July Adventures (in film)

Want to know what I’ve been up to??

People are always jealously curious about teachers summer breaks.

Yes, I’ve been working. I hostess at a local restaurant. I’ve also done A LOT of client work and have many more photoshoots planned for the upcoming month.

I’ve been working on school stuff too. I’m preparing to teach courses next year that I’ve never taught before, like AP Photography 😀 I am also organizing my classroom and bettering my lesson plans to ensure student growth and inspiration.

I’ve snuggled with my cat just about every day. In fact, she is currently resting her sleepy face on the left hand side of my laptop. When I type the letter “W” I graze my left pinky on her ear. W W W W W W hahaha – whoops, now she’s awake and staring at me. Sorry, Bagheerah!

Secretly, my favorite part of summer is sleeping in.

See – not every summer day in a teachers life is a party!!

I do have the wonderful opportunity to explore a lot though, which I am very thankful for. (I did not go into teaching for the summers, but they are definitely an added bonus!) For those of you who have already ‘liked’ my Facebook Page, you have probably seen photographs from my road trip to the four corners. If you haven’t seen those photographs yet, you should definitely check them out!

The road trip was shot with my digital SLR and I’ve tried to photograph the rest of my summer adventures in film. Here is the beginning of my summer:

Fathers Day 2012 was spend with my dad and brother at Buttermilk Falls – the highest waterfall in NJ, also my favorite NJ hiking spot. This year we climbed up the river, which was at the time very low. This allowed for us to climb up further than ever before. It was great!

This is a photo of some leaves that caught my attention as the sunlight hit them ‘just right’…

Here is a photo of my brother Paul and my Dad.

Here is a photo of the crayfish my father caught. He’s the one who taught me how to flip rocks and find critters and we still do it together… This tradition has been around for about 25 years now!

Here’s a photo of the two of us from many, many years ago, heading off on an adventure. Just for fun!

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When I came home from my road trip with Brummy, Alex and I went on a day trip to Asbury Park, NJ. It was my first time visiting this beach & I loved it!

We rented bicycles & rode around town, went shopping and bought air plant holders that look like jellyfish (!!!), took a walk on the beach looking for sea glass, and had the most delicious Korean Tacos ever! Next time you go to Asbury you have to go to MOGO and try their chicken taco – It’s to die for!

This is the first photo I tried to take while simultaneously riding my rented bicycle:

Obviously, I almost fell of my bike while pressing the shutter button, which is why it is cropped funny and shaken up. I’m sure it was quite a sight!

Once I got the hang of it… I took this photograph of my beautiful roommate, Alex, riding along.

And here is a self portrait of myself on the bike.

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I saw Furthur on Sunday, July 15th. I went with my friends Steve and Jess and we met up with Kyle. It was Jess’s first Furthur show and she loved the experience!

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One Saturday in July, Alex and I decided to have a NYC adventure, so we put our adventure necklaces on and took the train in. The adventure started at Bondi Road, an AYCD, Australian beach-themed, brunch place in the LES for $20.00 each. The place had great reviews, so we had to try it out. We had many plans for later in the day that included art galleries, Union Square and french fries. Needless to say – none of those things were able to happen after ‘brunch’.

We left Bondi’s and met up with my college roommate, Jamie. We went to ‘Welcome to the Johnson’s’, which was conveniently just down the block and continued on our adventure. Sitting next to us, we met Pintsize and Haydn, two local artists who definitely made our afternoon more enjoyable.

Outside of ‘Welcome to the Johnson’s’ was a photoshoot – 2 photographers, 2 seamless backdrops taped to an outdoor wall along the sidewalk and a lot of foot traffic. We all decided to go out and see what was going on. We ended up agreeing to be photographed and afterwards I got to photograph the photographer! Here he is with Alex and Jamie:

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On Sunday, July 29, Tank and I took his new kayak’s on their maiden voyage. It was a gorgeous day! It rained right before we got there which cooled the air off and filled up the lake. We had such a good time! His kayak’s are AWESOME! I paddled in the blue one and Tank took the yellow.

Here are some photos from that day: