2011 Wrap-up: I Traveled Each and Ev'ry Highway

Now that the presents are put away (almost) and 2011 has come to an end, it's time for a wrap-up blog post! I'm pretty sure that this is the first time I've ever done this, but I've been inspired by my photographer friends and by the wonderful year I had. Since 2011 was such a good year all around, I'm starting with some personal photos. I'm usually pretty lazy about posting my own photos, so this will be a giant post! Here goes nothing!

I did a ton of traveling in 2011, and most of it was for pleasure! In February, I crossed the pond and went to London for a long weekend! We saw all the sights!


And a trip to London wouldn't be complete without taking a trip to Abbey Road! Having your photo taken in the middle of the crosswalk is actually quite dangerous, so there was no posing! And while we were in London, we happened upon the BAFTAs, which is England's answer to the Oscars. You can imagine how exciting that was! We even got to see Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter. Amazing. We traveled all the way to London to see a Red Carpet!




In March, Doug and I traveled to Disney World to see my sister play in her high school band at Downtown Disney!


When there are only two of you on a trip, you tend to take a lot of self-portraits!


Me! This balloon was part of an elaborate birthday surprise - I had to deflate it and bring it back to Boston where it would be re-inflated. That didn't stop me from posing with it!


In April, a few awesome photographer friends and I spent a few days in Loon Mt. talking about pretty much everything BUT work.


In May, my sister and I flew out to Portland, Oregon to visit a college. While there, I got to visit two of my best friends from college and my good friend Rachel and we got to eat grilled cheese in a school bus.



My biggest trip this year was to Iceland. Doug and I had been plotting this trip for years and we were finally able to make it happen! I would highly recommend it as a destination - it's good for all age groups and you don't have to travel too far (from Boston anyways). You spend four and a half hours in a plane and then you're here...


We stayed in Reykjavik, but we visited Skalholt, Gullfoss, Thingvellir, and Geysir.





Downtown Reykjavik has a lot of artistic graffiti. This was my favorite!


And the Blue Lagoon. The day we spend here was one of my favorites of the whole trip. It's an amazing geothermal spa. So relaxing and rejuvenating. I even got an in-water massage, which was so funny. It was such a weird sensation (some giant Icelandic guy was dragging me around the lagoon on a pool mat while massaging my feet) that I couldn't quite relax all the way, but it was still pretty awesome! Doug and I spent way too much time trying to master an "Apocalypse Now" shot in the water...

As much as I love our photos, none of them do it justice! You should go and see for yourselves!

My last "big" trip of the year was to Miami to celebrate a friend's 40th birthday! We didn't even scratch the surface of the city, but I did get to go to a backyard pig roast!


Since my sister graduated high school this past spring, we spent a lot of time celebrating her!
There was prom...


Graduation...




And a graduation party...


I experimented with a Diana camera at my bbq and even at a couple of weddings this summer!


A friend came to town and we went to the Red Sox (my first game in a couple of years!).


We'll end the post with Christmas and New Year's!
Napkin hats!


New Year's!

My brother got engaged this year, which is extremely exciting. That photo above is me and my future sister-in-law!





I am so grateful that my job allows me the time to have this much fun! Sure, sometimes I have to schedule things months in advance, but it's so worth it! I'm just glad my friends hang in there and wait for my free weekends! They are few and far between, but we make the most of them!

Next up... The Year In Review, the work edition.

They Paved Paradise And Put Up A Parking Lot

I'm not going to lie; I've been composing this post in my head since the day I took these pictures. But it couldn't be just any post. It had to be important. I wanted to be able to say everything I wanted to say without going overboard. Some of these things you've heard me say before (if you've read my posts), but this time, the circumstances were totally different.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in Los Angeles, living it up in the sun and the smog and the gridlock. I spent a lot of time traversing the city on the surface streets, visiting friends and sightseeing. I had a stack of index cards with me, notes I had taken on Hollywood landmarks years before. I had addresses (with their Thomas Guide coordinates) and all the bullet-pointed notes. This is how I spent my days. I spent the weekend staying at The Biltmore, hoping to sponge up some of the lavish Hollywood history. I mentioned in my previous post that they wouldn't really let me photograph the interior of the hotel. They made me show my room key a couple of times and it was clear people were keeping their eyes on me. I think being in Los Angeles has made them super sensitive and I'm guessing they were scrutinizing my actions because I had a "fancy" camera and not a point-and-shoot. I left The Biltmore really disappointed with my stay. That was on Sunday. Monday was a whole different story.

