Happy Holidays – I’m off to New Zealand
Well, it’s finally time for my long overdue honeymoon. Ian and I are heading to New Zealand to hang out with sheep and penguins and do lots of hiking and photo-taking. I’m well armed with lots of fantastic books to read and I’ll be doing a little travel writing as we go. While we’re gone, check out the pets on our webcam here.
I hope you have a fantastic holiday!
Best wishes,
Tanya
Filed under Events, Life, Photography, Travel | Comment (0)Happy Monday!
Happy Monday everyone! This past weekend my husband and I drove to Santa Barbara to shoot a wedding, then drove home all in one day. That being said, I slept in late on Sunday and my whole body clock is off. When that happens, it makes my brain mush. Not exactly the perfect formula for fresh writing. I’m hoping this week will be productive, and my plan is to spend lots of time in the library, butt in chair. Conveniently, this should also help counteract the heat wave that’s supposed to happen. That and lots of popsicles. Mmmm.
Filed under Life, Photography | Comment (1)Distinctphoto.com update!
Shameless self-promotion here: if you have a minute, please stop by the new and improved Ian Grant Photography website. We’ve updated with some of our more recent weddings, as well as big, pretty, color-popped pictures. It’s really purty and Ian worked really hard on it. I mostly sat and fed him mint Oreos in a show of support. Someone’s gotta do the dirty work.
Filed under Photography | Comment (1)Graduation, among other things
Wow, it feels like I’ve been gone from the bloggosphere for forever, but it’s really only been just over a week. First of all, I’m sorry for my absence. In a quick recap, I’ve had the following things to deal with over the last week: 3 trips to the vet (the first: diagnosis, the second: get foods to convince my cat to eat, the third: picking up the food that my cat actually liked), a trip to the emergency room with my friend (post to follow tomorrow), photographing an Indian engagement ceremony/party (pulled together in 2 days while my husband was out of town), a power outage or two, tea with friends, first chapter critique, writing a long synopsis, then a short one, writing my final exam for my last class ever, reading two books, shooting a wedding, picking my husband up from the airport which meant I could finally sleep again (I didn’t get any sleep when he was gone) but also picking up his Switzerland-zombie virus. Commence sleeping/popsicle eating/nose-blowing.
So yeah, I didn’t do much blogging but it was a busy week. I’ll try to do more frequent updating and not abandon all you readers out there.
In parting words, today is my official college graduation. What will I do with my time? Ha.
Filed under Current Projects, Events, Life, Photography | Comment (0)Eating
On a completely random note, here are a few pictures I pulled off my camera the other day. Not surprisingly, my family loves food. What’s surprising is the kind of things they go after. Case in point, my cat. I discovered him on the counter after attacking cornbread. Cornbread?
When Bunny gets a carrot, my dog has to have a carrot. His jealousy has made him fat, but I figure vegetables are good for him, right?
Close-up of the rabbit. I couldn’t resist. Note the carrot juice-stained lips.
2009 SCBWI Summer Conference
As promised, here are a few pictures from the 2009 SCBWI Summer Conference. I know they’re long overdue, but I hope you enjoy.
Mara Bushansky and me. This was day 1, still bright eyed and well-rested. That would all end soon.
Writers Sara Wilson Etienne, Mara Bushansky, Rita Crayon Huang
Here’s half of Israel Sanchez, who won the Illustration Portfolio Showcase, writer/artist Andy Mitchell, and writer Charlie Cohen
Rita and illustrator Ken Min
Jennifer Bosworth and me
There were a lot of creative costumes at the Blue Moon Ball, including the Blue Man Group!
Sara enjoys the wild rumpus in her fantastic Where the Wild Things Are costume
Me and Esther Hershenhorn
Me and Edith Cohn
Rita and me
One of my favorite parts of the conference was a mini lesson on plot and structure from Holly Black. Here are Rita, Holly, and Lee Wind
Filed under Events, Photography | Comments (3)Back to the daily grind
You know what’s ironic? At the airport you need to be at your gate at a certain time, and yet there are no obvious clocks in the entire place. This is not just one airport, but nearly every one I’ve been to. Seems odd to me.
That tidbit aside, this wedding weekend in San Francisco was fun but brief. I didn’t get as much writing done as I would have liked, so I’ll try to play catch up this week. I’ve got added incentive to work efficiently – at the SCBWI summer conference I was a door prize winner for a manuscript consultation with Stephen Mooser, President of the SCBWI. I’m beyond excited, but I have to pull together a synopsis for my book. This is harder than it looks, since my book isn’t actually finished. That and I want to make a few changes to the first pages, since some plot lines have changed from when I began writing. All in all, it’ll be hectic but fun. Let’s just hope life doesn’t throw too many other projects at me.
Filed under Current Projects, Events, Photography | Comment (1)Up and away
This weekend I’m off to San Francisco for a wedding shoot, and while I could use the weekend at home to catch up on sleep, I’m super excited. Not only is the couple we’re working with fun and cute and totally in love, but they treated us to a night at the hotel where the reception will be held. I’m looking forward to hard work and then some relaxing. And of course, the plane rides. Airplanes and airports are a constant source of confessions and characters, an emboldened world where you can say anything you want because you’ll never see that person again. Here’s to collecting more people for the file.
Filed under Life, Photography, Travel | Comment (0)My vacation in numbers
After 2 planes, 1 wedding, and 5 hours driving,
the timing belt snaps on my brother’s
1 week old
new used car.
We call Triple A
(who transfers me to myself)
and at long last a tow truck driver named Noah -
bald, yellow vest, tribal tattoo snaked around his bicep -
pulls us the last 70 miles to the Outerbanks.
He tells us his horror stories as we ride,
4 people in a 3 seat cab,
ducking at stop lights to avoid
suspicion of the Highway Patrol.
“My dispatch is bad with mile markers and
they hate when I have to tow people.”
“But that’s the service people pay for,” I say.
“They know that. But it’s a liability thing.
They don’t have to look at the stranded people and
tell them no.”
He turns off his walkie talkie and
turns on his GPS.
“And that, kids, is why we’re going to Nags Head.”
He smiles and I see myself reflected in his sunglasses.
I smile back.
Noah used to work at underground oil drilling,
and at least there he knew
what would kill him.
As a tow truck driver
it could be anything:
hurricanes, big rigs,
people who mistake him for the Repo man.
Noah tells us about the longest
2 hours and 14 minutes of his life,
towing an angry couple to the shore.
“It was so painful I can remember
the exact time it took,” he says.
He tells us he sped through that one, but
you’ll never, ever,
see a tow truck get pulled over.
“Cops look for things that are wrong,
but they don’t know what to look for,” he says.
“Plus you’re helping people,” my brother says.
“You’re doing the right thing.”
“Yeah,” Noah says. “Yeah.”
When we get closer, Noah points out
the best BBQ on the island, places to see.
And then he drops us off and he’s gone,
leaving us 7 days
6 ocean swims
5 bug bites
4 cans of sunscreen
3 planes
2 plane rides
and 1 thunderstorm to go.
Filed under Events, Life, Photography, Travel | Comments (4)Vacation time
I’m off on grand adventures, shooting a wedding in Philadelphia and then spending a week in the Outer Banks, North Carolina with my family. All this excitement (and questionable internet service) means I won’t be posting anything new for the next week. I hope you browse around the site and enjoy your week. Happy (early) Fourth of July!
Filed under Events, Life, Photography, Travel | Comment (0)