a year in review...

Well, I guess it's the time of year to look back on all of my 2008 shenanigans!

Let's see...

- Spent a month in Australia with friends

(Ben, me, Sarah, Irwin the koala bear, Katie, Jaime - check out my awesome sunburned face, it was early on in the trip...)

(rafting on the Tully river)

(note the huge hat to shield my sunburned face, haha)

- Immediately followed by 12 days in New Zealand

(on our way to Paradise - we saw it on the map and thought it was a good idea... and that van is way more comfortable than it looks - I should know, Heidi and I slept in it one night when we didn't like the looks of a hostel in Dunedin!)

(...and that would be Paradise)

- Turned 25 (quarter century, watch out!)

- Went to Vegas for WPPI, where I got a free upgrade to a pretty huge (nearly 2,000 sq ft) room

- Went to Berkeley for a photography workshop, then spent some time in San Francisco and Napa Valley

- Vermont/NYC trip w/ TJ for a wedding

(mmmm, trash in times square)

(yeah this is on top of the Empire State building, you can see tj in my glasses. It wasn't a well documented trip... lol)

- Suzy came to Oregon for 10 days to shoot weddings w/ me - and get into other trouble on the side :)

(at the rodeo in... oh I can't remember)

- Went to Maui for Kyla & James' wedding, and stuck around for a few days to do touristy things

(Haleakala crater)

(pit stop on the road to Hana)

- Went to Seattle to watch my cousin Danny FINALLY get married ;)

- Spent some time in Austin, TX for Suzy's birthday



- A few shorter camping/coast/Bend/Sunriver trips sprinkled throughout the year

All in all, I was away on trips 82 days (about 12 weeks) of this year. No wonder my mom calls me a gypsy...

Snow!

For those of you who aren't in the Northwest, we've been having some snow storms lately... Usually in the Willamette Valley we get a bit here and there, and it melts away pretty fast. Not this time!

These were all taken on Monday -

First I wandered around my neighborhood and successfully froze my face pretty well for an hour or so:

Then my friend Ben convinced a group of us to head up to Mary's Peak for a Christmas tree, which turned into quite the adventure.

Not long into the trip we came across an F350 on HWY 34 that was in a bit of a pickle - The photo would be a lot more dramatic if I had slid my way across the highway for a better angle, but that's a steep 40-foot drop that the front driver's side tire was hanging over (nice work purple truck dude). That'd be my friend Jon's truck behind it, about to pull it out. If I didn't drive a Ford truck myself I would appreciate the Dodge/Ford truck humor in it a little more...

After that debacle, we were off of the highway and headed up the mountain. Not more than 10 minutes in we came across a 4Runner stuck in the snow. Their friends in the Jeep were definitely no help, so Jon got to put his towing skills to work again...

When all was said and done, what we thought would be a 2 hour trip took around 6 hours. I guess buying a tree off of a lot is easier, but it doesn't make that good of a story! :)

Hope everyone is staying safe and warm!

Photographers are dorks :)

My friend Emily took this last Friday nite at a little photographer get-together we had in Portland to play around with lighting. Thanks Kevin for the push :)

Happy Birthday Kylyn!

My youngest sister (and roommate) Kylyn turns the big 2-0 today!

Gone again!

I'm headed to Sunriver for the weekend (be back Tuesday), armed with cough drops, Emergen-C and Throat Coat! Good thing my big plans were renting a stack of movies and taking a lot of naps in front of the fireplace.

Watch, within a few days there'll be a comment from my mom telling me I should be taking vitamins every day, not just when I get sick :)

Meanwhile enjoy this lovely photo Suzy took of me while we were goofing around in Texas last weekend - I'm on top of a school bus in an area where we were warned about rattlesnakes and chiggers, and that's Kim looking like she's doing a cartwheel between my legs in the background. Doesn't get much weirder than that! Well I'm sure it does, but maybe not weirder + blog appropriate :)



And just in case you need to see more of me (and who wouldn't? kidding!), you can check out the photos TJ took of me a few weeks ago. I'm pretty certain that I was the most difficult subject he's ever had to deal with, but he's still talking to me so it must not have been *that* bad. You can see more on TJ's blog.



Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happy Veterans Day!

Doesn't quite have the same ring to it as "Happy Birthday!" or "Happy New Year!," but just wanted to say thank you to my grandpa, brother-in-law, friends and clients who have served our country (and anyone else for that matter!).



