Most of our clientele is based in Chicago and the Bay Area, but we get commissioned nationwide. Most recently, we’ve been working on the road splitting most of our time between Chicago, California, and Hawaii.

At the end of the day, we are each other’s support system and we choose to do all of this together.

It’s important to contribute our time and energy to experiences that many travelers might overlook, the local pace of a neighborhood. We love settling ourselves into the local atmosphere because we can interact with the raw impressions of the people, culture, and get a better sense of its history.

Those subtle qualities of a neighborhood and the local interactions is what we find enjoyable and relaxing. It’s how we keep our lifestyle sustainable from overstimulation. For example, when we spent one week in Osaka, we split our time working in our cute Japanese rental apartment, buying local groceries, and exploring the neighborhood. At the same time we were able to take day trips to Kyoto and Nara to experience remnants of a different era of Japan.

When you realize the kind of traveler you are, your best experiences will be at places that match your pace. On the flip side, for work, you adjust to the pace of the environment. The key for us is being adaptable rather than trying to bend reality to meet our cadence. It’s being comfortable with being uncomfortable that affords us the ability to integrate travel, work, and most importantly lead a balanced life.

Des and David met in art school in Chicago while Des studied film and David studied photography. David has been a traveling wedding photographer, shooting around the world, since 2008. Des worked a few years for a large ad agency in Chicago before joining David to start working together in 2014. The husband and wife duo are behind Nostalgia on my Mind, focusing on art direction and photography.  To see more of their work check out their website.