Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Soggy Road Trip: Texas to Massachusetts!

In Indiana, we were driving through thunderstorms and getting ahead of them, then found a window between storms. One right after the other ... golfball sized hail, Renee said, when she phoned us to let us know we were in for a spot of bad weather on the way to Fishers IN, where she and her husband Jack live. Renee is Ken's cousin (his mother and her mother are sisters). So while Ken was driving, I took this shot of the storm behind us.


Renee found a tarp, oil cloth, a yoga mat, foam for anvil cases and an exercise mat to cover our car -- "this thunderstorm included hail" was the warning on the weather station. I backed the car up to the garage as per Renee's instructions, then we went inside for some of the best clam chowder I've ever had. Both Ken and I were "under the weather" (ha, ha): me with bronchitis from 6 days ago and he must have contracted it from me, coming down with symptoms two days ago. That made the chowder, family and being taken care of with orders to go to bed early just the thing we needed to get back on our feet the next morning.


Here is Renee and Jack's living/dining area and you can see out into their screened in porch. Beautiful garden in back with frogs croaking and birds singing through the rain. The perfect place to recover. Their magnificent new floor is tigerwood. I felt like we were back in Japan: clean, minimalist, beautiful, perfect color compliments to the warmth of the wood floor and some blues to bring it out. We took our shoes off in the foyer and stayed in our socks the rest of the evening. Renee cooked us a wonderful breakfast the next morning. And the next morning we were still coughing but well rested and ready for the next adventure.


Rain. All day. We've had 700 miles of rain. What kind of pictures can I take in this? And we're in new country! But it was lush farmland, and Ohio has lovely topography with rolling hills. More tomorrow.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Welcome to Massachusetts

Photo by Truong Nguyen

Keira Nguyen sent me this image that her husband took to welcome Ken and I to Massachusetts! We leave today to drive the 2,000 miles up to the TICA Mysticats Show in Fitchburg, MA, 6-7 June 2009. Generously, Keira and Truong Nguyen will be hosting us at their home while we're there. We will also be holding a Salon for private sittings after the show on Tuesday. Both Ken and I are looking forward to this road trip as we will be seeing part of the United States we've never seen before! Plus, we'll be staying with family along the way there and on the way home again. I'll be meeting some cat breeders face-to-face with whom I've only corresponded via email and plan on photographing some great cats in the Northeast Region!

Thank you, Keira and Rene Knapp for inviting us. We are so pumped!

Joe

This is one of my most unusual cat poses and I wish I could get more of them. If Joe takes another step, he would be walking off of the deck of the photo table. But he is so full of himself, and so "cat" in this pose, with the lines of his tail down to his uplifted leg, that I had to post it.

Joe was brought to me for photographs by Linda Swierczynski at the Jersey State Feline Fanciers cat show in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

Background color for Joe: Charcoal.

Courtyard Under Glass


While we were staying in the Houston Guesthouse belonging to a Patron of mine, Walter and his wife Diana, I photographed some flowers in his courtyard through the glass doors which were covered in condensation from the humidity. Walter liked these so much that he ordered large prints for his office. :)

Walter was the one who got me my Canon 5D SLR camera after I used a 'point and shoot' Olympus for the first seven years of my cat photography career!