Center of attention

When I travel, I find myself surrounded by eyes piercing through me. Constantly judging and eating me alive. It really doesn't bother me. In the bird market in Hong Kong, this woman immediately was drawn to me. Maybe it were the bird tattoos? When in another country, no matter how awkward, weird, or uncomfortable a situation is, I use it to my advantage. Yes, it gets annoying when people constantly stare and point at me like I'm a circus animal, but hey, I asked for it. I've learned to use my tattoos as the squeaky toy behind the children photographer's camera to get attention. People who normally couldn't care less about a white woman in their homeland, they take notice, and I take the photos.

I need to do more of this.

I came across this photo while I was looking through my most recent photographed concert. Patent Pending was the band, and boy, were they great live. I realized today that I do lots of photo work on a daily basis but I don't technically take photos every day. I need to change that. It's the only way one gets better at something. To do it more often and practice. Let's see if I can do it every day. I sense a challenge?

Deafening Noise on Tiger Leaping Gorge

This young man and his horse followed me and my fellow hikers along more than 1/2 of the two day hike up the Tiger Leaping Gorge in the Yunnan, China. During my favorite time in China, these hours where the men and their horses (with bells....) followed us were absolutely unbearable. There I was, having more fun than I could imagine; hiking up trails on the side of huge mountains where one wrong step and I was dead. Terrifyingly enjoyable. But, these men and their horses with bells... I thought the men and their donkeys whispering "Taxi? Taxi?" as I hiked up Pacaya Volcano in Guatemala was annoying. Give me the donkeys anyday. It made me so angry to hear the bells of the horses right in my ears. All I wanted to do was hear the sound of the mountains, of Tiger Leaping Gorge. I must admit, I angrily snapped at one of the bell-horsemen, when I know that all he wanted was some Yuan for the day. The men and their horses with bells slowly tapered off as the first day went on. The man I snapped at was the last of the bunch. Better luck next group, guys.

Forbidden City...

Here I was at the Forbidden City of Beijing, and it was crowded as ever with the worst heat I've felt in years. Before we even bought our entrance tickets we had been haggled many times by potential "tour guides." Tourism in China is extreme. On the other side of the world we have extreme sports, while in Asia they have extreme tourism. Tour buses galore. Watch your eyes for umbrellas that never rise above nose level. Little girls are wearing head pieces of princesses. It's precious. Older women become very pushy. They're always pushy, but when it comes time for a touristy city that was once forbidden... they become vicious. One more thought; almost every male would have a DSLR camera in his hands. To them, they definitely think bigger is better.

Walking down Wangfujing Dajie

During my time in Beijing (August '09) I visited the Wangfujing Market a few times. It was where I ate scorpion (twice, I must add), saw a puppy win its freedom, thought about eating starfish and lizard (but didn't), saw an asian brawl where the daughter had to "hold the mother back," ate grapes and strawberries covered in sugar, and where I almost got trampled. The whirlwind of colors, smells and people in markets have always intrigued me.

Here in this photo, I've caught a girl working a stall of nuts and drinks, sneaking a moment on her phone.   In China, technology is always present, no matter where it is.

It's that time.

What's happening? Justin Timberlake just started playing on my iTunes as I currently type in my brand new blog. Is this real life?

One thing I realized the other day is how much people like stories; and I thought about my photographs as visual stories. Then the light bulb started flashing... Damn, I need to write more.

There is nothing I love more than sharing my photos to the world. I've been incredibly fortunate over the years to travel the way I have, and now I decided I needed to take it a bit further. I've never been much of a writer. Ok, that's a lie. When I was about ten years old I loved writing stories. Then real life mush got in the way of my creative flow. Just the thought of "writing" somehow makes me cringe. But I'm going to give it a shot.

I want to share stories and knowledge from other worlds with you. Let's do this.