what I've been up to and what's coming down the pipeline! To refresh memories, I was living in Vietnam working with photoshoot clients and traveling around when Covid hit. I was lucky enough to visit India for almost the entire month of February for a nonprofit client before borders closed up. By the end of March, I was back in America as the embassy advised leaving.

Because I've had such a nomadic life for the past few years, I was limited with options to bunker down in the States. My parents are gems, though, and I've been mostly staying with them. A lot of people in their 20's and 30's have had to do the same in these unprecedented times. And while it was very hard for me when I'm so used to being completely on my own with my treasured independence, at the end of the day, I'm just grateful that I had this as an option.

The first few months back were quiet; we were mostly in quarantine or limiting exposure. So I found part-time office work and kept myself busy with that. I also photographed a lot around town with the racial inequalities, social justice issues, and protests. It was an honor to use my camera to capture what was happening and share it with local advocacy groups.

A major escape was hiking and trails. I haven't really explored around North Carolina, and like so many others, I rediscovered my love for the outdoors. Most weekends I was on hiking trips or driving to nearby trails or state parks. From the mountains in the west of the state to deserted barrier islands with wild horses off the eastern coast, I took every possible chance to safely get some fresh air and explore.

And while still being as safe as possible with contactless payment, social distancing, and mask-wearing, I did start doing photoshoots again. All outdoors, all in the fresh air, all full of love and fun. I think having portraits and shoots in 2020 was a necessary thing. This is such a weird time, and people have been confined with each other so much more than ever before. And eventually that will stop. People will stop working from home. Kids won't have to use Zoom anymore. So while this was a challenging year, I'm glad there were so many opportunities to photograph the silver linings and happy moments with each other.

And now onto what's in the future. I've had something cooking up for almost a year: Retake. A nonprofit I founded that offers free photos and photoshoots to people who have lost their homes and belongings due to disasters or who come from war-torn countries and are now immigrants, refugees, or forced migrants. My goal is to create new keepsakes as they rebuild their lives. 

I started Retake while living in Vietnam in January 2020. Little did I know I would soon be living my pandemic lifestyle, but it has allowed me to the time to do a lot of the back-end research and work. There are a lot of details into creating a nonprofit like securing board members, becoming an entity in the state of NC, creating the logo and social media, being granted a 501c3 status from the IRS, and so many other things. 

I am so beyond excited for this next chapter and to combine my passions through this organization. There's still so much to do, but things are starting to come together. So 2021 is all about domestic travel and working with people through Retake while also finding new photo clients along the way. I'll be available for shoots all over the country, so reach out if you're interested or if you have connections with disaster relief/refugee groups that you think Retake could help! 

Thank you everyone for all of your support, and I look forward to seeing you again safely in the future! 

Warm wishes,
Danielle

PS- for those interested, Retake's social media sites are:
www.retakeorganization.com
www.facebook.com/retakeorganization
www.instagram.com/retakeorg

of my parent's house in North Carolina. It was a tumultuous past couple of weeks, and it culminated in me returning to America months prior to when I thought I would be. 

Since this past November, I had been based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It was my third "season" of living there for part of the year. Since January 2018, I split my time between America and Vietnam. The first year, I was just getting my bearings, but the past two times I lived in Ho Chi Minh City, I had a solid circle of friends and clients. I booked photoshoots regularly and secured housing through pet/housesitting. 

It was a wonderful chapter in my life, but I knew upon returning to Vietnam this past time, it would be my last. I've been wanting to move forward with my work and have more stability as well. So I went in November with a checklist of final things to do and a positive attitude to do as many photoshoots as possible.

From November to mid-January, I was busy and really happy. Then the virus started making its way across the news and around southeast Asia. Vietnam pretty quickly responded. I think countries who were affected by SARS had a system in place better than others. Schools have been taught online since the end of January. Public pools closed. Starting in February, temperature checks were  done at apartment complexes. 

I was still able to live my life normally, however. I even went on my nonprofit photography trip throughout India for almost all of February. A few regional airports wanted to know if I had been to China, Iran, or South Korea, but those were the only questions asked. 

The first week of March, I traveled to Hanoi from Ho Chi Minh City. I was still in the same country, but even that wasn't too alarming yet. Right when I left Hanoi is when a new case popped up and streets were disinfected and things started to get more strenuous.

