Sky High: Los Angeles

When I was sorting photos that I had taken last week, I was honestly trying to figure out when I had been on a plane...(I know that sounds ridiculous, but I travel so much for work that I actually have forgotten what city I'm in some mornings)...until I realized I took this at the Ritz in downtown!  While on an interiors shoot I couldn't help but notice the gorgeous view.  The sunset was ridiculous and you can see all the buildings lining Wilshire Blvd all the way to the beach.  While Los Angeles is definitely a sprawling monster, it was nice to see it from this vantage point and appreciate this crazy town.

Check out LA Live and the Ritz downtown - it's an amazing escape from reality!

I Paid to Take a Nap….

I know, I can't believe it either…

On Saturday I met some girlfriends at a bath house in Korea Town…and it was quite the experience.  First off, there was a lot of nakedness in this place.  When I walked in, I was beyond shocked by the lack of shyness and went from a nervous partaker to eventually sitting naked on a plastic stool with Korean grandmas sitting on either side of me.  Everyone was sitting around a trough of water, scrubbing down their skin with a mitt and pouring buckets of water on their heads.  No one seemed to care about how they looked, if anyone was watching, or what their bodies looked like…as an American woman bombarded by images of "perfect" women in the media, the whole experience was completely and wholly healing. A few times throughout the day I actually had to remind myself that I was in the United States and not on some trip in Asia.  Honestly, I feel so lucky to live in LA and experience so many different cultures without leaving a 30 mile radius - it's pretty astonishing.

So, after the scrub down and tea baths, my friends and I took a break from our exhausting day (insert dripping sarcastic overtone here), and so, we did what seemed normal, and took a nap.  Yep, you read that right, in our paper thin robes, on a heated marble platform floor, we grabbed some blankets and head rests and passed out in a room with 15 strangers.  Basically, we had nap time just like you remember from Kindergarten…and it was blissful!  It was the end to a perfect day of relaxation, acceptance, and completely new experiences.  I mean, honestly, who can resist nap time?

If you're curious about this amazing bath house experience, check them out:

http://olympicspala.com/

Disney does Modern

I've been handing out a lot of my business cards lately and people keep exclaiming that they love them!  It features a shot I took at the Disney Music Hall designed by Frank Gehry in downtown LA and I think it's successful because it's simple yet intriguing.  I took a lot of shots that day and it was really difficult to choose which photo would be the best fit, but I finally did, and so far it's been getting a great response.  I thought I would post some very loved "rejects".  The gray sky and shadowless day left me with low contrast, beautiful lines and a great business card!
Here are a few of the others that I loved…..

Want to check out the Disney Music Hall yourself?  It's a great place to check out great architecture and see a great concert.  Click here to check it out.  
You can also head to Chinatown for brunch and eat at my favorite place - like I talked about in this post: Family Traditions.  The concert hall is very close to Chinatown and other great downtown gems!

(want to see my actual card?  Let me know!)