Lorien Hotel and Spa Grand Opening

I was so happy to hear from Moshe Zusman last Wednesday when he needed a second shooter for the opening of the newest Kimpton Hotel, Lorien Hotel and Spa, in Old Town Alexandria. Beautiful Old Town (one of my absolute favorite places in the DC area!) is the perfect location for this gorgeous new boutique hotel and spa, conveniently located on King Street not far from the King Street metro. And I cannot wait to go back for a dinner at BRABO, attached to the Lorien, to try more of Chef Robert Wiedmaier's delicious Belgian-inspired plates! Overall, it was a very fun night with a great group of people. Thanks, Moshe!

I LOVE my new Logo!!

Jessica Spuhler of Funky Peach Designs designed my logo this past week (first image below), which I am very excited about!!  She also designed the two stickers, displayed below my logo, which I will use for all of my packaging, and is finalizing a letterhead for me right now.  I would HIGHLY recommend Funky Peach Designs to any photographer in need of a cute, fun, and *affordable* design.  I am so grateful to Emily Hayes who told me about Jessica last fall.  Jessica was very easy to work with, provided me with multiple options, and worked with me for the past week to tweak the design to something that fulfilled all of my preferences.  Even if you are unsure of what you want, she will present ideas that fit your general style.  Love it!!  

Macro Fun!

My favorite lens for just playing around (and for newborn shots) is my 100mm f/2.8 macro.  I baked some homemade blueberry muffins this past weekend and got some food shots afterwards.

The Cats

We love pets!  Right now, we have two cats, one who is a 6-month old kitten.  While I was in the Outer Banks, I saw some adorable horse stuffed animals.  Leinie, our kitten, carries around these tiny stuffed animals that we got from Petsmart (she has a duck, a frog, and a dog), so I decided it was only fitting to get her two horses to play with also.  

For the first two days after I gave her the horses, she walked around with the larger one (pictured below) in her mouth, head raised high, trotting/waddling back and forth across the room (because her legs would otherwise trip on the horse!).  What an odd little cat!

Here is sweet Sierra, the more obedient of the two:

OBX

My sister, Pam, is writing an article that she hopes to get published in either Coastal Living or a similar magazine on the wild horse rescue efforts in the Outer Banks (OBX).  She asked me to join her a couple of weekends ago to photograph Karen, the woman with whom she has been in contact who leads the efforts down in North Carolina.  

Our family has been vacationing in the Outer Banks almost every year since we were young children.  It is a beautiful, family-friendly area.  I always knew of the wild horses, but I learned a tremendous amount of new information in our short trip.  Karen spent all Saturday morning with us, explaining the history of the horses, the current challenges, and taking us onto the four-wheel drive area of the beach so we could find some of the wild horses.  There is so much information to share, so I hope that Pam's article will in fact be published.  Either way, if you ever make it to the Outer Banks, be sure to make a stop at the Corolla Schoolhouse, just past the entrance to the Currituck Lighthouse, to learn more about the Spanish mustang descendants in the OBX or just click here.  

The horses can be found beyond the dunes, roaming the sandy beach neighborhoods, which are only accessible by beach with a 4-wheel drive vehicle.  In the winter, they walk around grazing for up to 18 hours a day.  Their bodies have adapted to the food that is naturally available in this environment - it is extremely important NOT to feed the horses because food we typically think of horses eating (i.e., apples, carrots, etc.) can make these horses very sick and even kill them.

Karen re-located to the Outer Banks two and a half years ago to take over leading the wild horse rescue efforts.  Her husband lives in Pennsylvania and travels to North Carolina every couple of weekends to visit her.  Karen is on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  In the rare occasion that she has nothing else to do, you can find her walking along the shoreline in search of seaglass - her favorite beach activity.  

We ran into one of the many local wild horse rescue volunteers on our way back to the Schoolhouse after seeing the horses.  The picture below this one displays some of the many shells he collected that morning.  

This picture displays actual tree stumps that are still rooted in the sand.  When the tide comes up, they are buried and you would never know they were there in the first place!

Motion shot from the passenger seat: