Desolution

Happy January 31! How has the first month of 2011 treated you all? I hope splendidly.. I was lucky enough to spend half of the month in the good ole US of A! Yes be jealous. I spent 100% of my time relaxing, talking, eating, and drinking coffee (about 50% of the time) with my awesome family and friends.  It has been a splendid year so far. Despite it being too cold for any human, I feel like the year holds so much potential. It's going to be a great one. I'm getting all tingly thinking about it... oh wait never mind the tingle is coming from the frostbite starting in envelop my poor tootsies.. booo... ahh well who needs em when you can think of all the amazingness this year will offer!

Odd....My tone of writing is a bit too cheery for the above image of death and oppression., yes? What can I say? My camera seems to have it's screwballish dark moods.. I try to cheer him up, but it can't help it. Graveyards are so very fascinating to him. They are just fantastically creepy to photograph in. Would you not agree?

Well enjoy February and all the crazy things to ensue! Talk soon :)

The Coolest Boys Eva Eva

I'm the lucky girl to have these two as my brothers. They really are quite the bomb dot coms. I'm not really sure why they even hang out with me or are my facebook friends. Do you know dear reader? I'm mean really I'm the geeky, huge camera toting, Korean, Mexican sister who can't seem to stay in the US of A long enough to do a load of laundry. Do you think they bother to put up me because I bribe them with food? Yes, yes that must be it!

Food really is a magic tool of manipulation. If you look at any great feat or massive betrayal in all of human history you know what is the motivation for it? A tasty meal. You don't believe me? Well let me explain.. Do you know the real reason Moses had the strength to cross the Red Sea? Not because he was a super human, no, no, it was because there was a pipping Chick-fil-a Chicken Biscuit waiting on the other side, Two of them! I swear it is true just look it up in the Bible. Totally there. It's there. very much there :)

And do you know why Brutus betrayed/killed his super tight friend Julius Caesar? Not because he was power hungry. He was just hungry and his mother promised to make him the best TexMex food known to man WITH extra cheese and cilantro if he stuck it to Caesar. Yes, yes, I know that they were Roman and didn't live in Texas or Mexico. And Texas wasn't even founded until much later, but you see his mother was so ahead of her times, she knew TexMex food before it hit Texas. And so there you have it my friends, the enchilada is what did Mr. Caesar in. Poor guy. You know if they taught the true history behind Caesar's fall in schools these days, more kids would stay awake in school. And that's what's wrong with the education system these days!  Hey but at least I have cool brothers. I hope you do too or at least a good cup of hot chocolate with a little cinnamon in it :)

Sumatran Life

So it's that time of year. You know the time of year that you clean out your closets or in my case clean out my hard drives, reorganize my life, build a website and conquer the world with a crazy fancy 'To Do' lists. What is this time of year called, I forget? Oh yes, Spring cleaning!. oh, uh..er..Shucks, I'm a little late, huh? Ahhh well, we'll just have to call it 'early' spring cleaning..Look at me and all my overachieving ways! I'm just that good. ::Ok ya'll, quit laughing at me. I'm trying to make myself feel better about my superhuman ability to procrastinate::

As part of my Spring cleaning, I looking through pictures of my Indonesian escapades from last winter that never made it to the light of day because of that superhuman ability that I mentioned above. So here is the first a 2 or 3 blog posts series on Indonesia/Nepal and the warmth of these beautiful countries that has currently vanished from Korea-land and will never return again! Ever! My toes will be amputated this week due to the state of the Korean winter and next week my nose will go too! Ok, maybe I am being a little dramatic, they are only chopping off 4 of my toes and half my nose, but you don't understand what it is like to go through six months of straight winter and have to wear long johns and wool coats in May! In May, people! I brrrrreaks even the strongest of spirits.

As part of my attempts to psychologically trick myself into thinking that I will not die during this winter, I am drinking Indonesia coffee by the gallons, turning on the sun lamps, buying a new swimsuit, and listening to Hawaiian music, oh and I even ordered sand for my apartment floor! What do you think? Do you think I'll survive? Ha, Bingo! You're very, very, right dear readers. I'm toast! Burnt toast, so burnt that even the butter knife scraping technic won't help my situation. I'm doomed! No more toes or fingers for me, and I might as well say goodbye to my whole nose too. I can just think of it as cheap plastic surgery, right, right?. ::Happy thoughts, Inge. Happy thoughts!::

The Great Escape!

