artists || the cake baker

  Have you ever baked a cake before?  I mean really baked a cake... no boxes, no tubes, no mixes.  Its a real feat.  When you're done, someone should hand you an award. (I guess the reward, is the cake, am I right?) This is where I confess to you that I am not a baker.  I like to cook.  I like to sprinkle here and there and substitute this for that.  I believe a wise Mother (my Mother, in fact) once said that baking is a science.  This couldn't be more true, and who am I to argue with my Mother?  Depending on the cake you decide to, shall I say, conquer...  one extra fold can ruin the whole batter and there you are, up shit creek with two sugary deflated layers.

So what does all of this have to do with photography?  Well, I wanted to eat cake and why not photograph the process.  My good friend Riley and I found this recipe, and started out on a half-day journey of picking up necessary ingredients (must haves, like a good bottle of Rosé) carefully reading the instructions, watching a horror movie while the cake layers cooled and of course, my constant staging of whipped cream and hazelnuts (and by staging, i mean eating).  But in all honesty, it came out beautifully and we had the forks waiting as soon as I shot the last photo.  

A big thanks to Riley for making this cake around my lens. You're a lovely soul, darling girl. 

travels || on tour

Back, way back in January, Ellie Arciaga and I planned to take to start a project titled Letterbox.  We would be following our good friends in Pickwick around the west coast (and a little bit of the Midwest) documenting the first leg of their first national tour.  While this isn't a post about Pickwick (you can view that on the Letterbox site) it is about all the shots that was taken while on tour. We traveled from California, down to Arizona, through New Mexico, over to Texas, up to Colorado and ended in Salt Lake City in under 3 weeks.  I had not been to 5 of these states before and I was truly excited. We were on such a tight schedule that at times we would literally see an amazing shot, slam on the breaks, jump out of the car with the engine running, take 5 or 6 shots and jump back in the car so we could catch up with the van.  Moments like these, just too good to keep to myself.

Touring was as intense as anyone can say, Ellie and I weren't playing the music but we were right there along with them; driving just as many miles, sleeping only a few hours a night, eating gas station beef jerky, using porta potties... and taking photos at every waking moment.  It was a challenging experience that I won't ever forget, nor would I trade for anything in the world.

There are so many specifics I could talk about, but.. I think that the most memorable moment was when Ellie and I drove into Salt Lake City. We were almost at the end of the trip having a flight that night back to Seattle and we had to clean the rental car before then.  We found one of those automatic spots where you drive up on to the track and they swish you down a series of colorful foamy polishes and rinses.  We scrambled for our phones to photograph the kaleidoscope on the windshield.  Even then we wanted to take a photo, even after 3 weeks of non stop shooting, we wanted to remember the car wash.  It reminded me that I loved taking photographs, even streaks of purple soap on glass, even when I was tired as shit, even when we were SO ready to be done and go home.  I remember how strange it felt not having my camera around my neck the following days after we got back... like I had lost an arm.

Afterwards we took everything out of the car (so we could vacuum up the spilled cashews and potato chips).  We then neatly packed our mementos, our saved succulents from Texas that we would root when we got home, our postcards, our questionable vintage purchases from Los Angeles, our beat-to-shit cameras, our dirty, smelly clothes.. It took us 3 weeks by car to get there, but only 3 hours by plane to get home.

anyways, enough of my reminiscing. here's the gems:

Los Angeles

Somewhere in California 

Arizona

New Mexico

Texas

Colorado

travels || southern california

On our way down to a wedding in San Diego, we made a pit stop in Laguna Niguel and stayed at a friends house.  They have amazing white sandy beaches- and thats where our interests lied, we wanted to live in our swimsuits and this was the place for it.  We pool-hopped, we beach-hopped, we tested the water with our toes and got sand in everything we owned. (my clothes still smell like sun-screen and I think I'll keep it that way for a while).

San Diego was quite striking as well. We ran around in the Encinitas area, which I preferred- mostly inhabited by locals/surfers, it felt like the real deal.  La Jolla's beaches are unlike anything I've ever seen and it made me want to sell all my things and pitch a tent on the beach (you can do that, right?)

Here's to you, Southern California, and all of your glorious, sunny perfection-