mccall...more to come

i spent a truly wonderful week up in mccall and have been processing the resulting photos for days. it was a fabulous time, despite the prevalence of goddamn vampires. andy and i went on so many adventures. we drove around the lake a bunch of times, drove through ponderosa park, did lots of hiking, and i went kayaking for the first time. so did katherine and mihai, who joined us for the weekend. the new park in town is open, so i spent a few evenings there on the beach photographing some gorgeous sunsets. other than that i sat around and read and relaxed, did lots of thrifting, a bit of gardening, and rode my bike a bunch. and took tons of pictures, of course, that kinda goes without saying.

the last few days of the trip i came down with some sickness, and it’s been very lame. it started as an earache, then a really messed-up throat, then congestion and coughing and throat getting worse and worse...i should have recorded my voice, i sounded ridiculous for a while. i’m finally getting better though. and i hardly ever get sick so i’m ok with it--got it out of the way before belize.

belize! i booked tickets and hotel last night. the place where i’m staying is on ambergris cay, right near san pedro, right on the beach, and i get my own little cabana! the weird thing is i keep forgetting the words “belize” and “cabana.” i want to say “beirut” and “bodega,” respectively. i’m going to beirut to stay in a bodega! no. not a good idea. i leave july 10 and get back on july 24. two whole weeks! i can’t wait to go snorkeling! and adventuring in the jungle! there’s a place called “shark ray alley” where you can swim with nurse sharks and rays. i am so there. i should probably look up what poisonous insects and things they have in belize so at least when i harass them until they bite me i will know what’s going to kill me.

so i guess i’ll continue to work on mccall photos and try to decide what sort of order i want to post them in...i have a huge backlog of photos that extends even before i left for mccall, because in the week before i left i had more portrait jobs than ever. in one week i did pictures for katherine and mihai, promotional photos for my mom, engagement photos for my friend laura, and maternity photos for my friends amber and chris. it was such a fun week! i never thought i’d be a portrait photographer, given my lack of people skills, but now that i’ve gotten used to it (thanks to my friends’/subjects’ patience and understanding) it goes pretty smoothly.