to the North Pole

Seeing as christmas is drawing near it seemed only natural my family take a trip to the North Pole. This year, we even brought the dog along. I haven't partaken in the purchasing/decorating of the Christmas Tree in years so I was happy to take an active role.

I brought along my camera to wander under the tents protecting both the sweet smelling trees and sweaty smelling floridians alike. (Some of us may have forgotten deodorant today) I wish I brought my camera around with me more often. New Years resolution, maybe?




We got the new LED christmas lights that rock up to 88% less energy then the classic variety. They also keep cooler, which I'm quite sure the tree is thankful for.



The new lights light up the tree in a whole new way. I'm feeling pretty lightened up too. I dig the christmas spirit; glad I came home for the weekend.

say CHEESE

I love cheese. All cheese. White, yellow, blue... I don't discriminate.
Recently my main squeeze has been gouda. He's goud to me.
OK, the whole blog won't be a cheesy declaration to my love of cheese.
I'm really here to share some recent favorite photos
So, here we go: this is the last month or so of weddings in visual review:






I'm really enjoying wedding photography. People trust me to make art out of their reality, it's great.
But nothing beats photographing friends; they give me so much creative control I can create my OWN reality.
I prefer my photographs bend the truth, my friends don't seem to have a problem with that.
Here are two such friends, Busey & Laura


But, lately the biggest jump out of my comfort zone has been a dentist's portrait (for an upcoming magazine cover!)
I'm learning to pay more and more attention to the technical and to take my time when its offered.

I've also found in the last month I've shot manual full-time. I try to rock the aperture or shutter priority but always end up clicking back into M. I've really started to crave that control. I'm happy my camera gives it to me. I'm even more happy that my camera and I continue to grow together in a forward motion. Oh, and the cheddar it's been generating is nice too.

Balance from Malaysia

My sunglasses hid tears as I checked the mail today. Matt and I were arguing on the phone as I flip-flopped back to our apartment. The buildings in our complex are being renovated; the 'whizz' and 'whee' construction noises interrupting my already flawed ability to listen. Between all the heat and noise I wasn't paying much attention to what I was doing. I assumed the package I was carrying was CD jewel cases I'd ordered.

It wasn't until I was home that I looked at the suddenly curious box. I hadn't ordered CD cases from Malaysia. THIS WAS MY FIRST SWAP PACKAGE! Months ago I'd found this blog, Gimme Your Stuff, and began talking to two people about exchanging cultural goodies via snail mail. My first swap had arrived. I decided it best to put the package aside until my emotional tornado passed. So, Matt came home: we talked, we hugged, we did all the things couples do when they realize how much they love each other, and how stupid they'd been to get so angry (It was a fight over DISHES after all!).

When my lovely love left for work I sat down with the box that had traveled around the world to see me. I carefully unwrapped the beaten up gift (its long travel has been a rough one) to find an assortment of wonderful goodies. Karen (life-muses) had put together a beautiful package and I couldn't be more thankful that it came on the day I needed it most. It was the perfect pick me up. :) Here is a photo of all the fabulous trinkets inside. I have a photo of the things I sent her as well, but don't want to post that until she gets MY package! (don't want to ruin any surprises!)



Thank you universe for being balanced & funny! And thank you Karen for putting a smile on my face all the way from Malaysia!

thanks

The one nice day we had with the indians has been bringing american families together with gluttony ever since. I got to join in the festivities of a visit home for the past couple days. I also got to eat my fair share.
One thing I didn't do was join the mob crawling the streets of Abacoa. I've seen the benjamites spend their benjamins in previous years. Instead I opted to lounge at rum bar, play shuffle board at the snug, and catch up with friends I rarely get to see.




Sada, Tam, and my mysterious male model let me experiment with matt's polarizing filter on the beach.






and my delightful dog got a bubble bath.


All in all, I'm thankful this thanksgiving. Thankful for my incredible family. I'm thankful I got to grow up in such a beautiful place and more thankful that I don't live here anymore. I'm thankful that my life is going in the direction I want to take it. I'm thankful that I have choices, freedom, and a lot of lovely people to love.

movie

I wanted to try the new version of iMovie, so I made a little video slideshow. :)

(This is the 2nd version with a sigur ros song in the background)

SkyVenture

Matt's boss invented a big tunnel that pushes 150 MPH wind through it to simulate free fall. So, we got free vouchers to float around in one off I-drive! *two thumbs up*

I looked like a string bean in a potato sack, as my flight suit was three times my actual size so as to fit my actual height. This didn't bother me nearly as much as the smell I noticed climbing into the thick jumper, surely housing years of other fake jumpers sweat. While you only fly for two minutes it's quite the little work-out.

The ordeal takes about an hour between training, suiting up, and bumping into walls. The two one-minute flights are to simulate a real jump from 14,000 feet, and the pros confirm the realism. I've never dove from high in the sky, but I'm assuming the way my face felt as if it might peal off my face to be strikingly similar to the real deal.



All in all, I'd say our sky adventure was a great success and I recommend an afternoon in this tourist trap to any and all of my friends. :)

23

the universe is a joker!
lol.


p.s. -> my hair smells of bon fire. :)

2 yrs. in review

What started as a casual coupling has turned to the two of us for two years running.


He comes home with a whistle to attack me with a tickle, it doesn't get much better then this.