A few pics I dug up from my brother-in-law Mike's demobilization ceremony back in January of '06 - He was a lieutenant in the cavalry, hence the spurs and cowboy hat. I think they should've been riding horses though :)

Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch - Texas

Hoppy Halloween!

I haven't found any more Halloween photos from the past lately so here's one of the ones I posted two years ago. I'm the cowgirl, my sister Miranda is the plastic frog queen... or something...

Aloha!

I'm at the airport waiting for my flight to Maui to shoot James and Kyla's wedding this weekend! I'll be back in action in Oregon next Thursday - in the meantime I'm hoping to get some work done on my trip, I brought about 80 GB of photos to edit... And I hope to catch up on my blog posts, so hopefully you'll be seeing Maui wedding photos soon! :)

"...isn't 4 weddings in 10 days kind of odd?"

...said the TSA dude who was strip-searching Suzy at the Houston airport a few hours ago.

Yep, after a roller coaster day of flight changes, my good friend Suzy, who currently resides in Texas, will be arriving tonite to shoot four weddings with me in the ten days that she's here - in Bend, Corvallis, Washington and Harrisburg. In between weddings we'll be celebrating my sister's 22nd birthday, buying "the good" fireworks in Washington (we're up there anyways, why not?), going to the St. Paul rodeo and celebrating the 4th of July in Harrisburg.... and who knows what else. I'm sure I'll take her to the farm and throw her in a tractor while she's here :)

Here we are at the end of a long day last time we shot a wedding together, almost exactly a year ago in Jamaica: It was veeeerrrry hot, veeeeerrrrry humid, and check out those massive bug bites on my legs. Tropical insects and I don't get along....



Anyways, if you happen to see us at a wedding in the next ten days be sure to tell her hi, she's never been to the northwest before so I wouldn't want her to think we're a bunch of big jerks :P

Photos from Liz and Charlie's 6/21 wedding will be up in the next few days!

Gone for the weekend!

I'm driving down to San Francisco today for the One Light workshop in Berkeley tomorrow, then spending the rest of the weekend hanging out and visiting friends. I'll be back sometime Monday nite - Hope you all have a great weekend! :)

Luck be a lady tonite...

I'm here in Vegas for WPPI - I checked in on Sunday nite at Planet Hollywood (formerly the Aladdin, now remodeled). My friend Sarah had heard that not all of the rooms were remodeled, so at check-in I asked if it was a new room... He said he'd see what he could do, and I somehow ended up with a free upgrade to a nearly 2,000 sq ft suite with a panoramic view of the strip! He told me how big it was, but it didn't fully hit me until I was walking down the hallway and realized it was the one on the end with the double doors :)

Lucky for all of you, the internet here is pretty slow so I'm only posting 2 photos of the room - In the 2nd one you can kinda see the bar (to the left, now fully stocked with sweet tea and water), the dress Demi Moore wore in Indecent Proposal (the suite is filled w/ Demi Moore memorabilia - 4 outfits and crazy glass tables filled with things - I think I see a grenade from G.I. Jane - yep, it's a grenade), and the bath tub that has dual access from the master bathroom (there are 3 bathrooms) and the living room.

Yikes. I don't consider myself a very lucky person, so I'm still pretty shocked about this whole situation!





And no I will not be hosting any parties, to the dismay of a few people who have asked me :)

I'm home, and I'm... older!

First order of business, yes I am officially home from my Australia + New Zealand trip - and in one piece, despite my mother's nightmares of me being attacked by crocodiles...

I'm home these next few days - recovering from the big trip, celebrating my 25th with family and friends, and packing to leave on Sunday for the WPPI convention in Vegas next week!

If you're a photographer who will be there and want to meet up, email me at kacy@kacyjo.com and I'll get you my cell #. Looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones, safe travels to Vegas for all who are going!

Wildlife Photography

Yesterday we visited the Australia Museum to check out the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit. There were so many amazing photos, it definitely motivated me to get out and shoot more things in my spare time - besides my own cat :)

Check out the online gallery here: Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year

More from Sydney

Thinking about putting this shot on the bio page of my web site - it screams "professional photographer," don't you think? :)

The other nite Jaime, Ben and I went out on the town in Sydney. At some point during the nite my high heel got stuck in a grate and came right off my foot (oops). Some random Aussie passerby made quite a big deal about it, declaring me "Cinderella!" Which I guess is better than my take on the situation - "Klutz!!"

