Photo of the Week #44

This was a shot from the Huntington Gardens and the green makes me really happy :)

P.S. Only one week left of the current JLP collection. Don't miss out! Click here to go directly to the gallery!

I miss film

The first professional camera that I ever bought was a Canon film camera. I loved him. I actually still have that camera because I can’t bring myself to sell it or give it away. We have so many memories together from college days. :) APU basketball and football games, my first photography class, going MIA for a week after flying out of the car window while leaving for Spring Break, my first engagement session and first small wedding… oh the mems! But I love film. If it weren’t so costly (or if I had spare funds just hanging out) I would get myself a darkroom and shoot film just for giggles.

My dad has an Olympus OM 10 from 1979 that I “borrowed” when I moved to Austin (thanks Dad! :). It comes with the raddest 1970s green camera bag too. I love that thing. So early this year when we made a trip out to Fredericksburg, I bought some black and white film and had some fun with the 50mm 1.4 lens. I had to laugh at myself though, because at the beginning of the day I would automatically look on the back of the camera after each shot. Each time a nice black case stared right back at me. Holler back for film.

Here were some of my favs, with a couple of my sister since she was out to visit. I make her model – she has no choice :)

Who is your inspiration?

It seems like Mondays are always so loco, crazy, out of control. Summer has had some "fun" Mondays - so much so that I post Monday blogs on Tuesday. But I thought I would use Mondays to blog about photo randomness - maybe give peeps a break from Mondays with some photo inspiration.

So I start with my first "Mondays" post with photographers that inspire me. I'm sticking with non-wedding photographers this time around because I really am inspired by all types of photography. I should get paid for all the blog reading/stalking that I do. :) But there are just so many that I love to look at. So here are a few - I hope you are inspired as much as I am!

Jimmy Williams -
I saw this photo and instantly became a fan. His work tells a story in such a captivating way and I go back and look at the pictures over and over again. He makes me want to meet the people he photographed. Plus this series reminds me a lot of my grandpa. He can photograph other people and make it personal for me. That's what I call rocking it!

Jeremy Cowart -
I first came across his work in Hope In the Dark, an amazing book about Africa that you should all purchase. Little did I know how big he was. I'm pretty sure he has taken a photo of every country star in Nashville. He also traveled with the Passion World Tour, capturing it in an amazing and astounding way. His use of light is fantastic and I'm pretty sure he is rad, so go check out his work too!

Clark Little -
If you have a day that sucks, just go to his website. I usually look at his website with my jaw dropped and his work makes me want to become a mermaid and live in the oceans of Hawaii.

I could really go on and on with photographers that are doing/did amazing work, but then the blog would get long and you would stop reading anyway. But if you want to check out more, here's a few more links to other inspirational phodawgs:
Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Paul Nicklen
And of course one of the original masters: Ansel Adams

I would love to hear who inspires you, whether in your field or in life - so please...share :) I could always use another blog to add to google reader.

Here's to you MJ

I like sleep a lot. So if you are going to ask me to stay up until the wee hours of the night it pretty much has to be for something epic and beyond the limits of normal radness. Last night was one such thing.

Me and 3 very awesome people went to a Michael Jackson tribute sing along at the Alamo Draft House. Yes, these are radical. It consists of dressing up, watching music videos and singing along as loud as you can. Oh and dancing. Lots of dancing. We donned our white tank tops, black fedora hats and busted a move all night long. It was great!

I could watch Michael dance all night long. Billie Jean, Captain EO, Jackson Five songs...and seriously, the leaning in Smooth Criminal still amazes me. Come to think of it, pretty much any MJ song rocks and reminds me of my childhood, my dad dancing, good times with fam and friends. He really was the King of Pop and I'm sad that he is dead. I cried. But I know his legacy of dance, singing, entertainment, etc will continue - and that makes me happy. Thanks MJ for the moves, the beats and radness.

Right before the party started, I snapped a couple pics of peeps and here's a pic of fellow MJ fan Linda. Fedora hats rock it.

**UPDATE** A video of the radness -

Photo of the Week #43

Today's POTW is from my current collection on JLP. It's Christ Church College at Oxford University. I fell in love with that place. I think speaking in a British accent might even make me smarter. Not proven, but a theory.

Anyway, one thing I love about these weekly photos is that as I go through each one, I relive the story of each one. And that usually involves some kind of chuckle. If I were a musician, I think this would be like my first album release. One you will never forget, but know that it was just the beginning.

But I am excited for new stuff that I have been working on and new collections to release. New travels and new adventures have brought about opportunities for me to challenge and expand myself as an artist. And this makes me excited!

These collections are very close on the horizon, but with that, I will also "retire" the original JLP collection. I just felt so hardcore dropping the word retire in a blog. Holla! The current collection will close in 2 weeks (July 17th), so be sure to place any last minute orders!! It's all about changing the world with love! Never forget that part. And if you are a fan of facebook or twitter like I am, please help spread the word! Thanks for keeping it real!

