The flowers

I've photographed the boys here every year since they were babies. It's a place at the end of our street, a vacant corner lot, that everyone passes by without a second thought. But for me, it's wonderland. The purple ice plants bloom every January when the rains come, last for a few weeks at which point, the yellow ice plants of a different variety start to bloom across the street on another vacant lot. A couple of weeks follow when both are in bloom, competing for attention from opposite corners, trying to drown out their competitor. And then the purples give way to the yellows, the yellows give way to opposing corner lots without flowers for the remainder of the Spring through to Winter. Rinse and repeat.

And yet this year, with the extreme drought we've been caught up in in SoCal, there has been no rain, no replenishment of the water table and thus the only purple flowers are these little specs. I have it in my mind to go and water the lots in the hope of a better display. I feel quite lost without them!

Today it was fun to be featured on 3 photography blogs for different weekly themes. And then something seriously fun happened.

That moment when you answer the phone from the casting director who's called to say you have an audition for a commercial with Google as a family. Last year I won an audition and appeared in a commercial for Canon (ok they cropped me just to show the grey on the top of my head, but that's just splitting hairs...) and let's just say I was in heaven! And they paid me for the privilege! I was positively tripping out at the behind the scenes production surreality of it. Adventure in La la land...

Wish us luck!

One of my favourite works, a fusion piece captured in this same location two years ago. Once upon a Springtime.