Mandy and I did it! We escaped Korea for a few short weeks to experience the beauty and intricacies of Nepali life.. How did we manage the escape, you might be wondering? Well see there is this new crazy invention, called an air-O-Plane. Have you heard of it? You see it wonderful! And by-golly it took us all the way from Korea right to the heart of Nepal.. Snip-Snap. Like a dream - BoooooM - Bamb! - Well quite dreamy other than 2 super long, food-less layovers in a China and then a very hearty frisking at the Tibetan border.. Ummmm, can you say Awkward?... as in awkward Turtle - (for all of the high schoolers who know the turtle well).During the Escape, I managed to grab a few photos that I thought maybe you'd want to see or not, depending on your general mood and your current Starbucks intake for the day.Below are photos from Kathmandu the capital city of Nepal, we were held captive by the city for over 4 days until the weather gods allowed us to fly our way  into Lukla, Nepal - by a sweet helicopter! - to start our 8-day, 75 mile trek to Everest Base Camp and back., but more on the mountain later. There will be more Nepali photo craziness on the blog this next week that is coming up. I Swear. Pinky-Promise, spit on my knee and then I'll even kiss my elbow. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I made it out! Plastic Surgery and all.

Sooooo just in case you really missed me, or might have wondered if I might have died during my (our Mandy's and mine) 70 mile - 8 day climb, 18,192 ft high in the sky - to a place called Everest Base Camp in Nepal?... Did you even ask yourself where I was? Well don't feel bad because -- no, no, I didn't die - almost died- but death and cremation is too expensive, and you see, I have bad health insurance so I decided life was a cheaper option... Lucky for you, Mom, death is a pricey bugger... And even more lucky, I included a photo of myself  in this blog post to prove my 100% alive-ness - see my portrait below --p.s. I may have gotten a wee bit of plastic surgery while in Nepal. It's uber cheap there, and I was having an ugly day so I thought some plastic would cheer me up! It did, but the plane ride back to Korea was surprisingly more difficult, and I'm always so hungry now. I could almost eat a c---... or maybe just a horse... hmmm strange., or is it?

Indonesian Skies

Everything in Indonesia was absolutely gorgeous, completely and utterly lovely, crazy beautiful, spectacular, delightful, charming, ravishing.... (you get the point)....but the single thing that amazed me morning, day and night??? The skies, Wowzer. The prettiest I've ever seen. If only I could have packed a sky or two into my suitcase like I did the pineapples, avocados, mangos, bananas,... but the sky wouldn't fit... it was too big.. I tried, I swear I did. I jumped and jumped; yelled and screamed; spun on my head while doing the rain dance... but alas! the suitcase just wouldn't zip. So I had to take it out. Next time, I guess I'll just have to bring a bigger suitcase.

Emmy + Josh - Part 2

So.... breakfast was delicious - I even have a food baby to show for it, Sammy, my food baby, was totally worth it -- Yes I named him; he is going to be just darling I can already tell - he's going to look just like his mother, Mrs. Butterworth and father, Sir Side of Bacon.I still cannot believe that Emmy is married. I thought we'd never do it. I was counting on all six of us girls never marrying, getting lots of cats and then scaring little kids at an old age. sigh. I guess such dreams well never come to fruition - thanks Emmy, you're a real pal.

The Order film

Emmy + Josh Hitson - Part 1 of 2, maybe 3

Yes, Finally! I got off my bum and posted Emmy & Josh's wedding -- I know, I know - I feel guilty, terrible really for waiting this long to post my own sister's wedding... Yes, clearly I am a bad person, sister, sister-in-law, aunt, mother (um, mom and dad I have something to tell you ::cough, cough::), Anyway, I'm a bad human being, child of the earth, I am on my grandmother's S-list, And if I had a heart, it would be rotting from the inside out - lucky for me I don't have one, oh the simple pleasures of life ;)This is the first installment of 2 maybe 3 posts of their wedding ( 3 posts if you'll pull my arm or if I become super indecisive and SUPER productive all in one day). The next post will becoming tomorrow morning after I finish pumping IRON and pretending to do push-up but in reality I'll be watching a super intense workout video on the my comfy couch with a warm Cinnabun covered in gooey icing. yum. my favorite part of the day! And then I'll be so worn out from watching other people sweat and burn calories that I'll need to eat the Hungry Man breakfast at the I-HOP (because face it, no matter how good the hash browns are at the waffle house, it's still gross) and after that THEN I'll post wedding numero 2 (ha, look at me and my Spanish - so proud of me in this moment)But in all seriousness Emmy and josh's wedding was an absolutely beautiful day. The best it could have been. and I couldn't of been happier or more honored to document their day. Looking at the images and them together always but a big silly, cheesy grin on my face. Congratulations guys, I LOVE YOU! -- And thank-you, thank-you to the Amazing Mandy McConaha --> http://mandolynm.blogspot.com and Becky Fluke --> http://www.flukephotos.com/ who photographed this day with me - I love you guys too. You're are amazing! Enjoy and come back tomorrow for Numero DOS! (<--- look Spanish again, I'm amazing! The next thing you know I'll be able to speak Mexican!)

