I will start with Moscow (RSFSR) – my first Center of the Universe!

The moon was always so big from our balcony that my parents had to send me to study astronomy to get rid of my fear of it smashing down to earth. I danced ballet and dreamed of becoming the next Anna Pavlova. I got gold medal in figure skating and diploma in musical arts in piano performance.  I lived in the Soviet Union, and I liked it. Maybe I was one of the privileged ones.

I will paint my favorite memories of Moscow streets and tell stories about them.

The first is the street where I was born, Old Arbat (Старый Арбат), the oldest and the most famous street of Moscow.

Prep 30 min

Ingredients

1/2 cup fresh whole wheat bread crumbs, 1 green onion(chopped), 1/2 cup drained canned black beans(rinsed), 1 1/2 tsp chili powder, 1/2  tsp pepper, pinch salt, 1 egg, 1 lb (450g) extra lean ground beef, 1/2 cup prepared salsa, 1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese or cheddar

How to:

• In large bowl, combine bread crumbs, onion, black beans, chili powder, pepper, salt and egg.
• Mix in beef.
• Shape into 8 balls.
• Place each in lightly greased muffin cup.
• With spoon, make indentation in center of each, fill with salsa and sprinkle with cheese.
• Bake in 400F(200C) oven until digital rapid -read thermometer inserted in central meat reads 160F(71C), about 15 minutes.
• Yum!

Halloween – October 2011.

Spring came in the late May – 2011.

View of Calgary from the North late at night. – May, 2011

View during the day from the Elbow River. – February, 2011

The Elbow River located in southern Alberta, Canada. It flows from the Canadian Rockies to the city of  Calgary,  where it merges into the Bow River. – February, 2011

P.S. ( I used olive oil as painting medium because I could not open the bottle of linseed oil)

We spent the next 2 years dating – we went to Italy for dinner, Toronto for a game of pool, took a walk in the Mojave Desert, had lots of drinks all over New York City, more drinks in Napa Valley, went to a  Phillies game in Philly and climbed the Rocky Mountains in the -25°C cold (ouch!).

In January 2011, I quit my job, grabbed my belongings, said good bye to Us of A and flew to the  far north to be with my travelling buddy!  We keep on travelling!

It’s been 3 years, and now we’r getting married! We are taking a small group of family and friends to New York City on December 16th,  2011 and getting hitched, the non-traditional way, just as we are.

100% Baby Alpaca Wool.

Thank you Boston Tango Society for welcoming me in and Uche Amaechi for making me try!

What is essential is invisible to the eye.”

-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Let me introduce Vitalia Daza, the artistic soul and Calgary wedding photographer. Vitalia has been shooting weddings since she was 16 years old, and obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Alberta College of Art and Design(she is also a painter). She is always behind the camera…but this time she is in front of my camera!

I met Vitalia Saturday morning in Calgary, as she was packing her equipment bag to go to a wedding. She was going with an assistant, the fun and energetic Charity.

So first things first –  and it is breakfast,  because that might be the only meal until late evening. McDonalds drive by!

While chewing on the sandwiches, we drove to Banff, the breathtaking Rocky mountains. Before going to bride and groom for “getting ready” pictures, we stopped by already set up but deserted reception hall for some detail shots.

Next stop -Groom! This is still life that we found outside on a patio.  Cowboy hats with a beer can and cigarettes, whiskey, car keys, sunblock and a book! It must have been a good night!

Next is the bride.

(Being a photographer, you can not be geographically challenged, or you will never find your clients!)

We found her! The beautiful bride was getting ready with her mom and bridesmaids by her side. The atmosphere was very relaxing, to my surprise. So to spice things up, we stole a dress, and risking assistant’s life made sure we hung it as high as the mountains  and took some pictures.

The shoes are next!

After we returned the dress to the happy bride, she put it on and was ready for the ceremony!