On Monday, The Annenberg Community Beach House opened in Santa Monica. It's a place for the public to go to swim, play volleyball, and hang out, without needing any sort of pricey membership. More importantly (to me anyway), the Beach House stands in the footprint of what used to be Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst's Santa Monica mansion. This is the view of the original structure, from the beach:


All that remains of the original design are the guest house and the swimming pool, both of which are now open to the public. I couldn't believe my luck - the space opened the weekend I was there which meant I got to go visit. I can not explain to you the exhilarating feeling of being able to walk around this space. The city of Santa Monica has done an AMAZING job of honoring the land's past. They restored the guest house and a docent will take you on a tour of the inside of this 9100 square foot guest house. Another docent will take you on a tour of the whole space and talk with you about the history of the land and what happened when Marion Davies had to sell the mansion. Here is what the space looks like now:

This is the guest house.


This is the beach house. It stands where the mansion once stood. The pillars integrated into the design of the beach house are in the exact same places as the pillars of the original beach house. The pool in this photo is the original pool; much of the design is the same as at Hearst's pool at San Simeon. So, when you take your little kids to the community pool in Santa Monica, they are swimming where Winston Churchill, George Bernard Shaw, Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, Joan Crawford, and Louis B. Mayer once swam!

As our tour was finishing up, we were standing on the top floor of the beach house, looking out at the water. The docent was talking about the changes in the beach and the ocean and as were watching the waves, we saw a dolphin. It was the perfect way to end our tour.

I just loved these sand castles; they were built right on the beach in front of the Marion Davies guest house.


There was only one other person on my tour, Louise. She lives in Santa Monica and took the tour because she was curious about what was happening in her neighborhood. Turns out, she's a movie lover, too. After our official tour ended, we decided to walk together and tour the "Gold Coast" of the PCH. Back in the day, all the big stars had houses right along the PCH. Most of them have been renovated, added onto, split in half, etc, but the addresses are all still there. It's not exactly the safest thing to do, but we walked along the PCH, checking out the addresses and standing for a moment in the footprints of Harold Lloyd, Mae West, Norma Shearer, and many more. Of course, the diamond in the crown is the home of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. Louise and I were standing in the driveway, looking up at what was essentially the garage, just marveling at it all. And then the unimaginable happened - we were invited in! I have now stood in Douglas Fairbanks' home. To me, it's an amazing thing. After having such a miserable time trying to explore The Biltmore, to spend the day at Marion Davies' house and then at Douglas Fairbanks' was mind-blowing. It really proved to me that there are people out there, even in Los Angeles, who want to remember, and honor, their past. It was a day I will never forget!

If You Think You Might Come to California, I Think You Should

This post is going to have a lot of photos. I traveled to Los Angeles in April to attend my good friend Tara's wedding. Tara and Dave have been together even longer than Doug and I have! They complement each other so well. As long as I've known Tara and Dave, they've been together. I can't imagine it any other way. I love picturing them happy, together, whether it be in Silverlake or Abu Dhabi. I was not the official photographer for the wedding, but I managed to squeeze some shots in. Tara and Dave hired Michael Chan of The Image Is Found, so I knew they were in GREAT hands! Dave and Tara arranged for guests to stay at The Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Even though I had friends in the area I could stay with, I knew I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to stay at the Biltmore. Here are a few fun facts about the hotel:
1) It opened to the public in 1923.
2) The hotel has hosted the Academy Awards eight times.
3) In 1960, JFK used the hotel as his campaign headquarters.
4) The Biltmore was the last place actress Elizabeth Short (Hollywood's notorious Black Dahlia) was seen alive.
While we were staying there, they were filming something for America's Next Top Model. I didn't see anyone related to the show, but some of the other wedding guests claim they rode the elevator with Jay Manuel. That would have been pretty cool. The hotel is located in downtown Los Angeles, which is often overlooked by travelers. It's seen better days, but it seems like they are working hard to bring it back to life. In the few years I lived there, they built the Walt Disney Concert Hall and they've been revitalizing it ever since.

Now, on to the photos. Tara, her mother, and her aunt (and me) put together the wedding bouquets. They got their flowers from the Flower Market the morning of the wedding, which means that they had no idea what kinds of flowers they'd be using until they got there. Tara had ideas, but they were dependent on which flowers were available. In the end, the bouquets were gorgeous!














The wedding took place at the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens which was gorgeous! They had a bridal suite where Tara could get ready and the girls could all hang out before the ceremony.



The light during the ceremony was crazy! I loved the way it hit Tara.


Yay for being married!




The wedding was beautiful! Tara and Dave's awesome friends gave a bunch of mini-speeches throughout the night that were amazing. So funny and natural. I guess it helps that a lot of them have theatrical training. Congratulations you two! You did it!

