Foto Friday: Guadalupe River Reflections
I leave you this Friday with a picture of the Guadalupe River in Texas Hill Country taken a couple of summers ago. It was the backdrop for a wedding I shot with Christine. TGIF y’all!! Have a great weekend!
Train Ride, Photo Sessions & Fish Stew
Another weekend has come and gone, another recap…
Good Friday – Kenny had the day off and I took the afternoon off so we could spend the day together. After a doctor’s appointment for myself, we headed to Hermann Park for a train ride, stopped at the lake to dip our feet (it was a warm day), had some push-pops and walk around a bit (see a couple of pics at the end of the post).
We then headed to the Museum of Fine Arts to see the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces exhibit. The paintings are on loan from the National Gallery of Art (Houston is the only museum that will have them while they renovate the National Gallery). We saw pieces from Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, Manet, Monet, van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec and more!
I also loved seeing this much smaller photography exhibit by turn of the century Austrian photographer Heinrich-Kuhn. Wow. So inspirational!
Saturday – I had two sessions that day – a 2 week old newborn and a family session with one of my favorite clients (I photographed one sister’s wedding and the other sister’s holiday family portraits – this was for all three siblings & their families). The family session was funnily enough back in Hermann Park where I was Friday!
Saturday night – Kenny I had an inpromptu date night & had dinner at Reef then stayed to have some drinks next door at 3rd Bar.
Easter Sunday – Had my Mom over for a late lunch/early dinner. She cooked us her fish stew and we cooked beef tenderloins with potatoes au gratin. A relaxing day at home…
Riding the Train in Hermann Park
Ducks in the Japanese Gardens, Hermann Park
More allergies, a wedding & painted churches
Eep – it’s almost time for yet another weekend (4-day weekend for me & Kenny, yay!) but I still want to give you a brief update on last weekend…
Friday: Nothing exciting to report. 🙂
Saturday: Obedience class for Rosie (she did OK), quick stop at Camera Co/op to buy a new camera bag then yummy lunch from El Rey! Then snagged some rest on the couch before gearing up for the evening.
Saturday night: Headed down to Kemah to shoot a 170 guest wedding all by myself at a restaurant at a marina. Largest traditional wedding I have shot on my own so I had to calm my nerves a little. I think I did well and was happy with my photos. Bride and groom were a delight to work with and we all had a lot of fun! Weather could not have been more perfect!
Sunday: With not enough sleep, my friends Gini & Christine picked me up at 9 AM for our photo road trip. We were going to try to find some bluebonnets (failed at that, the lack of rain affected the wildflower season badly) and some “Painted Churches” near Schulenberg, Texas. We visited 6 churches and had an overall great day driving around and laughing at each other. We took tons of great pics and thoroughly enjoyed the picture perfect weather.
I am still editing the photos but I’ve uploaded more than half of them to Flickr. the rest will be going up by this weekend I hope. Below is the slideshow as well as couple of my favorites so far:
Paradise Found: Caye Caulker, Belize
I am already thinking of our summer vacation – 2 months away!! Ack!
It will be my 3rd, Kenny’s 2nd and our friends’ 1st trip to this little tropical paradise called Caye Caulker.
From Wikipedia:
Caye Caulker is a small limestone coral island off the coast of Belize in the Caribbean Sea measuring about 5 miles (north to south) by less than 1 mile (east to west). The town on the island is known by the name Caye Caulker Village. Caye Caulker is located approximately 20 miles (32 km) north-northeast of Belize City, and is accessible by high-speed water taxi or small plane. In recent years the island has become a popular destination for backpackers and other tourists. There are over 30 tiny hotels, and a number of restaurants and shops.
You’ll have to go by air, land and sea to get there – 2 1/2 hours flight time from Houston then either 30 minutes in a taxi from Belize City to the water terminal + 45 minutes in a water taxi to the island OR a short 15 minutes in a small island hopper plane.
