I cannot resist following a path- especially when it seems to lead to nowhere- because in my explorations I have found that every road exists for a reason, no matter how hidden...

This abandoned old house was at the end of that road, frozen in time and lost in the deep dark pine barrens of New Jersey. One dark window seemed like the heart of the house now stilled & unbeating. Paint peeled from the porch columns... while birds made their nests along the peaked lines of the upper stories...

I could only wonder at the secrets this place would hold forever.

The green that was once cheerful decorated jagged edges... and the shadows & the trees conspired to play tricks on my eyes. After a brief connection with something lost, the sun began it's descent behind corners & window panes and stole my light.

As I retreated from the scene, the dying sun gave me a final brilliant display, fire through the tangled foliage that hid this forgotten place.

(I tried to go back for more later but the place was completely gone, demolished, these photos left behind to testify to it's forgotten presence. I do have more shots & background story on this find on the following page, for those interested: http://www.lostdestinations.com/treehse.htm)

I don't often have a willing victim... errr ummm... model, yeah MODEL, to photograph, so I shoot 'em when I can get 'em.

I wanted to try using absolutely nothing but candlelight for lighting...

...what can I say, I like to play with fire...

Cigarettes and red red lips, such a lovely combo...

But sometimes, it's all just smoke & mirrors...

The reflected, flickering flames did some strange & interesting things in the darkness...

And a cigarette holder and an armful of roses in the shadows make me think of a sort of sinister elegance...

I went to Galveston to investigate a 'haunted' lighthouse, and felt like I had gone back in time...

The only way to reach Bolivar Peninsula is by ferry, from which the supposedly haunted Bolivar Lighthouse is but a speck on the horizon. Along the way, we glide past an eerie-looking partially sunken ship. Once on the peninsula, the black towering lighthouse dominates the landscape, and a foreboding marsh surrounds the lighthouse around back. Prehistoric-looking cranes roamed the marsh grasses looking for a meal, and waded the waters off of the peninsula.

After a day of ghosthunting, nature called, showing us a bee, and not just any bee- but an angsty, dressed-in-black Goth bee.... and gargoyles kept watch over the descending sunlight. A ghostly moon peeking through blossomed trees gave a final otherworldy touch to the unforgettable day...

Meet Sabre- my beloved kittycatty (well one of 'em, anyway, heh) with the Sith-eyes. He was SUCH a good model as a teeeenytiny kitten; he's harder to photograph than a Sasquatch now. He's gone on the road with me since he was a baby, he loves kickin back in hotel rooms.

He used to be SO fuzzy as a kitten. And he was sooo cute and playful, but HANDS OFFA his toys! After a full, oh-so-tiring day filled with spoiling, sometimes a kitty's just gotta have a nap- preferably on my Chuck Taylors.

Nowadays, the only way to steal a photo of the Orange One is to catch him when he's distracted. Like after he steals one of the dog's toys. Ohhh, Sabre!

I love the moon. Aurooooo! I am kinda obsessed with the subject. In fact, I have shot every single Full Moon going back to 2002 (don't worry- I am not going to make you all look at ALL of them, heheh) But, wanna see a few of my fave moon pics? Lookie...

This one is a bright Full Snow Moon, caught juuuust as it was rising over the Texas desert. And not a flake of snow in sight. Hmmpph.

And here is a stark Full Cold Moon. It WAS Winter... but it wasn't all that cold when I shot this. Alas.

Here is one of Spring's beauties- a luminous Full Flower Moon. I liked how it almost resembled a big, irridescent pearl caught in the sky.

This is a spooky one- a glowing ghostly Full Frost Moon. It was rising behind the tree, but somehow appeared to be snagged in the very branches themselves. Weird, eh?

This one wasn't full, but it was pretty... peeking through the pines in all it's bright, moonlight-y glory.

And finally, here is a shot of a full-on lunar eclipse in progress, showing off in the night sky above the twinkling lights of my hometown (El Paso, TX)

If anyone is interested in knowing the names of each month's full moon let me know, I will list them here for you. Hope you all enjoyed this bit of Luna-cy...

I have the best. Job. EVER (well, except for the irregular income, starving-artist part, heheh). I travel the Land, freelance-stylee, photographing/exploring the weird, wild, odd, abandoned, 'haunted', and well... just plain weeiirrrd (that thumbnail shows moi with one of the books I have co-authored, plugplugplug!) So, I have kinda developed an eye for spotting the bizarre and of course, I always keep my trusty camera with me to capture the evidence. And today I wanted to share a few of my favorite random oddities with you guys. Ready? Ok go...

Ever seen a 30-foot-tall baby? I have, while driving down I-10 just outside of Phoenix- I nearly ran off the road first time I saw him, heh. I have since grown very familiar with the little (big?) guy (imagine the diaper changes on that one, oi) Then there was this very strange tree I spotted peeking over a tall fence in AZ... it was entirely made of METAL- the trunk, branches, even each tiny individual leaf!! Sometimes I see stuff that just makes me go... huh??? Like a 'decapitated head' decorating a mailbox (w/a flag for that special patriotic touch?? Ohhh K) Or the infamous Giant Evil Clown of New Jersey... why the sinister face... and what's with the RED finger??? Hrrmm? And- I have heard of a house boat, or even a boathouse... but... a... HOUSE-boat.. (came across this place somewhere in Idaho)?? LOL! And here is a favorite shot of mine- as seen on the NJ turnpike, I like to call this one 'Welcome To New Jersey', haha (no filter was used on this, I literally shot it from the backseat of a car in the split second I had to capture it, and the tint on the window gave it that funny bluish hue) Finally, this is one of my favorite weird things everrr- If you have ever traveled the interstate from Texas to Arizona, you have prolly seen the gazillion roadsigns along the way asking... 'WHAT is The Thing???' that lead to, well, The Thing. This is the (extremely-colorful) building where The Thing? is housed, and a shot of it receding in my rear view. And YES- I have been inside and I do know what The Thing? is! But, I absolutely cannot say, because they just might kill me- it's a very closely guarded secret. So, you'd have to find out for yourself, hee hee (and yep it is still there, and open to the public)

Hope you enjoyed these few shots of weirdness, guys (and I do have tons more on my website- http://www.LostDestinations.com -if any fellow weirdos wanna see more. I have wayyyy tooooo much to ever share it all here, prolly 5000+ images, so I give you this link just in case you want to delve deeper) Viva la Weird!

