peonies

From Design*Sponge

I cannot wait to buy a bunch of peonies from the Trader Joe's in San Luis Obispo once we get there. Love them. An article here.

the good list...California style.

1) Being married to my best friend for 2 years the day after tomorrow.
2) In & Out burgers while finally crossing the California line last night.
3) Meeting people you feel like you can be 100% yourself with (Hello Sarah. Hello Ian.).
4) Local breweries in newly discovered towns. Albuquerque, anyone?
5) Old crumbling Americana buildings in the desert.
6) Windows rolled completely down, blasting Neil for 3 days straight.
7) Sleeping in one's car in the Wal-Mart marking lot in Oklahoma and not being murdered.
8) Buying tracphone minutes at said Wal-mart at 4:30 in the morning so as to call one's family to assure them one has not been murdered.
9) Seeing the motel where part of 'No Country For Old Men' was shot.
10) Eating Korean food for the 1st time ever. And loving it.
11) Big, fat, amazing New Mexican breakfasts.
12) Strolling the aisles of Californian Trader Joe's once again.
13) Black Sabbath. Pretty loud.
14) Staying at our friend Munz's self-built casita for a night or two.
15) Checking emails and internet-related business for the first time in at least 10 days.
16) Clicking through my many photos taken while visiting family in NC.
17) Having the best family ever. No, really.
18) Being in California again. Feels like home reunited.
19) Driving to the central coast tomorrow. Planning to listen to Black Sabbath albums #1,2,3,&5, Monochrome and Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue. My little slice of heaven.
20) Loving the Mister more than ever before.
21) Hot bath in a deep tub after 15 hours of driving last night.
22) Futon sleeping while knowing no one else's ass has been on it. We bought it new in Florida and carry it around in our car.
23) Beginning new, old jobs tomorrow. Working once again for this little inn/B&B/hostel in Cambria.
24) Seeing the Pacific Ocean again tomorrow.
25) J. Crew jeans.
26) Walking around in Target by myself.
27) New magazine arrivals at Barnes & Noble.
28) Living the life I want to live.
29) Talking about tattoos I will more than likely never get.
30) Did I mention being married to my best friend for 2 years the day after tomorrow?

missing in action.

I have been missing in action from ye olde blog for several reasons:

1) My Swiss relatives were in town
2) We took them up to NC from FL to visit my family
3) My family has dial-up
4) Philipp and I left NC for CA
5) We were in Albuquerque visiting the snazzy duo that is Sarah & Ian
6) We just arrived in CA today.

It feels better than ever to be back on the west coast. I've taken loads of photos and have many to share. Above is from a bridal session I did in NC of my insanely attractive sister. More to come. Hope everyone is doing o.k.

cardigan love

While looking at this pretty wedding on Design*Sponge, I was admiring this little duo of a black cardigan and pretty party dress...as I sit in my bathing suit and rank black top with no shoes. Right-o.

no direction home.

Pretty much summing up my life and how I feel about it at the moment (or past 3 years moment!). First seen on Design is Mine blog. Originally from Word Boner.

the good list.

1) Picking up the new J.Crew catalog while browsing in their store. They always have the best styling and inspiration for photography (not to mention fashion!).
2) Swimming in the warm ocean at sunset. The colors are so beautiful and warm.
3) Checking out Miami Beach yesterday. Cold, local beer. Pizza. Art Deco. Lovely.
4) Excited to go to NC in a few days. Will get to shoot my brothers, sister, my first baby session and hopefully some shots of the whole family. There's more varied landscapes up there in the country that I cannot wait to capture.
5) Big, smooth deliciously round pink grapefruits--4/1.00 on the side of the road.
6) Homemade cherry gelato in Delray Beach. So delicious.
7) The tiniest sliver of lemon in a glass of ice water.
8) My first Coca Cola in forever, yesterday. Absolutely cold and perfect. My insides were frying it was so hot. Sometimes nothing but a cola can hit the spot.
9) When Philipp, as I call it, wallows in the sand up at the shoreline. He turns into a starfish anywhere near water. He looks like a 4 year old and absolutely adorable. I need to get a picture of him spread eagle in the inch of water without him knowing.
10) Pretty much reading every book on photography I wanted to finish from the library. Time to move on to the next city.
11) Pizza Rustica's self titled pizza; artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, basil leaves & prosciutto.
12) Needing to make a strawberry bread from all these giant strawberries lying around.
13) It being packing time.
14) Only a few weeks & a couple of thousand miles until California is our place again.

Erika @ Dania Beach

Today I learned several valuable lessons while at the beach around sunset with the family. While moseying around on the sand, I spotted this gorgeous young girl walking with her friend. I really wanted to capture some shots of her so I made the plunge, introduced myself, told her she was absolutely beautiful and would she mind letting me fire off a few frames.

She was delighted to help me and such a perfect model. The few times I've had strangers stop me in the street or grocery store to compliment me totally made my day. Hopefully I made hers and I hope to be able to send her the results of her willingness to be captured.

A few very important lessons I took home today:

1) Always bring your camera along. You never know what photographic opportunities can come out of the woodwork.
2) Always bring extra memory cards! I realized my card capacity was full and had to erase some images from an earlier shoot. Shooting in RAW now, I really have to keep this in mind as it takes up so much more space than JPEG.
3) Don't be afraid to approach people. I almost let her walk away because I was too shy to ask. I am so glad I didn't. Hey, what have you got to lose? The worst that can happen is the person says no.
4) Don't rush the shoot once the person agrees. If they're comfortable and having fun, keep getting in those frames until you're satisfied you captured the essence of the person that captivated you in the first place.
5) Chat them up while continuously shooting. You get so many varied expressions that way & it eases the self consciousness of the subject.
6) Keep a pen with paper in your camera bag. I desperately needed this when I wanted to get her email address to send her the processed photos. Now I only hope I can remember her contact info.

That's all!

tracy feith for target

I'll be anxious to see this little black dress in person on May 17th when the new Go International collection from Target features designer Tracy Feith. Without, ahem, that jacket.

manoush

As per usual, I am having a bit of a dress moment. Love this little number from Manoush. See it in black here.

beer hiatus...over.

So, the beer hiatus Philipp started 3 weeks ago ended today. Happy Kristin. Happy Phippi.

frou frou dress

Oh my god, I want this dress so badly. I saw it on the Love Affair Workshop's blog from the event held in '08! Must have it!

linzer torte

Tonight I am trying my hand at making a homemade linzer torte. I recently made a batch of mixed berry jam, so I thought making this delicious dessert would help get rid of it & remind me of Switzerland & my mother-in-law at the same time! Not to mention it can also welcome our Swiss relatives who are coming for a visit this Thursday. Fingers crossed!

PS. I learned today that this torte is one of the earliest recorded cakes ever...1653, to be dork-ily exact. So there have been plenty of pleased Euros well before my time...

raw setting.

My very first picture using the RAW setting on my Canon! I just needed to shoot anything to figure out RAW on the computer so I used the "painting" with shutter speed technique from one of my books to get an abstract effect. This is a pillowcase! ; )