But you all know, this moved fast and things changed hour by hour.

So around mid-March is when I started to feel differently. Up until then, I had gotten used to hearing about this virus in the news and knowing it was happening, but not really affecting me personally. Restaurants were just starting to switch to take away or delivery only. People were starting to keep their distances from each other. I had dogsits booked in Ho Chi Minh City for almost all of March through May. Those were canceling rapidly as people decided not to travel. My photoshoots were next. The ones I had booked started reaching out to cancel or postpone, and I had no new ones on the horizon. With no income or housing, I realized my situation was getting dire. 

​Then the alerts started coming from the embassy. I was originally going to leave Vietnam at the end of May or beginning of June. I moved that up to the beginning of May and booked my flight. When alerts started coming from the embassy between March 15th - 19th, I decided to get even more proactive. The tone quickly became that if you were planning on going to America any time in the near future, to do so NOW. It became apparent that my flight booked for May might not be an option any longer. I had hours of phone calls with my airlines and conversations with friends and family for suggestions. Ultimately, I had a gut feeling to leave immediately. I moved my flight up to March 25th.

At this time, I was dogsitting for an expat couple. They were supposed to be on a long trip between New Zealand, Australia, and America. When they left for the New Zealand portion, things were scary but they felt ok traveling. Again, things rapidly changed. They decided to cut their trip short by weeks and get back to Vietnam. They made it back a couple of hours before Vietnam closed their borders to all international flights. They were put in a quarantine camp run by the government. They are actually still in it. I felt horrible leaving their dog while they were in quarantine, but they assured me friends would be able to help and to do what I needed. 

So during my last week in the country, I worked with them to secure housing for their fur baby after I left. I bought a few more souvenirs for family members. I said goodbye's to a handful of friends, but most I didn't get to see, sadly. I was in a weird headspace those last few days. I tried to stay inside and limit my exposure to people and watched the news a lot. I didn't really let myself process that I was leaving the country and not coming back. 

And things were getting more tense in Ho Chi Minh City. Positive cases of COVID-19 were popping up in the international expat community and lockdowns were being imposed on apartment buildings with no warning. I was very nervous I would not be allowed to leave in time for my flight. So on the 23rd, two days before my flight, the friend's of the owner's of the dog agreed to take the pup early. I brought her/her toys/her food/her bed to their apartment and said my goodbye's to her. I closed up the expat couple's apartment, and I went to my good friend's house. They are not in a complex. They are in a house and are diplomats. So they would not get locked down. It was one small proactive step that made me feel better before leaving. I was very anxious this whole time. I was terrified my flight would be canceled or Vietnam would close all borders or I would not be able to get out for months and months. 

The following day, I had multiple tabs open on my computer at all times and constantly checked the status of my flights and updates from the embassy. One leg of my journey to America was canceled without notifications sent to me. I immediately worked with the airlines, and my entire flight itinerary was bumped up to that night at no additional cost. So I had a couple of hours at my friend's house and then left for the airport. 

The airport was a ghost town. At the entire international departures hall of the Ho Chi Minh City airport, only the ticket counters for my flight were open. All of the other international flights for that day had either left already or were canceled. Only a handful of international airlines were still operating, and most were only offering one flight out a day. The airport turned the air conditioner off and only one restaurant was open. It was eery and quiet. 

I flew from Vietnam to Qatar on a very full flight. It was obvious people were getting out and trying to get to their home countries. Then I had an eight-hour layover at the Doha airport. Everyone in Vietnam wears masks. Hardly anyone in Qatar was wearing one, including airport staff. Even if they are not the most effective means of limiting the transmission of the virus, I felt naked without one on and did not like being around so many people without them.

Then I had a fifteen-hour flight to Texas that was much less packed. I had rows to myself and was finally able to relax.

Whatever I thought would happen in the Dallas airport did not occur. Since there are only a handful of American airports allowing in international passengers and Dallas was one of them, I assumed people would be in masks and health checks would happen or questions would be asked about where I was traveling from or there would be long lines in the immigration and passport lines. None of this was the case. No one had on masks or gloves. No one kept their  distance from each other. It was an empty airport, and I flew through all of the immigration/customs/passport/security checks. No one took my temperature. No one asked me health questions. I had a short and easy layover there and then flew to North Carolina. 