Ashley + Jeff

Ohhhhh Man this was fun.. Who doesn't love a day full of dog slobber, stale bread, long itchy grass, grungy buildings, trespassing on a warm day, Jesus light, and a very fun couple and their baby Poooooper,..I mean uh... Coooooper... or on his bad days "COOOOOPER!" (either way he's cute) Meet Ashley & Jeff. To quote my friend Elizabeth, "They're the Cutest." And I cannot wait to go to Florida to photograph their ocean side wedding in just a few weeks! Are you jealous? Because you should be.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A bright note!

In the mist of all the crazy sleepless nights, caffeine, and ridiculous research papers that are hopefully leading up to my graduating in May (well, that is if I don't fail anything), something just wonderful happened!

What is it? The Bright Note in my currently chaotic life!?! Rachell + Lee's wedding. The one that I photographed in Nashville last fall with my friend Drew, just got featured in Southern Wedding's Blog/Magazine! AH!!! I swear it's true.. how exciting, right? Here's the link to prove it or just click on the pictures --> http://www.swsmag.net/blog/2009/4/16/real-wedding-rachell-lee.html and attatched to the feature is the most spectaculous story of how Rachell + Lee met :) Enjoy....

My Environment

Soooo... I'm back to school and according to a doctor my good grades are leading me to stress out which equals a too low body temperature leading to health issues(don't worry nothing major). But my brother's advice to me? just get bad grades. It will solve everything. Yes! perfect. I love you, Micheal. you're so intelligent. Such a sage(and I'm not talking about that little green thing you stuff inside a Turkey on Thanksgiving). So today I am sending a mass email to my teachers explaining why it is necessary for my health performance to do poorly in their class. I'm pumped! This is the Best Day of My life. It is up there with the day that I discovered that if you squeeze a little lime and chile on your Mango your mouth will start to parTY! yum!

Why is the title of this post my environment? Because I got an assignment from my photo professor where our class had to ditch our fancy-smancy cameras and use only plastic cameras instead. I decided to use a pretty blue Diana+ camera, Thanks to my amazing sisters Candace and Anna for that and my equally amazing model Emmy. The assignment theme? Your environment. So apparently this is my environment? Mom, are you worried? My photo professor is. I think the doctor was right. Mom, you should make an executive order and pull me out of school.  Enjoy my environment. or be worried about it. it's a free country. Oh and more Plastic Camera fun to come soon as long as my body temperature doesn't lead to hypothermia.

Narcolepsy and Photography..

So I sit in bed writing on a Sunday morning way too early I don't think the birds are even up. ::Inge just realizes the birds are in the south because it's so flippin' cold outside. lucky them. i'm packing. Mexico anyone?:: So back to sleep. I would go back to sleep like a normal person but I am pretty sure it is apparent that I am not normal, slightly deformed actually. Mom says I wasn't dropped, but I don't believe it. My body thinks that it is normal to wake up at 5:10 on a Sunday morning when the night before it went to sleep at 1:30. this is definitely a sign of a dropped baby or maybe i was one of those babies that bounced, you know like a ball or, or a pogo stick. They say I was rather fat. Did you know I was born a 11 pd baby? I know. what happened to me? I let myself go. too much bouncing I guess.

So the new year is definitely in full swing, and I hope you know this is post 2 of January. Booyah! 11 months of new years resolutioning to go.. I've started school and also portrait sessions! Yesterday I had a lovely session with some of the greatest girls ever. They were up for anything no matter how cold the day was and they did it so very stylishly. :) Here are some of my favorites from Sarah, Diana, and Kathryn's session!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The best new day of the year

Sooooo, amid school, work, friends and my amazing ability to procrastinate I have managed to go almost two months without a blog post. If anyone had any doubt, now you know that I am 100% awful as opposed to the 99.995% of awfulness I was the last time I posted. I have officially tipped over the edge, and there is no turning back. Or at least I don't think there is a road to forgiveness. No I have no hope.However before you completely disown me, I would like to announce a new date on the calendar, October 32. Is it possible you ask? No, but neither were horseless carriages. And look at us now! we're styling in our bright blue Hummers. Progress is a beautiful thing my friends.But it's true October 32 has been officially added to the calendar. You didn't know? Well, could I suggest that it might actually be a good time to invest in a new fangled contraption know as the internet? My grandmother tells me it's all the rage.Ok so I'm lying.. (surprise, surprise) the government didn't actually declare October 32 a new calendar date. But they should have because this was the glorious day of Rachell and Lee's wedding. It was a perfect fall day, the sun was shining, the ladybugs were out, the leaves were turning yellow and orange, do I need to say more? (you don't need to answer that question, I will stop talking soon. I promise)But not before I say thank-you to Rachell and Lee for having me photograph their lovely day, and Thank-you, Thank-you to my friend Drew Thompson who shot the wedding with me. You are a life saver. I could not have done it without you. Below is a glimpse of Rachell and Lee's beautiful day. Just push the Play button to begin the picture show..~ Enjoy ~