Dead on the Creek 2014 // Sunday

jungle gym.jpg

Sunday feels a bit nostalgic, or maybe it only felt that way for me because it was our last day. For everyone else the festival is half way over, but even after two days, we have become a family. Pretty soon we’ll have to pack up camp and say goodbye.

The music on Sunday was fantastic. The Carper Family ladies are pure talent. Their music makes you want to dance, and I was serenaded on my walk down the dusty road to the garden, where I found Christa harvesting a box of veggies to send home with us. There is something that is pure magic about a woman in her garden, it is one of the most beautiful things. 

Most of all, I feel blessed by the relationships and sense of community that comes from spending three days in the company of such quality individuals. The generosity astounds.  

The festival continues through Monday night, and by Tuesday noon, there is hardly a trace. People return to their lives grateful for the chance to get away, for the days under the trees and the nights under the stars. For the music and the food and the people. 

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For more photos and to purchase prints from Sunday, click here

In case you missed it, Friday and Saturday.

To learn more about the festival, check out their website

Dead on the Creek 2014 // Saturday

Saturday morning. I wake up early to catch the kitchen crew in the garden, I know they'll be harvesting for that night’s meal. And then I stay because only half the garden in bathed in morning light, mainly the sunflowers, they’re the tallest. The bees are making their rounds and I can hear the campers beginning to stir, hungry for breakfast. Music plays all day. The band that afternoon—Front Country—is terrific. 

I am drawn to the children on Saturday. They are happy and relaxed and so beautiful. Excitement is building for the parade that evening, when the giant Jerry Garcia puppet will emerge and everyone will throw flowers because “that’s what love will make you do.” We rock out to Melvin Seals & JGB and again, everyone is smiling.

The meal that night is unbelievable. Coconut curry with fire roasted veggies served with red lentil dahl, basmati rice, rice noodle, cabbage, and tofu salad, and red onion, peach, and raisin chutney. A killer yogurt-cucumber and heirloom carrot raitta. And Mendocino coast salmon, Potter Valley pork, String Creek Lamb, and Magruder beef. 

As if that’s not enough, when everyone’s done rocking out to Halden Wofford & The Hi-Beams, and we’ve eaten our fill of popcorn and cookies, and the BBQ is cooking wood to warm our bones, pizzas start flying out of the wood oven and the musicians get their instruments and play around the pizza oven until the early hours of Sunday. And everything is beautiful. 

For more photos and to purchase prints from Saturday, click here

(If you missed Friday, click here.)

Dead on the Creek 2014 // Friday

colin
fairy
Stu Allen and Mars Hotel

Friday is about preparations. Greeting friends you haven't seen in too long. Washing dishes, picking apples, making salsa. Pulling up the parachute for the first time, a man or woman posted on each tree. Lucy Goosey (the pup) learning to pace herself. She isn't as young as she was last year, none of us are. The excitement builds, everyone is smiling. Dinner prep started right after breakfast and once the first band starts to play the weekend gets its soundtrack. By evening most people have settled in, and the appreciation we feel for our surroundings makes everything better: the food tastes amazing, the musicians are pure talent, and the locale could not be more serene. And just when the second band has found its groove, and the stars are bright overhead, it's popcorn time. 

For more photos and to purchase prints from Friday, click here.

Learn more about the Dead on the Creek festival here.

First Fridays // Temescal Alley // Oakland

A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending a new friend's art show which was being hosted at Walrus in Temescal Alley. The little store itself was really well curated with many covetable upcycled home decor items. My favorite of which were lamps made from recycled glass bottles. But mostly I was impressed with Jennie's art! Jennie Lennick is a "San Francisco-based artist who reinterprets traditionally domestic and feminine imagery into drawings, sculpture, animations, and functional items that investigate the relationship between high art and kitsch." For her collection Reheat on High, she created a series of hand-embroidered vintage meals. They are adorable.

reheat on high Jennie Lennick

All the shops were open late so Nicole and I did some shopping. 

homestead apothecary

Homestead Apothecary has more herbs and remedies than I knew existed. And everything is beautiful. Nicole found a really nice lunar calendar for $12. 

homestead apothecary temescal alley

Another favorite shop is Crimson, which carries a great selection of plant varieties and pretty pottery (which is surprisingly hard to find! If you know of any places I can find good pottery, let me know. I feel like our options are very limited in the Bay Area).

