A few more from New Orleans...
Anonymous woman in the red dress... I love you.
My partner in crime, Amanda from Bel Momento Photography:
We totally crashed a wedding! Well, for a few minutes... haha.
New Orleans, I love you!
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Travel
We had this trip planned for months. I don't even remember how we got started talking about it, but as soon as my friend Brynn and I decided to drive down to the annual UFO conference in Roswell, NM, we got hooked on exchanging UFO jokes and sending each other strange YouTube hoax videos... neither of us feels strongly about aliens one way or the other, but after looking at photos from previous conferences, the potential of lots of people in costume got us really excited. We kind of have a thing for costumes.Oh yeah... did I mention that this happened to land on the exact same weekend we ended up having to move? And that somehow, despite having grown up in New Mexico, I got Roswell confused with Los Alamos and thought it was only a four hour drive? Yeah. Zach insisted that we still go, so we got everything all packed beforehand and Brynn and I made the TEN HOUR drive to Roswell to go participate in such activities as "alien wine tasting and BBQ!!!"
Roswell...it's (really really) hot, completely centered around UFO culture, and an hour away from Mexico. Even serious businesses, like banks and doctor's offices, had UFOs or motherships or cute aliens in their logos. They closed down Main Street for the festival, and we walked around in the heat checking out local alien-related businesses and getting stared at because, as it turns out, we were some of the only people in costume. Yep.
On the border of CO and NM:
The "be in touch" mural became one of our favorites. We made the security guards take our picture, which is why it's horribly out of focus.
I'm pretty sure this was the outside of the County Republican building:
One of the few other costumed people:
I got so attached to this blue wig. Every time I put on costume hair, I get disappointed that it's not my real hair. Also, please notice the news crew in the reflection.
We decided this was a great time to go antique shopping. Obviously.
Inside the UFO museum:
The alien costume contest! We definitely watched this woman dressed as Blue Cleopatra eat a handful of live crickets onstage. I'm not sure what this has to do with aliens, but it was entertaining. I really wanted to find these people after the show and take some photos, but most of them changed out of costume right away :(
Alien wine tasting.
A bunch of storm trooper types just hanging out, waiting for a table at Chili's. Totally normal.
A few images from a quick trip we took back "home" to Santa Fe a few weeks ago. This is what comes to mind when I think of my childhood - intensely blue skies, rounded soft adobe corners, glorious sunsets...
I love living in the mountains, but I still miss the desert hardcore - especially during sunsets like this one. I plan on heading back to Santa Fe a few times this summer, so please, please get in touch if you're in the area and want to schedule a session!
It's no secret that I love weirdness, and on the high plains along the road from Buena Vista to Santa Fe, there's plenty of it. We're talking abandoned train stations, a shining castle fashioned entirely out of beer cans and scrap metal, and Earthship homes that are made out of piles of tires and look like dirt-encrusted bubbles. A few weeks ago, Zach and I decided to take a road trip to visit two of these amazingly random roadside attractions: the Colorado Gator Farm and the UFO watchtower. It was the best day ever.
400 alligators live here - it started out as a tilapia farm, and the gators were eventually brought in as rescue animals and to help dispose of the dead fish. This place blew my mind - the owners were very kind and the handmade facility was a nice break from the commercialized sterility of a lot of zoos these days. I seriously could have stuck my hand into an alligator's mouth through the fence if I wanted. I didn't do that, but I did find out that they have GATOR. WRESTLING. CLASSES. I will most definitely be back.
All these handpainted signs were cracking me up:
Oh yes, I forgot to mention that they also have a biodome. I got really excited about this and spent the next week or so trying to figure out how to build a biodome of my own to live in. No, seriously - for several days I was totally convinced that living in a large greenhouse would be the answer to all of my problems. Still trying to talk Zach into that one...
Then, on to the UFO watchtower. I know this is the first question on your mind, so I'll just go ahead and answer it: YES, they do weddings!
There's a rock garden full of objects that visitors leave behind as a "token of their energy". Also... something about vortexes? I forget.
I was especially intrigued by the Denny's nametag. I mean, what happened to Dustin? Did he get fired that day? Was he abducted? Did he have some sort of vortex-related epiphany that inspired him to suddenly quit his job and travel the world? I need to know these things.
I giddily left a stack of business cards there and made the UFO guy PROMISE TO CALL ME if someone books a wedding in the near future. I'm pretty sure that if you were to get married here, you would have to do the ceremony in a metallic gold spandex mini-dress or something. While wearing gas masks.
Last week, I flew out to DC for Katie and Brad's engagement session, and we timed it perfectly to coincide with the National Cherry Blossom Festival! I had never been to DC before, and this was definitely the perfect time to be out there - especially because we don't get much of a spring in BV. Katie & Brad were kind enough to drive me in circles all around town and we had so much fun getting to know each other while doing an epic & super speedy photographic tour of the city. These guys are so laid-back and fun to be around, and I'm really looking forward to their cozy destination wedding (for them :) at Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Resort. Katie & Brad- it was so wonderful to finally get a chance to meet you! Thanks again for everything!
The National Cathedral was so stunning - maybe one of my new avorite places ever - and I never even knew it existed :/
The gardens there are AMAZING!
As is the architecture:
Model face!
Then on to some fun at Union Station...
Then towards the monuments for some fun, dramatically-lit shots. I love the mood of these.
What a fun session - destination engagement sessions are one of my favorite things ever!