Rosetta Sessions Photos
Rosetta Stone asked me for travel photos to inspire language learners to practice on their app. Highlighted ProjectsTravel/LifestyleRosetta Stone, the first and one of the biggest players in the digital language learning world contacted me asking for travel photos and captions that would portray moments and places to have #RosettaSessions all around the planet. The photos would be used on their social media sites along with this hashtag to encourage people to download their app and start learning and practicing one of the over 30 languages they offer. As a language lover and addicted traveler, I took on the project with great excitement, feeling that I was becoming a professional wanderluster.
A place and mood
We started this project only a few weeks before my first ever Asian adventure would begin. I told Rosetta my loose travel plans around Asia and also sent them a collection of photos I had taken during the previous 2 years travelling in South and Central America. For every photo they were interested in, I’d provide a short caption giving context and depth to the image. It was not so much about showing beautiful or interesting places as it was about portraying the particular and intimate mood one needs to get into to learn anything and make the point that this can happen anywhere. I just so happen to know the mood very well from my many trips and self-taught skills, so I set out to Asia very excited with the new task at hand.
It was not so much about showing beautiful or interesting places as it was about portraying the particular and intimate mood one needs to get into to learn anything and make the point that this can happen anywhere.
Screen Grab from post: Sunset in Rio Cedro Colombia
Screen grab from IG post: A sunset, shellfish and Mt. Agung
Sun sets everywhere
I must say I am a sunset lover. I experience a unique feeling of joy and relief every time I get to see the sun setting. Naturally, that means I seek sunsets everywhere I go and, among the many photos I sent Rosetta Stone over the following 6 months, there were dozens of sunsets. I also sent images of comfy peaceful corners and faraway horizons, some delicious food and drinks specialties from different countries and lots of images where soft light created intimate and emotional atmospheres. We were looking for a subtle combination that would portray the mood for learning along with the sense of wonder and love for diversity that travelling brings into one’s life. I’d soon find that captions played a big role in achieving this subtle combination.
“When it seems the quiet corner of a park during a sunny afternoon can’t get any better, you get a Viennese Apple Strudel to sweeten your #RosettaSession with its legendary perfection.”
Vienna, Austria
“Sometimes we have to wait for the waves to get better. Waiting time is always enjoyable in Bali, especially if I can turn it into practice time. #RosettaSessions”
Medewi, Bali, Indonesia
Some more photos I created for the Rosetta Sessions project during my 2018 travels:
The right awetittude
The Rosetta Sessions Social Media Content project was my first experience creating photos and captions for a big company’s social media stream. Because it was an ongoing assignment that lasted 6 months during which I was in 9 different countries, It allowed time for me to polish the style and tone of the photos. I would send batches as often as I got to process them, and the Rosetta Stone team would get back to me soon letting me know their favourite ones. The project felt both very natural and very new at the same time. The images I was capturing for them were very close to what I would have captured for myself, but having a professional purpose meant I paid extra attention not only to tweaking details but also to actually shooting more. This project and its intention actually encouraged me to keep looking for details that would move and leave me in awe. These have always been my main motivations for both travelling and taking photos at all; so I was very thankful to have a project that kept reminding me to keep that spark alive and stand behind the lens and in new environments with the original sensitive awettitude.
Screen grab from IG post: Evanescent Homes
Screen grab from IG post: The carrousel and the Palace – Madrid
Screen grab from IG post: A sunset, shellfish and Mt. Agung