Rubber Duckie, You're the One

I am hanging out in my swank Los Angeles hotel, looking through the photos I've taken over the past couple of days. I have had such a good trip so far! I've visited all sorts of places I meant to go before I moved (you know, when it seemed I had all the time in the world to visit those places). I even saw a celebrity (Ivan Reitman). Today I met up with Rachel, who's in town for a wedding. We hung out at The Getty Villa, which was amazing! It's full of all sorts of cool Roman artifacts and antiquities. Better than that, though, the space is amazing! The architecture is stunning and you could just hang out there all day without even seeing any ancient art. I highly recommend it if you have the time to make it to Malibu. That's where I took this photo of this lovely duck! He was just hanging out and strutting his stuff. Tomorrow is Tara & Dave's wedding. It's going to be so much fun! I'm going to watch some bad hotel TV (and by bad, I mean cheesy, not the other kind of bad hotel TV) and get a good night's sleep!

Flying First Class, Up In The Sky

I am off to Los Angeles tomorrow! I will still have access to all my technology, so if you need to reach me, you know how. I am going to be taking tons of photos and just entertaining myself. I've got a couple of shoots lined up and am attending a wedding. The attire for the wedding is "creative black tie" so I will be rocking an awesome outfit with some fun details. Woo hoo! And of course, the best accessory - my camera. And I will make sure to get some photos of me, too. Enjoy the week!

Until I Saw Your City Lights, Honey, I was Blind

I have committed a horrible photographer crime - not only have I not posted any photos from our trip to Argentina, but I haven't printed any up, either. I'm going to remedy half of that tonight by posting a couple tonight. These photos represent a VERY small fraction of what I shot while we were in Buenos Aires, but I think little by little, they'll make their way on here. However, in the "do what I say, not what I do" category, I implore all my clients to print their photos! Those of you who choose to purchase the digital images own something invaluable - the ability to print your photos whenever and wherever you want, as many times as you want. Take advantage of that. Photos are meant to be tangible. They're no good just hanging out on the computer. Print them, frame them, send them to grandparents. Think about how much you love looking through your parents' old photo albums, even your grandparents' old albums. Your kids should have the same opportunity. I worry that my clients don't ever print their photos up. Technology changes so fast - in 20 yrs, will the technology still exist for you to look at those DVDs on the computer? Print print print!


This last photo was actually taken in Uruguay. We spent the day there exploring this little coastal town called Colonia.

*Today's song lyric is from the song "Honky Cat."

Let Me Dance to Your Beat

It has been a long couple of days! I finished editing the Buenos Aires wedding photos and sent them in the mail today! Phew. And let me tell you, this morning was not the greatest of mornings. I may have had a small nervous breakdown, but that's neither here nor there. The rest of my day has been quite productive. I mailed the photos, went to Vanessa's cheese party (yum!), and created this slideshow! So, for those of you who want to see what a wedding in Buenos Aires is like - here it is! This one is definitely my longest yet, so sit back and enjoy!

Prospero Ano y Felicidad

Happy New Year, everybody! Doug & I are still enjoying our time in Buenos Aires. We even took a day trip to Uruguay yesterday. It's been an amazing experience. Tonight we rang in the New Year with some friends at a tango show. I'm telling you, these women have specialized hinges in their knees - their legs were flying all over the place. It looked absolutely amazing but certainly not natural! We've only got a couple more days here before flying home (to face the reality of snow - yuck!). I can't wait to sit down and really go through all my photos! Plus, surprisingly, I have a lot going on in January to get excited about! May all of you have successful and happy 2009s!

I Hunger For the Argentine

Okay, I dug deep for this quote - it's from the Annie soundtrack! I didn't want to go straight for Andrew Lloyd Weber - I'll need that for a later post!

Doug and I arrived safely in Buenos Aires on December 26th and have been living large since! The first few days were dedicated to the wedding that brought us here, but today was our first entirely free day. We walked around the neighborhood of San Telmo, saw the smallest house in Buenos Aires, and chatted with both our taxi drivers about Obama. Apparently he's the popular choice. Tomorrow we are taking it to another country and doing a day trip to Uruguay, which will be really cool. I'm taking tons of photos, of course, so there will be plenty to post when I get home!



The wedding we photographed took place in this church. Beautiful, huh? I won't even begin to delve into the wedding details because we'd be here all day. Suffice to say, it was unlike any wedding I've ever attended or photographed. The ceremony started at 8:30p, although you were expected to be at the church around 8p, and the reception went until 6a. If you can believe it, Doug and I were there for the whole thing - no napping and no caffeine (on my part). It's now 8:45p in Buenos Aires and things are just getting started! I hope everyone had wonderful holidays and I hope you all are excited for 2009!