Part of me was happy to have such an uneventful journey, but after being in a communist country that was so strict with their responses to the virus, I was a little disappointed with America. I later heard that no one had protective gear on because there isn't any available, and the airport had been hectic a few days prior when there was a mass exodus to get back to America from countries around the world, but I flew after that and arrived to a relatively quiet airport.

And now I am in a self-quarantine to make sure I didn't pick anything up from the journey back. I still haven't hugged my parents or gotten close to them. I eat my meals in my room and spend most of the day inside. It's a small thing to do, but it wasn't up for debate on my end! 

And now I am like most other people who are scared to have no income coming in and aren't sure what the future will hold. 

I feel very lucky to have parent's who were able to take me in and to have been able to travel from Vietnam to America. I am looking at all the silver linings I can find and hope all of you are doing the same. 

This post wasn't very photo-related, but I wanted to give a full update as to what I went through, where I was, where I am now, and where I'll be moving forward. 

So once my two week quarantine is up, if you're in southeastern North Carolina and interested in a safe photoshoot taken from your front steps, let me know! Those are the only shoots I'll be doing for the immediate future. Wishing you and yours all the best! 

Stay safe,
​Danielle

especially vulnerable or in need because they come from extremely poor villages or are affected by HIV in some way (whether they have it themselves or have lost family members to it and are shunned by society through something they were born with). 

I started off in Mumbai and traveled to villages in nearby mountain regions; then I flew across the country to Hyderabad and went to locations five hours from there. Next, I flew up to Kolkata in the northeast part of the country and took an 18-hour overnight train ride to a remote area that has no local airports. After that, I ended the trip in the northeast region of Manipur where I went to three different locations in nearby towns. Most of my days included a lot of travel. It was an aggressive trip with not much downtime. I met a lot of amazing people and was welcomed into the homes of so many who go through things that I will never fully grasp. It was extremely humbling and unbelievably rewarding.

These are photos from all those different regions I went to. I hope you are as moved by them as I was when I was photographing them. If you have any questions or want to learn more about the different cultures I encountered, always feel free to ask. I am happy to talk about my travels in India; always. 

And if you'd like to learn about the nonprofit that does such life-changing work, go to this link: www.homeofhopeindia.org.

Thank you for your interest and for following along!! 
-Danielle

spending time with good friends here. 

Before I get into what my plans are for 2020, I wanted to do a quick recap on what an awesome year 2019 was! January to May I was based in Ho Chi Minh City; photographed at a beach resort in nearby Ho Tram; photographed for tons of expat families; photographed for a nonprofit in India for three weeks; and genuinely enjoyed life here in the city. May to September were back and forth between Wilmington, NC; Washington, DC; Alexandria, VA; and upstate New York. I was relocating pretty much every three weeks! All of October was in North Carolina to get my fill of family time before I went overseas again. Then, November and December were back in Ho Chi Minh City! 

Enjoy the photos below; one for each month of 2019. 

I'm so happy I was back in Vietnam for the holidays because it's such a busy time with photoshoots! I photographed a lot of repeat families, which makes me seriously so happy, but I met a ton of new clients as well. Below are just a few photos from my recent sessions.

And now on to 2020! These are my tentative and working plans with some serious goals thrown in!!

January - Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
February - Mumbai/Kolkata/Manipur, India for a photo trip for a nonprofit
March - Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
April - Ho Chi Minh City/Hanoi/Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
May - Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam & Rome/Tuscany/Venice, Italy
June - Wilmington, NC
July - Washington, DC
August - Washington, DC & Provincetown, MA
September - Washington, DC
October - Washington, DC & Wilmington, NC
November - Washington, DC & Wilmington, NC
December - Washington, DC & Wilmington, NC

So per usual, lots of bouncing around! But I'll be working with as many clients as I can in each location and trying to give advanced notice so we can plan accordingly. I'm also pushing to work with nonprofits and NGOs as much as possible and am so excited to go more in that direction.

