My fascination in the ocean isn't in the color, the roar, or the strength, but in its endlessness.
Snapshots from my road trip up the Californian coast. As the winter seemingly gets colder and colder in New York City, I'm finally returning to these gloriously sunny photos and reminiscing about bare feet, californian breezes, and sunshine that never stops. For more details on my trip and FujiInstax shots, check out my previous post "thirty eight."
Project #4 was an interesting one: Shoot through the eyes of a child. I chose to take a break from the heavy topics and look into something a little more adventurous! For the project in it's native habitat with its critiques, please check out The Photograph Collective. “Stop Playing With Your Food”
For this project, I decided to take a whimsical approach and have a little more fun than I typically afford myself with photography. So often children are told to stop playing with their food, yet to me it represents an imagination and an excitement that we often lose as adults. I decided to make subjects of colorful candy and to bring them into an imagination setting by contrasting light & dark. I’ve always been fascinated and amused by how children can have a one-track-mind and wanted to focus attention on items that are normally not given much thought. Additionally, I chose to inject a little bit of my own childhood into the way I styled the food. I was quite the mini-adult growing up and was very particular about organization. Every day at lunch i would set out the perfect placement of my juice box, my entree, my snack, and even my napkin before I began eating. I wanted to reflect that child’s play is not always messy and chaotic, but can look different for each child depending on their imagination.
Since I've identified myself as a photographer more and more, I've found that I'm in photos less and less. There are so many days where I'll come back home with a hundred photos on my SD card and I'm barely present in any of them. So when Lauren from The Pear Shape and I were doing our photo shoot, I took up her offer for a chance to be on the other side of the camera for once! With such a sharp eye as a fashion blogger, I love the photos she took - perhaps it's the leather jacket or the dark lipstick, but I swear this is the edgiest I've ever looked in my life. Thanks for these amazing photos, Lauren!
For years we made the trek. Nine hours plus however many bathroom breaks it took to reach San Francisco from San Diego. It was to see my grandparents which was great, but it meant being thrown in the car at the wee hours of the morning where your only activity options were sleeping or eating or staring out the window. So when my dear friend Victoria and I were planning our much needed vacations, the concept of a road trip, much less a road trip in California, seemed less than enticing to me. Nevertheless, a few scheduling coincidences and a chance to reclaim the California coast in the make of adventure finally swayed my vote.
Thus, just as fall was quickly ushering Manhattan into its arms, we skipped backwards into the eternal summer of San Diego. Right before we left, I made the spontaneous decision to purchase a Fujifilm Instax instant camera and a boatload of film to document our adventures. What came out of it was thirty eight prints - some posed, some candids, some given away as gifts, and many that will be treasured for a lifetime.
On my turf, Victoria was shown all my favorite spots and some of my favorite people - Marine St Beach with Maegan, the Cove, Don Carlos with Ruth, Extraordinary Desserts with Drew, Balboa Park and Coronado with my family, and so much more.
We then began the first part of our journey and headed up North to Santa Barbara where we spent time leisurely walking along boardwalks, destressing for the first time in too long, and of course basking in the sun on both the beach and our rooftop pool.
After Santa Barbara, we faced the ambitious task of conquering the Pacific Coast Highway in one day. Unfortunately, our giant stacks of Swedish pancakes at our first stop in Solvang put us off to a delayed start (and a dangerous food coma while driving), but we made it to Morro Bay without w hitch. We then tackled Big Sur which was hands down my favorite part of the trip. It's gorgeous driving along the coast no matter what, but to have these enormous cliffs alongside you and breathtaking beach inlets below you was just something else. We managed to find Pfeiffer Beach which you cam literally only identify by sign that says "No RVs." You them drive about 2 miles down to the beach itself where the powerful waves have created a hole in an enormous rock formation and the sand runs purple from erosion. Not wanting to say goodbye, we pressed on to do the 17 Mile Drive in Pebble Beach. It's a fascinating neighborhood with ridiculous coastal views that even managed to make a La Jollan jealous.
Finally, finally we made it to our last destination of Sam Francisco where my amazing Big, Lauren, hosted us in her oh-my-god-is-that-the-golden-gate-bridge-from-your-window?! apartment. We had the chance to see Brad and Laura for some phenomenal views of The Golden Gate Bridge and oysters out on the deck of The Ferry Building. The food was such a highlight of San Francisco: Dinner with Nate and Alex at Delarosa's was phenomenal, salami sandwiches at Molinari's, chocolate at XOX truffles, and of course pizza at Tony's (with no wait!).
It was the perfect nine days. Pure bliss, wonderful rest, and the sun on our faces.
