We’re finally ready to announce details for our 2011 Passport Pet Photography Workshop!  Thanks for your patience – as many of you know, both Jamie and I have had pretty nutty lives/schedules since our first Passport collaboration in August in NYC. We are so, so thrilled to announce that our last U.S. workshop will take place in sunny San Diego in May!

Read-on for more details and rest assured, we’re in the process right now of finishing up the new passportworkshops.com web site which will go live before registration opens March 1.

By the end of our adventure we took a moment to do the math {not our strong suit but luckily the numbers were far easier than the conversion rates we’d been calculating} and we realized of the 24 hours we’d had in Paris, we spent 13 walking/sightseeing, 4 sleeping, 3 arguing with an insolent French concierge, 3 eating/drinking/cabbing and one precious hour at the Louvre – at least 98% of this time was spent in a state of near-hypothermia, which actually makes it all the more memorable… the sights, sounds and smells of the City of Light are seared into our sense-memory like frost-bite.

Without further ado – notre voyage à Paris….

1. Night before: attempting French with helpful iPhone ap: s’il vous plaît, merci!
2. 7:30 train station breakfast: eggs + prosciutto, toast and fresh mint tea
3. My first ever train ride… sunrise over French countryside= beyond compare.
4. French graffiti-stained tunnel walls
5. Gare du Nord
6. cold. cold. cold. frickin’ cold
7. EPIC staircase over 300′ straight up
8. Sacré Coeur against a flawless French sky
9. First glimpse of the “Tour Eiffel” and all the rest of Paris sprawled below
10. Metallic mimes
11. Lost in Montmartre
12. Moulin de la Galette
13. Accidentally stumbling upon the Amélie grocery: Au Marche de la Butte… Collignon!
14. Moulin Rouge {very underwhelming}
15. Amy’s sporadic French Tourette’s: la boulangerie!
16. Vespas everywhere, but no riders
17. Dog poo everywhere, but no dogs
18. Open-air double-decker: sunshine and ice
19. Champs-Élysées, Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde
20. George Washington near the Trocadero {represent!}
21. Finally, la Tour Eiffel! Second-level: Awe, Appreciation, Photos, Frost-bite
22. Sunset over the Siene
23. Parting is such sweet sorrow: Twilight view of the tower from below
24. //hats off// services at Notre Dame: Gorgeous, Gothic, Ghostly
25. Statues, candles, deep choral sounds of French devotion echo in ten-stories
26. Captivating chandeliers: unearthly light absorbed into ancient stone
27. Kneeling on the cold stone for the shot… and feeling compelled to stay on my knees
28. Find Peter, Find food
29. Parisians smoking outside= Good choice for dinner
30. Bistrot la Grange: A pint of Leffe, a dozen escargot, a bottle of 2003 Château Garreau Bordeaux, chilly crème brûlée and an English server who named our snails after the Beatles
31. Belly full of mushroom risotto { Supreme Poultry}, burger + frites {and the best mayo in history} and un-pasteurized cow cheese with French bread.
32. Friendly cabbie, nice surprise
33. Hotel La Bellechasse: Splendid.
34. Tiny but impeccable room, wall and ceiling murals by Christian Lacroix – like being in a diorama
35. Chilled vodka shots with lemon {followed by mint gum, a fine choice!}
36. Giant Chanel ad on the Musée d’Orsay. Only in Paris
37. Discovering the disco-ball Eiffel Tower – every hour on the hour?
38. Louvre at night. Silent. Cold. Breathtaking.
39. Long exposure moon= midnight sun.
40. Walk to the tower, no cab to the tower, no walk… man it’s cold out here… ok cab.
41. 12:00zm Eiffel Tower two-minute sparkle show, then lights-out
42. Champs-Élysées: Hole in the wall bar for drinking, hole in the floor bathroom for peeing
43. 2am: back to the hotel, 2 comfy twin beds for three, concierge drunk on power, gendarmes useless for non-French speakers
44. 4 precious hours of sleep, one extra because of the time difference
45. Sunrise over the Siene
46. One hour Louvre mission: Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Venus de Milo – go!
47. Postcards from the train station… back to London.

