“What?!”

“The Earthships.  Right down the road…they’re houses built out in the desert, people living totally off the grid.  You should go see them.”

How could I resist something that sounded so…um, alien?  I love the serendipity of travel, and how you just never know what you’ll see and who you’ll meet.  We were in Taos, New Mexico recently.  I already knew that Taos was a quirky place.  For such a small population, it has attracted a pretty diverse group of people, from the Native Americans at the Taos Pueblo to ranchers, from artists and celebrities (including Julia Roberts) to the hippies of the 1960s and 70s.  I wasn’t surprised to learn that a community of people living off the grid have established themselves in the high desert on the outskirts of Taos.

Earthships are sustainable buildings made from natural and recyclable materials, originally designed by visionary architect Michael Reynolds, who built the first one in Taos in the 1970s.  The homes are usually constructed from earth-filled tires, and use passive solar energy and natural ventilation systems.  The interior and non-load bearing walls are made of cans and bottles.  The thermal mass construction regulates the inside temperature so that it is constant, no matter the season or weather.  Water is collected and efficiently re-used in a greenhouse that also grows food.  Earthship residents are generally self-reliant, using alternative energy sources (solar and wind) to power their homes.  Total energy costs average around $100 per year.

We visited the Earthship Biotecture Visitor Center, where we met an intern who was living in one of the homes, saw first-hand how all the systems work together to create a sustainable home, and spoke to some people who were constructing a new Earthship home in the community.  What struck me the most about these buildings, aside from their efficiency, was how beautiful they were, with curved walls and arches, and colorful glass bottles that not only look like works of art, but bring a kaleidoscope of light to the interiors.

Earthships are now built all over the world and some are used for disaster relief in places like Haiti, because they are affordable, sustainable, and can be easily replicated by the local people.  People come from all over in order to learn about the design and construction of Earthships through seminars, internships and the Earthship Academy.  You can even experience green living yourself in the Greater World Earthship Community by renting one out for a night or two.

We always hear about how Earth Day is every day, but in the Earthship communities, the residents truly are living it every day.  For more information, please visit Earthship Biotecture.

Eat well.  Travel often.  Live your passion.

I am different, not less.

– Temple Grandin

Nature is cruel but we don’t have to be.

– Temple Grandin

I was so fortunate to photograph last week, among other scientists and experts in animal science, Dr. Temple Grandin.  For those of you who don’t know her, she revolutionized the livestock industry with her unique designs in humane animal handling equipment.  She is a brilliant professor at Colorado State University, a well-respected consultant in the field of animal science, a best-selling author and a high-functioning autistic.  Diagnosed with autism at age 3, Temple was lucky to have  a mother who believed in her abilities and teachers that mentored her.  Her love of horses and sensitivity to animals lead her to the field of animal science, where she is world-renowned as a visionary in her work for humane treatment of animals.  If you haven’t seen the HBO movie, “Temple Grandin” starring Claire Danes, I highly recommend it.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I met her.  She is a passionate speaker, witty, intelligent and an imposing presence in a room.  Not only do I admire her for her work in the humane treatment of animals and autism advocacy, but for her strong sense of self.  She knows who she is, has confidence in her expertise and knowledge, and does not let anyone get in her way.  She fought her way through a man’s world and got to where she is, in spite of and because of her “different kind of mind.”

I am also fortunate to know, in my circle of friends, a few amazing kids who happen to be on the autism spectrum.  They, too, have different kinds of minds.  It’s not always easy to be one of these kids.  They are easily misunderstood and often bullied because of their different minds.  Yet, because of Temple Grandin I am encouraged that these “smart, geeky kids” will find their place in the world, wherever that may be, especially if they have the support systems in place.  For more information about autism and Temple Grandin, please visit her website at www.templegrandin.com.

Even if we have a different kind of mind, we all have our own unique perspective to share with the world.  For more insight and inspiration from Dr. Grandin, please watch this TED talk.

Eat well.  Travel often.  Live your passion.

Chocolate Guinness Goodness

• 8 large egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• One 14.9-ounce can Guinness Draught
• 3 cups heavy cream
• 7 ounces high-quality bittersweet (70 to 72% cacao) chocolate, finely chopped

• Special equipment: Six 8-ounce old-fashioned glasses

In large nonreactive mixing bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar.

