I knew I would like Sipra from the start. Her first email was sweet, engaging and enthusiastic and when we met to talk over details, her personality matched right up. I didn’t get to meet Jan until half a year later, when we did the engagement shoot, and I totally love their dynamic- she’s bubbly and sweet, and he’s quiet and witty. It’s a really cute combination! We had fun wandering around Highland Park and Corbett’s Glen for the shoot… I even forgot that I was moving the next day! With only a few weeks left until the wedding, I am really pleased I got a break to post the engagement photos!

We started at Highland Park, which was a challenge since it was during the Lilac Fest- there were people everywhere. I managed to find a few angles that looked like we had the place to ourselves…

Then we headed to Corbett’s Glen, which is a cool place to shoot!

Is that spiderman crouching up there on the ceiling… I mean, I can’t blame him for wanting to join the party, we are pretty cool after all.

We also went to the other entrance to Corbett’s Glen, which is a really pretty little trail.

I love this one… his big manly hand next to her dainty face!

Pretty light..

See you guys soon!

I’m going to guess I’m not the only one who sits around thinking “I want to volunteer more!” and then never gets around to it because there’s an album that needs designing, pictures that need editing, or whatever. Luckily, sometimes opportunities to give just fall right into your lap.

I got an email on Christmas from a girl named Victoria asking if I could take some pictures for a book she was writing with help from The Dream Factory, which is a non-profit that helps chronically and terminally sick kids achieve their dreams. Victoria is a sparkly person. I knew it as soon as I met her, she’s got this breathless enthusiasm that is totally contagious. A Lyme Disease carrying tick tried to tone down her sparkle, but I’m pretty sure it just made her shine even brighter. For the past five years, she’s dealt with the devastating effects of chronic Lyme Disease including seizures, daily I.V. antibiotics, and even a coma. She’s been chronicling her journey, as well as progress on the book on her blog and she asked for my help with creating a multimedia package to send to authors to write her foreword.

When I arrived at Victoria’s dorm, she started getting out the supplies for her daily I.V. antibiotics… boxes and boxes of stuff more fitting of a pharmacy than a dorm room. We put on our masks and she got to work, accessing a port by her clavicle. I asked if it hurt, and she said the area was numb from being punctured daily. The treatment takes an hour, and she did it every single day for about one full year. I’m happy to report that she is off the I.V. now! Yay Victoria!!!

Victoria wants to use her newfound expertise to go into the medical field and help others.

Now we wait.

Fortunately, a teen and a cellphone make the time go by quickly.

Once it’s over, she has to clear the line and then bandage the area.

We had planned to do a couple of different shoots, Victoria likes to jog and take walks with her friends, however one unfortunate symptom of Lyme Disease is that it causes pain receptors to misfire, basically telling your brain that something is hurting you when nothing really is. Because of this, Victoria was in a wheelchair for a couple of months but worked with a walker to maintain her strength. I’m happy to say Victoria is now not only out of the wheelchair, but is back to running! Woo hoo!!

Victoria wanted the potential foreword-writers to get to know her a little bit, beyond all the medical stuff. We gathered a few of her friends to play some games at a coffeehouse, and got some fun shots of Victoria in her natural state (aka laughing and having fun!) Many thanks to Spot Coffee for reserving a space for us on a very busy Saturday afternoon!

Victoria, I’m so glad that you contacted me to help you with this project… I cannot wait to see the finished book! Your bravery in the face of such adversity is completely admirable and it was such a pleasure to spend the day with you and your friends!

A weekend of new experiences! My friend Rachel (who runs Essential Wellness and Nutrition) was planning her daughter’s bat mitzvah and asked me to photograph it… I thought about it a little, considering the the only thing I knew about bat/bar mitzvahs was from that one episode of the Wonder Years… but I decided to go for it, and I’m glad I did.

It was so interesting to be there for the ceremony rehearsal at Temple Beth El… I pretty much black out when I have to speak infront of people, so to watch Sophie preparing to sing lengthy passages in another language was seriously impressive. She was calm and cool and breezed right through without a hint of nerves.

The next day I met them after the ceremony while they were getting ready for the big party. The theme was Woodstock, so 60’s inspired hair and makeup was the way to go!

I took the girls to do some portraits, and I think they were kind of confused when I took a last second turn on two wheels into a post office, but I was all about the light and those fluffy reeds in the background… so nice!

Sophie’s got great style.

We did some pictures with Sophie and her sister Geffen, I love sisters

Sophie and Geffen both have serious camera skills.

Caught the last minutes of sun for this one, I love the mood.

Party time!

Again, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but everyone was ready to seriously party once the Hora rolled around!

Sophie’s friends were cheering her on during a candle lighting ceremony.

Again, sisters I love this picture so much.

Always one of my favorite things:

Congratulations Sophie!

Time to get these babies posted!