* * *

One of the many wonderful bits that came back with me from this trip was a habit of short-hand “happy thoughts” journaling. This cheerful listing evolved mostly from writing down fond memories in bullet-points instead of paragraphs in an effort to write as fast as possible, thus documenting the most important details before they slipped form our mind’s view. But also, Amy once kept a numbered “happy thoughts” journal and I found the idea both appealing conceptually and surprisingly easy in practice – so that is how I intend to convey our trip to you: with photos and happy thoughts.  If you’re interested in seeing Amy’s experiences, visit her London blog here. {Although be warned, there’s a lot of cross-over, we were pretty much together for every minute of every day, so you’ll see a lot in common in our recollections

And with that, I’ll start at the beginning…

1. Friendly-face: meeting long-time pen-pal in person, for the first time. Surreal.
2. City and Colour: “I’ve seen a palace in London, I’ve seen a castle in Wales”
3. Our first British meal: waffles
4. Discovering just how perfect our flat was, and how it smelled delightfully of fabric softener
5. Discovering that the aforementioned “perfect” flat did not, at the moment, have hot water
6. Aldgate East tube station only blocks away
7. Aldgate East tube station closed for “works”
8. Tube map *gorgeous*
9. Mind the Gap
10. Piccadilly – an old, pint-sized Times Square
11. Peroni: cold + delicious
12. Pizza with a hole in the middle + salad inside and one very ambitious little tomato
13. Strata: laughing, wine drinking, embarrassing story sharing, limoncello shot taking
14. At last, sleep.
15. 8am. Loud construction. “London is awake and so am I”
16. Rain. “London is wet and so am I”
17. First ever taste of bennie @ BAFTA - so good the calories don’t matter.
18. Covent Garden, Trafalgar square, National Portrait Gallery, Big Ben, London Eye
19. Lensbaby graffiti
20. Realizing when you don’t tip for service, you typically have to pay before you get any
21. Girl Guides
22. Attempts to figure out the all-in-one washer dryer next to the dishwasher, under the sink
23. Hairdryer + wet shoes = warm wet shoes
24. two little black dresses + one “pimp”
25. Comedy Store “Save the Rhino” – Spiffing good time!
26. Tequila + “Dark Knights” @ Planet Hollywood, our last resort
27. Red phone booth + Double-decker ride= shelter from downpour
28. Ridiculous self-portraits
29. Gigantic puddle splashing
30. 4am Beastie Boys
31. Still no hot water
32. Petrol
33. Sunset at the Brighton Pier
34. The Great Eastern – Hoegaarden with orange + jenga
35. Damien Rice: Volcano
36. Ketchup on Lasagna, Jackets, Welsh rarebit and more Peroni
37. Digestive biscuits
38. Trying to explain S’mores to Mark and Adam
39. Trying to make S’mores… digestives for grahams, in the back of Adam’s car while driving. Mmm butane
40. Poorly-lit videos of S’more attempts and bad accents
41. Foxes and roundabouts
42. Frantic dash for mystery-train
43. Sleep.  Sleep. Hot water repair man. Sleep.
44. Post-shower trifecta: heated towel racks, heated mirrors, radiant floors
45. Tower Bridge at night. Spectacular.
46. Frozen, frozen hands
47. { PARIS }
48. Stuffed chicken and Egyptian Ratscrew at Carnival
49. Mimosas + a fond farewell to our flat
50. Hotel Teddington = Jen + Mike
51. Ascending narrow, narrow, winding circular stairwell with big heavy bags = comedy
52. The Bell, Free House
53. Bambi Burgers + camera talk
54. Windsor Castle followed by Sunday Pub roast {and chilli puffs}
55. Banoffee Pie
56. Southland via itunes
57. the Tower tour a la Beefeater
58. Crown Jewels and Ravens in cages
59. More French Macaroons {thanks Paul}
60. Keep Calm, Carry On
61. Tube to Marylebone, Train to Gobowen
62. { WALES }
63. Authentic fish + chips
64. Rudest bus driver, perhaps rudest British man… ever, like in history
65. Terminal 1, Heathrow International Airport

