We mostly stay busy, mostly

Whew!  The past few weeks have been super busy for me – filled with weddings, work, and school.  When I say busy, I mean that my husband and I have sat down on four different occasions in the past three weeks to watch Aliens.  At viewing session number four the Face-huggers have just made their appearance, meaning we are only a little over halfway through.  Hopefully the fifth time’s a charm.  Luckily we own the movie, so we are not wasting away our Netflix account.  The problem with owning the movie, though, is that my husband knows all the lines in the movie so he’s always two seconds ahead of the actors in saying the classic lines.  Including, “They mostly come out at night, mostly,” which has now been spoofed by us in countless ways.  For example, “I mostly eat Cheerios, mostly,” and to our dog, “Gee Riley, you mostly are cute, mostly. “  Yeah, the possibilities are endless.  And we are super dorks.

Happy Memorial Day!

This weekend Ian and I are down in San Diego shooting one of our first weddings of the season.  Yesterday we joined Kristin and Dimitri for their fantastic wedding, and today we’re shooting a day-after session for them.  We’ll be on the road for most of the day, but be sure to click over to our photography blog for some photo updates in the next couple of days.  Happy Memorial Day!  Hope you’re enjoying a little sunshine and maybe a good book!

Road Trip Adventures!

I’m home this weekend doing school work, while my husband is off having grand, albeit rainy, adventures.  If you’re interested in seeing photos of the California coast, check out his blog.  He’s updating photos with his cell phone camera, so you can get the full play-by-play of his trip.  Once he’s back, photos with his professional camera will be posted, so be sure to keep checking in!

Road trip to Monterey/Carmel/Pacific Grove

This weekend Ian and I made the trek up north to visit Monterey, Carmel, and Pacific Grove.  This area, on the Monterey Peninsula, is one of our favorite places and holds a lot of special significance for us.  Last August, Ian and I got married in Point Lobos State Reserve and had our wedding reception in Pacific Grove.  The whole thing was beautiful, and this weekend we got to share it with one of our wedding clients as we shot their engagement session.  After we finished with their photos, Ian and I took some sunset pictures around the park.  The area cleared out as tourists finished sightseeing for the day, and the quiet dusk was so peaceful.  Apparently, the calm was also good for bringing out the animals – we got up close views of lizards, blue jays, rabbits, deer, and even a mother seal cuddling with her baby.  The last part was the sweetest thing on earth – just like any other mother, the momma seal nuzzled and hugged her baby.  Melt.

After we finished photos we headed to Fandango (no, not the movie ticket company), the restaurant where we had our wedding dinner.  We had an absolutely amazing meal and then went back to the super cute hotel Ian found for us.  The rooms overlooked a little river and frogs sang their songs all night.  All in all, a wonderful weekend.  The area is definitely on our list of places we’d like to move, so maybe one day we can work it out.  The good news is, there’s a SCBWI chapter in the area.  Gorgeous location and writers to boot – what more could a girl ask for?

Writing?

The past two weeks have been super hectic for me on the photography side of things (multiple engagement sessions, client meetings, etc.) and also on the school side of things.  While I haven’t been able to do any writing for my stories, I have been doing lots and lots of paper writing.  The paper writing is at least some form of writing, which I guess is a step in the right direction, but it’s all on depressing topics.  Just ask me about the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, the politics of representation, and the manipulation of reality TV images.  Come on, I dare you.

Yeah, the children’s book writing is way more fun.

Wedding album!

Ian posted up some screen shots of our wedding album on his blog, so I wanted to share them with you.  Earthquake be damned, we finished it!

Fail

Yesterday I joined Ian in one of his favorite new “wear Riley out” activities. Basically he straps on his Rollerblades and skates around our parking lot in circles, holding Riley’s leash. My dog thinks this is the best thing ever and runs around with glee, tongue out, happy drool flying.

I decided to document this moment with my cute little Canon digital elf camera. It’s a great snapshot camera and I get good quality video out of it. After a few photos and videos, Ian skated to the side to take off his skates, handing Riley’s leash to me. Unfortunately, Riley saw Ian’s skating away as a sign to hurry up. Riley went running, jerking the leash and jolting me forward.

In a spectacular display of grace and coordination I fumbled the camera. Out of my hands it went, banging onto the pavement of my parking lot not one, not two, but three times, squarely on the lens. There was a fleeting moment of hope – maybe I didn’t break it. Alas, two seconds later came the alarming beep of the camera. “Machine error,” flashed the screen. “Check lens.”

