England's Dreaming

I am so sick of the royal wedding. My marital influenza seems to be an epidemic amongst Scottish folk as there are only a few “Street Parties” planned versus the hundreds in England and Wales.

I must confess (though it isn’t much of a confession when you hear me rant about how my money shouldn’t go into funding their lifestyles) I really don’t care for the Windsors. We live in a constitutional monarchy where the Queen does not have any political power. Yes, she can have her opinions and suggest certain tactics but she is, by law, politically neutral.

So what does she really do? Well, she has charities, she visits other countries, she tells Silvio Burlesconi to shut up, but really she doesn’t do anything that a politician or an A-list celebrity doesn’t do (or a D-list underage prostitute in Silvio’s case).

William has a degree from the one of the poshest and elitest universities in Britian (well it’s in Scotland actually) and he is active in the military. Great. Pay your own way then because lord knows you make more money than I do in a year (uh oh here goes my taxation rant). I think he’s fine and great he’s getting married, but honestly I wish people would get over their fascination with this wedding and the royals in general.

I think that a family who practiced endogamy, yes, William’s grandpa is actually his grandmother’s third cousin (they share Queen Victoria as a great-great-grandmother) is not a very appealing family to want to spawn with. William and Harry are lucky their mum was not conceived by kissing cousins or else I’d be looking for a tail or a third nipple if I were Kate.

I really just want to start singing Sex Pistols songs (yes, I know I am not 14 anymore) every time I see displays in grocery stores hawking Will and Kate undercrackers and tea cups.

I think what makes me so conflicted about this wedding is the fact that it is a major news story and I should be covering it on any scale as a photojournalist. I have an itchy camera shutter finger and I probably will keep my eye out for some festivities on the day. Oh well. God Save The Queen’s Grandson.

Northern Wedding...

Billy and I ventured northward last week to Thurso for Billy’s mum’s wedding. Here are some highlights from the trip. (This is a photo of our niece Ava).

I learned to speak Orcadian (the groom and his family are from Orkney): There is a gare-din outside the petty who-us.

I learned that getting your make-up done by a girl who is the color of a tangerine will not end well.

I learned that if there is another American in the vicinity that I will be dragged through a pub by my in-laws to talk awkwardly to him. He was from Hawaii. I am from Florida.

I learned that swallowing a bug on a bike ride is bad and then I learned that I looked silly walking said bike up a hill because I am so unfit.

I learned that in a small town loads of people will know who you are and call you by your name even if you don’t know them.

I learned that surfers will do anything for a good wave.

I learned that people you wrote off can actually surprise you in a good way.

I learned that only children actually like the idea of having siblings. (I’m sure it won’t last long.)

This is a small list and I could go on but I’ll leave it there. It was a nice wedding and we are really happy that his mum is happy.

Going home...

Way down upon the Swanee River,
Far, far away,
There's where my heart is turning ever,
There's where the old folks stay.
All up and down the whole creation,
Sadly I roam,
Still longing for the old plantation,
And for the old folks at home.

Well, if you changed Swanee River (that’s in northern Florida and I’m from South Florida) to the Indian River and the old folks into one sassy momma then this song would depict my desperate need to get home.

Billy and I are already planning what we’ll do during our trip home at the end of June including a game at the Met’s Stadium (it’s minor league baseball except for when the NY Mets come for spring training), loads of seafood restaurant dinners (Billy is obsessed with Grouper where I am solidly a fried shrimp girl), and many, many trips to the beach (it’s a 10 minute ride to the Atlantic Ocean). I am really excited for Billy to experience his first Fourth of July with sweettea, bbq and fireworks because when we do it over here it's just not the same.

It’s funny how excited I am to go to the town where I was born and raised. I was desperate to get out of that town because there isn’t leeway for success if you weren’t born with a silver-spoon (or a citrus-grove) in your mouth. But hey it’s great to visit. I bought some flip-flops yesterday to get my feet used to them because I don’t wear proper shoes when I’m home.

Here’s some photos from my last trip home in December 2009.

Website

My new website is finally up and running. Check it out!

My baby...

Today makes the third year I've been without my best friend. My dog (he was much much more than a dog to me) passed away three years ago today and I still miss him terribly. It's such a hard thing to understand unless you have a "pet." People said "Oh your dog died that sucks" when I was falling to pieces. He was 9 years-old and the vet told me he literally died of a broken heart due to some valve issue.

Baby (I was looking for a cool name to call him and in the meantime kept saying he was a cute baby and it stuck leading to many years of him being called a girl) came into my life on my 19th birthday two months after my dad died. I had been spending most of time in bed not able to really function so my mom surprised me with this precious little creature who didn't let me stay in bed!

I had to be apart from him for four years while I was at university and it was retched and I really regret the time we lost but I couldn't of given him the attention he needed at that time. I went and got him after I graduated and took him to live in Michigan. His first winter I felt terrible because he was a Florida dog. I had to buy him booties because the snow was getting in between the pads on his paws and he had loads of winter jackets. I was working a lot so I got him a friend named Cat. She was a crazy little kitten I got from a crazy old woman in the middle of nowhere and I wasn't a fan of her (hence the lack of even trying to find a cool name).

