Cat Comes To Town

The past week I've been offline and visiting with my friend Cat from Spokane.  During my travels, I spent quite a bit of time with her in Washington during the summer and last week she came down to Los Angeles for some business and stayed longer to hang out with me.  We toured Venice beach,  saw some movies, had some nice meals and did a photo shoot on the beach.  Since I spend most of my time alone, it was nice to have a house guest for a few days.

The best part about our photo shoot was that she was game to do about anything.  When I was in Cape Cod a few years ago, I took a bunch of timed jumpie pics as the sun was setting.  If you need an activity to look crazy in front of people and laugh at yourself, this is a good one to try.  It is stupid and is great for a good laugh and some fun photographs. Also, Cat is not as fond as birds as I am.  She was even willing to walk around a flock of birds and run towards them to try and get a shot of them surrounding her.  The one where she is standing still is a moment of her thinking, "Really? You want me to do what with the birds?" to the shot where she casually jogged through them, not missing a beat. Some of the best times you can have with a friend is being silly with a camera.

I haven't made the time to take my camera out to take photographs lately so it was a nice change of pace to do that again while we toured around.  Here are some photographs from our time last week.

 

Family Portrait of Mary Ellen, Pancho and Scout

I just realized that I haven't blogged in a while.  Since being home, I have been working on making art boxes and visiting with friends I haven't seen in a while.  Yesterday it was a nice break to go to the beach to photograph Mary Ellen and her pups, Scout and Pancho.  She has her own dog walking business, Pet Waggin' so I am used to seeing her with a pack of dogs at the dog park.  This time, Pancho and Scout had their mom all to themselves.  I had a great time capturing her playing at the beach with her happy dogs. On thing is for sure...she is not afraid to get down and dirty in the mud to play with them.

For more photographs of the day, click HERE.

Max At The Beach

When I decide to go somewhere, Max usually gives me his input to let me know that he would like to go to a place where there's a beach.  I think the beach is his favorite place to be, next to a dog park.  Last year, we went to several dog parks in different states which was always an adventure.  He especially loved the dog parks in Albuquerque and Provincetown.  His favorite beaches on his journey has been Orange Beach in Alabama and the Cape Cod National Seashore.  Each one goes on for miles and if he's lucky, if it's allowed, and there isn't anyone around, he gets to be off leash.

These photographs are from a day at the beach in Cape Cod.  It was an especially windy day but Max didn't mind even though he was low to the ground with the sand blowing in his face.  He's on to me with the camera, though.  Each time I get it out to take a photograph, he usually looks the other way.

We will be heading to the Southeast part of the country soon.  I know that Max will have "beach" on his places to go but I am still up in the air about the specific destination.  Is there a place that we shouldn't miss?

Handmade iphone Photography Photo Art Boxes

I tend to get bored easily.  I am not one of the many people that can grab a book and sit on a beach and read all day.  I am excited to report that I have read two more books from beginning to end to complete my, "5 books from start to finish" goal this year.

Another goal of mine that wasn't on the list was to put together art boxes from the photographs I've been taking with my iphone on this journey.  I am happy to say that I completed this goal.  Sometimes I get ideas in my head that I have to follow through and complete before I obsess too much about them.  This project was one of those ideas.

Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE to take photographs with the other cameras I have and will continue to upload portraits, events and landscapes to my photography site, but there is something about the iphone hipstamatic app that I just love.

I had these 4x4 photographs printed on archival paper and I mounted them on 4x4 wood blocks after I hand sanded them and applied primer  with several coats of paint in either black or white.  After I mounted the photograph on the finished block, I then applied several layers of non toxic clear matte finish to give the boxes a nice texture and durability.  I am pleased on how they turned out.

Since these are my first round of boxes, I have them up for sale on etsy in my shop that you can see here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/AlisonTravels

Each box is signed on the back and I also put where the photograph was taken.  Many of the photographs are featured in an iphone photography slide show I put together that you can view HERE.

I will continue to write about my travels but wanted to mention what I've been up to.  I look forward to sharing more photographs of my adventures here soon.

Cape Cod, Massachusetts

I have always loved the cape and I still do.

I spent some time at the tip of the cape in a little community called Provincetown.  Each town on the cape has its own distinctive personality and charm and there is something special about every community you come across.  I didn't get to spend as much time here as I did last September, but it was special just the same.  There really is something for everyone on the cape.

Most of the days were rainy when I was visiting but I took advantage of the clear breaks when they came.  I took Max for a spin in his trailer, walked along the beach, went to the bark park, strolled around commercial street and soaked in the sights.  I didn't take as many photographs as I did last year, but these are a few taken with the three cameras I have with me.  I did pretty much the same as I did a year ago.

Sometimes I like to set the timer on my camera and jump around on the beach to entertain myself.  It's actually quite the workout and good for a few laughs when you watch people passing by staring at you.  I don't mind.

Other people didn't mind the weather and enjoyed a campfire on the beach even though it was windy and in the 50's.

It was also interesting to see new signs up that tell you the mileage from PTown to Long Beach, my home base.  Just in case you were wondering, it's 3,652 miles.

I look forward to sharing more adventures coming up within these 3,652 miles.