Cape Cod

Falling behind is never a good idea but unfortunately it happens. Back in April I went out to visit my great uncle who was once a professional photographer and adman back in the 50's and 60's. Not only did I finally get a chance to see his portfolio from back in the day, but I got the opportunity to be inspired by just simply being around him and his wife, also an artist.

Crosby Landing was one of the first beaches I can clearly remember from my childhood when I used to vacation on the Cape with my parents and grandmother. My gram was very taken with the Crosby Mansion, the Crosby family's summer resort.

I have been lucky enough to photograph the mansion through it's decades of renovations. This time I even had the opportunity to photograph the interior. The rich wood paneling and Mission style furniture made me want to curl up in front of the hearth and never leave!

I <3 Graffiti

Sorry for falling off the face of the earth lately. I'm teaching, teaching photography, shooting weddings, copy editing for a photographer, and just released my book. I'm swamped. But not so swamped that I can't take shots of TRAIN GRAFFITI!!!!!

The Royal Connaught...and a Brush With the Law

Today was an explore of epic proportions. It began with a group of us walking around Hamilton, Ontario for Doors Open. We visited an art gallery where I was yelled at by a very nice Jamaican man who caught me taking photos of the art with my BlackBerry. Apparently that's not allowed. Whoops. Then we moved on to a church that was supposed to be open but it turned out there was a wedding scheduled. So what do you do when nothing at Doors Open appeals? You open YOUR OWN door.

The Royal Connaught was once a beauty. Twelve stories high, she was an amazing beacon of luxury in downtown Hamilton with a ballroom, pool, and amazing architecture.

We had a fantastic time climbing all the way to the roof where you can see virtually the entire city including the ships we photographed yesterday down at the waterfront.

But that's not the best part. The best part is that some fat guy in a motorized wheelchair called the cops on us. Suddenly I'm hauling ass up from the basement to meet up with the rest of the group and we decide to pour out of the door all at once where the handicapped guy is sitting there, wearing all his gold chains and his pinky ring, yelling to the cops that there were "hundreds of them" inside the hotel.

So here's how I looked before that phone call. By the time we ducked into the Ramada Inn across the street I was wearing a bright yellow shirt, sunglasses and didn't have a camera. Then we moved on to a Dollar Store in the ghetto of Hamilton and watched the cops question the rest of our group (we had decided to split up). I'm being told that was not the ghetto but come on... it was ghetto enough for this poor girl from the States.

In the end, we all managed to meet back up in one place and get in our cars where a couple of us moved on to the nurse's quarters at a TB hospital in Kitchener which I will most likely post tomorrow. I'm now dead on my feet.

Thanks for the heart failure fat guy in the wheelchair! Here's to Hamilton's finest =P