MMXIV

call me Moonflower

I have had some strange new years.

I went from being in a crappy relationship in California with a dude that refused to kiss me at the countdown at an awkward house party, to last year in Portland not knowing hardly anyone in the city and celebrating on my own at a barcade, kissing a total stranger, and having a Canadian couple take me under their wing buying me drink after drink and playing pinball with, to this year in Seattle having new friends who got me free tickets to a show and a new guy with a ton of champagne an eager for a kiss.

Things appear to be looking up.

I don't do new year's resolutions because it's just a fading fad. I'm not going to eagerly vow to lose weight or eat healthier or do whatever because fuck it, I am who I am. My only goal ever truly is to create stories, have fun, and grow as an individual and that's not pertinent to what time of the year it is, it's just my life philosophy. 

Doing what I love is a huge privilege that I don't intend to take for granted anymore. This includes both photography and travel. When you find what you're passionate about, you just gotta keep with it, right? 

These past few years have been immense growing opportunities and I'm happy to do a year in review. After all, this is the year I spent in Portland creating lasting friendships that I'll cherish for a lifetime, took some of my absolutely favorite landscape photographs, and yeah, even the year that I fell in love with a great guy.

So here's 2014 in review;

//January was the first time I saw Multnomah Falls, and within first moving to Portland immediately took a trip to Washington, the Big Four Ice Caves, and Cougar.

here's me being all kinds of pensive

//February was the celebration of my 25th year of being on this planet and also the month I met my partner in crime...

//March enjoying the state's capitol in March and glorious cherry blossoms for golden hour in Salem, OR

//April was when my bestie came up to visit and I surprised her by taking her to the Tulip Fields

//May is when I became the motherfuckin' butterfly whisperer...

...jk, but I did explore the Columbia River Gorge

that's also when I befriended my soul sister, Casey whose friendship I value tremendously!

//June is when I photographed Portland's Naked Bike Ride

and also when I took a personal day to pick some lavender

//June called for a road trip to Canada to shoot the Pemberton Music Festival and my queen, Annie Clark

and when I hiked through a river to reach a waterfall at Oneonta Gorge

//August by then it'd been roughly a year since my first solo camping trip, so it felt like it was just about time to do it again. I didn't expect the thunderstorm while camping or the summer  cold that ensued, but it was a therapeutic experience, always.

//September was when I took a ladies camping trip to Thor's Well, but we only made it at low tide womp, womp.

we were told you'd be able to see the Northern Lights from Portland, so I gathered my favorite ladies and tried to see what we could capture. While we couldn't see anything after all, we had some fun playing with night photography. 

//October was when I did a pregnancy shoot for a good friend, and little baby Ismael came soon after!

//November was when I shoot the Squarespace cruise event on the Portland Spirit, here's everyone singing Bohemian Rhapsody.

also I moved to Seattle.

//December spent the holidays in Houston, TX

2014 was rad.

2015 is shaping up to be even radder.

I'm digging this life trend of each year being better than the last, and I intend to keep it up. I guess you could call that... my resolution, after all.

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