The lens and camera body had scratches and dents. And the lens wouldn’t retract. Game over. It was a very sad day. I’m now trying to determine whether I want to spend $80 to fix the lens or just buy a whole new camera. Either way, I’ll mourn the loss.

To check out more failures, visit the fail blog.

Fun Contest – Win Free Photos!

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know that my lovely husband is currently running a contest over at his blog.  The rules of the game are simple: make a mention of his portfolio site and then let him know.  Everyone who participates will be entered into a drawing for a sexy matted print.  The photo was shot with his new Canon 5D Mark II and the details are amazing.  Go check it out for more details – the contest ends at the end of January.  Good luck!

I Survived Utah – Day 3 – Journey to Salt Lake

On Sunday Ian and I woke before sunrise to make the return journey to Salt Lake City.  We decided to avoid the mountain pass we had taken on the way to Moab and return a different route.  It had snowed a little overnight (not the twelve inches that the car rental lady threatened) and though it wasn’t enough to make us worry, a one lane highway through the hills didn’t sound too great.  We cut across the state and the going was clear for about two hours, until we hit The Reef.

The Reef is a huge rock formation that rises out of the ground like spikes along a dragon’s back.  Once we crossed it, the road filled with snow.  Only one lane of the highway was paved, which wasn’t too much of an issue since it was only us and about six trucks on the road.  Total.  For the balance of the four hours.

This was cool until we realized if we got stranded there was no one coming to get us.  This was cool until our car ran out of windshield wiper fluid and snow spray froze onto our windshield.  This was cool until the washing liquid at every gas station was frozen solid.  Then it was not so cool to be so alone.

Needless to say, we made it.  I got a very sexy sunburn/windburn/sandburn combo right across my cheeks, just below the hat line and above the scarf line.  My badge of pride.  I was happy to get back to a warm Los Angeles.

Overall park rating: Arches: A+, Canyonlands: B

I Survived Utah – Day 2 – Canyonlands National Park

On Saturday Ian and I made our way to Canyonlands National Park.  While Arches is defined by rock protrusions, Canyonlands has deep valleys carved through rock.  The road to Canyonlands is so remote that there are no fences around the bordering cow fields.  This leads to a good question: Why did the cows cross the road?  Answer: To get to the other side (and give us a heart attack.)  The cows didn’t seem to understand why we kept beeping at them.  At a standstill, we mooed and took their pictures.

Once in Canyonlands we made a short hike to Mesa Arch, overlooking a vast valley of red rock.  We didn’t get there at sunrise as we planned, but the light was beautiful rose gold all the same.  One of the nice things about both parks we visited is that instead of using signs to mark the trails, the parks use stacked rocks.  It’s a much more natural way to mark things that lets the beauty of the landscape shine through.

After exploring Canyonlands, where I managed to lose one (but not both) of my gloves, we ate lunch at Denny’s a la Road Trip Tradition and ventured back to Arches.  The same park ranger recognized us from the day before, probably thinking, “Suckers.”  We only had about two hours until sunset so we had to decide between the hike to Landscape Arch, which spans the length of a football field, and Delicate Arch, which decorates every license plate in Utah.  We chose the latter and began our hike.

The guide map boasted that the trip would only be a three mile loop, but it’s not an exaggeration to say we walked uphill both ways, fighting a fierce wind that was somehow always in our faces and never at our backs.  The hike was pretty exhausting and finally finally we turned the corner on a sharp ledge and saw the arch balancing in the distance.  We crossed a lip of rock into a small valley to take some sunset pictures.  We faced issues, however, crossing back.

Delicate Arch is surrounded by walls of rock, and our small crossover happened to be the one place where all of the wind funneled to.  The wind is a massive and strong erosive force, flinging sand and carving rock.  When I tried to cross back over the lip, with steep cliffs on either side of the three foot path, the wind lifted my backpack off my back.  I had visions of floating away to my doom, parachuted by my travel pack.

Luckily the wind subsided just enough to let us pass.  We walked back with the sky bursting into a rainbow colored sunset.  Definitely worth it.  After dark we decided on dinner at a restaurant that had looked busy.  When traveling to strange places, busy is a good sign.  Sadly, we had our hopes dashed when we realized the only reason the restaurant was busy was because it was closed for a private holiday party.  Of course.

We settled on Eddie McStiff’s, which Ian objected to on the basis of name alone, but which turned out to serve a delicious meal.  We left the restaurant to a light snowfall.  This time we made it to nine pm before crashing.  Traveling is not for the weak of heart.