Open can of Guinness and slowly pour into 4-cup measuring cup, pouring down side of cup to reduce foaming. Pour half of Guinness (about 7/8 cup) into heavy-bottomed 3-quart saucepan. Add 2 1/4 cups cream and whisk to combine. Set over medium heat and heat, whisking occasionally, until bubbles just begin to form at edges. Remove from heat, add chocolate, and whisk until smooth.

Slowly pour hot chocolate mixture into eggs, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. Return mixture to saucepan and set over moderately low heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens and coats back of spoon, about 15 minutes. (Pudding will look separated.) Pour into blender and blend on high for 1 minute. Divide pudding among glasses, leaving at least 1 inch of space at top of each. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled and set.

Meanwhile, pour remaining Guinness into small saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to moderately low and simmer, uncovered, until reduced to 1 tablespoon, about 20 minutes. Pour syrup into small bowl and let cool.

Beat remaining cream until soft peaks form. Add Guinness syrup and beat until combined. Divide cream among 6 glasses of pudding and serve.

This recipe was created by Chef Shane Philip Coffey.

Here’s a recipe for a Bailey’s Chocolatini.

Eat well.  Travel often.  Live your passion.

It seems like we are always striving for that “decisive moment” shot, where everything seems to come together at just the right time.  We’re looking for those significant, celebratory moments, capturing the right time of an event, or a perfect look.  Recently, I found myself chaperoning my daughter’s class on a winter trip to Snow Mountain Ranch.  50 mile-per-hour winds and arctic cold conditions didn’t deter any fun.  These tough Colorado kids were well prepared for tubing, swimming (indoors!), snowshoeing, and nordic skiing.  They even prepared and cleaned up all the meals (Is there a budding food stylist in our midst?  See the last shot).  In spite of the fact that my fingers were numb and practically frostbitten half the time we were there, I still managed to capture quite a few decisive moments of these dynamic tweens having a fabulous time in the snow.  Those images are great fun, but I also love the moments in between, the quiet moments.  No electronics.  Real conversation.  Stories.  Authentic.  Real.  Life.

More information on Snow Mountain Ranch here.

Eat well.  Travel often.  Live your passion.

Isn’t Carnival in Rio?!  Not in a million years did I expect to experience it in a small seaside town in southern Portugal.  Yet here I was, following costumed children down the cobblestone streets of Tavira:  fairy princesses, flamenco dancers, pirates and clowns all coming out of every street and alley, funneling into the town center.  It felt more like Halloween in the U.S.  Carnival usually conjures up thoughts of huge Samba parades in Brazil, thousands of people, a lot of bare skin and revelry into the night.  In Tavira, a lovely coastal town not far from the Spanish border, Carnival is a family affair.  Maybe not as crazy as Rio, Carnival in small town Portugal is still a fun, fascinating look at the celebration of Shrove Tuesday.

Shrove Tuesday (otherwise known as Carnaval, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras and even Pancake Day, depending on where you are) is the day preceding Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent and the Christian observance of the six weeks before Easter.  The consumption of luxury items in the days before Ash Wednesday, such as the rich food and drink that the faithful sacrifice during Lent, is said to be the origin of Carnival.  Some of these celebrations may have even originated during pre-Christian times from ancient Roman festivals.  Carnival parades and masquerade balls were first recorded in medieval Italy, from there spread to the Catholic nations of Europe, and then on to Latin America and the Caribbean.  Carnival partygoers most likely reveled in the ancient town of Tavira long before they moved on to the beaches of Brazil.

So out of pure coincidence, at the end of a week in Portugal last March, I found myself in the middle of this mini-Carnival.  From young to old, everyone in the town came out to celebrate on this fabulous, sunny afternoon.  Music, dancing, confetti – it was all there, but on a very small scale.  As I watched all the floats going around the town square, I realized that they repeated their circuit several times because the town is so small!  Afterwards, the crowd dissipated to various cafes and homes to continue their celebrations, while the lone street sweeper was left to clean up what was left of the afternoon’s festivities.  This Carnival parade may have been short, but it will live long in my memories.

