10 girl photographers in the desert!

A quick break in the midst of wedding season, a chance to interact, to share stories poolside, to laugh over midday snacks of hummus & carrots, to have the sense of “coworkers”, when so much of our days are spent alone in front of a glowy computer screen. From the moment I entered the wedding industry, I was so amazed by the lack of “competition” and by the overabundance of sharing & love, and these girls embody that love in every ounce of their being {in addition to being smart, sweet & hilarious!} I feel blessed to call them friends!

We stayed at the uber hip & lovely Ace Hotel, pretty much splitting our time equally between the pool & the room since it was literally 427 degrees out. The Ace was the perfect place for both relaxation & for photos – seriously, gorgeous photo ops EVERYWHERE! YOU! LOOK! I’m including some of my favorite snaps from the trip here, as well as a fantastic stop-motion video the talented Mary created & put together!

All in all, an amazing trip that left me feeling inspired and refreshed! Can’t wait for Catalina 2011!

STOPtheMOTION Friday! Take:16 from Floataway Studios on Vimeo.

The light at the Ace Hotel was absolutely breathtaking – so soft & pretty!

Amanda made us all these FANTASTIC goodie bags filled with the most amazing goodies – a smores pack, a cupcake in a jar, a pop-of-color water bottle… it was such a treat to arrive in PS to find these!

The food at the Ace was just divine! On the left is the ALT (which I’m pretty sure stands for “ADRIENNE LOVES THIS”, and which I supplemented with lots & lots of bacon):

Thanks to Jordana for the 2nd pic!

Thank you Ashley, Heather, Heidi, Jackie, Jordana, Ala, Mary, Megan & Amanda for a wonderful trip! { image courtesy of Heather :) }

We’re smackdab in the middle of July, our busiest month of 2010, and it’s been a fun ride so far! I just got back from a quick SF trip for Deb & David’s amazing wedding and I’m heading out of the office again tomorrow morning, this time for play :) Looking forward to 3 whole days of swimming, laughing, lounging, eating, shopping, and margarita-ing, with some of the sweetest photographer ladies I know! I’ll be out of town until Wednesday evening and will be returning all emails then – really looking forward to this splash of relaxation so I can jump into the last part of July completely refreshed & rejuvenated!

I leave you with this little collage Ala put together for our trip, love it!

A bit belated, but some peeks into our trip to New York {to shoot this lovely wedding}!

We got the perfect non-touristy tour of the most awesome places, thanks to friends who have spent the past few years in the city. Wandering through Central Park, hunting down delicious gyros carts, visiting the coolest top secret speakeasy, experiences breathtaking city views from a stunning rooftop bar & friend’s apartment building, and food food FOOD… more of our adventures below!

I love this view from the top of the MET and how Central Park looks like a wide jungle in the middle of the city…

One of the things on the tippy top of my must-see list was Highline Park. It’s a park built on a former elevated railway, covered with greenery & providing a cool spot to sit and relax. I LOVE the concept & so wish we had one here, I’d go hang out there all the time with the perfect cup of tea…

Throughout our trip we got quite a few spectacular views of the city, but one of the best was probably from this apartment rooftop. There was such a relaxing setup and the views were crazy awesome – I already have a random affinity for rooftops, but would especially love to have one like this that I could just run up to anytime!

Got to meet up with the super sweet Punam Bean for lunch at Maison. Lots of delish food & great conversation!

On one of the evenings we visited Momofuku Milk Bar (just the name alone sounds scrumptious)! They have the most unique ice cream flavors – I got Cereal Milk which literally tastes exactly like the milk that remains after you gobble up all your cornflakes. The taste was so spot on, I kept expecting to crunch on a cornflake any second! Scott tried the zucchini bread and said it was so authentic it was practically buttery!

Thanks for reading, until next time! Even though I feel like we packed in lots of sights & sounds, I still feel like there was so much more I wanted to explore. Any NYC suggestions for the next time we go? :)