details

neem rana 14th century fort palace turned luxury hotel, rajasthan
inda

doors

neem rana village, rajasthan
india

neem rana village children, rajasthan
india

neem rana fort palace, 14th Century Fort Palace turned hotel

neem rana, rajasthan
india

neem rana

neem rana, rajasthan
india

india 2005 retrospective

i decided today that i'm going to treat everyone to an India Retrospective for the following reasons:

1) i have a huge cache of photos from my month long trip to india in 2005 that have not been seen by anyone but me despite the large volume i posted last year while i was there

2) i always felt so rushed when posting (because the internet connection was always borrowed at tarun khiwal's studio and i didn't want to be ungracious) and included only a fraction of the good stuff

3) because i can

so enjoy the photos that i'll be posting until i feel that i'm done. they may or may not appear in order, include some commentary, or have been posted previously on this blog. this time i'm not concerning myself with such details. instead, i'll be posting the photos that speak the most to me and reflect the complex nature of the country, its people and raw beauty.

next stop, northern india....

door revisited

for my mom and mary ann, because they liked it.

the best place for a drink and apps...

the highlands inn, carmel CA
while you may balk at the price of their lovely cheese plate and a champagne cocktail, the view more than compensates.

lines

stuart's cove, carmel

bob 'n' cob

hands

bob and her new bed...

a dream fulfilled...

st. joachim stands guard at the san joaquin catholic cemetary gates where jake's relatives are buried in stockton, Ca.

winter in stockton

i almost didn't take a single picture of the barren winter orchards of stockton until jake decided to turn around and help an older italian gentleman with a flat tire on the mercilessly busy waterloo road.







the drive home to LA redeemed itself as the worst traffic occured right at sunset. the slow pace afforded us a brillaint view of the sun's descent over the coastal mountains.

the bell ringer...

mr. chuck poland has been ringing the bell for the salvation army for 21 years at his yearly post in front of long's in the crossroads shopping center in carmel. he had officially retired after last year's holiday season to focus on caring for his ailing wife of 60 plus years, but returned because as he says, "there are just so many needy folks out there...they need me this time of year and i couldn't stay away".

for an older gentleman who occasionally stumbles in his cowboy boots and kicked the official bell across the pavement rather than bend to pick it up, chuck is still a firecracker and has something to say to everyone. chuck is so effective at getting people in the giving mood that his payloads are legendary. we donated a children's book about farm animals because of the goat on the front and chuck repaid the kindness with a kiss on my cheek.

carmel friends and fam: part I

richard and allie



tender shoots, carmel CA

la bamba cob

12.12.06
cob discovers his la bamba 45 buried in one of the boxes littering our office. the very same album that he says prevented him from boarding an airplane before he conquered his fear of flying.

trashcan bob

don't even ask me what bob thought she was doing sitting atop the trashcan. proof that the animals really are the ones in control.

i've got 'roids

circa 1996...

there's a tree in my house

for the first time ever, i have my own christmas tree. i spent 3 hours shining up the 26 silver bells that my grandbear (aka grandfather) gave me annually until his death in 2001. the ritual filled me with a bit of nostalgic remorse...remembering the years that this was done with my mother, while i sometimes complained that there seemed to be so many to shine. this time around, each bell was a reminder of years gone by and those golden memories filled me with warmth. even the animals approve.