haloween...

my friend gina asked if i'd come over and take a couple shots of her and her man in their haloween costumes, before their big night... he's van gogh... incase you couldn't tell... and although i actually saw a few frida's that night, gina's takes the cake!

let your caged bird fly free!

I just love love love it when someone sees something that makes them think of how perfectly befitting that thing would be for someone else. and so i got just an email like that tonight... citing "Yes! I think you need this necklace. I know you love birds." and she was so very right... because this necklace screams my name and would you believe it, the designer believes in "telling stories and creating environments through her jewelry's moving parts." love it.

the generation m manifesto

i'm not usually one for reposting someone else's work on my blog. i'm amazed at the number of blogs out there that are simply compilations of snippets from other blogs. i try to keep my stuff fresh and original. but after reading the following "manifesto" i felt very compelled to repost it. umair is on to something... and what he write resonates with me. take a read and I'll let it speak for itself.

1. The Generation M Manifesto 8:01 AM Wednesday July 8, 2009 Tags:Economy, Generational issues, Global business Dear Old People Who Run the World, My generation would like to break up with you. Everyday, I see a widening gap in how you and we understand the world — and what we want from it. I think we have irreconcilable differences. You wanted big, fat, lazy "business." We want small, responsive, micro-scale commerce. You turned politics into a dirty word. We want authentic, deep democracy — everywhere. You wanted financial fundamentalism. We want an economics that makes sense for people — not just banks. You wanted shareholder value — built by tough-guy CEOs. We want real value, built by people with character, dignity, and courage. You wanted an invisible hand — it became a digital hand. Today's markets are those where the majority of trades are done literally robotically. We want a visible handshake: to trust and to be trusted. You wanted growth — faster. We want to slow down — so we can become better. You didn't care which communities were capsized, or which lives were sunk. We want a rising tide that lifts all boats. You wanted to biggie size life: McMansions, Hummers, and McFood. We want to humanize life. You wanted exurbs, sprawl, and gated anti-communities. We want a society built on authentic community. You wanted more money, credit and leverage — to consume ravenously. We want to be great at doing stuff that matters. You sacrificed the meaningful for the material: you sold out the very things that made us great for trivial gewgaws, trinkets, and gadgets. We're not for sale: we're learning to once again do what is meaningful. There's a tectonic shift rocking the social, political, and economic landscape. The last two points above are what express it most concisely. I hate labels, but I'm going to employ a flawed, imperfect one: Generation "M." What do the "M"s in Generation M stand for? The first is for a movement. It's a little bit about age — but mostly about a growing number of people who are acting very differently. They are doing meaningful stuff that matters the most. Those are the second, third, and fourth "M"s. Gen M is about passion, responsibility, authenticity, and challenging yesterday's way of everything. Everywhere I look, I see an explosion of Gen M businesses, NGOs, open-source communities, local initiatives, government. Who's Gen M? Obama, kind of. Larry and Sergey. The Threadless, Etsy, and Flickr guys. Ev, Biz and the Twitter crew. Tehran 2.0. The folks at Kiva, Talking Points Memo, and FindtheFarmer. Shigeru Miyamoto, Steve Jobs, Muhammad Yunus, and Jeff Sachs are like the grandpas of Gen M. There are tons where these innovators came from. Gen M isn't just kind of awesome — it's vitally necessary. If you think the "M"s sound idealistic, think again. The great crisis isn't going away, changing, or "morphing." It's the same old crisis — and it's growing. You've failed to recognize it for what it really is. It is, as I've repeatedly pointed out, in our institutions: the rules by which our economy is organized. But they're your institutions, not ours. You made them — and they're broken. Here's what I mean: "... For example, the auto industry has cut back production so far that inventories have begun to shrink — even in the face of historically weak demand for motor vehicles. As the economy stabilizes, just slowing the pace of this inventory shrinkage will boost gross domestic product, or GDP, which is the nation's total output of goods and services." Clearing the backlog of SUVs built on 30-year-old technology is going to pump up GDP? So what? There couldn't be a clearer example of why GDP is a totally flawed concept, an obsolete institution. We don't need more land yachts clogging our roads: we need a 21st Century auto industry. I was (kind of) kidding about seceding before. Here's what it looks like to me: every generation has a challenge, and this, I think, is ours: to foot the bill for yesterday's profligacy — and to create, instead, an authentically, sustainably shared prosperity. Anyone — young or old — can answer it. Generation M is more about what you do and who you are than when you were born. So the question is this: do you still belong to the 20th century - or the 21st? Love, Umair and the Edge Economy Community

old soul...

i've been hard at work preparing a grant proposal these last few days... i've taken a few trips to turkey over the last couple of years to document the kurds, and am looking for some funding to go back... more on that later, but i've been relooking through all of my photographs taken there and came across this portrait of a young kurdish girl that i found in diyarbakir. i'm not sure why but i just love this photo. her intense expression, red headband, and gorgeous eyes are hard to look away from... but i feel like it's more what they eyes are saying... what they've seen. these are the eyes of an old soul... and they just happen to be on a very young girl...

Gentelman's Quarterly hearts coffee...

GQ magazine called... they needed a shot of a caffe vita latte and i just happened to have one they liked! the actual shot in the magazine is teeny, tiny, small.... but the nice thing is that magazines pay for web usage too!

an invitation to a destination...

as i was finishing up shooting Shawn and Erin's wedding in Kona, amber, their totally amazing wedding coordinator, made sure to get me a copy of their destination wedding invitations. i can't believe how awesome these were and how excited I'd be to get one in the mail. so cute and so much attention to detail... even the stamps were custom made! nicely done!

Anthony + Liz...

The San Juan Islands are one of my favorite places on earth, and this wedding reflects what a perfect san juan island wedding should feel like. the day was gorgeous, Anthony and Liz were oh so happy and stress free, and everyone just had a great time hanging out and enjoying a great party with an incredible backdrop. i love that these photos give a feel for what their day really felt like. congrats you two!

tuesday night...

i'm home sick, laying on the couch with my laptop, eating spicy thai take-out soup, and finishing up editing this pretty wedding... i'll do a bigger post on it soon, but is this not the cutest most cherubic flowergirl to date?

automator... and no, not dan

the automator application on macs seems to be one of the least used, under appreciated tools. the tasks it can automate are amazing! for example, i created a droplet through automator on my desktop that automatically duplicated, resizes and renames anything dropped onto it. this is a lifesaver for those who do a lot of blogging or web posting on images. this automator site is completely devoted to helping people understand the app more. giving examples, scripts, links, videos, and features. folder actions are another rad tool to utilize. dropping multiple files into a folder that triggers a custom made workflow invented by you. macs are smart. but we can be smarter by figuring out how to help them help us. oh, and while i'm ranting about rad tools that can make life easier... check out evernote.com Evernote is a great service to save emails, receipts, web clippings, and pictures. Basically, whenever I get a significant piece of information, I dump it into Evernote for archival purposes. Check it out. and now i'm off for some green papaya salad at my favorite vietnamese restaurant in seattle! xo, brooke

a few good song lyrics...

Because I will be your ambulance if you will be my accident And I will be your screech and crash if you will be my crutch and cast And I will be your one more time if you will be my one last chance "ambulance" - tv on the radio

I laugh more often now I cry more often now I am more me" "Objects of My Affection" - Peter, Bjørn and John

You can't start a fire sitting 'round crying over a broken heart "Dancing in the Dark" - Bruce Springsteen aka The Boss

If it can be broke then it can be fixed, if it can be fused then it can be split It's all under control If it can be lost then it can be won, if it can be touched then it can be turned All you need is time "pioneers" - bloc party