Stay tuned for everything to come, and thanks for all your support!!

season of photographing the international and expat community. I'll be offering holiday mini-sessions all the way through Christmas and anticipate my weekends being blocked with shoots. Plus, I'll be reaching out to local organizations and nonprofits for some potential photo projects. And there's a whole network of entrepreneurial women who are doing badass things; I'm creating photoshoot packages specifically for them. Oh, and I'll be going back to India sometime in February or March for the wonderful nonprofit, Homes of Hope India, that I worked for last March. So there's going to be A LOT going on! I'll be in Vietnam from November 2019 until May 2020, and I'm going to make the absolute most of it.

But I wanted to take a second to thank all of my wonderful clients that I worked with over the past few months in America. I had sessions in North Carolina; Virginia; Washington, DC; and New York! Thank you guys for choosing me to capture your memories! It's always an honor. Check out the photos below to see snapshots from some of the more recent shoots.

Thank you guys again, and please don't hesitate to reach out if I can be your photographer in the future. Let's do this!

XO,
​Danielle

photograph. Let's end the year with a bang! 

AUGUST 30 - SEPTEMBER 22: WASHINGTON, DC
SEPTEMBER 28 - NOVEMBER 3: WILMINGTON, NC
NOVEMBER 16 - TBD: HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM

TO BOOK: MESSAGE ME ON HERE OR VISIT
www.facebook.com/DanielleDesnoyersPhotography

some gorgeous memories. For most of June and July, I was in Washington, DC, but I had a trip to upstate New York and some time in Wilmington, NC as well. Below are the galleries on those latest photoshoots and glimpses into what I've been doing! To sum them up:

-Tour guide company in Washington, DC
​-Family photoshoots in upstate NY
-Senior portraits in upstate NY
-Family photoshoot in Alexandria, VA
-Family photoshoots in Washington, DC
​-Newborn photos in Washington, DC

​Check them out and let me know what you think! 

Thanks as always for following along and supporting my business! If anyone is in need of upcoming photoshoots, please reach out. I'm only going to be in America until the beginning of November and then off to my Vietnam clients!

XO,
Danielle

Washington, DC. A vast majority of the time has been spent loving on my nieces and nephews, of course, but I can't go more than a few days without picking up my camera. The first batch of photos below are from the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher on Pleasure Island. It's one of my favorite places on Earth. Not many people know it, but I seriously considered a career in marine biology in high school before I went in the direction of photography. So any time I can visit an aquarium or coastal area with my cameras, you know I'm one happy lady. 

After recharging and having time with my family and friends, I headed up to Richmond, VA for a few days. The more I see that vibrant city, the more I love it! So eclectic and funky and historic and colorful. I had a great family photoshoot at a pedestrian bridge with stunning views. Check out a few of those photos below!

And now I am back in Washington, DC, one of my main home-bases in the whole world. I will be spending the majority of the summer months here, and I am so excited! I want to photograph old clients and hopefully work with a TON of new ones. There's just so much to see and do here! My most recent photoshoot from a couple of days ago was at a gorgeous Franciscan Monastery in the northeast quadrant of the city (photos below). It still amazes me that after living here on and off for well over a decade that there are so many new places to discover. 

It'll be a fantastic summer, and I can't wait to photograph as many memories as possible... And unabashedly fawn over my nieces and nephews as the crazy aunt I am. 

XO,
​Danielle Desnoyers Photography

AMERICA! 

My visa is up the first week of May, and I had a few options I went through. I could either renew my visa, stay in Vietnam longer, find housing, and hopefully find clients to photograph. Or I could go somewhere else. I've really lucked out with house and pet sitting since November in Vietnam, but that field is slowly drying up, and I couldn't find any housing once I started looking into May. Also, rainy season is now on its way. Expats head out for the summer and go on extended vacations; that's my client-base. And if I did manage to schedule any photoshoots, as an outdoor photographer, the odds of me having to reschedule because of rain are high. 

So leaving Vietnam made the most sense. 

The next thing I considered was finding a city with a decent-sized expat community and bunkering down there for a few months. I reached out to connections and people in my network in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Turkey. The general consensus was I would be spending all my money to get to one of those places and find housing, and there wouldn't be any guarantee of work. 

I put in my time in Vietnam and build up a great client-base and community over a lengthy period of time. I don't have the funds and/or time to do that again in a new country for such a short period of time.