Thank you to Mike + Jen our gracious hosts and Adam our patient tour-guide/photographer/chauffeur — London would not have been nearly as entertaining, comfortable, memorable or hilarious without you. xoxox

I should preface this post by saying that this is the back-story for the next few posts {London, Paris, Wales and Iceland} – it’s not really about New Years at all. This is partly because I am not really a fan of holidays that include fireworks… but mostly because it was my trip to Europe late in the month of January that was the most remarkable part of the new year.

In August of 2010, just after three weeks in New York {teaching a workshop and then working the gift show for Dog is Good } I thought to myself… “come January I am really going to need a vacation. I think, what I am going to do is just set the dates, walk into an airport, pick somewhere, get on a plane, and disappear for two weeks by myself.”

I thought about the places I might choose, perhaps somewhere warm and isolated, perhaps somewhere far and foreign, and then it hit me: London. I’ve never been, I’ve always wanted to go, and best of all, I have friends there I really should visit.

Fast forward one day, and I get a text from my friend/colleague/fellow dane + dane photographer Amy:

Amy: “Hey, is there any way you would consider going to London with me in January?”

Me: “Um, random… Yes!”

Amy: “Really???”

Me: “Yeah I had JUST decided I wanted to go there in January. I was thinking later in the month, like 1.20-1.30?”

Amy: “I’m SO in”

Me: “Me too! Let’s DO it”

And that was that. Two weeks later we had airline tickets {booked through REI adventures, who were awesome, by the way} and thanks to a stellar deal from IcelandAir, we had a 3 day layover in Reykjavik on our way back from the UK.

You’re thinking “Iceland, in January??” {which, by the way, is exactly what I said when Amy suggested we stay there for a few days} but after some google searches I saw breathtaking image after breathtaking image of the blue lagoon, the Northern Lights, puffins, glaciers and geysers and I was fully on board.

* * *

The following weeks and months ended up being rather surprising and life changing for me. Only a few short days later, on Labor Day, my wonderful boyfriend Colin asked permission from my dad the old-fashioned way and then proposed to me out at Seabrook. We immediately set a date {9.10.11} and began planning our wedding there by the ocean. Life was good, business was busy and the holidays rapidly approached.

Come November, two months, dozens of shoots, and a trip to Vegas, L.A. and Mexico later, my major deadlines had been met, Colin was off to India on business and I had a few days to myself with the dogs. I can’t explain exactly what happened, but basically I had an awakening of sorts. At the end of a week spent mostly editing images, starting work on a screenplay I’ve been dreaming up for a few years, spending many hours with friends I hadn’t seen much of in months and generally being still and quiet {those of you who know me know this isn’t a common occurrence} I came to the incredibly shocking and painful realization that I wasn’t on the right path. Once I was aware of this reality it was impossible and insane to ignore… and from there I embarked on the most difficult two weeks of my life to-date, over the course of which, everything changed.

By the time 2011 arrived I was no longer planning a wedding, I was no longer living at home and all I could think about was the trip I had so casually scheduled with Amy months ago… and all I wanted was for it to come sooner. After some arm-twisting {thank you for humoring me Amy} and flight finagling {thanks for your help Dan}, we upped our departure date from Jan. 20 to Jan. 13. Looking back, I am so very, very glad we did.

I spent my last stateside nights at Jamie’s doing a bit of workshop planning, had one last delicious American breakfast with friends {and a round of bloody marys} and then, as if in a dream, we were reclining with at 10,000 feet, destination: London/Heathrow.

P.L.A.Y. {Pet Lifestyle and You} has officially opened it’s virtual doors for business @ petplaysf.com

As of November 21 you can officially visit petplaysf.com and buy some of the best pet beds you’ve ever seen.  My personal favorites include:

Heels n’ Boots // Chandelier // Serengeti // and the classic Camo

We could not be more thrilled for Will (and Momo) – as you can see he’s done everything right, from conception to execution, with steady attention to every detail. We look forward to watching major growth and success from what I expect will be a globally recognized brand.

