“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” ~ Mark Twain
Bikes + Bars
For those of you that may not know, my brother Derek is really awesome. He is an avid bike rider and recently took his bicycle all the way to Cali last year. Since returning to Indy from his life changing trip, he started up a bi-weekly bicycle ride for those in Indianapolis (check out the link, it’s on facebook) looking for biking camaraderie and a chance to network, have fun, and support local establishments (usually 21+ ha!). Anyway, had just wrapped up a photo session last weekend and stopped in on their party for a few and snapped these photos at the Iron Worker’s Corner Bar with the Famous Bill White.
Cole + Stephanie: They be gettin’ hitched real soon
This is Cole and Stephanie – they are getting married soon! Last weekend we got to make our way around Fountain Square where they live to capture some engagement photos and I got to hear a bit about their wedding plans (their honeymoon destination is so awesome!)! I’m looking forward to their wedding in June!
There is no place like India.
First of all, I’d like to point out that it’s 5.12pm on Tuesday and I’m still in my pajamas.
Secondly, I would like to congratulate myself for nearly knocking everything off of my to do list today except giving all of my money to the US government in the name of ‘taxes,’ which, whatever, who doesn’t procrastinate on that anyway? I even got to fit in a documentary screening about Black Hawk Down and doctors in east Africa after the Rwandan genocide (seriously WHAT is wrong with me?)
This is supposed to be a blog post about India and a photo show coming up here soon. Below are some photos of India and let me just tell you in case you’re wondering this: there isn’t anywhere like India. I call it the land of extremes. I could go on literally for DAYS about all of the amazing and near death experiences I’ve had there, but you should just come to the Harrison Center on May 4th so I can share the stories with you personally. Plus, I’m a lot better at story-telling in person than in writing. Remind me to tell you about the time me and Natalie spent an hour and a half looking for our hotel and ended up following some guy on a motorcycle named “Lucky” into a dark, rat infested, trash flanked alley and slept on a roof. Anyway, here are some of my photos from my recent trip to India from last fall. I hate that I had to put the watermark on them, but image thievery is apparently a thing nowadays. Enjoy and mark your calendar for May 4th.
Why it’s good to be friends with your neighbors.
Sometimes things get so crazy that I forget to stop and take photos of everyday life and all the great things that happen between photo sessions. With all the sunshine, there has been a substantial amount of hanging out going down – especially on my street. These dudes live next door to me. They are the bee’s knees. They make bad days into good days. They play records and porch sit and generally increase the overall quality of life.
This is Jake. Alan calls him “The Real McCoy,” but I usually call him “Jake the snake.” He has a knack for fixing literally anything imaginable, always has a stash of beer, and has impeccable manners.
That’s Ben. He has some awesome stories about traveling through Iceland and all of Europe on a shoestring. He rides his bike everywhere. And often sports stocking caps.
Ninjas in bow ties
In addition to dealing with the evil/sad process of preparing for taxes these days, I’ve decided that to keep things happy and balanced by ORGANIZING my files – oddly enough I LOVE organizing things – which makes no sense because apparently artists aren’t supposed to be organized or LIKE organizing things. Anyway, going through all of my hard drives and archives seriously one of the most entertaining activities I can imagine, because I get to see a lot of the stuff that I had totally forgotten about. Stuff like this, and I just had to post it. These guys were so much fun to work with as you can imagine.
Lexi’s Senior Portraits
You mean to tell me that my job requires hanging out in perfect weather with beautiful people in beautiful places taking beautiful photos? Really though, I’ll be the first to say that spread-sheets aren’t my favorite part of running a photography business, but it’s sessions like this that trump all the late nights and paperwork and logging my mileage (REALLY THOUGH, how does anyone keep track of all that?).
Anyway, I’d like to introduce you to Lexi. She is a senior at Herron High School and an absolute gem. She is a gal after my own heart – planning to volunteer in Costa Rica this Fall before she starts college. Wonder if I would fit in her suitcase?
Every once in a while
I was in Swaziland a few weeks ago with The Thirst Project documenting their impact on building wells in various regions of the country. As a photographer, I typically don’t focus on landscape. My favorite thing to photograph in the world is faces. Any and every face. I love it. But now and again, I come across a landscape that’s so breathtaking that I have to try to capture it. I took this on one of the random times we decided to pull over on the side of the road because the sunset was sooo beautiful that we had to get out and stop to watch it. Man, I miss that place.
I watched 5 movies on the plane.
Yeah. So I took off for Africa a few weeks back (in fact, I’m still here!). The flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg is 16 hours and I love it because I can catch up on movie watching. I absolutely love watching movies but don’t really do it at home because I don’t have much time to, don’t have netflix, a TV, or a life conducive to sitting and watching a picture box – so me and international flights get along quite well. The only problem is that I lose track of time on planes and while traveling. I have this thing that happens to me, especially in Africa, where I forget what day it is, and sometimes what month is it. Thank God for iCal. Anyway.
I had the honor of returning to Swaziland with the Thirst Project to document some of the progress they are making in their audacious effort to provide the entire country with access to clean water. It was pretty amazing to see communities literally turned inside out because the Thirst Project put in a well. One gal said to me… “Life is happy happy happy now. I have what I need. I have water.”
We also got to visit a community called Malendza. It’s one of my all time fav places in Swaziland. I have all sorts of friends there, particularly this extremely elderly lady named Koko. She tried to teach me to cut down a tree with a machete and then told me that I was not a good African because I couldn’t manage. When we pulled up to the village she came out and gave me a big hug – she remembered me from more than a year ago and asked me why it had taken me so long to get back into town… I was overwhelmed with joy.
Here are a few photos from our time in Swaziland.
This is Koko. The glasses were my idea – the sass was totally her idea. This photo was from last year!
Meet Pogas. He is a 5 year old pre-schooler in a village called Debeli. His village received a well and it was so amazing to celebrate with everyone. His village is where the chicken incident happened (aka, I was peer pressured into cutting off a chicken’s head – and we all ate it directly afterward while I had severe emotional trauma).
That’s us in Sibu’s village. Anyone got like $50k they’d like to donate to Sibu’s village? He is our Swazi bro for life and we really would love to get water to his village.
My this lady could dance
Back in Malendza to check on how things were going.
It was a really short, but amazing trip. If you want to find out more about how you can get involved in the global water crisis, go to www.thirstproject.org.
Chelsea + Jay: Married
A BIG. FAT. CONGRATS goes out to Chelsea and Jay – you two are so PERFECT for each other! Secondly, anyone with a Nintendo cake deserves an extra special shout out – Jay YOU really are the man – and are you secretly a Viking? Your ability to withstand the subzero temperatures in the name of photography has caused us to believe that you actually are a Viking.
ANYWAY. Back to the subject at hand. Chelsea and Jay and their fabulous day: Since Chelsea was a little girl, she envisioned a cozy winter wedding. As luck would have it, the most beautiful blanket of snow-covered the city for their wedding day – making it what she had always envisioned. When we all walked into the reception hall together, she said “This is exactly what I’ve always imagined!”. It was perfect. Her dress was perfect. Her hair and make up was perfect. She even got ballroom dancing shoes – so she could wear heels and dance without having to switch out to flats! (She really thought of everything!).
Unfortunately I DO NOT have crying immunity when it comes to weddings – when Chelsea and Jay decided to have all of their guests interact during the ceremony by lighting candles and passing the flame to the front for the unity candle, I may have had a tear… or two. It was beautiful. THEN, they had a reading excerpt from “The Velveteen Rabbit.” It was absolutely magical. It was a gorgeous wedding that detailed the couple in the most fabulous way. Here are a few images from the day.