So that leaves America! Once I realized that, things started falling into place. I will split the majority of my time between Washington, DC and Wilmington, NC with smaller trips to Richmond, VA; Louisville, KY; Raleigh, NC; and Long Island, NY. I am SO.FREAKING.EXCITED to photograph old clients and build relationships with new ones! My tentative schedule is as follows:

MAY - WILMINGTON, NC; LAST FEW DAYS: RICHMOND, VA
JUNE - WASHINGTON, DC
JULY - WEEK 1: WASHINGTON, DC; WEEK 2/3: WILMINGTON, NC; WEEK 4: WASHINGTON, DC
AUGUST - WEEK 1: WASHINGTON, DC; WEEK 2: RALEIGH, NC; WEEK 3/4: WILMINGTON, NC

If you are in those areas and in need of updated photos, please reach out! And share my information far and wide, people. I am here to WORK. 

Hope to see as many of you as possible in the coming months! And enjoy some photos below from my last photoshoots here in Vietnam. 

XO,
Danielle Desnoyers Photography

PS - I'll be returning to Vietnam the first week of November. So don't worry everyone interested in holiday mini sessions in Ho Chi Minh City, I'll be back!! 

and I'm so glad I was able to go. After the success of my holiday mini sessions in Vietnam, I knew I wanted to use part of my profits to book a photo trip with an organization or charity doing good work around the world. I looked into nonprofits I knew and contacts I had, and it came to me! I have always wanted to photograph for a nonprofit called Homes of Hope India based in my hometown in North Carolina that helps fund orphanages and schools for at-risk girls throughout India. I went to middle school with the son of the founders and have known them for a long time. Being based in Vietnam made the flights more manageable and cost-effective. So I reached out, and we started planning. 

In that northeastern section of India are two places they help fund, and they needed updated photos for their fundraising and social media purposes. So I booked a trip that would take about two and a half weeks. I started off in the state of Nagaland, in the district of Dimapur. HIV is rampant here, so the orphanage they work with is for girls who either have HIV or who have lost parents to the disease. The orphanage is run by a group of Catholic nuns who are also trained nurses, there is a hospital on the grounds for people from the community who are sick, and there are about 35 girls living there year-round. The girls were so affectionate and desperate for love. I couldn't walk out the door without little hands grasping at my fingers and arms. Yes, the living conditions were new to me and a slight challenge to get used to, but the emotional difficulties were much harder for me. I definitely had a few moments in the privacy of my room where I just had to cry. These girls were dealt really rough hands and have effectively been shunned by their relatives and local community for something that they didn't ask for. But they are all on medication and going to school and doing the best they can. I absolutely loved getting to know them and cannot wait to visit them as frequently as possible over the years.

I also took a little two-day trip with one of the sisters throughout Nagaland visiting multiple cities. Khonoma Village was a highlight for me. On top one of the rugged hills, it had amazing views of the fields and farms below. The people live very simply and boast being the first green village in Asia. In addition to their traditional way of life that means caring for your environment and protecting what you have, they have also added more modern inventions like solar panels to their little shanty homes. It was a photographer's paradise, and I.LOVED.IT.

Then it was time for my final stop in India: the state of Assam in the district of Bongaigaon. I stayed at a school that is primarily for children with disabilities. Out of 150 students who attend, about 40 also live on the compound grounds full-time. Because it is an inclusion school, not all the kids have disabilities. Majority do, however, and their disabilities range from being hearing-impaired (about two-thirds of the students) to having autism or cerebral palsy. Some of the kids just have physical handicaps. Because so many of the kids are hearing-impaired, everyone there speaks through Indian Sign Language in addition to English and their local dialects. I loved learning how to sign the alphabet on the first day so I could communicate in some way with the kids, even if spelling everything out did take forever. The school was very remote and had a different vibe because the children aren't orphans, plus there were just so many more kids than at the first orphanage! I had a blast playing with all the kids and loved seeing how they are all individually overcoming their limitations and are growing up together. 

It was an amazing experience, and I hope to spread awareness about this fantastic nonprofit, but more importantly, showcase these kids who are truly special little humans. If anyone would like to know more about the trip, the kids, the orphanage, the school, or the nonprofit, please do not hesitate to reach out. 

XO,
​Danielle Desnoyers Photography