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I LIKE YOU / LADY MARIKA

By anja on June 12, 2013 in life

This is my beautiful friend Marika, who makes the jewelry line Ay Marieke. The first day that I met her we were working on a photoshoot, and the whole day she was adorned with jewels and ornate crowns, for the sole purpose of lounging on crazy textiles and velvet sofas in the middle of the forest. It made sense, this girl is fancy. She’s infinitely creative and funny, and I love it when she gets bossy after a drink or two. Plus, she’s one of the only people I know that wants to talk with me about Pretty Little Liars, haha. I have more photos from this day to share that feature her spoiled baby cat Arthur, but we all agreed that he deserves his very own post.

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NOT-SO-LATELY

By anja on May 9, 2013 in life

An assortment of photos that have been lingering on my computer, some from almost an entire year ago (yikes). Warm colors and stuff.

1. Sue‘s adorable internet-famous cat, Pepper. He’s so good at posing! This was from last fall when I flew to Philly to shoot Sue & Nate’s wedding party. So fun!

2. Interior at Double Dragon, fancy bahn mi sandwiches. I was editing this photo and dalas came up and asked if I wanted to go there for lunch (without seeing the image). Food psychic?

3. Latte from The West, with Emily back in October when I spent a couple days in NY after Sue’s wedding. Stopped in here a few times since it was in the neighborhood, consumed many bagels. I was so exhausted the entire time in NY, not at my best but got to meet so many pals that it was still pretty good.

4. Grass at the fake stonehenge place out in the gorge, from last year’s Summerland shoot that I tagged along for.

5. Strata at Ned Ludd.

6. Lauren’s cat in the middle of a beastly yawn, last summer.

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A FOREST WALK

By anja on April 11, 2013 in analog photography, life, portland

Last summer my pal Jordan gave me an old Minolta XE-7 camera body, and I finally got around to shooting with it. I really wanted an easy, trusty SLR with some program modes so that I can shoot film without always having to think about metering, and this one is great! I’ve had bad luck with a lot of the popular film cameras (Canon AE-1, Olympus Stylus Epic) and every time I buy one it malfunctions or has weird problems. Maybe this one is lucky because it was a gift! I brought it on a recent Forest Park walk/hike and ended up having to hold the camera shut the whole time because the back swings open, which resulted in some light leaks and probably a few lost frames. No worries though, because the magic of tape totally solves this problem. I’m high-tech.

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KULA GARDENS

By anja on April 4, 2013 in analog photography, life, travel

While we were in Maui, I really wanted to visit a botanical garden. I LOVE gardens, collections of plants, especially when they involve tropical species that we don’t have in the Northwest. When I’m in Vancouver I like to visit the Bloedel Convservatory (another post from a few years ago here), and in Portland we have just a hint of these vibes at the bird room within the Portland Zoo. Maui has a couple options for botanical gardens- there’s the Garden of Eden on the way to Hana, and the more arid and lesser-known (or so it seems) Kula Botanical Gardens. Fun fact: there’s a photo on the Garden of Eden page of a kid covered in parrots, and we totally stopped on the side of the road where it was taken! A guy had a bunch of crazy big parrots who were so well-trained that he could fling them around by their beaks and they would pose perfectly with kids. The parrot guy said something about my hair and how Lady Gaga stopped to see his parrots. OMG I love birds.

We decided to make a trip to the Kula Gardens and it was pretty awesome. Driving up to the gardens took us into the more arid mountain region of the island, there were huge fields full of cacti and a couple lavender farms. The garden itself isn’t huge, but it has a lot of cool stuff and a very chill vibe. I think their property extends past the public grounds so it felt expansive. Animal facts: they have a really cool little chameleon dude, a super old raggedy cat, and a bird aviary with pretty doves and super adorable lovebirds (there were babies too!). The gardens had some of the biggest monstera and staghorn ferns that I have ever seen, plus all the exotic staples like birds of paradise, orchids, protea, etc. The gardens gave me my first glimpse at painted eucalyptus trees, they are pretty amazing. The colors are crazy! They stand out a lot more when the bark is wet, and I got to see some huge ones growing in the rainforest on our drive to Hana. These trees!!

Anyway, I love gardens. I was so glad we made the trip to visit Kula, and I regret not buying a souvenir poster from their funny gift shop- they had a very 70′s vibe, close-ups of flowers with “KULA GARDENS” printed above them in a super retro font. At least I have some of my own photos. These were all shot on medium format film.

