Pool Party

Harlow was invited to a pool party today.

My favorite photoshop action I run on nearly all my photos? "Pool party."

Coincidence?

Absolutely.

Summery cupcake goodness ahead!

Sneak

Here's a little sneak from today's shoot...Miss Sadie

Wedding Video

This makes me just ridiculously happy knowing there are people on this planet with this much imagination and joie de vivre - not to mention excellent friends.

Brian & Eileen's Wedding Music Video. from LOCKDOWN projects on Vimeo.

via Cup of Jo

Chris & Katie

Happy weekend!

rockstars

Baby and babydaddy laying down tracks

playdate

LA in Bloom

Because it is Memphis, I often run into friends from college or someone from the years before I knew I could actually style my hair, and inevitably I'm asked how I'm adjusting here after nine years in LA. No one has been more amazed than me that I can look them in the eye and say honestly that things are good. Things ARE good. I've found my way into a career that never would have materialized out west, I've made so many lovely friends and my purpose here is clearer. What is not clear is my head and my sinuses that threaten to explode with every big, juicy thunderstorm or cold front rolling through. Due to a shoulder injury when I was 13, I experienced headaches daily for about 10 years - headaches that pushed me awfully close to reenacting that scene from Pi with the powerdrill when storms blew threw. In LA, a combo of pilates, little pollen and perfect weather gradually set me straight, but alas, the lack of those ingredients are setting me back. For weeks my head has felt stuffed full of cotton when not threatening to split open. Never having been an allergy sufferer, Caleb can barely breathe here. The lovely allergic rash on my leg that I have battled for years is out of control thanks to the non stop pollen parade. After googling "Best Places to Live in the US for allergy sufferers/" and finding LA near the top, that old familiar heartsickness for my allergy-free home has crept back in and taken roost.


All that to say is that I'm not exactly sure how I found my way on to her blog, but that little hole in my heart for LA has been patched up by this lovely blog, LA in Bloom. Heather Taylor has an artist's eye, and the images she's been posting shows why the city is special to her and why it will always be special to me.

p.s. But if that's what it takes to get more perfect, cool days like yesterday, I gladly offer up my head to be split open by the barometric pressure.

Awkward Family Photos

Why even bother captioning. Just go here for more gems.

Huh?

Carrie Underwood covers Home Sweet Home?

METALLICA covers Careless Whisper?

What the hell is going on here? Just stop it! Seriously!

Unless you are Rufus and Ben Folds. In that case, carry on.

Yummy harmony that's well shot here.

Footage from the concert where I (eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!) saw this live is here.

French bebes

When Caleb and I were catsitting in Paris for two weeks (long story), we spent hours walking the city, and we often passed by an outpost of Bonpoint, a tres hoity-toity boutique for the plus de chere bebes. Seriously, one item from the store is more expensive than an average US ensemble. But I am kinda googly-eyed over the outfits - for babies - on their website. Don't think I'd mind my own hipster scarf and golden shoes.

Faust

When I was eight years old, my mom brought me to the Orpheum theater to see The King and I starring Yul Brynner. According to my mom, we left at intermission - most likely because my Dad couldn't take another minute of musical theater and Yul's sexy bald head. I don't remember leaving early. I remember being glued to my seat, completely overwhelmed by the experience. The gilded theater, the mezzanine seats, the velvet curtains, the bathroom that seemed it's own mini palace - I can still see myself curled into my seat, terrified that I might fall onto the theater goers below yet never, ever wanting to leave such a beautiful, magical place.

So imagine my delight when I am invited to photograph Opera Memphis' production of Faust at the Orpheum. The gig is to cover both nights of the dress rehearsal, backstage, in the house.

Wherever I want to go.

I KNOW, right??

So wander I did, observing the orchestra warm up in the pit and the actors transform themselves into doomed souls.

The production itself was a gorgeous, moody, steampunk take on the classic opera, and I had fun capturing the details: Mephistopholes' dapper costume and creepy coiled nails to the metal gears as hair pieces. I had a ridiculous amount of fun and hope I have the chance to wander the halls again.

More of Allison's Birthday

There were so many cute ones I couldn't resist posting more!

The Program

Yesterday morning was Caleb's and my first experience as parents doing what, in my opinion, is the reason one has children:

free donuts and songs performed in your honor by adorably dressed, illiterate ego monkeys.

Moms and dads and grandparents and approximately 32,000 cameras crammed into her daycare's basement (the church of my childhood, actually) for the festivities. True to our nature, Lindsey and I staked out a table closest to the muffins and muttered over why nobody else was helping themselves to the buffet. Harlow and her cousin Avery were first up. Her group of 30 or so toddlers were led onto gently sloping risers, handed maracas and instructed to reveal the choreography, that if her daily notices are to be believed, were of a rigor that might make a completely out of his mind on qualudes Bob Fosse feel some shame. And there was my girl front row center. The karaoke machine revved to life. Miss Carrie jumped up and down and shimmied. Harlow clenched her maraca between her teeth, flattened herself on her belly and commando crawled to a space between the risers. She was getting the hell out of there.

We couldn't have been prouder.

Harlow was redirected to her mark where she promptly squatted down in her adorable butterfly dress and displayed not so much a diaper but a seven pound mini zeppelin. Lazy teachers. Gnawing on her maraca like it was a hunk of turkeyleg, she surveyed the audience with a dispassionate eye. It was like a baby Martin Sheen from Apocalypse Now had suddenly materialized in the middle of "I'm Smushing up My Baby Bumblebee." The other toddlers blinked at Miss Carrie. Somebody started sobbing. Over her shoulder, cousin Avery was a virtual Mr. Bojangles, soft-shoeing to a song...somewhere.

It was a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Molly's 3rd Birthday

Kelly is one of my sister's best friends from childhood. She's got a wicked sense of humor, and combining that with an endearing habit of getting into bizarre accidents, she's one of the best storytellers I've had the pleasure to be around. Next time you see her, ask her about the trapeze at Adventure River. Or her ACL.

I was thrilled and touched when she asked me to photograph her adorable daughter Molly's third birthday, so I set off on an unexpectedly chilly afternoon last month to watch Molly and her friends ride trains, pet some animals and ride horses at Molly's traveling zoo party! The pics subjects were so cute that some of them made it into this month's Memphis Parent Magazine in an article by local -if not national - treasure Stacey Greenberg. Holy cow, we have linkage! You can see the pics and learn about my photo services online here!

p.s. In case you were wondering, and I know you are, those cookies in the online story were made by my seriously talented sister Lindsey Suber.

Vaycay