sea.{sun}.sand.sanity

 Friday.  

The day I broke the vicious cycle of busy before I let it break me. 

It went a little like this: 

slept in ~ spent 30 minutes looking for a bathing suit top ~ arrived 2 hours late (I'm on Filipino time) to get Mellissa for our Beach Date ~ listened to 90's on 9 aaalllll day ~ made the mandatory caffeine stop before we got on the road ~ grabbed an incredible lunch to-go @ La Boulange on Fillmore: portabella brie sandwich - Parmesan truffle oil fries...oh my!

to the left                                      to the front                                              to the right

Destination: Baker Beach, the weather was perfect, just about 68*, which is warm for this part of the Pacific Coast.

 Inland, where we came from was projected to be 100*+.  Save me now. 

A day with no agenda, no deadline, nothing on the to-do list...just what a girl needed.

“My soul is full of longing
for the secret of the sea,
and the heart of the great ocean
sends a thrilling pulse through me.” 
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The beach was hardly crowded, a handful of people there, couples cuddled up against the breeze, dog walkers, mostly tourists with cameras in hand, gasping at the sight of the GG Bridge from this vantage point.  I had to smile and shake my head at myself, like I occasionally  often do.  Home is home for me, and living this close to such a great landmark and such a great city, well...until I'm reminded, I forget how beautiful my little part of the world is. 

After a nice little nap in the sun, we took a little stroll down the beach to see how close we could get to the Bridge.  Sans shoes, walking barefoot in the sand, we opted not to climb the rocks to crawl under the bridge.  It was windy, self-portraits were challenging, but that was hardly a complaint on such a great day.  Well, no complaints but let me just give you the one caution should you choose to visit: there is a small portion of the beach down near the rocks as you walk towards the bridge, that is "clothing optional" and by "clothing optional" I mean, "really, guy, how do you just let those shrivelly things just hang  all out in the direct sun and not burn them?" 

As we walked off the beach, I saw this little old couple sitting close and I had to sneak a picture of them. He had his arm wrapped around her, she had her hand resting on his knee.  They weren't talking, just sitting there with each other, looking content together and staring out at the sea.  These sights make my heart happy. 

“Because there's nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it's sent away.” 
― Sarah Kay

A look out point just near the Presidio and just south of the 101 Northbound entrance - these trees, that Bridge, the vastness of the Bay...I could sit and stare for hours.

Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge as seen out of my sunroof, a bucket list item for some, a quick day trip for me.  It's always an awesome sight no matter how many times I get to see it.

One of these days, I do believe I will have to create 

The Sunroof Series: A Photojournal as Seen from my Car in Motion 

I have a tradition, no trip to the beach is complete without stopping at Guymas for dinner, which is right on the Bay, a ferry port in Tiburon.  We timed it just right and hit happy hour: $2 oyster shooters, street tacos, and appetizers.  

A stroll through the Friday night street fair and a couple of wildberry mojitos  later, I couldn't help but notice that the drink must have gotten it's purple inspiration from the the colors that the sun was using to paint portraits in the sky.  

I simply cannot get enough of the sunsets/sunrises in the last few weeks.  

This picture is just as my camera took it, no filter, no edit, no added saturation.  

The sky is just incredible this time of year but a visit to the San Francisco Bay is good any day of the year.  

When the lights go down in the City
And the sun shines on the bay
Do I want to be there in my City

~ Journey 

this {picture} will remain

I was up all night but the morning meetings had yet to begin there was barely enough time to rest my eyes staring at the clock wishing it would roll back wards instead of steadily forward afraid to sleep past the alarm, rest never came
I found myself rushing out the door  again kicking myself for being short on time and hating the feeling that brings every time every.time there's just not enough time in the day
racing.pacing.plotting her course body hurting, mind tired, exhaustedly questioning my agenda
and then the light caught my eye grumblings ceased as a I reached for my camera the first shot was missed, I had barely a minute to spare, but I made it count circled around and found the horizon again 

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim His handiwork.
{Psalm 19:1}

#nofilter this is as much justice as a picture can give to a breathtaking morning
I could fill albums with the pictures I've taken with one hand on the wheel  and the other hand holding my camera  I could dedicate a entire volume just to the masterpieces created by light and clouds
this morning  even for just the briefest pause of a moment in an otherwise jaggedly scheduled day
 I stopped. 
I paused for a few breaths and drank in the sunshine I smiled at the clouds I felt the warmth of the blazing hot August morning drift in through the open windows
the rest of my day, it crumbled it was interrupted sleep hurried phone calls political debates passionate arguments about what is fundamentally right staunch debate about who's going to be the right person to carry that message  who will lead us collectively, consciously, honestly
in a few years,  all the words I expelled today, all the opinions, all the worry and stress they will be nothing but a memory
but this picture will remain 

