The Shirt On My Back

People ask, "What's your most important piece of equipment?"

Of course, there's the fave lens, fave remote, fave whatnot. But during the summer, one of the most important things in my bag is a flimsy, white cowboy shirt. It's the longest lasting sunscreen, mighty delicious air-co on a hot day after I drench it with water, and when it gets too stinky, it's easy to wash and quick to dry. Plus, it weighs nothing. I always travel with three. Without them, I'm an overheated, burned gringa. No good at'all for shooting pics.

This morning, I started packing for my next photo junket to the Four Corners area.  Yeah, it's three weeks away, but I saw my white shirts in the closet and got inspired. Pulled 'em out, rolled 'em up, I'm ready to go.

The Folks I Get to Meet

While scouting a Silicon Valley location this week, my tour guide insisted I meet one of the company gurus, Jim Williams. His desk is not full of "junk," thank you. He simply has a big resource pile. OK, a couple big resource piles.

Farm Together Now, Oakland

First stop in the Farm Together Now odyssey: over the Bay Bridge, into West Oakland. City Slicker Farms. They collaboratively build backyard gardens and distribute fresh produce for free throughout their cash-strapped neighborhood.

Serendipity happens: I craved a high vantage point to shoot the corner where City Slicker was born, et voila! Here comes a gentleman with a dump truck he is donating to the cause. Up I go with two cameras and a big load o' gratitude.

Beauty, Brains and Brawn

A couple years ago, I photographed Stanford Women's Rowing head coach, Yaz Farooq for the Boston Globe. Last week, Yaz asked me to come back down and shoot her crew to celebrate the fact that this year, the ladies won the Division One NCAA Championship.

They had beauty, brains + brawn... a wicked combo. That's me on the ladder, doing the group shot and not getting electrocuted in the mist, with survival documentation by my assistant, Garry Belinsky. Then we laid down some sepia-toned fun at the end of the boat dock. And lemme tell ya, these girls had no trouble holding the pose. No trouble at all.