Happy Carnival and Mardis Gras!  No matter what your faith, I hope you enjoy the day with good food and friends!

More about Tavira and the rest of my Portugal trip to come…

Eat well.  Travel often.  Live your passion.

Frosted Chocolate-Buttermilk Cupcakes (from Martha Stewart) – Makes 12

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

6 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-process

3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

6 Tbsp. buttermilk

1 large egg

1 large egg white

3 oz. reduced-fat cream cheese

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.  In a large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.  With an electric mixer, combine cocoa and 3 Tbsp. hot water until a thick paste forms.  Add butter, buttermilk, egg and egg white; beat until combined.  Whisk in flour mixture until smooth.  Scoop batter into prepared tins.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 20 minutes.  Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.  With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar until light and fluffy.  Spread icing over tops of cupcakes; decorate as desired.

Raspberry Chocolate Kiss Cocktail (from Martha Stewart)  - serves 1

1/4 cup mint-infused syrup, plus more for rim (In small saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, and stems from 1 bunch of fresh mint.  Place over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat; let cool.  Strain through a sieve.  Syrup can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks.)

3 chocolate cookies, finely crushed (or dark chocolate shavings, which I prefer)

10 raspberries

1/4 cup vodka

2 Tbsp. cranberry juice

Ice cubes

Fill a shallow dish with enough simple syrup to just cover the bottom.  Place crushed cookies (or chocolate shavings) into another shallow dish.  Invert a martini glass into simple syrup and then into crushed cookies to coat the rim of the glass.  Place raspberries in a cocktail shaker; crush with a muddler.  Add simple syrup and muddle again.  Add vodka and cranberry juice; fill shaker with ice.  Shake until well chilled.  Strain into prepared martini glass.  Serve immediately.

Bailey’s Chocolatini

2 oz. Bailey’s

.25 oz. vodka

.25 oz. chocolate liqueur

Place ingredients in cocktail shaker, hake with ice and strain into martini glass.  Garnish with chocolate shavings.

Enjoy!  Cheers to a Happy Chocolate-filled Valentine’s Day!

Eat well.  Travel often.  Live your passion.

Start looking around and you’ll start to see them everywhere, especially in nature.  Hurricanes, tornados, shells, flowers, and even our own DNA – all in the shape of a spiral.  It doesn’t appear to be by accident. Spirals in nature are associated with logarithmic spirals, the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Ratio.  There’s a mesmerizing little video called “Nature by Numbers” that shows this in action.  I won’t even attempt to explain the math, but I do enjoy the visuals.

From Celtic art to Native American petroglyphs, Arabic architecture to the Nazca lines, the spiral symbol shows up in almost every culture.  It appears to have a positive meaning associated with it, depending on who you ask: the cycle of life, feminine power, spiritual journey, learning and growth, and the cosmic force.

Whatever the reason we find spirals so compelling, I will continue to make the images I do, including this last one of the hay bale spiral, which I exaggerated by spinning the camera while on a low shutter speed.  (ISO 100, 1/5 sec. @ f18)

To see more spiral images, check out my Flickr set – Enjoy!

My daughter has a Perplexus.  It is a 3-D maze locked in a sphere, with a hundred levels to get through without dropping the little metal ball off the track.  True to its name, it is indeed perplexing and will drive most adults insane.  My child, however, becomes a zen master, blocking out any and all activities around her in order to complete the puzzle.  She has laser-sharp focus, and patience enough to continue her quest to get through the maze.  Not only did she finish the original Perplexus within a few hours on Christmas Day, but she is continuing with the more difficult “Perplexus Epic” now, picking it up whenever she needs a break from her grueling middle school homework.  In contrast to math homework, she has no anger, no frustration when the Perplexus ball drops — just perseverance and picking up where she left off.  Pure focus.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls this “The Flow Experience,” a sense of profound mastery, when one is completely absorbed, effortlessly focused and unaware of all sense of time.  He studied thousands of people with regards to their happiness and productivity, among them, artists, scientists, engineers, monks, athletes, and CEOs; and he found that, regardless of culture and education, there are various conditions that must be present for flow to happen: clear goals, continuous feedback, balance of challenge and skill, and uninterrupted times of concentration and focus.