{featured}

The world is my stage, and there are oh so many platforms on which to perform:   Urban Dictionary wordventing it  {here}&{here}...and{here}

{Haha, yup, my very first someecard - and it's true, I'd have goooooooold if this was a sport!}

Photography: Modern Retro Look
Photography & Casting: How To Lose a Guy in 10 Makeup Mistakes & Bloopers: How To Lose a Guy in 10 Makeup Mistakes  {pssttt...that guy, he's my little bro and some of those girls, they're my BFFs!}

My {Southern} Bonaventure

If you look closely at a tree, you'll notice it's knots and dead branches, just like our bodies.  What we learn is that beauty and imperfection go together wonderfully.

~ Matthew Fox

One of my absolute favorite things about photography is that it can transport you to

a different, unseen, past or forgotten moment in time. 

It.is.time-travel.

I love being able to visually walk in someone else's shoes or share a moment from my life-in-pictures with someone who may never get to travel to the places I've been blessed to have seen.

Last year, this day exactly, July 13th, I was in Savannah, GA and more specifically I was wandering through the hauntingly beautiful, moss-draped tree canopy of the Bonaventure Cemetery.

The cemetery is a short drive from Downtown Savannah, near the end of a well-established neighborhood.

This caution sign, least of my worries, was more of a beacon. 

I love the character in the drapery of the trees in this part of the country.

Someday, I will live where trees like this are indigenous.

Even now, a year later, I have hardly posted these pictures. 

Always with intention to share them with all my friends and family, somehow they got lost in "edit" and stuck in a file, not to be resurrected until today.

I wandered the Cemetery for the better part of two hours, camera in hand. 

I took hundreds of pictures in that time.

Every row, every around the corner was a snapshot back in time.

Off the beaten path, no major roadways nearby, with hardly a breeze, as I walked around, I stepped carefully over grave markers, respecting that was on hollowed ground.

All I could hear was the hum of insects and the occasional cry of a bird overhead. 

I could attempt to describe the vastness of the row and rows of family names and plots centuries old, but as they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words."

I did not stumble upon this place by chance.

My very intention for visiting Savannah, GA last Summer was for this cemetery.

I have been in love with the South since I was a kid.

When I was a kid there was no Internet or Kindle.

There was the library, where you had to fill out a paper application to get a paper card to gain access to get inside to short-term "borrow" a book that belonged to the community.
There were books, mostly old ones, an occasional few new ones.

They were short books, there were hardbacks, there were a few on tape, but then, there were the novels.

At the ripe age of twelve, I read (devoured) Gone With The Wind.

After I spend the better part of a week turning through the used, and worn pages of that library rental, I turned it in and then I checked out the VHS tapes. 

In words and cinematography, it was Southern love at first sight. 

    

This gravesite is a library, rows of plots the shelves, headstones the books.

Each one bearing a name with a set of beginning and end dates, the - in between, the summation of an entire life that left me wondering what stories each of the people buried beneath the soil lived.

This place, this historical site, completely drew me in. 

I studied the faces of the sculptures, reveled in the vines that grew over markers, stood in awe underneath the trees that stood tall and surrounded this place like sentinels.

This cemetery, hauntingly beautiful and comfortably quiet, was like going back in a time untouched.

There was hardly anyone else visiting that day.

A small handful of others, adventurers, off-the-path wanderers, with their own cameras in hand {my fellow photographers, we recognized each other}.
We smiled quietly at each other as we passed in silence.

Even void of color and light, these images are beautiful.

They are both bold & delicate.

They are a question & and an answer.

"To forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without root" ~ Chinese proverb

This trip, this place, this day is one of my favorite pages in my Book of Wanderlust.

These pictures are my memory, my tribute to the history of this place, to the people buried here,
and they are my gift to you, my reader.


~ Lauren

{Fire} in the Sky

Napa Valley Sunset as seen from I-12 on June 16, 2012

iPhone 4, SOOC, no edit, no filter, just the absolute beauty of nature.

I took this photo on my way home from the best birthday weekend in a long time. 

The Coast was chilly as the sun went down, but inland it was over 100*

The temperature and the painted horizon kept changing colors at every turn. 

I was just one of the numerous cars and photographers stopped along the side of the highway that evening.

The sky was on fire and it refused to be ignored.

I don't get out with the "big-girl" camera as often as I'd like to, but I am very much attached to my camera phone these days.  I took over 300 pictures that weekend.

I was amazed at this image when I finally got a chance to look at it when I got home. 

I saw the contest at Love That Shot with the June 16th date and knew that I had to share this photo with a brand new audience. 

I hope you all enjoy this picture as much as I do.

~ Lauren

"The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the sky His handiwork."  Psalm 19:1