Crimson

For dinner we enjoyed carnitas nachos (street style) from Doña Tomás, which were absolutely delicious. 

dona tomas carnitas nachos

Altogether a really lovely evening. I can't believe it's my third August living in Oakland and that was my first time going to First Fridays. If you live here, check it out, even if just for the people watching, window shopping, and free beer! But definitely stay for the food. 

Short and Sweet // Grass Valley, CA

At the end of July we drove out to Grass Valley for a short weekend with friends. I had a photo shoot up there on a Friday and Jeffery took the train and met me that evening. On Saturday we hiked Gracie Ditch in Nevada City. It was nice and shady, had a creek for the pooch, and opened up to some pretty spectacular views. 

hiking Gracie Ditch, Nevada City
hiking Gracie Ditch

After our hike we cooled off in a doughboy pool, horsing around with floaties, and I laughed harder than I have in ages. It was so much fun, and so refreshing. We had BBQ tacos for dinner and it was so good. Once again this little peach stole the show. In these pictures she is 3 months old, growing up so fast and already such a beauty. We love her to pieces. And I quite clearly have a problem: I can't keep my camera off of her for more than a minute. It's those eyes!

baby ava
smiling baby

The cuteness. I just can't. 

happy baby

Auntie love, grandma and cousin love. What a lucky little lady. 

grandma and cousins

She sure lights up when she sees her papa!

daddy daughter

We had a good laugh over that milk belly...and that face. 

milk belly
edible
baby loving
sunset and sleep

Every trip out there restores something in us. It is so good to slow down, be with people we love, and get outside and enjoy nature. And being around puppies and babies doesn't hurt either.

P.S. Our last visit up there was pretty great too. 

Chelsie and Chris // Marin Headlands Engagement // Part Two

Chelsie and Chris // Marin Headlands Engagement // Part Two

These two at Rodeo Beach. First we broke the rules and climbed up the cliff face. I had never been there before, but the California coast does not disappoint. What you can't tell from the photos is how cold and windy it was. Chelsie was a champ, laughing off the cold. And then she took her shoes off! I don't know if I've ever felt more envigorated during a photo shoot.

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Chelsie and Chris // Marin Headlands Engagement // Part One

Chelsie and Chris // Marin Headlands Engagement // Part One

When Chelsie reached out and asked me to be her and Chris' wedding photographer I was elated. I cannot imagine having a more incredible couple (or a more stunning bride!) to photograph than these two. I mean look at them! They are so excited about their love for one another and are amped to spend their lives together. They radiate happiness and it's contagious.

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A Birthday on the Russian River

We celebrated the birthday of a dear friend at the Russian River a couple weekends ago. I didn't pick up my camera until it started to drizzle, and I wish I had gotten it out earlier. We headed to a brew pub nearby and were able to sit outside at picnic tables under the protection of leafy green trees. We played dice and enjoyed some fried food and beers, because our picnic of bread, cheese, olives, grapes, salami, potato salad, cupcakes, chips, and salsa obviously wasn't enough. 

My pace of life has slowed down, and after a very busy May and June I am grateful for the breathing room. I find myself mistaking contentment for boredom and I have to remind myself that it's temporary. The last couple years have felt very charged. There have been a lot of high highs and invested emotions, sometimes leading to disappointment. I've stumbled upon an anxiety-free period of peace and I don't want to take it for granted. 

4th of July // In the Garden // Willits, CA

Our 4th of July weekend was enjoyed up in Willits with good food, great friends and lovely surroundings. I was lucky enough to photograph a friend's expansive garden in the evening, morning and afternoon light, and that was pretty much the best.

In the morning, I grabbed my camera and headed out to the garden in my pjs when everyone else was still asleep. The bees were making their rounds to the poppies, which had opened overnight. I watched their wrinkly new petals change in the light as the sun made its way through the trees. Poppies may be my favorite flower to photograph. I love them from every direction, in any light, in focus or as a speck in the background. 

That the afternoon I returned with Christa to water. She proved to be a lovely subject. As were the chamomile and the sunflowers.

I'm appreciative of good friends who cook up delicious breakfast feasts, make ice cream sandwiches with cookies warm from the oven, play multiple games of ping pong and Settlers of Catan, and share their bounty.

I'm anxious to have our own garden, where I can watch the bees dance from flower to flower and study the light on petals and greens. 

P.S. Last 4th of July in Santa Cruz and the one before that (also in Santa Cruz).