After he cooks me a mean meal and fills my heart with kind laughter we rest between the sheets, blanketed by the layers of our love.


Him being so tall makes me feel small and his smile puts me at ease.


This is the brand new edition, no more self-demolition; I let go of the frustration because it's all about creation now.
I've never been happier.

wasting time on being grouchy.

I got upset with myself today. I feel like I'm wasting away. Here I am, early 20's, starting my own businesses but left with lots of free time. I finally finished school, as did my close friends that all seemed to disappear at once to far away places to claim as their new homes. I'm BORED.

My mom told me to get a part-time job, but I'm quite sure I would be just as depressed working a $7/hour job at the mall at 24 as I was at 15. Also, I don't want to commit to anything now as the wedding work will be rolling in full force so soon. It's this lull of down-time waiting for all I have planned that is driving me crazy. Matt is working seemingly every single day, and loving every minute of it. I'm jealous. I want a life too damnit! So obviously I need to get out of the apartment and do other things; the problem is What?
I'm not sure. But I have a few ideas:

Join the eco-canoeists on one of their weekly waterline clean-ups
take a portrait painting workshop at Creadle school of art
start dropping into yoga classes
spend a day helping build with habitat for humanity
focus on creating/completeing a body of art work outside of photography

Speaking of photography, I should post some recent photos.


This is Diana, a high school senior this year that found me via MySpace to take her senior portrait


A Quinceanera portrait for a very sweet girl in a very pretty dress named Vanessa


An ex-room mate turned newbie mommy, Leila and her daughter Kali

That's it for now... I'm sure I'll figure things out. So long as I keep moving things will work themselves out. I'm just being grouchy. :/

digi-paint

When I first saw Sarah Green's art (Sarah Green Art.com)I assumed it was some fantastical, fabulous filter in photoshop. After another look and chatting with her briefly via MySpace, I learned it was in fact digital painting. So when I found a Wacom pen tablet on clearance today I scooped it up and ventured out on my own personal computer painting journey.

I chose a photo I'd taken of a poet over the summer named Tara for my first experiment because it looked like it would be simple. What I've come to learn is nothing about this funky pop process is simple but, it is a lot of fun! After a considerable portion of my evening, I produced this as my 1st finished piece:



I sure appreciate Sarah Green's paintings on a new level, and it's interesting to see how different her style is. Tonight I'm working on a self-portrait painting from the photo where I'm in my fish bowl. Here's a screen shot of as far as I've gotten, I'm hoping to finish tomorrow:



I want to start offering these types of digital paintings an add-on service to my photography packages! Think anyone will be interested? :/

felt animals and a wedding

Over the course of 77 delightful shuffle songs (for non-iPod users, this is approximately 5 hours) I managed to sew a small panda bear out of felt.
Yes, me : sewing.
This new development in skills might alter the nature my #9 of my 25 before 25 goals. So, after the creation of my very small panda I got carried away and set my sights on a larger ROBOTIC bear. He's called the mechani-panda:



All the B&W was taking it's toll on my psyche so a green lizard lifted my spirits and have since decided clothing my miniature critters a simple way to add more color. Here is a photo of the 3 little creations responsible for countless hours of my freetime over the past 3 days:



And, of course, I've also been shooting. :) Here are a couple shots from a british wedding yesterday. (I haven't even seen Matt's photos or updated my site, but I'm posting a blog!) I'm really enjoying wedding photography more and more, which is great as we've been booking more than ever! This group was really laid back and fun to spend the day with. :)






Thanks for reading my blog! :)

Tip of the hat to Japan

I shot a baby over the weekend. With a camera of course. It was my first baby. I actually hadn't seen a baby up close IRL in quite a while. I realized I don't know much about them. I expected it to cry a lot, maybe be afraid of the flashing, but nope. She just bobbled her head around and was extremely cute.

Modern Japanese culture respects the importance of cuteness. Kawaii. Everyone can use a little extra cuteness, so with that in mind I present baby photos. (I especially liked her itty bitty feet)







Also, I've decided blogging every day is too lofty a goal for a gal like me. I haven't been clocking so many clicks on the computer this week. Forced blogging will only make for a bland blog. Instead, I'll blog at my own pace. :)

Blog Without a Reader

Thoughts Without a Thinker; Blog Without a Reader.

I missed a few days of blogging while house-sitting in Windemere over the weekend, but I don't think anyone was too affected by the gap in internet time line. My one faithful reader 'John', the greatest giver of comment and compliment, may have noticed but has yet to say anything of the sort.

3 Highlights of my weekend in order or awesomeness are as follows:

Kayaking early this morning on Lake Butler. Beautiful, I wish I'd had a camera. The only non-awesome things about this was realizing how much of a wuss and how out of shape I am. I burnt a few layers of skin off my thumb just from paddling friction. It was worth it.


This is me in the backyard Friday night

Photo shooting is always a positive. This weekend's mini-shoot was particularly exciting because it is only the 1st stage of a big project, to be revealed in it's greatness at a later date. Oh, and extra-awesome points for my subject matter being Matt. :)


Matt of Smatt in Windemere

And the number 3 awesome thing about this weekend was the extra cash I scored from friendly tippers at Busey's Sausage Castle party. The hurricane/monsoon-like weather could blow down the tents, but couldn't stop this shin-dig. The bands set up in garage attached to the stage and made as much noise as they could until the cops shut it down.

That's all I have to share with you all at the moment. ;)