on the boat dock at mill creek we saw this gar fish in the water. creepy to think that we swim with those things - their mouths are like alligators, sorta. that’s stephen who works at the fuel dock and doesn’t like having his picture taken, but we did anyways. natz. and lastly a gorgeous beneteau sailboat in the sunset on the ride home. a little typical, but also pretty stunning. hope y’all enjoy!

our friend, chase, in arkansas. with a broken right elbow :(

our new friend (and great photog), josh mccullock, and his studio space in the plaza district, okc.

while we’ve been gone, we’ve talked a lot about how we want to rework all of our portfolio sections and images, so tonight we started in on our music portfolio. we got a big piece of wood out of the woodshed and have been staple gunning our music images to it so we can see it all physically and really look at the portfolios as a whole. it’s kind of like creating a solid record instead of a hit single.

ziv was stapling the photos up, and i made him stop because he’d unintentionally created the shape of oklahoma. ironically, we bought an ‘oklahoma is ok’ license plate in stillwater which was setting on the (shuffleboard) table. and our getting-fluffy-again raja wanted to be a part of it all.

hailey just started school this week. isn’t she an adorable first grader?

*last shot manned by adam

on our side of things, it’s funny to think about how she know’s she’ll be there for the next for years and we don’t even know where we’ll be in a month.

adam is a huge sports fan and can guaranteed school you on anything sports. broadcast journalism is right up his alley and he’s had internships and jobs as a sports writer, photographer/videographer, editor, and is killing it!

hayley has known since forever that she wants to be a veterinarian and has worked in lots of different facets of the animal industry from cats and dogs to apes and gorillas. she has a love for animals and it shows. we’re so proud of her for getting into vet school and excited to go to her white coat ceremony friday.

on top of all of that, they’re just awesome, fun people. we love these kids!

we stayed with chase, dawneen, & daylen on norfork lake in a house that’s only accessible by boat… sweet. it’s a beautiful lake with water the color of mountain dew.

we hung out at the lake and swam and boated. chase also took us on a tour through mountain home, where we were excited to score some vintage maps we’d been on the hunt for at a neat vintage store. we grabbed some snacks at the local health food store and hung out in a park eating and talking. for dinner chase cooked us up some a-mazing tikka masala which we ate on their beautiful, mosquito-free dock.

nashville just feels really alive, and everyone there is so nice! apparently east nashville is a hip area, but we didn’t have time this time around to check it out. that being said, we know this is definitely somewhere we’d like to spend more time pretty soon.

now we continue down the trusty 412 to arkansas and beyond for the next few days.

atlanta is really the poster child for urban sprawl. it’s a ginormous city but as you’re driving around it doesn’t seem so overwhelming. you pass through lots of pockets of town, which each have a sense of local pride and that creative flavor that we’ve seen popping up everywhere that we’ve been  – cute coffee shops + artisan stores and the like. there is a booming music scene with genres across the board.

we went to the dekalb world farmers market, which was a market like nothing either of us have ever seen before. anything and everything you could ever want, you could find there. it wasn’t necessarily a farmers market in the sense of it being organic and local, but it was all fresh and cheap, with a diverse crowd of shoppers. save a few hipshots, the ‘no photography’ rule was heavily enforced.

overall, we were pleasantly surprised about atlanta and grateful that the lash’s could give us a fun little tour. here’s a portrait that we took of nevin, gail and one of their 5 dogs before we headed out to nashville for the night.

it’s been really interesting to see our friends in these different stages in their lives. whether transient or settled, we like seeing how people are living and what their thoughts are about ‘this point’ in their lives. photography allows us to document these ticks in the timeline, so we did a portrait of sarah with mr. meowgie before we continued our journey. best of luck sarah on your new adventure!

there are a few apps in particular that have been getting some super usage, and we wanted to share those that have helped us out and helped to guide our journey.

1. google maps (free)

a classic, probably the most used based on it’s necessity. it’s so easy to search for businesses and quickly find gas/food/etc. love that you can do driving, public transportation, or walking directions and estimate the time. if only they had a ‘photographer’ option to factor in all the scenic detours we ‘have’ to take ;)

2. golden hour ($4.99, lite version available for free)

another really great tool for travelers and photographers alike, the golden hour app lets you know exactly when to be ready for those special times of day when the light is just lovely. it’s also nice to know when it’s going to be dark for pitching a tent or stargazing.

