It's the simple things in life that make me happy ...

Castle ... it's a tv show that i'm loving right now ...

Running & all the cliche's that go with ...

Warm winter hats so my ears stay warm during the cold German winters (especially those by TwoSeaSideBabes & TheYarnChick) ...

Spending the day with favourite people ...

Turning 29 & knowing that as i grow older life just keeps getting better!

happy birthday to me ...!

On Friday, the day after Thanksgiving i travelled down to Rothenburg on Der Tauber, a German city south of where we live, & a part of the "Romantic Road". It's a gorgeous, medieval walled city that apart from being incredible pretty has a wonderful Christmas market! It was my birthday & we headed down there with a group of friends for the day, the weather was on our side & of course i took a few photos, making use of my new Nikkor 50mm 1.4f lens (thank you to my wonderful husband).

Shayla ...

My first children's shoot ... could she be any more gorgeous?!

My first children's shoot ... could she be any more gorgeous?!

photos from tenerife ... (part two)

California ...

You ever go somewhere & know that's the place you call home. I don't mean in the sense of a certain house being your home but this place is where you feel you belong. It's like it's part of you & you feel like without it there's somewhere missing. That place for me is California & right now i'm getting some serious home sickness!

In the midst of reading Ansel Adams Autobiography, i'm listing to him describe California in a way that i'd imagine only he could, in such sharp detail you feel as if you are part of one of his photographs. He talks about places i've seen, driven past & experienced myself but now i have to return to in the hopes of seeing the things he saw. I follow blogs such as those belonging to the Ansel Adams Gallery & Sierra Impressions Photography that remind me of the places i've been & grown to love.

The Sierra Nevadas are nothing like little old England where i grew up, vast & empty in places, they seem sharp, harsh & unforgiving compared to the green grass & rolling hills you see in England. But they seem to take over, there's no escaping them & their beauty, & the more i see the more i want to explore new areas. & not just the mountain surrounding my husbands hometown of Bodfish (it has a stop light & a Mcdonalds) but north & south to the coast & the cities. I have yet to discover a part of California i haven't felt as if i've belonged (although i'm not going to lie ... LA might challenge this). I never felt this way in the city i grew up, i was never able to be the person i really was but California lets me be me, it doesn't try & turn me into someone else.

& one day i hope to call California my official home, the place i will spend the rest of my days, hopefully earning my living selling my photographs in a little shop attached to a small gallery in a mountain town somewhere. Where people will buy my books, & notecards & prints & hang them on their walls for the world to see.

photos from tenerife ... (part one)

So here are some photos from my recent trip to Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands & belonging to Spain ... i went with "the girls", had a wonderful time & took way too many photographs. So anyways here are the first batch ... Enjoy!!

it's the simple things in life that make me happy ...

It's the simple things in life that make me happy this monday morning ...

Philosopy " Amazing Grace" Shampoo & Conditioner ...

Ansel Adams: An Autobiography ...

The Dreamy Diana Lens & adapter for a Nikon DSLR from Photojojo ...

Gorgeous portraits by Kat Forsyth ...

my kitties ...

Midol!!

i'm back ...

So i feel like i have been completely neglecting my blog ... so much has been going on, & sometimes i find it hard to sit down & write something especially when it doesn't include my own photographs. It's amazing where time goes. Working nights has been messing up my schedule, not to mention a very "slow" arts fair ( can someone say publicity) & then how could i forget Tenerife. So here's a brand spanking new image, taken in tenerife (i have many many more that i need to go through) & some words from the book I'm currently reading ( more about that later as well) that blew my mind!

"Out of the vast process of evolution through need,

out of the cycle of passing forms,

arises eternal, elemental beauty.

Intense beauty is liberation." - Cedric Wright