Monarca Open and Pre Worlds Competition

After spending the big bucks and being a paragliding princess the previous week (see last blog), I stayed on at the house while it filled up with the hottest competition pilots in the country, and yes they were hot. My job was to feed Rob photos every day for his blog

I even got some tandem rides so I could shoot air to air, but not as much as I'd hoped. In between shooting, I played wind dummy, chase driver, and it was basically a continuation of paragliding camp - being a fly on the wall and listening to how all these top pilots 'debriefed' after 'specking out' at 18,000ft and then taking a 'cloud street' home to land in the back yard.

The group energy was so great. Rob the charismatic trip leader pulled together a band of superheros. Richard, our resident witch doctor, Bradly the hot shot acro pilot/teddy bear, josh our leprecon, and Dean's cousin Brian - if only I had a dollar for every time he said dude. But when he said my photos were "tight, dog", I knew I was in the club. And the boys did let me into their club. Some of them reluctant at first to let a chick in, but after a week it felt like family.

Even though I missed some of the best powder in 15 years, I had the time of my life. Just to be able to cheat like that (because as humans, we're not really supposed to fly like that), was amazing. All future tours will be with the rob squad and Eagle Paragliding!

for more photos check out 

thiakonig.com/monarcacomp

thiakonig.com/preworlds

 

for pics of the town of Valle De Bravo

thiakonig.com/valle

and of my afternoon in Mexico City

thiakonig.com/mexicocity

This one time, at paragliding camp.....

I decided to spend my entire year's budget for skiing in exchange for a paragliding tour in Valle De Bravo with Eagle Paragliding. The Rob squad is first class all the way with an amazing crew of insturctors, and a sick house/hacienda with pool, jacuzzi, maid, cook, and driver. It was so nice to not have to worry about all that stuff, cuz I had enough on my mind, learning to thermal and all. We had five instuctors watching over us on radio - even when you didn't think they were watching you- they were, and it was an experience of a lifetime.

On the third day, I got up to 10,000 ft near the clouds, where the view is outstandingly beautiful, and go cross country, catch another thermal, and land in a field. Wow. That day was worth the price of admission.

for more photos go to thiakonig.com/flymexico

Early late night

Together with my partner in crime, Ben Young, we threw a 'winter blues' party and used the studio as the venue. It was a great mix as ben invited all of his artistic friends, and I invited all of my burning man friends, and we set up the photo booth. The party was so successful that the cops came twice before 8:30. It was nice to go to a party in our tiny hamlet of Ketchum where you didn't know everybody.

Our theme for the party was inspite of everything, yes! bring food, bring drink, bring inspiration. We coined it the "bring bring" party. I brought my hats from world travels and let people get crazy in the photo booth.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it's all about hanging out with friends and being grateful. It's also a good reminder to stop looking at the things that we don't have, and take stock and be happy with what we do have. By the way, have you seen the movie, The Secret?

I spent this past Thanksgiving at my friends Rob and ML's house. I've known them for a long time, and Rob is a fellow photographer so it's nice to talk shop with someone in town. Rob spent all day cooking and drinking, and ML made hats for us to choose whether we were a Pilgrim or an Indian. I was a pilgrim and I'm not sure if they drank Cosmopolitans back then, but we certainly did. Oh and we had prime rib, too, and home made apple pie.

a Mac Daddy Apple Pie

Halloween in Seattle

Once again I found myself with Shanti, visiting friends Brad and Nancy (The Royal Tenenbaums) who were hosts to a big urban Halloween party with Ouchmyeye Productions in Seattle. We weren't sure what to expect, but we knew we were in for a good time. We arrived the day before to help set up the party, which was fun because we felt like it was our party too (the free entrance for being coat check girls wasn't so bad either)

We even managed to squeeze in a protest march all through Korea town to Pioneer Square. It was actually one of the Buried Life's 100 things on their list, but where are they?

The Royal Tenenbaums aka Brad & Nancy

Just a few weeks after their stint in Ketchum, The Buried Life boys were wrapping up their tour and joined us at the party. It was fun to have four young chaperones to ward off the urban freaks that took my naughty schoolgirl outfit seriously. The boys came as a boy band and even perfected a dance routine and Jonny got down in a dance-off with "Prince".

Photo Plus Expo in NYC

New York is an amazing place; I could never live there, but I will say that Giuliani did a good job of cleaning it up. Although there are thousands of things to do there, my main purpose of going to New York was for the Photo Plus Expo. And I had miles.

The trade show is basically three days of geeking out with seminars, new products, and learning about all the new develpments in photography. I went to seminars and soaked up information from Denis Reggie, Bambi Cantrell, David Jay, Joe Buissink, and Kevin Kubota. Found a great company that can print coffee table books one at a time, and use those now for my wedding albums. Brides are flipping over them! Oh yeah, and my other purpose to come to New York, was a "What Not To Wear" style makeover as per my friend Shanti. So I also hit 5th ave, and dropped some coin on some threads.

After doing a quick switcheroo in the bathroom after the trade show friday (had an evening top and earings -thanks Shanti) went to the after parties and met great people, and hopped in a cab with them and ended up at the Digital Railroad party in Tribeca. Felt totally safe to leave whenever I wanted and walk to the subway. But those fancy heals don't last 15 hours! 

Love the subways! It's like a pinball machine. You go down, and you can pop up anywhere! Then go down, and pop up somewhere else again! And I love the street musicians! I saw everything from a 12- piece horn band, to a one-man show banging on plastic buckets.

After popping up in Central Park, I rented rollerblades and cruised around to all the above ground street musicians. Loved the jazz trio.

I even found myself singing (a talent usually reserved for strickly inside the comfort of my own shower) all these songs that came to mind like "On Broadway" "42nd Street", whenever the subway would come to, say, Broadway or 42nd Street.

Luckily the stage was saved for my friend Erin who performs her comedy cello act all around Manhattan. We saw her at the Bleeker St. Theater, and wow, can she sing! She's great and is definately going to be famous one day. Check her out at erinandhercello.com

A big thanks to friends Steve and Erica for letting me stay on their couch, in their very small apartment in South Chelsea. 

The Buried Life Boys visit Ketchum

So, Shanti, who knows everybody it seems, helps manage a group of four fine young Canadian lads named Dave, Ben, Duncan, and Jonny, who have a list of 100 things to do before they die; they call themselves "The Buried Life" - an antithesis to all the dreams that seem to get buried along the way. Kind of the opposite of "Jackass".

And what would a group of guys trying to conquer the world be without their huge purple bus to take them from place to place in pursuit of accoumplishing each task?, (along with a film crew entourage of course for their tv show) 

Among the 100 things to do, was to catch something and eat it. So we accompanied them on their fishing lesson and hung out with the film crew. This was Dave's task in particular, and as a practical joke, the other three guys rigged Dave's hook so it was impossible to catch anything. They didn't spill the beans until after everyone else had caught one, and although Dave was pretty frustrated, it was great entertainment for the rest of us. 

Kathy (a fellow paraglider!! yeahy) listens in on the joke

My next venture with the boys was to go along with them as they practiced on a mechanical bull in preparation for Dave's other wish, to ride a real bull! I gave it a whirl, but after that episode, I think I'll leave the mechanical bulls to the next lifetime. ug.