3. wikipanion (free)

great impromptu tour guide. also a fun way to pass the time — we’ve been enjoying reading about people, places and things that come up in conversation as we go down the road.

4. radarscope ($9.99)

yes, it’s pricy, but this weather app isn’t just your standard accuweather (which isn’t always so accu-rate). it’s not a forecaster, but it’s an absolutely precise nowcaster. it’s totally worth it to know if you’re about to get eated by a giant storm.

5. yelp (free)

google maps business search is great if you know what you’re looking for, but when you’re looking for that perfect somewhere, user reviews are where it’s at. yelp has every filter you could want and is complete with both a map and list view to make finding where you’re going that much easier.

6. foursquare (free)

don’t forget to ‘check-in’ all the places you go. even if you’re not into how many badges you have or who’s the mayor, it’s still cool to keep a running record of the places you’ve been. also, the tips feature is where foursquare gets really valuable. these short little words of advice can make your experience at any place much better.

7. negotiator (by priceline) (free)

we’ve sadly gotten rained out of camping much more than anticipated, so this app has been so useful when we’re looking for places to stay that are cheap and have availabilities. we’ve gotten some great deals off of here that we couldn’t have been able to get otherwise. you can check availability and book rooms right from your phone. be sure to turn the sound on the first time you open the app ;)

don’t forget to invest in a good case (we’ve got a soft otter box with reinforced corners) because dropping your phone is more than just a possibility.

that’s our list for now! what are some other essentials that y’all are using these days?

sarah had some interviews and other stuff to do in the morning so we were on our own in the city to explore. we stopped into an antique store which was beautiful, and then walked down river st. which is appropriately named. we met up in the evening at sarah’s and all made some dinner together. we’re going to tour scad tomorrow and go to the beach! glad to be in such a pretty town and to be stationary for a few days.

we made a pit stop through charleston (and nearby folly beach), which pleasantly surprised us. it’s fun to go into a city and not really know what to expect and drive away with a good feeling. we stopped and got some ice cream and checked out the market. again, touristy, but at least manageable. we were told that charleston is savannah’s sister city, so we were excited to get down to savannah!…

but not without a fabulous sunset detour down one of the prettiest roads we’ve ever seen. it was so humid the trees were dripping with condensation. it felt exactly how south carolina should feel.

give you more? why yes we did. we caught up on our flickr account so if you’re cravin’, they’re here: flickr/describethefauna

it was really a cute little town with a surprising amount of tourists (we can’t seem to get away from tourists!). we stopped here for our morning coffee and walked around some of the riverfront district. we wanted to make it to myrtle beach, sc for the evening so we pressed on, driving through jacksonville, wilmington, and passing through areas that used to be plantation land.

we entered south carolina (and took our dtf state pic of course), and it was so muggy and humid! and then of course it rained as we were getting out of the car to make our turkey sandwiches. we’re not so lucky on the east coast with the rain so far. but planning ahead, we have a place to stay tonight and again won’t be camping. sigh.

we checked out first landing state park, which sadly didn’t have too nice of a beach. from there we went onto a military base, car inspection and all, to check out the cape henry lighthouse. we read in our aaa handbook about a skatepark built on top of a landfill (twitter’d pic), so we drove over to mount trashmore and watched some youngin’s ride for a few. our idea of camping was, again, rained out as we watched another epic lighting-rain-wind storm. being that we were on a small island, we couldn’t even get a hotel room so we car slept for a couple hours before getting too warm in the car and deciding to drive a few hours to the closest town with a hotel. kind of a rough night, but that’s what comes with the ‘go with the flow’ attitude of traveling!

ahh, we feel better now. we got up early, embraced the heat and took off for probably our most touristy day ever. we walked down the potomac from georgetown to the lincoln memorial and then down the mall to the washington monument and the smithsonian air and space museum. we finally ended up at the capital after taking in all the people, cameras and heat. we cooled off in the pool at our hotel in the afternoon and had a nice relaxing dinner at atidi, an indian restaurant, and came back to the hotel for an evening to ourselves back on M st.

