Typhoon NURI

I was working in Hong Kong this week and the city was hit head on with a Level 9 typhoon called Typhoon Nuri. The city pretty much shutdown and I stayed locked in my hotel room on the harbor until the storm passed.

The only upside to being in the storm was the aftermath when the skies cleared and I was able to get amazing skyline shots with blue skies for sunset. Hong Kong is notoriously smoggy and its hard to get clear shots, so after the typhoon everything cleared out. Luck had me at the right place at the right time.

Monkeys

All summer, I have been on a quest to see monkeys living in the wild. I learned a valuable lesson this week in India. Short tailed monkeys are nice! Long tail monkeys are MEAN and DANGEROUS!

Jaipur India

On Saturday, we traveled six more hours to reach Jaipur, the pink city in Rajastan, where all the buildings are pink. My co-workers took me to Chokhi-Dhani which is a traditional Rhajastani festival. I was able to get Mehandi/Henna tattoos on my hands as a souvenir of my experiences.

It was truly amazing to see the women in the beautiful dresses and sari’s everyday working and living in the different cities.

One of my favorite sites of the whole trip was in Jaipur at the Narhari Fort. I think it reminds me of the Great Wall and the architecture and the process at the time it was built are truly amazing.

Incredible India!

India has been an amazing experience. I arrived over a week ago in a monsoon (the downside of visiting in August/September) and have worked in Mumbai this past week. Friday August 15 was Indian Independence Day and I traveled with co-workers throughout the country to see the sites and people of the amazing country. We flew to Delhi under  very high security conditions. I was shocked to find the airports empty, but with the recent terrorist activities, people are quite leary to travel. I was able to see the India Gate, Lotus Temple, and the Parliament with no traffic.

We then drove 4 hours to Agra to stay the night and see the Taj Mahal at sunrise for photos. Unfortunately we had terrible rainy monsoon conditions for our visit with extreme heat. I did get some shots, but we had to make them black & white/sepia with a vintage look. It was amazing to see the pilgrims who had come from all over the country to see the city.

My Day with Laurin in LA

While working in LA last week, I decided to take a photo workshop with Laurin Rinder on portrait photography at his studio. It was an amazing day. We hired Trish Coren to be our model. She is an aspiring actress in LA and was the perfect subject for the photos. Before the workshop, I studied my favorite Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines for ideas on lighting and styling.

I had a great time and learned a ton of techniques from Laurin on taking pictures with different lighting and editing techniques. It was truly one of the funnest days I have had in a long time taking pictures.

I can’t wait to take another class in January!!