Browse the web site to see the full line of P.L.A.Y. products – and if you’re in the market for a new bed or two for you pooch, now’s the time to buy, in honor of their launch, all products are 15% off for a limited time (and free shipping for orders over $120).

And hey, if you think of it, do Will a favor and tell your local pet boutique about this trend-setting new line, help us spread the word… Eat. Sleep. P.L.A.Y.!!

* * *

Here’s links to blogs about some of the work Will and I have done together to get to this point:

We Meet: Momo’s pet portrait session in San Francisco

We Design: The P.L.A.Y. Logo design (coming soon)

We Shoot: Lifestyle Pet Product Photo Shoot

This was the case in the tale of the Bedlington 3.  We originally had planned our shoot for Monday, Nov. 1 – but as I constantly monitored the weather forcast all weekend, and woke at 6am day-of, I knew there was just no way we were going to enjoy an outdoor shoot with three fluffy-coated dogs and acquire anything other than a “rainy, rainy muddpuddle” theme. So, we conspired to plan for the single sun-break day of the week… Thursday.  Blessed be the day when the weatherman is right.

When I arrived at 2pm that Thursday, I was thrilled to realize that the changing seasons meant the light was already low and warm. It cast long shadows down the lane of fall-painted maples leading up to Bedlington manor. I was even more pleased to discover, a single fire-red maple tree in the backyard – surrounded by Cedars, Rhododendrons and other quintessential Northwest evergreens. A photographer’s delight.

Of course when I walked through the door into terrier territory, I was met with wagging little lamb tails and bouncy little Bedlington bodies- all abuzz with the presence of a visitor. It took me a moment to establish who was who… Sassy is a fine old girl, and mother to both Miracle (mister) and Rain (misses). Sassy is an old girl, but is in such good shape, the only way I could tell her and her daughter apart at first, was the little ball of fluff at the end of Sassy’s tail.

{ Sweet Sassy}

We spent a while playing in the sun room – Miracle and Rain going birzerk for their Koala {an ingenious toy that laughs like a human child} and their kitty {you can guess what sound that one makes} and momma and papa proudly egging them on.

I will leave you with an outtake from our shoot… Mr. Miracle givin’ me “the look” – hilarious!

In general, I love being outdoors and I especially love being at the beach. I have an intense connection to the Pacific Northwest and am particularly fond of nearly all of Western Washington – but there are a few places specifically, that are very, very sacred to me. One of those places in Indianola.

A tiny community (and when I say tiny, I mean minute – there’s a post office a church and a general store that appears to be circa 1935) that is essentially centered around one very important geographic feature: a gorgeous, rocky quintessential Puget Sound beach.

Second only to the shore itself in nostalgic beauty and local affection is the dock – a spindly, tall structure that has been rebuilt and redesigned several times since its original creation as dock for one of the mosquito fleet ferries of the 1920’s.

I had the incredible luck of living in this tiny zip code, in a lovely, 3 bedroom modern craftsman-style home, a mere 4 minute walk from the beach for a matter of months in 2006. Complete with a pond in the backyard, a large open kitchen, a few stained glass windows, a Jacuzzi tub in the master bath and a home office with the most gorgeous light in the morning… this house was perfect.

When we lived in Indianola, Olivia and I would take twice-daily walks from our front porch to the beach, sans-leash.  We would sit on the pier and stare out at the changing weather over Bainbridge Island and Seattle and smell the salty air, soak in the noon sun, the morning rain or whatever else mother nature may have been in store for us. Those were the days.

The purpose of my vast detailing of this location is to set the tone for just how profound this place is to me – and how excited I was when one of my clients agreed to travel there for their long-desired “labs on the beach” shoot.