So here comes the bride..This is the moment where photographer has no control of time or space. Vitalia remained almost invisible doing squats, trying to capture the important emotional moments of the ceremony.

Vitalia has three or four lenses that she uses during the wedding. This one is the heaviest!

Right away after the ceremony, everyone had  to be organized for formal family/friends shots.  Vitalia made it fun and easy, and what is important – quick!

Between ceremony and reception, while family and friends take a little break, bride, groom and bridal party take a drive for some more pictures. Sometimes place you had in mind is already taken by another wedding!?!?

So you have to fight them away or hike looking for another scenic spot. Check out Vitalia’s bag that she carries with her all wedding day!

The other wedding party left and bridge is ours..Whohoooo!

On our drive, we found this beautiful lake, and of course everyone had to go in!

Weddings require a lot of work, but don’t forget to smile and have fun!

P.S. You might think Vitalia is best friends with the bride, but this is just how she operates. She blends in with the family and friends and makes the process of taking wedding pictures not something you have to do, but something you look forward to be doing on your wedding day.

Thanks Vitalia for the awesome day!!

Next day we got beautiful sunny day, so we spent few hours at Prince’s Island Park.

Christine and Fernando have been together for 3 years and I think in 60+ years people will be asking them for their secret to long and happy marriage!

First time I ever heard Socalled was few hours before Calgary Folk Festival opened its doors to public. Josh Dolgin (Socalled) and his guests were testing microphones on the main stage. Microphones worked and I was instantly hypnotized by the unique mix of rhythms, energies and hilarious lyrics. I wanted to hear more, but they kept playing the same song over and over again. “Work With What You Got” – its rap, its fun and I could not help but dance and wonder why I had never heard or seen this awesomeness before.

You can listen to this masterpiece here. As I found out later, while interviewing Josh, this song has been number 1 for over 6 weeks on Montreal  BandeApart (Band of Outsiders) radio station. (and yes, I Had to talk to the guy, just posting pictures would not be enough to describe the talent of this genius).

Socalled is Montreal-based musician, known as Klezmer/hip-hop hybrid artist. He is famous for using Jewish folk music and giving it an odd unique twist of his own, be it soul, funk or hip-hop, creating unforgetable blend of different cultures and generations.

It is hard to define what he does, as he seems to be doing everything and everywhere. He is a musician, producer, composer, rapper, journalist, photographer, filmmaker and magician! He taught master classes in music festivals and performed all around the world. When I asked him what was his favourite place, he said he really liked Odessa (after all his grandfather is from Ukraine), but his favourite place to live is Montreal, Quebec. In all his travels, I noticed he has not performed in Israel, so I asked why, as he and his music seem so jewish.  His immediate response was “..too jewish for Israel”, which I thought was hilarious. I personally think he is perfect for Israel!

Even the movie has been produced about him by the National Film Board of Canada.  ”The Socalled Movie”, documentary about  Socalled tours all over the world, the records he’s been making and his creative ways. The movie takes place in Ukraine on the first “Klezmer Cruise”, in which a boatload of klezmer (yiddish culture) fans sail down the Dnepr River.

Check out more about Socalled and listen to his music on his webpage and see how much you like it!!

Here is my favourite video:   (These are) The Good Old Days

Here is Socalled with his friends , performing at Calgary Folk Music Festival July 2011.

P.S. this is the most awesome photo I took after our interview.

Over 60 artists come from all around the world to perform on stages of the festival(one main stage and six side stages). It features not only folk music, but also hip-hop, alternative, and blues.

Day 1: as the doors opened, people ran in trying to get the good spots close to stage. At some point as I walked through the main stage field,  I think I got a little high..was it the energy of the music lovers, or something else..I wont speculate, but it for sure felt like a real music folk fest!

First performers of the night were “Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band” from Brown County, IN.  This husband, wife and distant cousin band knows how to get people up and yelling from their comfy chairs.

The next performer was “Socalled” from Montreal, QC. The music of  Socalled is also called “klezmer-rap”, yet he mixes up so many different genres, and plays different instruments that it won’t do the justice to his music to pin point it to one style. Here is a snapshot.

And here are happy campers getting energized by his music:

The next and the last band of the first day was “City and Colour” from Toronto, ON. The mastermind is Dallas Green – writer, recorder and performer for the band, also Juno Award- winner.

And here are fellow photographers that were crawling under stage with me during festival concerts.

To be Continued…

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (William and Kate) started their first royal tour together in Canada. One of the stops was Calgary, so they got a chance to drive by crowds of happy cowboys and cowboy girls with cameras just before the parade started. I snapped a shot.

Most of the time they spent in Canada they were not as anti-social as at “parade drive by”. They took their time to shake hands with kids and seniors, smile and engage in conversations with excited Canadians.

Here is Calgary Skyline from Stampede Grounds.

Big events are accompanied by shows every day of Stampede. Here is opening of the Chuckwagon races.

And some highlights from Stampede Rodeo.

As I was standing in “press only” box taking pictures of the race, I noticed a familiar face next to me –  Adrian Grenier, waiting for his chance to get on stage and promote his new movie “Teenage Paparazzo”.  The movie is about a 13 year old little paparazzo, Austin. The screening of the movie was in Glenbow Museum in Calgary next day. I did not go, but did I mention Adrian Grenier was standing next to me???!  Here are some pictures I took while trying to not feel like a paparazzo.

 -  yours truly, media accredited, Yumster!

p.s. see my other posts about Stampede – here

Here is July’s edition of Dancing the Wisdom Body at Lightseed. (you can see my other posts about LightSeed - here ).

I have already been to a few LightSeed events and every time there is something new and I get to meet completely different and interesting people.

The atmosphere that Marie-Eve creates during the event equals to a safe bubble where you can be yourself completely, feel free as when you were a little girl and could dance at completely random times in random places without any borders or limitations.

And most importantly, everyone has fun and leaves inspired, energized and ready to face reality with smile and gratitude.

Few girls stayed after the dance to pose for pictures.

We had a guest, beautiful Laura, who sang for us at the end.

“From darkness to light
Lead me from untruth to truth
From death to eternal life”

Check out more of my work and information [HERE] or email me at [olya@YumsterLife.com] to book your session today!

Here are some memories:

Check out more of my work and information [HERE] or email me at [olya@YumsterLife.com] to book your session today!

We went to Uptown Theater last night, which is downtown Calgary, to see the documentary ” The Future is Now“, directed by Calgary filmmaker Gary Burns.

The Uptown theater is not your usual Cineplex/AMC, they only accept cash , don’t give receipts or tickets (yet they did give me student discount), and they “have coffee somewhere, but it might be old, and they dont have sugar anyway…” So we left in search of something to sip on before the movie.

There is not much going on downtown at 8 :15pm on Wednesday night, so after going from one closed coffee shop door to another, we ended up in a steakhouse bar , killing our thirst with Rum and Coke.

Finally, we ‘re on our way back to the theater, up to the second floor. There are two doors – one is Marquee night club/room , and the other one is our movie theater. The movie starts, and its just  us, another guy and about few hundred empty and very uncomfortable seats. And yet we are excited!

As the movie started, it captured me with it’s ideas, conversations and quotes that I wanted to remember. The movie is all about my favourite things - scepticism fighting with optimism and hope (something I tend to do a lot lately within myself);  artists sharing their creative views on the world, an exploration of the importance of art and culture in society with the help of philosophers, art creators and others.

Sometimes it felt like it was preaching a bit, reminding me a little of the old Soviet Union movies about “good“ and “bad”. But still at the end, even though it was not the best movie I have ever seen, I loved for it to be there, right in the middle of Calgary. It made the city come alive to me, and inspire me, if only for those 105 minutes, and even if it was just us, another guy and lots of empty seats. There is hope! And that I consider a success!