India- pt. 2

Dungarpur was a great place for bird watching. I was amazed at the number of different birds could be seen and heard there. I wish I had a book to identify all of the different types we saw. The palace itself had a rather large bird sanctuary featuring ostriches, peacocks and some other very exotic looking birds (which is no doubt part of the Maharajah's private collection.)

In the hills above the small city, is the very well preserved and unoccupied Juna Mahal (or Old Palace). This was probably one of my favorite palace or fort that we saw. The outside wasn't overly decorative or massive, but the inside was spectacular. Many of the rooms contained lots of intricate paintings and glass and mirror mosaic walls. From the top you could see the entire city and the lakes and hills in the distance. The best part, is we were the only people there.










From Dungarpur, we drove to Udaipur- the White City. Udaipur is a smallish city in India, with about 500,000 people, the highlight of which is the City Palace, built on the shores of Lake Pichola.



The City Palace is a massive property, with 2 hotels, the private residence of the Maharajah of Mewar (more about him in a moment), plus the shops, museums and preserved ares of the palace open to the public.

One evening in Udaipur, Jen and I took a boat to Jag Mandir, an island palace in the middle of the lake. There is a grand courtyard, huge carved elephants and a great restaurant (which I'm sure is original to the 17th century design). We were drinking tea in the courtyard waiting for our reservations, when a group of Indian business men wanted photos with us. Each one took turns standing with us, while the rest snapped away with their cell phones. They quickly lost attention, however, when the Maharajah showed up. Soon everyone was rushing to have their photo taken with the king.


(this was the best photo I could get without my paparazzi gear)

From Udaipur we traveled to Kumbhalgarh, which is this huge fort in the lush mountains of Southern Rajasthan. We stayed at Aodhi Lodge, the old hunting lodge of the Maharajah (still owned by the aforementioned king). The rooms were a little damp (everything was damp), but had lots of character. In addition to a pretty enormous fort, Kumbhalgarh also has a huge wildlife sanctuary. I would have loved more time to trek around the area for a couple of days!

Holy Cow

I've been home for 5 days now, and I'm still finding it hard to put the experience in to words. I just fell in love with India immediately. From the moment we stepped off the plane we were just engulfed in the sights, and colors, and aromas. I want to blog about the whole trip, but it was long, so I'm going to have to do it over several posts. We did and saw so much, and I don't want to forget anything!

We arrived in Delhi late at night, and were met at the airport by our driver and taken to our hotel: The Hotel Palace Heights in Connaught Place. It was a clean and modern hotel with a fantastic restaurant. Delhi is an insane city. There is just so much of everything: people, cars, rickshaws, tuk-tuks, shops, noise, smog, and did I mention people? On our first full day we did some sightseeing around the city, seeing the Amber Fort, Chandni Chowk market in Old Delhi where we took a bicycle rickshaw, Humayan's Tomb, and the Gandhi memorial.

The next day we woke up early for a morning flight to Ahmedabhad where our driver was waiting for us (he had left the day before to get there for us). We drove several hours to the Udai Bilas Palace in Dungarpur. The palace was like a time warp. Everything was straight out of the 1930's and 40's. Furniture, old photographs, and even old hunting trophies (including a few tiger heads from the 1930's). The maharaja still lived in the private portion of the palace. My room was this big round room, with a huge bathroom (complete with claw foot tub) and a balcony overlooking the lake temple.



Our second evening in Dungarpur, was the conclusion of the Ganesha Chaturthi, an annual festival to the God Ganesha. Jen and I walked into town that evening, and a local family invited us to the roof of their home to watch the festival. As the sun went down, the fireworks and singing began, and these huge fruit bats were flying above us. It was an awesome welcome to India.



One of my favorite photos of the trip came from the market area in town. I love how her Saree matches the wall:



to be continued...

Studio Closing

I'm leaving for India soon, so I just want to give a heads up that I will be closing the studio from Sept. 9th to Sometime within the first week of October (depending on how long it takes me to recover from the jet lag).

I am currently booking for October.

Vintage

Nature's Perfect Food

Buttermilk Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

twenty-four 2 1/2-inch paper muffin cup liners

4 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 large eggs
2 cups well-shaken buttermilk


1) Preheat oven to 350°F. and line muffin cups with paper liners.

2) Into a bowl sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy and beat in vanilla.

3) Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, and with mixer on low speed beat in buttermilk until just combined. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, beating until just combined after each addition.

4) Divide batter among muffin cups (batter will fill cups) and bake 20 minutes, or until golden and a tester comes out clean. Cool cupcakes on racks 5 minutes and remove cupcakes from cups. Cupcakes keep in an airtight container at room temperature 2 days.


Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

1 package of room temperature cream cheese
1.5 cup fresh whipped cream
1 cup confectioners sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
3tbs lemon juice (optional)

Fold together until well mixed, and pipe on to cupcakes.

Some recent photography

I've been a pretty bad blogger lately. I've been quite busy in the studio this summer, finishing up several of my largest projects to date, and I've wasted quite a bit of time daydreaming of India (which is coming up soon!).

Here are some shots I did recently for HollyBeth's Natural Body Products. This was a fun series of shots to do because I got to take the set outside to the back yard. I love the romantic combination of the roses and lavender, white washed wood table and the sunny green grass.

Tattoo

I got my third tattoo yesterday. It's an all white tattoo (no outline). It's still new and crusty looking, but I thought it made for an interesting photo subject.

It's the ancient chinese symbol for Photoshop:





(it's actually the symbol for Travel)