for autumn color week

for autumn color week

(it looks much better here :)

my boy.
my goofball.
my sunshine.



(and OH HEY! it's autumn color week and today happens to be yellow! serendipity is awesome.)

...with the loveliest new friend.

Tara is not only one of the most delightful creatures you could ever spend four hours with, she delighted me even further by gifting me with this camera ring last night! Flickr friends for a time, we discovered just recently that we are also neighbors...and as of last night, real life friends...
blessed indeed :)


(and a happy weekend to you all!)

Several of you have kindly asked about the boy and how his trip to Australia went. I am so sorry to have kept you hanging after my lump-throated post about his departure! There is no way to explain the kind of busy we have been so I'll just jump in and give you some tidbits....

His trip was MOST excellent. He came home with some sweet photos of his journey, kangaroo and koala-themed no less...

(PB self portrait feeding litle beasty)

(perhaps not the most common of signs anywhere except in AUS?)

But let's back up a bit. I was kind of holding my breath a little while away in Portland thinking about him, missing him, hoping all was well. I woke too early one morning, flipped open the laptop and there was the best and most important email I have received in my entire life. It was very long so I have opted here to include just the last part of it with you...

".....awwwwwww SNAP! miss you crazy. crazy good food... LEBANESE PIZZA YEEDER. i want to live here. forever. after school. please. dindin! gotta go.
LOTSA luv
From your happiest son,
Riley
PS finished book!
PSS two cute waitresses thought I was 18+!
PSSS I think I am thinking with an australian accent now!
PSSSS more pics up on facebook soon!
PSSSSS LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE"

Um, so, yeah. Need I say more other than absolute deluge of tears of joy ensued? :)


And then there is this...he returned to school, quickly made up for missing the first three days and got into the thick of his sophomore year. He has already produced this self portrait...

which he free handed on the lovely graphic tablet they have in his art class. He went on to create this finished piece using the image...

using recycled canvas, multiple layers of acrylic, fabric and my favorite face in the world :) I know I'm a biased Mama but his teacher was impressed enough to feature it on her website, submit it to his school paper and display it at the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival this past weekend!


And let us not forget his other love...the water...



oh my, this water polo season has been one for the books so far and Mama is the silly, can't sit still, tries really hard not to yell too much spectator you might expect.

There is so much more but I will refrain. I have attempted to hit the balance between just-an-update and outright-gushing in this post. But then again if I perhaps lean too hard towards the gush, you might all forgive me?

Yeah, that's what I thought :)

...and this is why:

the story begins several weeks ago with an exacting client, a tough shoot. our first concepting meeting with them long and arduous, B and I decided to stop at a cute little corner spot offering wine and beer. we befriended the sweet jolly funny bartender until 'joey' arrived and everything changed. he walked in behind the bar and started giving shit to our new buddy. in true leslie form, i chimed in to our new buddy's defense and got some true belly laughs out of EVERYone except joey. oops - we went home fairly quickly after that.

fast forward to yesterday. that tough shoot completed (phew!) B convinced me to stop at the same spot for a celebratory beer on the way home. and of course joey was the only one behind the bar when we arrived. ahem. then that young handsome co-owner of the bar named joey gave us the 'don't mess with me' look - oy - he remembered. but again in true leslie form i just charged ahead with friendly chattiness until he asked us what we did for a living...i explained what we did, where we had just been...his cards still close to his chest but a glint in his eye, he asked me what i shot with and when i answered with "i'm a nikon girl" he burst open with the most genuine smile. he went on to explain that he shoots with a D3 (a D3 people!) and we talked endlessly of lenses and such. i told him that i'd rather give him my money to try out lenses than any lens rental service and that's when he said....
"i won't take your money,
if i can help out a photographer that's enough for me,
i'll email you a list of my lenses tomorrow
and you can borrow them anytime you want."
and then he wouldn't let us pay for our beer.

and i was reminded yet again of serendipity, and fate, and the power of a really good genuine smile.

There are many, MANY reasons it has taken me so long to get all these Portland posts up. Not the least of which is the fact that I had thousands of photos to wade through to come up with my favorites. Having said that, there were thousands of photos that never got taken. Like more of Ward (sorry bud, what with you workin' so dang hard I certainly didn't see enough of you...next time, next time...)! Or of the beautiful sky, always changing, always interesting...

Day 5

...or of the estate sale that I dragged these lovely Jenkins to on my last full day in town - a good 25 minutes from home. There was so very little on offer but I scored anyway...vintage electric ice cream maker, vintage 35mm camera, red pyrex bowl and more - nope, no photos of that. Or how about the black vintage bicycle for sale and parked in front of Rerun? But, then, there are these...

Lunch with these two lovelies and their lovelies was so delicious,
my oh-so-gifted girl Andrea...


and just look at Jen Downer!

Jen is such a wonderful talent, has glowy sunshiney energy and is one of the best huggers on the planet. I so enjoyed meeting she and her gorgeous family on this trip - they are damn good, loving people - and she is one DAMN good photographer.

We finished that lunch, shared many of those aforementioned hugs, and on our way to the car, I happened to catch our little Miss Ava as a garden fairy...


then off to Ampersand...


to catch Robert E. Jackson's show featuring his collection of vintage photobooth shots...


oh, is this one ever my favorite from the show...


or, no, probably this one is my favorite at the show :) ...


How fitting for me to be there with Andrea since photobooths are how she and I first became friends back in our early blogging days. The show and the shop are truly great - do visit when you are in town! I must admit it was a little hard for me not to blurt out to the awesome owner how he should ask Andrea to do a show there, though. I mean come on, right?

And the photobooth fun wasn't over yet...off to Ace Hotel and their vintage photobooth next...

and was it ever the most beautiful booth I've seen! When I stepped inside, there was this...

Oy, I am telling you, after all these years, Andrea and I still don't have a strip together!? So you know what I did right? Dragged her in anyway, turned my Nikon around and made my own. Behold the fauxtobooth strip...

satisfaction.

Then, the obligatory, heart-shaped foamy coffee...


in the best. hotel. lobby. on. earth...


and, suddenly, it was time. Time to go. Time for one more night's rest before my ten hour drive back home. Back to my kitty. Back to sweet Pickleboy who was readying to board his very long return flight. From Australia to Mama. So in the car we piled, back to Andrea's we headed, beat. I mean truly exhausted and then as I was stopped at a red light I glanced over, lunged for the camera one last time and captured this all drive-by style...

do you see it......yeppsirree...there it was...the capper to one of my favorite trips of all time...
A(ndrea) & L(eslie)
...for a reason.

A really, really good reason.