As you can see from the description above, it is not the fanciest place – you won’t find all-inclusive resorts or even hotels that rate any stars, yacht clubs, crazy dance club scene or even beaches to lay out on – but you will find comfortable lodgings, hammocks swinging under palm trees, friendly, smiling genuine people, amazing snorkeling and diving, good simple affordable food, great seafood and yummy rum. You will truly be forced to simply relax and enjoy the island breezes (although free WiFi is found across the entire tiny island so if you can upload your photos to Flickr and make them jealous). Expected attire is sunglasses, a bathing suit, a sundress or sarong over the bathing suit or t-shirt for guys and bare feet (flip flops if you feel compelled to wear shoes). You wear anything else and you are overdressed – trust me. It’s hot during the day but not stifling and the summer nights bring cool strong winds from summer storms brewing further out.
I visited the island first with Christine in 2009 when we shot a destination wedding on the island (photography can provide some neat travel benefits). I then took Kenny last year because I knew he’d fall in love with the rum and relaxed atmosphere. He did and we are going back again this July to celebrate his 40th with some friends.
Here are some highlights from past trips…
Sea Turtle
Rays
Nurse Sharks
Sunset sail around the island
Turquoise Waters
Tranquility
And a slideshow from 2009 & 2010:
Shopping, work, birthday & allergies
Friday: No plans so spent the evening running shopping errands with Kenny.
Saturday: We had Rosie’s obedience class then I ran out to West Houston for the grand opening of Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus. My company is providing the foods services there so I helped out at the tent we had set-up at the festivities.
Saturday night: Headed out to Christine’s studio to help Mike celebrate his birthday. We had a great time catching up with friends over some home-brewed beer by Jen.
Sunday: I left the studio the night before sneezing and my allergies started acting up. I thought it was short-term reaction to something in the studio but it unfortunately stayed with me and knocked me out for the whole day Sunday. Complete congestion, headache, scratchy throat. I canceled plans for the day and just napped and lounged around, going through a lot of tissues.
The allergies have continued and yesterday they were bad enough for me to go home in the afternoon. I just couldn’t make it through the work day. I am doing better today but still congested with a sexy, raspy voice and a slight cough as my body tries to knock this crap out of me. Ugh. Pass the tissues please…
Review: The Dogs of Babel
The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a super quick read (took me a week) after taking forever on my last book. A unique take on a tragic love story with a sub-plot diversion. Very well written, very introspective. Narrator and main character Paul was very well developed, so well that I could imagine him as a real person. I think I appreciated that he was flawed but not so flawed that he became a caricature. He stayed very believable and very accessible. A recommended read during a trip or your summer vacation.
Home Tour, Galas & Weeding
Hello readers. I am suffering badly from allergies today so please excuse me as I sniffle and sneeze through this entry (*achoo*). Spring is such a mixed blessing… pretty flowers, good weather coupled with miserable, miserable allergies. *achoo* *sniff*
(my friend Melissa posted this on twitter yesterday and it summed up my feelings perfectly)
But fortunately for me, the allergy flare up did not happen until Monday so my weekend wasn’t too bad…
Friday: I took the day off from work and attended my friend’s funeral. It was difficult but warming to see how loved he was. I was not surprised to see the service was full and people were standing in the back because the pews were filled.
Friday night: The Houston Heights Association Spring Home Tour was kicked off with a preview opening of the six homes and their fund raising gala. This is our third year shooting the event and even though Christine could not make it this year, she sent her lovely husband Mike to shoot alongside me. The six houses were gorgeous as always and there was a nice variety in style this year, from a 1-story restored bungalow to 3-story contemporary home!
Saturday: Rosie entered her 4th week in training and learned the command “down” (lay down on her tummy). Afterward had lunch with friends by their pool – it was needed R&R (even if it was brief).
Saturday night: Yet another gala to photograph but this time it was DiverseWorks fundraiser with the theme “Retail Therapy”. I couldn’t resist and had to bid on my friend Katie’s gorgeous hand-knit shawl – and I won!!
Sunday: Took the opportunity to sleep in (bliss!) and lounge around a bit before finally deciding to be productive and weed the front yard (coincidentally the same day we got a polite email from the HOA to weed our front yard, LOL). We also added some fresh mulch in the beds as well and things look a little better now, hopefully nice enough to stave off the HOA!
And that was my weekend re-cap… toodles!
Foto Friday #2: Eiffel Tower
It had always been a dream of mine to spend Christmas in Paris and one year when I suggested it to Kenny he responded with “Why don’t we do it this year?”. So in December of 2004 we flew over and spent the holidays in that beautiful city!
It was not my first time in Paris but it still always enchants me each time I go! Despite having been on various occasions, I had always been too cheap (or poor as a student) to actually go up the Eiffel Tower so I was determined to go this time.
It was so cloudy I could hardly see anything once we got up there and it was so cold and windy we struggled to stay up there too long but despite all that, it was still a memorable experience.
The shot below is one of my favorites from that trip. It was taken with a very simple digital point & shoot camera, hand held with the flash off (no fancy DSLR here). I just love how lucky I was that the beams of light were perfectly horizontal when the picture snapped and the clouds were lit up with the tower’s lights.
As a bonus, I’ll post a slideshow of the trip below:
R.I.P. Louis Alten
Last week a friend of ours passed away after a tragic skiing accident. Louis had grown up skiing and was experienced, it was simply a freak accident with no explanation. No blame to be had by anyone.
It has made me more contemplative than usual though. He was only 39, 6 months younger than my husband. He was talented engineer, spoke 4 languages, loved life, always had a genuine smile on his face, was an extremely devoted family man, husband and father to three beautiful children. I could go on and on but I think this memorial page from his loved ones sums it up better.
Now, we weren’t the closest friend Louis had – we saw each other a few times a year – last we saw him was at our holiday party in December – but when we did, he was so warm and easy to talk to. Kenny met him when he interviewed for his first job after college and I met him at that same company just a week or two after meeting Kenny back in 1997. We knew Louis as the thoughtful bachelor who got the girls with his charm but then we also saw him transform into something even better as he fell in love, get married and become an amazing father and husband.
When I first heard about the accident the connection was fuzzy so we just heard “accident”. When it was clarified that it was a skiing accident it did not lessen the grief but it did make me feel a little better. I know, it sounds so cliche but it gave me comfort to know it was not a car accident but that he died doing something he loved.
To add to the story, our other dear friend was with him and frantically tried to save him, providing CPR and such but Louis never came back. His injuries were too massive. John did everything he could and we are supporting him as well.
I know you don’t know either of these people but if you are so inclined, please keep both Louis’ family in your thoughts as they grieve the loss of their husband, father, son, brother. Also, keep John in your thoughts as he struggles with the emotions from that tragic day.
Review: Looking for Jake: Stories
Looking for Jake: Stories by China Miéville
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I came into this book not really knowing Mieville’s style. These stories were all dark and several had a post-apocalyptic feel. Not necessarily a feel-good series of short-stories but not all books should be. Since the subject was not light and airy I will admit it took me longer to get through this book than others.
Mieville is a very good writer but his sentences are complicated (had to re-read phrases several times to get the imagery) and he uses SAT-worthy words (thank goodness my Kindle has a built-in dictionary). Again, not a bad thing but sometimes it got a bit heavy, especially since all but one story were like this.
Some of my favorite stories are Looking for Jake, The Ball Room, Reports of Certain Events in London, ‘Tis the Season (the lightest one & only humorous one), Go Between and Jack (one of the darkest stories but well written).
There was also an illustrated story – On the Way to the Front – which I struggled to understand and the longest and last story called The Tain that frustratingly was not as developed in my opinion as it should have been despite the story being dragged on.
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