Okay, I”ll admit it. It’s been SUPER quiet around here. But I have a laundry list of reasons why.

First and foremost, I’m ENGAGED! Okay, that’s not really why. I just wanted to announce it in a spectacular fashion. 🙂 Yes, the love of my life proposed to me in our living room exactly one year from our second first date anddd … we are eloping to Santa Barbara in April — just the two of us! Second first date? Well, yes. We dated for a hot second over a decade ago. I’ll be sure to blog more about this later. PROMISE.

Letmetellyou, there are BIG changes a-brewin’ for {kgP}. Most notably, I’m rebranding. When I started this venture back in 2011, all I knew is that I wanted my web presence to represent ME. And when I made my origingal Pinterest board full of my loves + inspirations and hired a web designer, I think it did that. At the same token, that was when my priority was focused solely around families. Three years later, I have a clear direction that now also encompasses weddings + seniors and I need my blogsite to represent that. I’ve been working closely with one of my BEST and MOST TALENTED friends, Ang of Angela De La Rosa Designs {her own blogsite is coming soon!}, to create an evolved brand that I am in loveloveLOVE with. Wanna glimpse?

So, truthfully, that is essentially why it’s been radio silent around here. I’m not INSPIRED to blog right now because I feel like my current design does not represent who I am in.this.moment. But that is all about to change this month! So, yay!

And now I am going to leave you with a personal blog post of my recent trip to Aruba. That is another goal of 2014. To share more of myself and take time to actually sit down and edit the images that I take for ME … because that is why I bought my original Rebel to begin with. You MAY notice that these images have a slight change to them and that is another hint of what is to come. 🙂

If you follow this blogsite, you know that I am fortunate to be able to travel for my corporate gig and twice a year it takes me out of the country to some AHmazing places. A few weeks ago, it was to Aruba. I always bring one of my Mark IIIs with me and I’ve finally figured out my perfect methodology of which lenses to bring with me for enough variation: my 35mm 1.4L and my 100mm 28L macro. I refuse to schlug around {is that even a word?} my bag ‘o lenses so my 35mm gives me a lovely wide angle while my macro gives me the zoom capabilities, as well as the ability to get right into those details.

The Hyatt Regency was seriously eye candy.

There was exotic life around every turn. It was hilarious to walk through the lobby and have a parrot whistle or say hello to you each and every time.

Yes, these guys crawled around like they owned the joint. This dude is probably 14″ long or so. I had to eat my lunch with my legs propped up on the chairs because they had no shame about coming up to beg for food. I was CERTAIN it was only a matter of time before one scampered up my leg.

The view from the beach.

And the view from my hotel room. The trade winds in Aruba are pretty fierce, but it’s honestly so enjoyable because you don’t get HOT when you’re out in the sun.

One of the days during our conference is an activity day. There is usually the choice of golf, deep sea fishing or a boat/beach day. I’ll let you guess which one I choose on the reg.

The crew is always fun and engaging and at one point I was thinking to myself, oh, what a lovely, serene view of these seagulls flying alongside the ship.


And then I realized it was because of this. If you have a bird phobia … I recommend skipping down the page a bit.

GAH!

I am also lucky enough to have been able to go on these trips since 2006 and that means that I have solidified friendships with my clients from around the country that I truly cherish. One of which is my photog buddy, Randahl, from Oregon {pronounced ‘or-a-gun’, not ‘or-gone’, as I apparently have butchered it all my life}. We always make a point to sneak away for a few hours to go into town and snap images; not to mention that Randahl is a culinary genius and he is always on the hunt for local spices. If you are a photog, you know why this is imperative: no one else understands why you’re always lagging behind and WTF are you even taking a picture of when you’re standing in front of that dilapidated door?? Well, we get it.
We jumped into a cab and asked the taxi driver to take us into the residential area of town that was somewhat close to the commercial scene that the tourists coming off the cruise ships see. It was perfect.
I LOVE the islands. The colors bring me instant happiness. It’s rather depressing as I look outside my studio window and see snow falling and the brown, brick buildings in my sub. Ew.

My fave image from the entire trip. 🙂

Omg, this cracked me up!



I’ll leave you with this sweet shot. Ha, thanks, Randahl.  As you can see, we made it into the tourist trap. Wahhh. This leaves me wanting a nice, cold Balashi Chill.