Baby moved around the country with me and at times he was the only soul I knew in within 1000 miles of the places I lived. He was my constant companion and my best friend.

When he died I was living in Atlanta and I was a mess. I had to take off work and flew first class home to Florida because that was the only ticket I could get. My first time in first class I was sobbing, drinking heavily and carrying Baby's ashes. Luckily the guy next to me took pity on me instead of moving to another seat. I spent a week grieving with my mom (who loved him just as much and considered him a grandson). When I went back two things kept me going... my dear friend Arielle and a few others came to my apartment and totally rearranged it and put away Baby's toys so when I came home it didn't remind me of him too much. And Billy was coming to visit the next week so I just had to make it until then.

Anyways I'm still emotional as this post will show and I miss my Baby everyday. Here are some photos of him. He was blind in one eye and the other eye was getting pretty bad so you'll see it in the flashed photo.

PS Cat and I bonded after Baby passed but now she lives with my sister in Florida and we would like to bring her over here but it's super complicated.

Busy Bee

This is Monday but I'm still in last week. I have loads of photos to work up from a tutorial I gave on Friday, a gig on Friday night, family shoots from Saturday, a gig from Sunday and I am going to another gig tonight in Glasgow and I'm totally redesigning my website and I have to put together an audio slideshow for my photostory. Phew.

So this is short but I have added a photo of an ice cream man (what do people think it's warm out?) that I took on Saturday in Lanark.

Saturday...

Billy and I live next to Murrayfield rugby stadium in Roseburn. Usually it's a nice and quiet neighborhood and there's a lovely park on the street behind us. But on match day the quiet goes away and is replaced with pipers playing "Flower of Scotland" on repeat, trailers that sell hamburgers and chips, merchants selling scarfs with the team logo made from the lowest quality wool available, and the fans.

Rugby fans are far better than football fans as they don't instigate mayhem. They dress up as smurfs and centaurians and of course there are kilts. We sit in our window seat on the third floor and watch as thousands of people fill our humble street after the game. It starts out slowly and then it picks up and a wall forms. It's amazing to watch and its funny to see them notice us. We always wave.

But today we needed to get out. Usually it's really strategic on game days. We either stay in all day or leave all day and its quite frustrating have to plan our lives around a sport we don't even like. We headed Fife-ward again and went towards Dundee to Tentismuir Nature Reserve where there is a beach and a forest. Its really beautiful and there is a point where seals hang out but it was quite far and we weren't really up for the hike.

Then we headed through St. Andrews towards Anstruther to have fish and chips from a shop voted Best in Britain. So good.

What I’ve been doing this week,

I just got back from a job interview for a very cool position so fingers crossed. The rest of this week I have spent time working on a tutorial and working on a few assignments.

Big news!! I get to go pick out a brand new Mac laptop tonight! Yippee! I’ve been using my ancient Powerbook since university, which is a good advertisement for the durability of apple products, however it is not condusive to a busy photography business.

I am also getting my haircut today for the first time in about a year. Ever since the “I want to look like Jean Seberg” incident of May 2010, I have been growing out my locks with occasional usage of a razor in hand to keep away the mullet.

So it’s a big Friday for me.




Photos
Protest against wind farming.
Publication of the Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage report.

Is it March?

Isn't March supposed to signify the end of winter heralding in Cherry Blossoms, lighter jackets and mitten-less hands? Well here in Scotland we have shifted backwards with a forecast of heavy snow for this weekend. Oh how much longer can I be forced to endure this winter! I have been really excited by the daylight lasting past 3pm and one day I was out sans hat and gloves. But no, spring is just a tease. That’s not very nice spring.

But after watching the earthquake footage from Japan, I think I’ll stop my whinging and gladly take the snow.

This week I have been busy shooting and giving tutorials. I spent a lot of my free time putting together a Power Point Presentation on how to photograph jewelry and I worked on my photostory I am doing with Billy on a Hip-Hopper. Here are some photos of my shoots from the week. Soon I'll add photos from my trek up Arthur’s Seat on Sunday (Yes, I made it!).

(1) Scottish Information Commissioner Kevin Dunion up on Calton Hill.
(2) Old Firm Summit on Violence with Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond (he is Scotland’s Prime Minister).
(3) “Guerilla” lighting of Edinburgh’s buildings with torches (big flash lights)

A day out in Fife

Billy and I ventured across the Forth Rail Bridge into the Kingdom of Fife today for a little adventure. It started out hazy and grey but as we were coming back the sun shone beautifully over North Queensferry. See more photos here.

This week has been interesting but I'm glad its the weekend. I had a tutorial this week and shot a few assignments for a new picture agency that launched on Friday.

Tomorrow we are going to do something I've been putting off since I moved to Edinburgh. Billy and I are going to climb Arthur's Seat, which is a big mountain in the middle of town. Tourists of all ages and sizes climb Arthur's Seat on a daily basis yet I've avoided as best I could. But tomorrow I will finally do it- damned be my laziness.