Pee Wee Golf!

A word to the wise: don't try to drink beer, take photographs, and play miniature golf all at the same time. The result: pouring an entire beer all over your $700 camera. At least that is what happened to me last Saturday night at Pee Wee Golf in Guerneville. Santiago played a show there and while it was super fun (this place is crazy. It opened in 1948, floods every year, and is filled with the craziest sculptures), it was not my best night for cameras. I was shooting with my Mamiya for a little while until my lens just up and broke. Then I switched to my Canon and proceeded to pour my beer all over it. Luckily it seemed to survive the soaking, and while I didn't get any good shots of the band playing, I did get some great ones of the golf course itself. Here is one of two scary dinosaurs that guard over the holes:



These are some I cross processed (processing slide film as print film, which results in a negative you can print and the craziest colors). The results are always unpredictable, but I kinda like that about it.

I love the Sonoma coast!

On Saturday Gabe and I went to the beach together for the first time this summer. I can't believe that we haven't been yet since we tend to go all the time. I feel so lucky to live so close to such an amazing part of the country. We went to School House Beach, which coincidentally was the sight of our very first date. The beach is not made of sand, but of tons of tiny, beautiful stones. They get all stuck in your shoes and make for an interesting walk, but I love them anyway.

Gabe found this piece of metal (?) that looked like it had been melted. It is very pretty, but part of me worries that it is toxic waste of some kind.
We tried for about ten minutes to get a picture of the waves crashing into Gabe, and when I finally gave up and put the camera down, a huge one came and landed right on him.
School House beach is known for it's tide pools so of course I took a ton of pictures of weird sea creatures.



Gabe tried to take a nap but I kept bugging him by taking silly photos.



On the way back we stopped in Bodega, which is the cutest little town. These buildings are kinda famous for being in the Hitchcock film "The Birds". We were making fun of tourists for taking pictures of them, but then I realized they had the right idea. They are really pretty buildings. I'm so used to seeing them all the time that sometimes I forget.

New tattoo!

Last Saturday I finally got a new tattoo. I have been wanting one for a while but just couldn't decide what to get. Many of my friends have tattoos of the state of California, which I just love. California is definately home to me and I love everything about living here. So I wanted to get that, but I wanted it to be pretty and colorful too. My friend Jared, who is a great tattoo artist (and just a great artist in general) drew me this awesome pretty flowery picture that I just fell in love with. My good friend Jenn got the same tattoo (almost) cause, why not? You shouldn't waist such a good tattoo on only one person.

I wanted to go first cause I was a little nervous. I have other tattoos, but it has been a long time and I've never gotten one this big before. Jenn took all these photos of me. Here I am waiting anxiously for the pain.


It really didn't hurt very bad once he started.

Gabe came by and sat in the corner to watch.

Jenn's turn!


This is the "he's doing the flower on the back of my arm and it hurts real bad" face.

Jenn got some little filigrees that weren't on mine. We had to show our independence somehow.

Jared took this picture and since he says he is not very good at taking photographs I will blame him for the fact that I look pregnant. I'm not. Just a little chubby. And tired.
The west coast is the best coast! I love my tattoo, and I love that one of my best friends has the same one!

Kitties and flowers

I know, I know. I hate to be one of those crazy pet people who are always like "My kitty is sooo cute. Yesterday she meowed at me in this funny way and I fed her and I called her floofer-nugget and I loooove her sooo much!", but I am. I can't help it. Look at how cute she is! I have to admit there is usually at least two pictures of her on every roll of film I shoot. These are the best yet. As you can see she holds me in contempt and does not really enjoy being photographed, but I do not care.



This is just a really beautiful picture (if I do say so myself) of my neighbor's flower. I don't have pretty flowers in my yard. I have roses that sometimes I remember to tend to, but usually just look bedraggled with dead blossoms hanging off the stems, etc. I don't know why I am so lazy all the time. Anyway, look at the pretty flower!

The great debate

The day we got together with my dad we visited the Sunset Line and Twine building in Petaluma. I had never even heard of this place, but it is apparently an interesting piece of local history. They are closing and everything inside was up for auction. As you could guess, I took about a million pictures of weird stuff. I could have spent hours more, but we had to be on our way at some point.

Many of these photos I took with my Canon digital camera, some I took with my Mamiya medium format that Gabe got me for my birthday this year (thanks Gabe! I love you. You are always pushing me to be a better version of myself). There is constantly a debate among photographers over which is better, film or digital. I think you all know where my allegiance lies (although, I have been taking advantage of the convenience of digital lately), but see if you can tell the difference between the two. I can!