These past few weeks have been so full of business and marketing plans, that I really needed some time for photography.  So I gave myself an assignment.  It was frustrating.  I didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere.  Finally, I let go and just started to play with the camera, different lenses, different angles.  In the process, I got “in the zone.”  I became completely focused on creating.  I lost all sense of time.  I didn’t realize I was hungry.  It was as if I was working outside of myself, a state of effortless concentration and mindfulness.  Sometimes that is the only way to work through a problem, to let go and let it flow.  I have to be careful when photographing on my travels – sometimes I’m in such a state of flow that I have found myself in some unsafe situations!

I experimented with color, light and shutter speed with snow melt dripping down to a wooden deck. 1/800 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 100

How can you achieve flow?  Here are some ideas:

1) Pick a challenging activity.

2) Set some realistic goals.

3) Commit yourself to the time and put it on your schedule.

4) Turn off the TV – no one achieves flow with the TV on!

5) Remove all interruptions – lock the door, turn off the phone and email and let everyone know you are not to be disturbed.

6) Find a way to track your progress and celebrate what you’ve accomplished so far.

7) Enjoy the experience!

Eat well.  Travel often.  Live your passion.

1.  Getting rid of clutter gives you clarity.  This has been a big clean-up year for me -physically, mentally, emotionally. Toxicity is a bad thing to have around, and I mean that in more than the environmental sense.  I have gotten rid of a lot of stuff that I don’t need: toxic relationships, things I “should” do, and stuff that just takes up space.  It is amazing what that does to you.  I suddenly feel that I can really breathe and have a clear vision of what I want.  Get rid of “stuff” and you make room for wonderful, new experiences.

2.  I can’t please everyone.  There will be people who don’t like my work.  I value my vision, my work, and my artistry;  it will find the right venue and touch those who appreciate it.

3.  Failure is okay.  In fact, it’s more than okay because it’s how we grow and learn.  As long as I keep trying after failing, and growing from the experience, I know I’ll be okay. Watch the movie “Rudy” for inspiration.

4.  There are some amazing places, people and things in my own backyard.  I have passed by (and passed over) many things that I perhaps thought were insignificant, only to find extraordinary beauty in them later.  Take a second look around – you never know what you might see.

5.  That being said, I need to get out of my comfort zone, go to different places, do challenging things.  When I push myself to create new work or move in a different direction, I get energized and amazing things start to happen.

6.  I like slow travel (and slow food).  Two hectic back-to-back trips to Europe in March, in multiple locations, really made me appreciate the times when I can stay in one place for more than a few days.  I am a gypsy girl at heart and love adventure, but sometimes I just need to slow down and really get to know a place, its people, food and nuances that I may not necessarily see at first glance.

7.  I need more “me” time.  So many of us have been taught to be unselfish and put others’ needs before ours, but it’s not the healthiest thing to do all the time.  When I do take that time, I am a better person all the way around, for myself, my work and my family.  However, you can’t just say it.  You need to own it, claim it, schedule it in.  Turn off the phone and email and do your thing, whatever that thing is that will recharge your soul.

8.  It’s okay to ask for help.  I am proud of my independence.  I do not care for valets and people to help me with my bags when I travel.  I can carry it all myself (especially my heavy camera bag), thankyouverymuch!  However, there are times, when life weighs you down and it’s okay to ask for help.  I am lucky enough to have people in my life that I can rely on when I need them, who support me and won’t judge me when I don’t always have it together.

9.  Imperfectionism is a gift.  I am a recovering perfectionist.  Perfectionism can sometimes lead to procrastination and inaction, and it can be an enemy to creativity. Sometimes it’s better to do something imperfectly rather than not do it at all.  So, forgive my mistakes, but I will continue to send out imperfect blog posts!

10.  Life is short.  Live your dreams now.  We all have a limited time on this earth and I don’t intend to waste any more of my precious time.  Here’s an great little post about Five Things You Should Stop Doing in 2012.

What have you learned in 2011?

Cheers to the experiences we had in 2011 and to new adventures in 2012.  Have a safe, healthy, creative, Happy New Year!

Eat well.  Travel often.  Live your passion.