t bother bringing one. If your hotel room doesn't have a hairdryer, ask at the counter--they sometimes have one to borrow.

-- Don’t pack your favorite earrings because you’ll probably lose one by the end of the trip with all that packing and repacking. I did.

-- Even if you pack the biggest bottle of your favorite makeup/lotion/shampoo, it will run out and you will have to accept an alternative until you get home. 

-- Don’t bring anything that wrinkles really easily. I brought one sweater that I rarely wore because every time I took it out of the suitcase, it looked like it had been chewed up and spit out.

-- Bring lots of underwear! I ended up washing mine by hand several times when laundry wasn’t available. 

-- Bring a watch. I never wear a watch back home because I always have a cell phone on me for the time. When traveling though, I am usually without my cell phone, and so often need the time for buses, trains, and closing times. I was so thankful Yuriy always wears a watch.

-- Toms are magical travel shoes. Super comfy for walking and they go with everything (dresses & pants)!

-- Try to pack some waterproof shoes. Everything I had sucked for rain (especially Toms). 

-- Having a roll of toilet paper is not a bad idea, especially in Asia.

As soon as we got to Vienna and saw all the snow, I went frantically hunting for boots. Yuriy tried to tough it out, but gave in as well a few days later. SO glad we did because they came in even more handy in Ukraine where we often trudged through unshoveled snow (though they're now buried at the bottom of our suitcases).

I still can't believe we pulled it off in such different seasons with just one suitcase each!

I hope something in this post helped you in some way... or just satisfied your crazy curiosity. Are any of you going on an extended trip in the near future? Did I leave anything out?

* Julia

FAQ

We've been getting quite a bit of emails with many repeating questions so we decided to do a little FAQ. If you still have a question or comment, please feel free to email. We love getting emails and try to reply to everyone as fast as we can but for those that don't have the time to write (or are shy), hopefully this will help.

What kind of cameras are you using?

We are using our very awesome Nikon D700 and a little compact camera that we just picked up for this trip, the Canon SD 4000.

We decided to only bring one SLR camera and share it since it is very bulky and heavy. This is a great camera and we highly recommend it to anyone who is looking into getting a higher end SLR. If you have any more questions about SLR cameras and getting into photography, please email us and we'll share a lot more info with you about different cameras, what to look for, where to buy, etc.

We bought the Canon SD 4000 mostly for the HD video. We thought it would be nice to be able to do some video every once in awhile and also to have something smaller that would fit in a pocket when we didn't want to lug around the SLR camera. We paid $320 for it and it has been great thus far. At first we were looking for a compact camera with manual controls but decided on this after reading some very positive reviews of it online (it does have aperture and shutter priority though). Another very cool feature with this camera is the fact that it has a tilt-shift effect built into it. It's not anything like a real tilt-shift lens but it does the job and for a lot less than an actual tilt-shift lens. It's also not as big and bulky. To see our travel videos all in one place, you can visit our YouTube channel.

What kind of lenses are you using?

We obviously don't have much space in our luggage to bring many lenses so we stuck with the basics-- 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, and the 85mm.

They are all prime lenses, so they are smaller then the bigger, bulkier zoom lenses. It is a bit of a hassle switching the lens especially if you have to do it often but it's worth it for the image quality and compact size of the lenses. Also, when photographing people on the streets, a prime lens is a lot less intimidating than a huge zoom lens in your face. We use the 50mm f/1.4 the most. I would say a good 60% of the time that is the lens on the camera.

What kind of post processing do you do to the images?

We use a few Photoshop actions from Totally Rad Actions. We highly recommend checking them out.
You can actually see what each action does to an image on their website. Other than that we don't do much else, maybe a little cropping here and there.

Which TRA actions do you use?

Totally Rad Actions has so many amazingly good looking actions (and they keep making new ones!). We keep it simple and use a combo of "Boutwell Magic Glasses" and "Lux" on the majority of our photos. The first for some pop and the second for a creamy look. Our favorite black and white action is "Detroit" with some tweaks. We also use a few actions for occasional color or light correction if your photo is a little overexposed or too yellow or something funky like that--"Cool as a Cucumber", "Warm it up Chris", "Lights Out/On", & "Ying Yang". We usually never use an action at 100% opacity because its overpowering and looks too fake. It's like a girl wearing too much make-up. Lower the opacity for a subtle kick to your photos.

How are you able to afford to travel for so long?

Get married! We both knew we wanted to travel after we got married and the longer the better. We were originally thinking to travel for a year but realized that we would need a lot more finances than we could come up with. Because of this we started saving early on for our travels. But the biggest financial boost came from our wedding guests. We decided that we didn't want any wedding gifts since we have everything we need and if there is anything additional we want, we would rather pick it out and buy it ourselves (I'm talking about items such as cookware and household things). So we created a travel registry where our guests could see what we wanted to do around the world and contribute financial gifts towards our travels. To see what I'm talking about go to - www.yuriymanchik.com/proofing and click on the top right tab titled "Travel Registry". This is what our guests saw. For example, there would be something titled "Romantic Dinner in Paris" with a personalized description and cost, say $50. This way people could "buy" us experiences for our travels that we would want to do anyways and they could feel good about giving us an actual gift instead of just a check for who knows what. 

We decided we wanted to travel for 6 months but we know that if we run out of money, we're getting on a plane to come home early. We're prepared for it and have realistic expectations. This helps us not to splurge because we would rather travel for a longer time and see new things than stay in a fancy expensive hotel for a couple days. We haven't done any shopping and skip on most tourist activities. We've been keeping an expense report of all our spendings in every city. At this point it's pretty massive. When we realize we've spent way too much money on restaurants in the past week, we cut back for the next few days and eat at more quick, casual places to help even it out.  Often you can get a discount with lodging by committing to a prolonged stay rather than just a couple of days. We travel by buses or ferries (even if they take forever and are horribly uncomfortable to sleep in), avoiding planes and taxis. It's important for you to know we're not living in luxury. As long as we're abroad, we're happy.

