picturing summer

I saw lightning bugs outside my window yesterday evening, which means it’s truly summer now!  So I thought I’d share a shoot I did with Heather and my friend Gabi.  Gabi was here in Tallahassee taking a mini-break from her summer-job-hunt back in Orlando, so we thought we’d take an afternoon at Dorothy Oven Park for what summer is really intended for–relaxing!  Here’s what we like about summer:

1)  Fern.  Or as Heather put it, “Oooooh, fern!”

When Heather and I were kids we used to take hikes with our family over at Devil’s Hopyard in CT.  In some places the light came softly through the forest and the fern surrounding the trail would wave in the light breeze.  It would look so soft and plush.  But when I herded Heather and Gabi over to sit in this lovely patch of fern at Dorothy Oven, we soon found out… it’s not. (:

2)  Going barefoot.  Especially on moss.  Side note–can I just mention that Gabi (on the left) has Maurice Sendak feet (like his illustrations in Dear Mili), which is super cool.

3)  Sitting and telling stories.  In my family, extra hours of daylight means sitting around longer after dinner and regaling each other with funny memories or simply catching up with each other’s lives.  Gabi just got back from a semester in London–something Heather and I did two years ago.  We loved sharing stories and finally having someone who knew all the places we were talking about!  Plus Gabi told us a great story about morphing through street lamps.  (;

4)  Cooling off at the creek (lake/river/ocean/anything but the neighborhood pool).  Cause really, you should be able to have fun without some whistle telling you it’s “adult swim” or whatever.  Heather was dying to get her shoes off and sit by the little manmade creek they have at Dorothy Oven.  (Shhh! I’m pretty sure we weren’t supposed to be sticking our feet in the landscaping!)

5)  Flowers!  You’d think they’re a Spring thing, wouldn’t you?  But when I was little, my Dad would spend all day outside working on the garden in the summer, and we’d have a huge haven of perennials and butterflies and hummingbirds (and japanese beetles, unfortunately).  He got off the gardening kick for a while when I was in high school, but now he and Mom own their own house for the first time since they first got married, and they’re doing some fierce gardening!  So, yes, flowers are for summer (:  I shot Gabi and Heather in front of these beautiful impatiens to create lovely pink bokeh.

You can check out more photos from our trip to Dorothy Oven Park over at Flickr!

picturing the wild thing

I took some friends out to 319 South around the Green Point area.  The road runs along the beach and several of the beaches are covered in tree stumps and driftwood.  It’s crazy beautiful and looks like a strange make-believe land.

We were on the tiniest strip of a beach, but we could really imagine that we were off on some deserted island!  Check out these behind-the-scenes shots:

Check out more from the Green Point shoot here.

current inspiration: wild things

I am so in love with the trailer for the Where the Wild Things Are movie that is coming out this October (so far away!!!)  The light and the scenery are so magical and I love how Spike Jonze brings imagination to life.  This was one of my favorite children's books, and I think the film is going to be fabulous.

i heart: how the devil are you?

I went shopping for Thank You cards to mail out after graduation and saw the most fabulous cards ever.  They're Kate Spade, and naturally they were $25 and not Thank You cards, so I forced myself to not buy five sets right then and there.  One set says, "How the devil are you?" and the other set says, "See you later, alligator."
 

current inspiration: breakfast… at tiffany’s?

Today I had another 2 pm breakfast to photograph and post on Flickr.  This time I had pie & ice cream.  Yum!

—

I don’t think I’ve ever eaten pie for breakfast before.  After breakfast on several occasions.  But never for before.

What are some things that you’ve never done before?  Try doing one today!

picturing life in color: exploring railroad square art park

Railroad Square Art Park is probably one of the coolest collection of buildings in Tallahassee–even though they’re all old warehouses!  The crazy colors and textures of the warehouse walls are just as fun and wild as the people and shops that they house.  I’d only ever been to Railroad Square on a First Friday (and if you’ve ever been as well, you know how many people turn out!), but I wanted to take a friend there on a quiet evening to photograph.  It’s funny how different a place can be when it’s empty!  There were a few people out walking, but even if there had been no one there, we wouldn’t have alone because there is so much character in the walls.

An always sunny window made Heather want to jump for joy…

Don’t you just love the color??

I had Heather put on her oh-so-cool aviators for this grunge wall:

It’s so much fun going on shoots with more than one person because there’s more teasing and laughing with whoever the camera is pointed at, and I get silly grills like Laura’s:

And giggles (I called it a guffaw and was asked if I was 80) like Heather’s:

Heather and Laura and I are all huge Top Gear fans (and anglophiles in general).  If you’ve never seen the show, it’s a car show on BBC.  The best way to describe it would probably be Tool Time, for cars, hosted by Brits.  And while we mostly watch it for the great laughs, we’ve all sort of become car obsessed along the way.  So we were quite delighted to find a garage of old Porsches at Railroad Square!  This snazzy red one is “Laura’s.”

We probably shouldn’t have been sitting on the cars… but if it’s “yours,” what’s a girl to do?  We found some alternate transportation as well, a la Syd Barrett.

Check out more from Railroad Square here.

picturing love: rainy valentine’s day fun!

This Valentine’s Day, I found a different way to spread the love!  I dance with the Cosa Meara Company of Irish Dance at Florida State University, and we performed for the troopers participating in Dance Marathon at FSU, which benefits the Childrens Miracle Network at Shands Hospital in Gainesville.  More than 830 students participated, standing on their feet for 32 hours to raise money for the cause.  The Irish dancers kept participants pumped up and energetic by dancing an elegant traditional ceili and pounding out a rhythmic hardshoe number.  Afterwards, we braved the rain to take a few pictures!

That evening, Heather and I got dressed up for a Valentine’s Day party!  I dragged Heather into my 365 self portrait:

To view more of my personal 365 Days of Self Portraits project, check out my set on Flickr.

picturing spring: maclay gardens

I took Kjersten and Heather out to Maclay Gardens a few weeks ago.  Kjersten had never been before, so we took our time wandering through the gardens.  It was still a little early for much to be in bloom, and the air was a bit chilly, so very few people were out walking.  We lounged by the reflecting pond, spied some rowers on the lake, and climbed some trees.  Fun!