Opera anyone?

Well, now I can say I've seen an opera at the Sydney opera house. And I can also say that I am 99% sure I won't seen an opera again! We all agreed our evening would have been better spent at a rugby match, it just wasn't our cup of tea, or scoop of vegemite, or whatever they say here :)

Here's a pic of Jaime, Katie, Sarah and myself in front of the Sydney opera house - before we were exchanging "what have we gotten ourselves into" glances, haha!

Greetings from Oz!

Just a few snapshots from the trip so far, proof that I am indeed still alive! :) These take forever to load from the wifi at our hostel, but we head back to Sydney in the morning so I'll post some more up in the next few days...

We each got to hold a koala (Irwin, who I don't think was quite awake)

And feed wallabies! Check out the feet hanging out of this one's pouch, not sure how comfy that looks, but hey whatever works! And for the record, I'm not "hat person" since I think they make me look even more like I'm 12 years old, but you gotta do what you gotta do when it comes to sunburned noses :)

Yesterday we rafted on the Tully River, a full day of class 4 rapids. Guess who can't swim and was a bit panicked the majority of the trip?? I survived, and there are some hilarious photos of us on the rapids but I'll post more up later when I have a better a better internet connection!

We made it!

We made it to Sydney yesterday morning after close to 20 hours of travel... yikes. So far it's just like Oregon but warmer - it's been pouring since we got here! But in Oregon we don't have parrots in the backyard, so that's pretty cool...

I won the award for "lightest packer" - my checked bag was only 15 lbs - next was Ben at 35, Jaime's was in the 40s, and Katie and Sarah both broke the 70 lb mark. So I guess I have a lot of room to buy things :)

Tomorrow morning we fly to Cairns, where it's supposed to be sunny and 90 degrees. No pictures to post yet but hopefully I'll have some soon! Don't expect anything amazing, I only brought my point and shoot and a video camera so that I don't have to worry about much.

Hope you all enjoyed the Super Bowl - we watched it here but we didn't get to see any of the good commercials! Thank goodness for the internet :)

It's the Final Countdown!

Less than a week until I head to Australia & NZ for almost 6 weeks! My new client coordinator Kristy will be handling email and bookings while I'm gone, but if you specifically need to talk to me about anything you better do it soon. I'll have occasional email access while I'm there, but I'm not spending my vacation tied to the computer :)

My friend Sarah put together this lovely collage of the 5 of us that are going:



Going clockwise from the left, we have Jaime (who likes to run), Ben (who apparently has a lot of money, haha), Katie (who I haven't met yet), Sarah (with the surfboard), and I'm in the middle with what appears to be a left-handed digital rebel... Down in the corner with the balloons we have party boy Corey, who we've decided we need to track down to help us out with Sarah's 25th birthday while we're there, haha :) If you haven't seen him on the news, check out the video below:

101 in 1001

I've never been into New Year's resolutions - I don't think I've ever made one, and if I did it was probably something like "become 6 inches taller." This year I decided to create a list of "101 things to do in 1001 days," as better described here.

I'll mark off completed tasks in this entry as I make progress. Right now it's in completely random order, maybe someday I'll organize it into categories but I wouldn't count on it. Without further ado, here's the list!