At the end of the last post, we left off after the amazing whale watching trip in Husavik. From there we had planned to see the biggest waterfall in Europe, Dettifoss, but sadly discovered that it was only accessible by plane. The destination for the day was Lake Myvatn (myvatn is the Icelandic word for “midge”… apparently at certain times in the year the clouds are so thick… well, I don’t even want to think about it. We were lucky and only saw a few.) which is an area filled with beautiful lava formations. It was kind of rainy when we got there, but we headed out to Dimmuborgir, which I think translates to “Dark Castles.” Local folklore claims it is the place where satan landed when he was cast from heaven. I had a really hard time photographing it, the formations were so amazing in person but they just weren’t translating. We hiked around for a while and climbed through this cool formation:

We drove around the lake and stopped at these beautiful pseudo-craters in an area called skútustaðir. The pseudo-craters are formed by steam explosions when hot lava hits water. We got to walk up one and this was the view…

We stopped to check out some of the beautiful lava fields and I loved this view… our guesthouse is the big white building all the way on the left.

Back at the guesthouse we stopped in their restaurant for one of the best meals of the trip, couscous with stuffed peppers, and a complimentary traditional Icelandic dessert called Skyr. It’s kind of a cross between cream cheese, sour cream and yogurt… with lots of protein, only a few calories and really tasty too! It was fabulous. My cousin retired to the room and I went out on the balcony to watch another unbelievable sunset. This was my other favorite night… this low bank of clouds rolled in along the horizon and covered the mountain like a blanket. I have never seen anything like it in my life, it was stunning.

A closer shot of the mountain…

Again I had the view all to myself, so I had to be a dork and do a self portrait.

The next morning we got started on the longest drive of the trip, but took another loop around the lake before heading out of town. A little while after heading out of Myvatn, we came upon the sulfur vents at Námafjall. The steel grey sky was perfect for the mood of this place… it was hot and so smelly and really looked like another planet.

Mud pots

This is a fumarole, the steam coming out is apparently 80 degrees celsius… steamaaaay!

We took a shortcut in the east fjords on route 939… it was really treacherous. A narrow dirt path with blind hills, blind curves and blind hills on blind curves leading up to one lane bridges. Someone else must have thought it was pretty intense… it has its own youtube video! One car kept following us and it would stop when we stopped because it didn’t want to be in the lead! I was in first gear for about an hour. Here’s a view from one of the places we pulled over.

Pulled over for a great view.

I was pretty excited about it. I REALLY LIKE ICELAND. Ha ha.

Oh Iceland, you’re so pretty.

The view was awesome… I wish I knew how high those mountains went, but the clouds hung around the whole time.

The destination this day was Vatnajökull glacier. The scenes in “Tibet” at the start of Batman Begins were actually filmed here!

The glacier lagoon Jökulsárlón is so stunning… (remember, this is still the same day as the sulfur vents! Hard to believe isn’t it?)

There were a few shy seals swimming around

Cousin Kelly and I.

We climbed the giant hill from the first picture for a different view.

The next day we went back and it was raining pretty hard so everything looked different. We went out on an amphibious boat tour and got to eat chunks of 1500 year old iceberg! I left the camera in the car.

On the way Vatnajökull National Park we stopped at this random waterfall. Climbed up a little mountain for this view (you can see a tiny guy down in the bottom.)

At the park we hiked down to the glacier, which I was determined to touch! Turns out glaciers are pretty dirty up close… (this is not a black and white picture)

But when it melts, the water still has that brilliant turquoise color that you always see in Icebergs.

And on the 7th day (ha ha), we headed to Vik… stopped at the Dverghamrar Cliffs (the Dwarf Cliffs) to look around at some basalt columns.

Their waterfalls…

…fall UP!

Reynisdrangar black basalt stacks in Vik. The water is dark because it’s a black sand beach.

Black sand is cooler than all other sand combined!

About 3 seconds after this shot, a rogue wave came up and nearly took my camera (which was balanced on a rock) and bag… we grabbed them just in time!

I had really wanted to see the basalt columns at the Giants Causeway when I was in Ireland a few years ago, but couldn’t fit it into the trip… thankfully Iceland obliged.

So cute!

That evening I went out to the beach again to chill by myself, there were a few other people out there but it was pretty empty. I saw this cool white feather sitting on the sand and kicked myself for not bringing my camera (sometimes we just need time apart!) but when I went back out the next morning it was still there!

The beach looked really different with brighter skies, too.

Then we headed back to Reykjavik, and stopped at SKOGAFOSS (say it, it’s super fun.)

I got drenched and was afraid of returning Gunnar (the car) with a butt print in the driver’s seat.

The next few days we spent walking around Reykjavik, and on my birthday we did the Golden Circle Tour, which was a lot of fun.

Thingvellir National Park, where Iceland’s parliament was founded over 900 years ago!

Gullfoss, the Golden Falls. Above the grassy rock on the left in the foreground you can see a dark rock outcropping… there are people on it! They’re very very small, can you see them?

Then we went out there… it was pretty awesome.

Then we saw some geysers… this one is Strokkur, but right next to it is the original that is named Geysir and that’s where they term geyser comes from! It’s inactive for now, but who knows when it’ll wake up!

I’ll try to figure out how to put the video on here! It was an amazing trip, I had a lot of fun with my cousin and the people couldn’t have been nicer and the sights were beyond belief.

If you can make the trip, do it. It’s fabulous.

All right, as promised, I have some of my Iceland pictures ready! I had soooo much fun on that trip, and it has got to be the most beautiful place on earth. When we landed in Reykjavik, it was pouring and cold at 6am but by the time we woke up at 3 (hey, that’s only 10am EST) it was a beautiful blue sky with puffy clouds. I love island weather.

Here’s Leif Eriksson right outside the guesthouse. Is it just me or is he kind of hot?

Sólfar, the Sun Voyager.

Reykjavik

On the second day, we picked up our car (which we named Gunnar) and started the 5-ish hour drive to “the capital of the north” Akureyri. The views along the road were spectacular. We got out at a few places to look around and touch stuff which doesn’t really look like it belongs on this planet, like this moss-covered lava. It’s really soft and spongy and I was tempted to take a nap in it.

The next day, we were heading to Husavik, the northern-most place we visited (and my favorite.) We planned some stops along the short 1 1/2 hour drive, including a famous waterfall called Godafoss. It means Waterfall of the Gods. We didn’t know it yet, but we had clearly done something to annoy the gods. We put the waterfall into our GPS and after a long drive down a series of potholes connected by little globs of dirt, we arrived at a farmhouse. There was the cutest little redheaded toddler peeking out the door at us as we got out and waved to the elderly man who was tilling the soil or something. He called for his son, who spoke English, and we asked if it was ok to walk up to the falls, and he had a slightly amused look on his face as he told us yes, but “be careful, it is… slippy.” So we started the trek up the hill and heard a woman come out the door and start giggling, at which point it really hit home that we had just driven up to someone’s house and started wandering around their back yard. It was one hell of a back yard though!

After a few moments of embarrassment-induced paralysis, we sheepishly crept back down and learned from our slippy friend that while this waterfall is actually called Godafoss, it’s not the one we were looking for. He was very sweet and understanding, and I can only hope that he thought we were intrepid explorers and not complete morons. But… probably not.

A cool stop along the way:

The real Godafoss.

One of the things I love about Iceland is that, while their tourism numbers have skyrocketed in the last decade, it’s still remote enough that you can have places to yourself and there aren’t a trillion guardrails and barriers everywhere. Hey, if you fall off, you fall off!

My cousin Kelly and I at the falls.

This is the top of the falls, I walked way far out, it was really cool!

Icelandic horses are famous for their friendly demeanor and unique gait (called tölting) and I was super excited every time we saw them. I love horses, so when we finally found a field near a road, I pulled over and hopped out of the car so I could take some pictures. Much to my delight, the horses on both sides of the fence pricked up their ears and then came running from hundreds of yards away to the fence to say hello… it was one of the coolest things ever. (Except when I saw a horse sitting on a rock. I’m not kidding, but sadly I was driving and couldn’t photograph it.)

They’re very frisky and playful, you almost never see them standing still.

And if they are, they are doing it in formation.

When we arrived in Husavik, we grabbed some dinner at a cafe and enjoyed our first Viking beers (they’re not that good, but at least they’re called Viking. Skjalfti is far superior!) Then headed back to the cottage, aka heaven. I had this all to myself except for a little fisherman… it was perfect. I sat out from around ten to midnight I think. The sun set a bit after midnight.

That’s our cottage on the right.

I watched that snowstorm on the left blow around for a while, but it never got close.

That was one of the most enjoyable evenings I’ve ever spent!

The next day we went whale watching, which my cousin kept referring to as “whaling”… yikes!

Cool!

Ok, for now I will end it at day 4… I have so many more pictures, but I’ll save them for another post! Stay tuned for sulfur vents, glaciers and black sand beaches.

Also, I’d just like to take a second to say RIP MJ. I grew up on his music and my brother, sister and I watched Moonwalker pretty much every day. He was troubled, but he was the coolest back in the day. I will always love 1970’s/80’s Michael!!!

One of my favorite musicians, Neko Case, has teamed up with the charity Best Friends Animal Society… for every blog that reposts this link, her label will donate $5 to help find homes for animals.

Download her new single, “People Got A Lotta Nerve” free here!
Anti Records

I think they also donate a dollar for downloads, but honestly the directions are really confusing so I’m not sure. Ha ha!