* * *

The first time I photographed Ollie and Cocoa was at their lovely home in Seattle – we had hoped to make it to the Arboretum that same day, but as often happens in the Northwest – the weather had conspired against us. So, Joslyn and Jen opted to schedule a second shoot, for later in the summer when the weather was sure to be much improved. The Friday before Father’s Day we made our journey to Indianola – this time the weather was miraculous, but unforeseen circumstances almost dashed our hopes of the perfect beach shoot in the perfect place: teenagers.

Now don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t a teen that long ago – and I’ve got nothing against them personally, but what I didn’t know when we slyly scheduled our morning shoot on this popular beach for a weekday (to avoid crowds), was that it was the last day of school in Kitsap County.
So, instead of a shoreline vacant save for shore birds, pebbles and a few neighbors out walking – we arrived to a beach FULL of fresh-faced teens in their finest beach apparel, BBQ’ing, throwing frisbee, and clogging the narrow pier. Did I mention BBQ’ing?  Does anyone else see the impending disaster of two young labs off leash at a beach BBQ? Yeah. We did too. Immediately.

We turned away from the party before the pups could get a sniff of the hot dogs or they’d for-sure find their way back.

After a not-so-short walk down the beach via a super-secret-squirrel path, we arrived at a mostly deserted section of the shore and got down to business, the business of throwing two balls at the perfect rhythm so as to achieve the desired “both dogs running towards the beach with a ball in their mouth” shot. Wow, was it hard to time!

After nearly two hours of attempts, humans and hounds were all tired and gleefully covered in sand, saltwater and the rosy-blush of almost-sunburn. Happy with the results of our mid-day adventure, we returned to cars, parted ways, and I turned back to my favorite beach for some quality quiet time.

Here are some “fetching” shots from Indianola with Ollie and Coca. {Photography note – this was the WORST time of day to take action shots of two dark dogs – bright mid-day sun – eesh! Sometimes, you just have to work with whatcha got.  In this case, I am very pleased with the results!!}

When you’re a pet photographer on your way to photograph a pug – life is pretty good. When the day is sunny and warm, and that pug is aptly named “Snarf” you can’t help but feel especially blessed.

Well, this was one of those days.

I met up with Snarf and his super-cool parents at their place in Bellevue. After some deck romping, couch hopping, tummy rubbing and fierce pug “snarfing”, we headed to one of my favorite Northwest places: Lake Washington.

The cool breeze and sweet sunshine, combined with bright blue sky, restless lake and smooth weathered dock, all made for a fantastic backdrop for our photo-mania.

Much to my delight, we had timed the day just right and managed to be finishing up our shoot right at sunset, what a day.

The Seattle summers are getting warmer and warmer… 90 degree days, weeks even, are no longer unusual come July/August.

Although these “dog days’ can be challenging for pet photography (the photographer, dog and subjects all panting) they can also make for the perfect Saturday afternoon photo shoot.  This was the case in the event of Abby and Rayne’s shoot.  A double-header, Madison and West Seattle photo extravaganza!

* * *

When I arrived at the Madison home of Amy and Michael, these are the endearing faces that greeted me… Meet Rayne and Abby!

I was immediately struck by how much Abby looks like a “mini-me” Rayne

Amy had purchased this session as a gift for her sweetheart Michael – a gift she had given him months ago while in Mexico for his birthday. Man does this lady know how to spoil her loved ones!!  I was so excited to finally meet the crew. I was also very excited to see the clear adoration Michael has for his girl Rayne…

After we’d spent a while shooting at home, we all loaded up and headed down to Amy’s parents house in West Seattle. Their place was gorgeous, and between the incredible beach-front RIGHT next to the Fauntleroy ferry, and the fully in-bloom poppies and other wild flowers and the cool glass of white wine they offered me when we arrived – I was in heaven.  The light was low and warm, the dogs were thrilled to be at “Grandmas” and Abby was in full ball-obsession mode, which is what she lives for.

I couldn’t be more thrilled with the way this late summer Saturday shoot turned out – I am so grateful that Michael, Amy, Abby and Rayne are such fun and fantastic models and that the persnickety Seattle weather offered us this gem-of-a-day!!