we pricelined a hotel in georgetown which seems like a really nice, younger area of dc. we cleaned up and walked around the area to check out the nightlife. there are mostly upscale retail stores on M st, which cuts right through georgetown, but there are definitely a fair amount of restaurants as well. the obligatory urban outfitters and cupcake shop seem to stay busy late but, being dc and all, it seems like tourists outnumber locals for the most part. we met a nice guy from vermont named nate who gave us some tips on dc and a bit about what the scene is like.

for dinner we met up with kelsey’s highschool friend, meghan, who is braving the big city and seems to be loving it. we gave her a ride back to her apartment in astoria, a really quaint greek section of queens, and ate pastries on her rooftop. what a fun and awesome place to be on our first night of adventuring. something about rooftops in cities is just so invigorating and magical. we couldn’t go to nyc and not visit our friend allan, so we headed over to his section of town for some catch-up and some rest.

we’ve been in a lovely house in a beautiful spot on long pond. four days of great food, three moonlit kayak/canoe expeditions, blueberry picking, sun bathing on docks and rocks, swimming in some mighty chilly water, relaxing, reading, and of course have taken tons of photos. if you want to see more beyond what we’ve posted on the blog, there are more on flickr!

don’t forget about the blueberry pop and lobster roll.

speaking of locally grown produce, we picked our own blueberries with ky from right around the above rock and bridge and alice made us all a pie. win!

last shot courtesy of ms. hayley wilhite, film photographer extraordonaire.

scarlett shared some yerba mate with us in a traditional mate and bombilla format that she had gotten traveling in argentina. it both made us want to go to argentina more and also start drinking yerba mate on a regular basis.

we adventured into the city to acclimate ourselves to our closest outlet for culture. did a significant driving tour around and through the city. stopped by for lunch at the all good cafe in deep ellum, a slightly older seeming stretch of venues and restaurants. then we happed by the farmers market and got some local honeycomb. found two bmx-ers who agreed to a quick shot off a stairset.

bmx trick of the day: icepick - back tire peg grind down a rail.

he uses pillsbury crescent rolls as the bread part (though we learned you can also just use a regular old piece of bread for easier assembly). the crescent roll gets stuffed into both sides of the pie-iron and the filling goes on top before getting smushed together and put over the fire. they’re delicious sweet or savory, and at one point in time the idea was brought up to start a restaurant chain that prepared only this type of sandwich always over hot coals and you can choose from a number of fresh ingredients. any takers?

i don’t think explosions in the sky are named after fireworks, they’re just from texas.

we’ve lived here at the piano factory for two and half years today. it means so much to us to have a home that is inspiring and to live amongst other creative people. our home here has been wonderful — lots of dreaming, talking, creating and growing has happened inside these walls — but we can’t be here forever :)

so thank you boston, and thank you piano factory for letting us call you home.

and whatever’s next, here we come!

and thanks for takin this pic, mitch :)

what do you think?

*kelsey’s arms are still lopsided

*my arms are so lopsided!

EATED.

(we’ve eaten well the past two nights..)

took these polaroids with this little baby (we named it polar). it’s so friggin cool!

here are some more photos from the opening as well as us hanging the show –> flickr.com/describethefauna

we’re excited about this picture, not just because we like the picture but also what it represents. after spending time with allan in nyc, we’re realizing that he’s really someone who wants to make it and knows how to do it. this seems like a cool time in his life to just be branching out into the professional world and getting his feet on the ground, so we’re excited we took his portrait at this moment.

we’re glad to have friends like allan who are passionate about succeeding and who we can grow with throughout our lives.

art opening thursday, june 10th from 7-9pm. art, music, drinks, clothing. come say hi!

we got home from new hampshire around 2pm this afternoon. in an alley behind our apartment we saw our friends mitch and jenny bbqing with everyone’s favorite corner store owner, giovanni.

giovanni is one of the most genuine and generous guys we’ve ever met. today he was out behind his store all day cookin up some delicious memorial day goodness for his customers and friends, with supplies from his store of course. he’s just a feel good, kind hearted person. glad we’ve gotten to know him over the past few years!

in other news, we began operation deconstruct house today for our move in less than a month. it’s a hard transition to go from ‘home’, where everything has a place, to ‘temporary’, where we sort through the things we have and label their personal value. this apartment has been good to us, but we know we can make any place home :)

a couple more photos from the bbq and of the boston haze from the canadian wildfires over at flickr/describethefauna