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SO TROPICAL

By anja on March 24, 2013 in analog photography, life, travel

TWO HAWAIIAN SKIES

By anja on March 4, 2013 in analog photography, life, travel

Hawaii was a trip. It definitely takes the cake when it comes to beautiful (and frequent) natural displays, no matter where you look. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of Oregon, but a miniature, more psychedelic and extreme version, like a crazy little biology experiment. Here, we have the rainforest, the desert, the mountains, the ocean, and Maui had the same- except it’s like a fantasyland version, with stranger plants, colorful ocean creatures, paradise beaches and like fifty rainbows per day. Duh, right? I guess it sound stupid to wax poetic over a place that is OBVIOUSLY beautiful and that’s why everyone goes there, but I still feel like it exceeded my expectations.

We saw beautiful sunsets every night, but the one that we watched from inside a cloud (after descending Haleakala, but still in the mountains) was truly amazing. dalas posted a set of our digital photos here, you have to look at them!! Every time I look at these photos I still can’t really believe how incredible it was. Once we made it inside the mountain cloud, it wasn’t long before we had to pull over so that we could run out into the field and really take in what was happening. I wish we had a video, too. I joked that it was like smoke-bomb nature photos, except real (aka my perfect, pastel-covered dreamworld). The sun set once, falsely, behind a thick cloud, only to emerge and set again on the horizon. So when I die, bury me next to TWO sunsets.

The funny thing is, this sunset wasn’t even special or unique. We saw really similar photos on the Maui visitor channel (aka best, most hilarious channel) from another day. This is just what happens.

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IN THE STUDIO

By anja on February 26, 2013 in analog photography, life, portland, wild hearts

The past few weeks have been super busy. I think I’ve been working harder than ever in my life, I’m a slacker at heart but I’m really going for it these days! One week, I worked at six different shoots, it was intense but fun and I’m glad to be behind the camera. These photos are from a couple different shoots in the studio recently, just some bits and pieces shot between looks. I’ve been working on a big project connected to the vintage shop that will be going live at the end of the week, including a collection of some of my best-ever finds. I’ve finally caught up on ANN-YA leather orders, after giving the tote bags a bit of a redesign- they have linings now! I have new designs and awesome new leathers that I want to release but it has been hard to find time. I shot engagement photos (Wild Hearts has a new site!) for a fun couple on Mt. Tabor and am really excited about the upcoming weddings later this year. I’m still getting used to the fact that I have to plan my calendar months in advance now! Best of all, on the relaxing flip-side, I was lucky enough to spend a week in Maui. It was my first time in Hawaii and it was pretty amazing (obviously), I’ll definitely post more about the trip soon.

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TWO SUMMER FLOWERS

By anja on February 5, 2013 in analog photography, life

Winter, whatever

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MORE FROM THE ENCHANTED FOREST

By anja on January 16, 2013 in analog photography, life

A bit of film from the time that I went to the Enchanted Forest last summer with Marika and Jess.

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SEATTLE + JK POP!

By anja on January 5, 2013 in life, travel

Back in November Carlie and I took a mini roadtrip up to Seattle to see Alex on her last night hosting JK POP! before moving back to Seoul. I met Alex when we got together to shoot these photos, and after she returned home to Seattle we realized that we had a friend in common! Amongst other discoveries I learned that Alex was hosting monthly Japanese & Korean pop music nights at a club in Seattle, with lots of videos and dances and even crazy homemade costumes and stuff. We only had one chance to see her in awesome hosting action, so we made it happen! Carlie and I spent some time messing around in Seattle before the party (by messing around I mean trying to find a parking spot), getting photobooth pictures taken in the mall, buying lots of stuff from Daiso (Japanese dollar store), snacking & getting coffee at Odd Fellows Cafe and browsing the amazing Totokaelo next door. I also bought those sweet weed print socks by HUF at some skate store. JK POP was super fun, we drank tequila and danced around all night, watched crazy Korean music videos in awe, and were dazzled by all of Alex’s costume changes (Pikachu!!). We snoozed on her couch that night and went out for a tasty breakfast in the morning, props to that toppings bar for having the hugest bowl of butter I’ve ever seen. A GOOD TIME!