Offbeat Frontier Adventure

Last Sunday Megan invited me on an Offbeat Frontier adventure. This adventure involved searching for the old LA Zoo ruins. Megan and I were under the assumption that our fearless leader Mike, already knew where the ruins were. (Wrong, so wrong). Little did we know this adventure would involve hiking, climbing, sliding down hills and repelling down into old animal cages. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit but needless to say we were overdressed. I mean Megan was wearing heels for goodness sake! She never wears heel, ever. Heck, she can barely spell heels, let alone be expected to walk and hike in them!

Well we embark on our adventure by meeting in the Merry-Go-Round parking lot of Griffith Park. The ruins are North of the Merry-Go-Round so the only logical thing is to climb up this huge hill in front of us, right? So we begin our ascent up this dirt hill, Megan and I are sliding everywhere. It’s a little scary yet hilarious. I would have loved to be the people watching us trying to make it up those hills. We get to the top and look around, well the only things we saw were clothes and old sleeping bags so it’s time to keep moving. We decide to follow another trail down the hill. The ironic thing is I love to hike. This would have been the ideal day, had I been prepared. However, hiking in an almost white dress and black sandals that have NO traction whatsoever, not so fun. So Megan and I slid our way down the hill and through the hike. As we start to go down the trail we see the zoo ruins and a paved road… Come to find out we could have just walked through the grassy park and gotten to the ruins without the hiking and climbing!! But that wouldn’t have been any fun!

The coolest part of the zoo ruins is that you can walk, or I should say crawl through the old animal cages. It’s kind of creepy but if you go during the day it’s not as scary. The insides of the old cages are filled with colorful graffiti, broken glass, and trash. We had a really great time exploring the cages, acting like animals, and posing for photos!

Anyway, it ended up being quite an exciting adventure despite our inappropriate choice in clothing. I had ALOT of fun and took some great photos. I would love to do another photo shoot there some day. Perhaps next time time I will choose more appropriate clothing. I can’t wait for the next Offbeat Frontier adventure.

For more pictures head on over to my flickr!

some day my prince will come…

so one day my cousin hannah (well.. hannah’s not really my cousin. She’s my cousin Ashley’s best friend. But due to this she’s come on almost every family vacation.  i’ve  pretty much grown up with her. so i just call her my cousin now. it’s less confusing, especially when you have 2 hannah’s in your life and neither have nick names) anyway, back to my cousin. So Hannah asks me if I will dress up like Cinderella for her friend Sommer’s daughter Lana’s 4th birthday. after a little begging i agreed. I mean i had nothing better to do that day so why not fulfill a little girls fantasies! at first i was a little apprehensive. what would cinderella say? what if the kids ask me a question and i can’t answer? how long do i have to stay in character? this is SCARY!


so the day of the party arrived. i showed up around 3 and started to get ready. & i must admit, getting ready was a lot like what i imagine getting ready for your wedding day would be like: a little champagne and lots of people helping you with EVERYTHING. it was actually really FUN!
first was hair & makeup. 

since i now have brown hair and cinderella is a blond sommer let me use her blond wig. once i put this bad boy on i REALLY felt like cinderella. then we put on the dress, choker, gloves, and the best part was the hoop skirt underneath! now i was without a doubt Cinderella! at that point the entire character just clicked. i no longer had to ask what to say or do but i WAS Cinderella now. 

then came time to make my grand entrance. i was on my way to the “grand ball” but wanted to stop by and give Lana a present!

im pretty sure all of the kids pooped their pants out of excitement! most of them just stared because they were too nervous to talk to me. it was so cute. they were like OMG ITS CINDERELLA!

the kids loved me.  snow white even tried to set me up with her dad!

this boy had a crush on Cinderella. he asked her to stay for the pinata!

so if you need to hire a cinderella for your next party. CALL ME!

unemployed

i am officially unemployed now. 

in most cases unemployment is really bad.

however i am taking this as an opportunity for a vacation. 

although i am still job hunting i am trying to make the most of my time off. not to mention i’ve been working nonstop for a long time now and i need a break. people keep telling me this is the world’s way of giving me a break so i should take advantage and i AM!

im taking this time to do all of the things i used to love doing but never had time for anymore.

like photography!

& in honor of new my new job as an assistant photographer/second shooter to Megan Finley I have been inspired me to share some photos from the first wedding i ever shot!

mark & linda’s wedding

mark & linda got married on a beach in san clemente

the wedding party

the reception

see more at my flickr!