Start date: 1.6.08
End date: 10.3.10

Kacy Jo's 101 in 1001 (in no particular order) - completed items in turquoise

1. Solve a Rubik's cube
2. Visit New York City at Christmas time
3. Stay at a hotel with a round bed
4. Volunteer for the Humane Society
5. Go on a cruise
6. Buy the 50mm 1.2L
7. Buy an iMac
8. Pay off my truck
9. Pet a kangaroo
10. Have personal photos printed and put in albums
11. Send Christmas cards
12. Buy a house
13. Watch the Bourne series
14. Have a new logo designed
15. Learn to cook... something
16. Disneyland (for only the 14th time)
17. Live somewhere that can act as a place to meet clients
18. Can't say here or I'll ruin it :)
19. Save 20% of net income for one year
20. Go to the dentist...
21. Visit Alaska
22. Throw an 80's prom
23. Severely downsize all of the "stuff" that sits in closets, sell/donate
24. Go to bed by 11pm for a full week
25. Get out of bed by 7am for a full week
26. Give tomatoes (which I despise) an honest try
27. Dance on the bar at Coyote Ugly (just for you Suzy!)
28. Take the train to a Seattle Seahawks game
29. Send flowers to someone at their work
30. Get a boating license
31. Camp on the beach
32. Play the Wii for an evening without being sore the next day, haha!
33. Create an idea book for portrait sessions (photos of new locations, pages from magazines, etc)
34. Pick up the bill when I'm out for dinner w/ a group of 8 or more
35. Send a postcard to PostSecret
36. Have photos taken with my sisters for our parents
37. See a concert at the Grand Ole Opry
38. Take another trip with the girls - farther away than the West Coast :)
39. Snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef
40. Read/audiobook one business book a month
41. Don't buy any new clothes for 3 months straight
42. Buy a sleep number bed, or some other way better mattress system than what I have
43. Go to a drive in movie
44. Visit the Grand Canyon
45. Go to the waterfall in Utah on the cover of that Sunset magazine I have somewhere
46. Organize closets
47. Organize desk and paperwork
48. Move all computers/equipment out of my bedroom
49. Score over 180 in bowling again
50. Jump to next tax bracket
51. Get life insurance
52. Write a will
53. Donate photography to Art for Animals (fundraiser for Greenhill Humane Society)
54. Stay the nite in a yurt
55. Pet a tiger
56. Learn to do something to my hair besides put it in a ponytail
57. See Conan O'Brien live
58. See David Letterman live
59. Eat at Rupert Jee's Hello Deli
60. Loan money to someone on Prosper.com
61. Get my concealed weapons permit
62. Buy a self-cleaning litter box
63. Convince someone else to make one of these lists so they can appreciate how long I took to write it
64. Write a letter to Doritos regarding their discontinuation of Black Pepper Jack, their best flavor ever, yet leaving it listed under "flavors" on their web site as if it is current. I'm not bitter.
65. Throw a surprise party
66. Take a trip with my sisters and mom
67. Buy the turquoise dinnerware set I want from Target (okay it was given to me for my birthday)
68. Go to a non-photography related business event or workshop
69. New business cards
70. Make mini albums for a few of my favorite wedding vendors
71. Ride an elephant
72. Improve SEO on web site
73. Bake a cake from scratch
74. Get a group to rent a house at Sunriver for a weekend
75. Pay off credit cards
76. Spend a week computer-free
77. Can't say here or I'll ruin it! :)
78. Stay at a W hotel
78. Keep track of personal expenses (using Mint.com, which so far is awesome)
79. Improve my Spanish
80. Learn to whistle
81. Attend a One Light workshop
82. Donate $5 to charity for every item not completed at the end of the 1001 days
83. Implement off-camera lighting into senior shoots (outdoor, on location)
84. Ride the Napa Valley Wine Train
85. Visit a new continent
86. Outsource more areas of my business
87. Submit photos to a magazine
88. Take someone's dog to the coast (since I won't be getting a dog anytime soon)
89. Aim my headlights down a little so people quit flashing their brights at me!

90. - 101. Reserved for future ideas :)

Falling In Love At a Coffee Shop

If you watch TV you've probably seen the "A Diamond is Forever' commercial with the song lyrics "I think that possibly maybe I'm falling for you" playing while a man gives a woman some sort of shiny new necklace - I'm not into jewelry that costs more than $10 at the moment, but I went to buy the song - Falling In Love At a Coffee Shop by Landon Pigg - from iTunes, and found out that you can download the song for free from the "A Diamond is Forever" web site. Free is good! :)

Here's the link to the download: http://www.rcarecords.com/diamondisforever/

If you want to preview the song before you download, here's the link to the commercial on YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=L3hYIq7lIDU

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! :)

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

It won't stop raining! I have a few shoots lined up, but.... it won't stop raining. :( I wanted to play with the 135mm f/2.0L that I rented (goes back Wednesday... stupid rain!), sooo yeah here's a toy gorilla from an old college photography project that I decided to victimize out on the porch.





I tried to get my cat to come outside so I'd at least have a live subject, but even treats couldn't lure her out into the gross weather. Doesn't this lens make cat treats look delicious? Just imagine what it could do with a real live person! :)



Oh and just for good measure, I dug up the photo that the gorilla was used for - This was 3 or 4 years ago, for one of my classes at Oregon State University. I can't remember the word for it, but we were supposed to set up a scene using miniature objects.... So here ya go!