Monday, April 23, 2012

Chubi

(CHOO - bee)


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I call her my muse. Whenever I've got that itch to take some pictures, I may or may not force her into semi-spontaneous photoshoots. It helps that she's gorgeous, but having the brains to back up that booty beauty puts her on a different level.

I might have a mild obsession with her (as well as her sisters, but that's another story for another day). Lately when we hang out, I find myself psychoanalyzing her, maybe because she's so fascinating, or maybe because she reminds me so much of me, in the sense that she's also a bratty youngest child.

Noelle is a thinker. She's the kind of girl that questions everything. She can't take something as a fact, simply because someone says it's a fact. She needs to know why. She needs to understand it. She needs to wrap her brain around it. And it's people like this who I can never get enough of. People who are hungry for knowledge, hungry to learn. Every time we're together, I find myself rethinking something I used to believe, or racking my brain to find an answer to some stupid yet thought provoking question she's asked me.

She's the kind of girl who goes against the grain, but not just because she's one of those people who needs to go against the grain. She likes to think beyond trends and ideas that people usually take as given, she forms her own opinions, and stands up for what she believes in.

And besides all that she's fun to take pictures of because she just doesn't give a f*ck. And she's comfortable in her own skin. Our photoshoots consist of laughter and awkward posing, and of course 'enlightened' discussions on ways we can create satirical pictures with the juxtaposition of our society's quixotic ideas about modeling.... and stuff.

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Friday, April 20, 2012

420

In honor of this holiday, a little sneak preview of how I will be spending the day...


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Check out the article in the LA Times about the first top secret Herb Dinner hosted by Starry Kitchen that took place on April 1st. A second pop-up Herb Dinner will take place again today, on 4/20.


LA Times - Counter Intelligence: A marijuana-infused meal? Well ...


Because the universe seems to have been conspiring to help me achieve my dreams, I, in a far too familiar case of happenstance, got the chance to photograph the food and kitchen staff at this upscale dinner, where the guests included well-known bloggers and journalists, and the chef was celebrity chef, Laurent Quenioux.  I probably owe my life to my new favorite cousin and chef Christian ;) for thinking of me when he needed someone to take pictures, especially because I was asked to take pictures for the second Herb Dinner as well!


All in all, it was an incredible experience.  I managed to dodge the members of the kitchen staff as they quickly and tirelessly prepared 30+ plates for each course in the 9-course marijuana meal, while snapping hundreds of pictures.  For those of you curious, the amount of marijuana in the food wasn't intended to get people high, rather, the intent was one based on flavor.  And yes, I got to eat the food.  No, I didn't get high.  And needless to say, the food was incredible.


I made some amazing contacts at this event too.  Let's just say that I unknowingly told a Pulitzer Prize winning LA Times photographer about my big dreams of becoming a travel photographer.  And I know some people may think I'm crazy for chasing my dreams, and sure, there are times when I question whether I am indeed crazy.  I may in fact be rising to new levels of insanity, investing more money and still believing I can do this. But when Rick Loomis, a conflict photographer who has been with the LA Times for 17 years, tells me to not go back to my accounting job after seeing my pictures, I can't help but be pushed harder and reach a little further.


So forget what everyone else says.  I'll take crazy!  I mean, you can't be old and wise if you were never young and crazy, right?


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