I heart NYC. It never ceased to be a total thrill for a desert girl like me, being in the big city. They say that you can always spot the tourists in NYC, as they are all walking around staring upward. And I'm sure that was me to a T every time I was there. Javsmom posted a great building shot that made me go all nostalgic for the good 'ol Big Apple, I got to looking at some of my old pics and decided to share a few. Here we go...

I didn't even notice until AFTER taking this shot that I had captured a virtual parade of yellow cabs, how very Noo Yawk. And I always found it amazing how peaceful the cathedrals could look nestled inside all that hustle-bustle too. Of course, the pigeons rule the land in NYC, and I just really liked the attitude of the guy on the left, he just haaad to be different. And I love the people on the streets- where else do gigantic foil-strip hats go well with any ensemble? The Empire State building never failed to take my breath away. And this is how I imagined Times Square in a Shady dreamland... though it looks pretty darned impressive in it's Times Square au natural state of course.

Thanks for the building-in-a-building inspiration Javsmom! :)

I am small. I am wee. I mean, I am a pretty short chica. So I often get a different perspective on things from my 5/foot 4/inches of space. Looking up is fun.

From my POV, a regular 'ol telephone pole becomes a ladder into the blue. And beanstalks? I don't need no stainking beanstalks! A nice tall tree will work just as well for access to that giants house. Or sometimes I use shadow to make myself into a psuedo shadowgiant. Watch out, Jolly Green!

And electrical tower-thingys are always fun. .. as above... so below (or, um, inside).

Last but not least.. before you die, you see THIS PHOTO! Bwa ha. Bwahaha. BWAHA HAHA AHA HAA!! (whispers... seeeeven dayssss) Actually, that was shot from the inside of an ancient, very tall & veryvery narrow old urban-legenday furnace that I crawled my wee wickle arse into because I'm weird like that (and you can learn more about this strange furnace and it's weird surroundings on the page I devoted to it on my website: http://www.lostdestinations.com/clinton.htm ...if interested!)

And that is the long and (really) short of it. Heh.

Ohh, self portraitessesses. The hardest thing for me to aim my lens at is myself. I am my own biggest critic, and I am never quite comfortable attempting self portraits. It forces me to see myself through, well, my own eyes. Which is just... weird. But that's also why I keep on trying... know thine own self, and all that jazz...

The basic arm's-length point & shoot yields such a simple result, but to me, I do not look like 'me'. Reality versus self image. So I try for something different, and aim for some limbs and a splash of color. Hmmm. Sometimes, I try something a bit more surreal, involving kerazzzzy hues and some fun with filters.

But then sometimes I just try to capture something intensely real, like shoving my camera into my own red-eyed face after a crying session: my beloved boyfriend was in the hospital 700+ miles away that day, and I had been crying my eyes out with worry. And it is definitely radiating from my entire face (but at the same time, the protection-rune necklace that I NEVER take off- the one that he gave me- stands out like a talisman, keeping me afloat) Then, there are those absolute self-timer mishaps that sometimes yield inadvertantly interesting results, like the time I was trying to take a dark-ish/sexy-ish shot and missed the mark.

But naturally... my favorite self potraits always end up being the ones I take with friends. Good times, good times. Meow.

I have long been an arachnophobe. Shudder. Yet, for some reason, the 8-legged freaks fascinate me totally, and I cannot resist photographing 'em when I spot 'em. How masochistic of me. But, I have found that it's slowly but surely been helping me to control my spider-fear.

Black Widows really freak me out though. I have seen the results of their bites and ewwwwww. NOT pretty. So it was with much twitching and rapid-heart-beating that I shot this Texas widow that I found living under a little reflecting globe in my garden. I had to get muuuuch closer to get the shot of this California widow that made it's home on my boyfriend's BBQ grill. And notice, that one was missing a leg. But that didn't make it any less scary. Eeek.

Kinda my own personal brand of fear aversion therapy through photography, I guess. Heh.

The 'Invisible' challenge inspired me to post this shot...

I was hiking in the Gila Wilderness in NM, when I spotted something across a stream hovering near a purple blossom. I THOUGHT that it was a hummingbird, and I zoomed in tight and snapped this shot. The tiny winged creature flew off like a bullet the second it heard my shutter click, and I never imagined that I actually got a shot of the thing... until I got home and saw the pic. Turns out it was not a hummingbird, but a hummingbird moth. I was so surprised that I got the shot, and I love how it's little wings were beating sooo fast that they are nearly invisible. A truly lucky photo!

In my dry, desert hometown of El Paso, Texas, rain is a rarity, floods are even rarer... so we never expected this. Big, fat raindrops have been falling like watery missiles and decorating evergreen needles like tiny diamonds. Yesterday our regular old residential street turned into a raging river avenue, with curbs and sidewalks disappearing under the churning rainwaters. I sit, watching the stormy skies through my bedroom window, and wonder when we will ever be dry again...