Milo turns 4!

As I mentioned, a post of Milo's birthday was coming, so here it is! I love how Krisdee is so creative with her birthday party themes - so much fun to be a part of it and capture on film :). Here are a few of my favs of the birthday boy!

He's ready to learn how to be a fire fighter!

The kiddies were so fascinated and made me smile watching them :)

Here's to Firefighters

Once again triple digit heat didn't stop me from having a rocking weekend. Part of it included hanging out at at Milo's birthday party. What's crazy is that it seems like I was just capturing his birthday last year. What a second Time...kick it, chill, just hang. You're gettin a little crazy up in here, up in here.

Anyway, I'll post some more of Milo tomorrow, but part of the party was at a Fire Station. That's code for straight up awesome. I almost wanted to sneak a Firefighter sticker badge (for my roommates of course), but my almost 27 year old self (what did I tell you Time?!!?) told me to not be a nerd. But how fun and creative! The kids were the cutest and it was great to see how much fun they had.

More to come tomorrow, but just wanted to give a shout out of thanks to the people who dedicate their lives to saving others. One word: Holler.

Photo of the Week #42

I was hanging out with some friends last night and while talking over some epic gelato, we had some good laughs of travel stories. That got me thinking about Europe and my want/need to go back. This week's POTW is a photo from my trip to Paris in 2004. The days of film camera and kit lens. Old school kids. Old school.

I laugh thinking about that trip. I don't know what was more comical: the bus at the airport leaving with half of us on the curb, half in the bus and one person halfway on the steps of the bus and on the curb hauling our luggage, the subway stopping somewhere in the middle of Paris at 11:30 at night and the conductor telling us in French that we had to get off and then roaming around the city looking for our hotel, the crazy heat wave that happened to hit, the hotel that made me want to stop eating until I was 83 because me and my luggage would barely fit in the elevator and hallway, or maybe it was watching my dad in Paris. :)

I loved that trip - I got to be in Normandy for the 60th Anniversary of D-Day. That was such an awesome day of humanity. That sounds so freaky cheesy, but I can't think of what else to say. So many countries were represented and we had random French people drive us around (we had no car and no clue of where we were) because they were thankful that the Americans were there storming the beaches 60 years prior. Hi, I'm a history geek and totally get teary-eyed at stuff like that. Awesome.

Yep - I definitely need to go back. Plus I have much better camera equipment these days and don't want to leave Europe out. That would be mean.

Why Austin will rock your face off

When I told people back in the great state of California I was moving to Austin, the usual response was "TEXAS?!!?" I must clarify, I moved to Austin, not Texas. :) But I really don't think Texans can get upset at what people say when they threaten to do some seceding. And I know there are some jokes of how Californians roll (just know it is mad deep - that's how we roll). But you gotta stop hating on Tejas until you've experienced the awesomeness known as Austin.

I love Austin. I never thought I would love a city so much. Austin reminds me of a lot of the culture that I grew up in and love. The world comes to you. And that is rad. Just add amazing amounts of beautiful scenery, wayyyyy cheaper cost of living, live music anywhere you go, random eccentric things that you just smile at and say "That's so Austin," and you got one awesome city. Plus the photo opportunities are endless. So here are some of my favorites places around Austin that we found on Sunday:

This was downtown on the East Side. We had heard there was some cool graffiti on walls and thought it would make for a sweet background. We couldn’t find the one we were told about, but then we found this wall, which was for a company called East End Ink. We felt pretty hardcore.

This is Magnolia Café. Two words: Chicken Enchiladas. I’ve heard they have really good pancakes too, but haven’t been there for breakfast quite yet.

I haven’t had any interaction with the Austin Motel, but it has been part of South Congress for 71 years. So it must be cool.

Like I said before, even the walls of buildings are artsy and so creative. This is off of South 1st Street and Annie. It’s a cool relic shop that I would have gone into, but it was closed.

You know me and bats. Here’s a little monument off of Congress.

This is part of the décor of Chuy’s. Typing about it makes me want to eat some enchiladas, tacos or pretty much anything from that menu (that isn't too spicy though :). I need to stop blogging about food when I am hungry.

I think I might be a cloud stalker.

And one of the rules that comes with calling me your roommate - I get to make you be my models whenever I want. New lens? Photoshoot! Scoped out a sweet location? Guess what roomies??? More photos! Good thing they are awesome.

Do you know where this is??

Yesterday my rad roommates and I stared 106 degree weather in the face and with the help Mickey D's ice cream conquered the heat and went exploring Austin. I've been wanting to start a new project capturing one of the best cities in the world and since we moved, I had an excuse. We have some bare walls and they need to be covered with pretty pictures.

So here's a sneak peek of the good times this past Sunday.

Can anyone guess which place in Austin this is!? I'll give you a clue: I would eat here everyday if I could. Not that food runs my life or anything :)