How are you able to leave the things that tie us down for so long?

A week of annual vacation time from work (the American norm) is brutal. We have to to admit that we're a lot luckier than most people in this area. Since we are wedding photographers, we can take off as much time from work as we choose. Additionally, the majority of our work happens in the summertime. We strategically got married in September, at the end of a busy wedding season. This way we could take off for the winter, a time when we have far less wedding clients. Julia is a graphic design student, so she's also taking a break from school.

Mortgages tend to tie people down as well.  Prior to our wedding, Julia lived in an apartment with a bunch of girls, so all she had to do was not sign the lease for another year. Not very difficult. And Yuriy's condo is on the market for sale at the moment. If you own a place and want to travel for a longer period of time, consider putting it up for rent while you are away.

And lucky us, we don't have kids yet to keep us grounded. :)

If you're single, it's even easier for you to get up and travel. No excuses! It just takes a little courage. First you have to decide that you'd rather have travel memories to last a lifetime rather than a new car or regular shopping weekends.

Did you plan the whole trip out or are you doing everything on the fly?

This whole trip is completely on the fly. The only thing we bought before our wedding was the plane ticket to Paris and reserved a Paris apartment for a week. Since then, we've been doing everything as we go and it's been working out very well for us. A big advantage we have is that it is off-season in Europe so it's not difficult to find an apartment or book a bus/ferry/train last minute. Often times as soon as we step foot into a city off a boat or bus, someone will approach us with a really good deal for a place to stay. Many hotels are empty at this time of year and they're desperate for guests. We're able to get some great deals this way and we have been bargaining on everything.

I know that some people can not travel like this and we wouldn't recommend this option for everyone. If this type of traveling suits you and you won't be stressing out, then it's the way to go. It's awesome to be able to decide which country we want to visit next just by looking at a map and seeing what's near or have a fellow traveler recommend a city or country and be able to just go there whenever we please. We're not tied down in any way. We can stay as long as we like or as little as we like in any city or place we want.... complete freedom. The downside is, sometimes the ferry/train/bus might be full to where you want to go (which happened to us in Rhodes) or all the cheaper hotels are booked, or that last minute flight turns out to be very expensive, and so on. But there are always ways around little problems like this. When the ferry that we wanted from Rhodes to Turkey was full and the next one wouldn't leave until 5 days later, we changed our plan and took a different ferry to nearby Kos. After overnighting there, we took a second ferry to Turkey. It worked out for the best because we got to see another Greek island and it was the same price.

Would you guys be able to do a photoshoot of my husband and I when you come to Thailand?

Of course, we would love to do a photoshoot in a foreign country. There is nothing more inspiring than shooting in an unfamiliar place. If you're interested in a photoshoot, send us an email, even if you're unsure of our travel plans. If we're going to be in your area, we can definitely set something up. Remember, our travel plans are not concrete and we're always looking for new places along the way, so we might come visit your city just because you invited us!

Also, if you're a fellow photographer, we would love to meet up and hang out for a bit. We enjoy meeting other photographers and making new friends. Okay, even if you're not a photographer but want to meet up just to chat and connect, we would love to do it. We've been isolated from friends and family long enough.

Are you still booking weddings for 2011?

Yes we are. We still have some great weekends available, so if you're getting married or know someone who is, please email us and we can give you more details on our packages and rates. Our wedding photography website and blog may help you get to know us a little better. If you prefer to meet in person, our associate photographer Lily is still in Seattle and available to discuss your wedding day and let you see some sample albums. We plan on returning home to Seattle in March, so if your wedding is anytime after that, we would love to photograph it.

The Power of Hair

My husband was starting to look a little ragged after a month of traveling, so we bought some scissors and I did some work on him today. Here's a little visual. 

The photo in the middle is an absolute riot. There's just something fishy about that mustache! He looks like he ought to be driving a white van with no windows and wearing big outdated sunglasses. 

And now that it's too late to go back, I'm thinking the "before" shot is looking rather sexy.

- Julia

Our Sweet Nuptials

Our wedding photos are out and about! We are excited to be featured on Green Wedding Shoes blog, and to see even more photos, check out the post from our rad photographer, Benj Haisch.

Getting Ready

We are Julia and Yuriy Manchik. We photograph people and weddings together, we're crazy about each other, busy preparing for our own wedding on 09/25/10, and planning on ditching the country for half a year immediately after the big day. This crazy idea has been tempting us for years, even before we were engaged. 


Why we love to travel: 


- culture exposure
- interesting food
- discovering neat places away from home
- amazing photo opportunities
- diverse outdoor activities
- sleeping in or not sleeping
- exploring foreign streets
- bargaining and sweet deals at the market
- creative exploration
- meeting cool people and getting inspired
- escaping the mundane life at home
- appreciating home upon return


We think this is a prime time in our lives to get away and see the world. Without school, work, or friends as distractions, we will grow strong as husband and wife at an amazing rate. We can’t wait to indulge in spending every single day together at home, on the other side of the planet, and everywhere in between. We plan to return home 6 months after the wedding, absolutely broke, but loaded with unforgettable memories, and more in love than ever.


You know we wouldn't leave home without a camera. This blog will serve as our online photography journal. You can expect to see photos of each place we visit and journaling about the experience from both the Mr and Mrs. We will do our best to show a glimpse of the local culture of each country we visit by highlighting style, food, people, places, and art. We are especially excited to photograph and interview various artists abroad and feature their work here.  


Rough sketch: Paris, London, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Thailand, and beyond...