Look at all those leggy legs in Las Vegas.  Maybe I was imagining it, but I think they actually created a breeze with all that determined sashaying.

SUZI Q | QWEDDINGS Wedding Photography Austin, Texas

Adelante is a chic clothing and furniture boutique here in Austin.  I spent some time this year photographing their store for their new website.  Check it out, click on the Adelante Store Tour.  And then go over there and get yourself come fancy schmancy cowboy boots.

SUZI Q | QWEDDINGS Wedding Photography Austin, Texas

here’s how to make big dollars, just stare at this picture and the glow of the dollar sign will tell you everything.  p.s.  Nice pinky ring!

SUZI Q | QWEDDINGS Wedding Photography Austin, Texas

Places I traveled to in 2009.  I have officially become a traveling photographer.  I even earned two free flights on my beloved Southwest Airlines.

Comfort, Texas
Uncertain, Texas,
Round Top, Texas
Galveston, Texas
Chatham, New York
Cold Spring, New York
Marengo, Illinois
Natchez, Mississippi
Boulder
Portland, Oregon
Oahu
Jackson Hole
Yellowstone
Boise
Mendocino
Lake Arrowhead
Phoenix
San Francisco (three times)
Los Angeles (twice)
San Diego (twice)
Las Vegas (twice)
Chicago (twice)

SUZI Q | QWEDDINGS Wedding Photography Austin, Texas

Baton twirling was my life when I was growing up in Idaho.  I even performed in school talent shows.  I think I had no idea how uncool it was.  It’s kind of nifty now.  When I need a break from the computer, I’ll go do some twirling in our living room. I even buy vintage batons (yay, Ebay!).

In this photo, I believe I was six or seven.  This was my first year marching in Nampa’s Parade America, which happened every year around the fourth of July.  We had to wear red, white and blue.  My mom gets extra points for having me in red socks, red belt AND a red choker.  How stylish!

SUZI Q | QWEDDINGS Wedding Photography Austin, Texas

Welcome to a tour of my hometown, Nampa, Idaho.  Nostalgic for me, probably just odd for everybody else.

Nampa was population 25,000 when I was growing up, now it’s a sprawling metropolis of 70,000.  Every time I go visit, yet another landmark from my childhood is gone.  So I corralled my mom into playing chauffeur while I took some informal snaps.  She always thinks I’m a bit crazy, but she played along because I think she too sees that our past is vanishing, replaced by stucco covered big box stores and hordes of clone homes.

Without further ado, here is your guided tour:

First stop, very important:  The Rollerdrome!  The glory days of rollerskating!  I’m so glad this sign is still there.  It was like a beacon for me as a child, inviting me to skate in clockwise laps to recorded organ music for hours on end.

I like how the wire for the light looks like a little towing rope.

It also called itself The Fun Spot!  I broke my arm here in 5th grade.  “Skate at your own risk”

Right next to the skate rink, the downtown public library.  Hopefully encouraging kids with broken arms to read when they’re not skating, right?  Actually I read 500 books one summer, won the summer reading contest.  Don’t be too impressed though.  Other than taking summer rec baton twirling lessons, there just wasn’t that much to do.

Case in point.  The Stinker gas station.  The one over on 16th Avenue.  Me and my friend Beth would walk here to buy a Pepsi.  Then we’d walk back to her house again.  Ah, good times.

More excitement.  Lone Star Market, across from Mrs. Davis’ house.  She was my piano teacher and when my brother was taking his lesson, I would walk over to the market and stare at all the candy I wasn’t allowed to have.  Sadly, this place is a bit ghetto these days.  Not a place for 8 year old girls!

A total landmark and one of my earliest memories.  The nifty airplane at Lakeview Park.  As a child, I wondered why this plane was suspended in the air.  Like, why didn’t it just fly?

Another landmark.  Equally intriguing to a little kid.  Half an orange car smashed into a fence?  I love that this junk yard is still called Jalopy Jungle and that the car is still bright orange.  By the way, my mom was seriously concerned for my sanity when I asked her to drive to this place.  It was the only time she wavered in our little quest.

Just down the street from Jalopy Jungle, the Hobby Center.  Yeah, I had a phase where I made sequined dolls.  I also made bread dough sculptures, potholders, rinky dinks, macrame plant hangers and did some leather tooling.

King’s.  A five and dime with the BEST toy department.  Downstairs in the basement.  During the summer, the air was filled with the intoxicating smell of inflatable swimming toys.

Pennywise Drugs. One aisle of toys.  Also the place where I got my film developed.  I was a regular at their photo counter at the tender age of 9.

One of the coolest and prettiest old buildings in Nampa, the old train depot.  They tore down the legendary Dewey Hotel, so I have no idea how they managed to keep this place.  My dad worked on the railroad for 35 years, so whenever we’d go down to the train yard, I’d get to see the depot.  We lived in a series of ranch homes, so the curvy turrets on this were pretty exotic for me.

Moving into my junior high years, Keystone Pizza was THE place to hang out.  Sometimes my gymnastic team would go there after a meet.

Friendly Freds.  The one place that wouldn’t card us when we wanted to buy alcohol.  I know that I got really drunk (and really sick) once from Mad Dog 20/20 and Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill wine coolers.  I consider it a character building experience.

And finally, I got my driving permit at 14 and roamed far and wide.  Here’s my beloved Chicken Dinner Road.  Out in the country.  Not much there.

SUZI Q | QWEDDINGS Wedding Photography Austin, Texas

Happy Happy New Year, today and the rest of the year.

SUZI Q | QWEDDINGS Wedding Photography Austin, Texas

I was so very fortunate to participate in the Fall Retreat Workshop in the Berkshires of Upstate New York.  The workshop was taught by John Dolan and Holger Thoss and Philippe Cheng, three amazing photographers.  Not too mention that the workshop was attended by seven talented photographers from around the country.  A pleasant surprise (besides the astoundingly beautiful scenery around East Chatham and the Inn at Silver Maple Farm) was that everyone at the workshop, all ten of us, are film shooters.  It was lovely to skip the whole topic of “why do digital images look so bad so much of the time?”  (There, you have my own personal opinion on the subject).  We wanted to discuss making better images, renewing our ability to make magical images.  I was thrilled with the whole weekend, and have so many photos, hard to choose which ones really show the amazing time we had doing yoga at sunrise on Lake Mahkeenac, enjoying good company and conversation over many meals, including Haven in Lenox, and seeing slideshows of work.

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SUZI Q | QWEDDINGS Wedding Photography Austin, Texas

A long time ago, I used to be a gymnast.  It was an obvious choice when it became apparent that I wasn’t going to be very tall.  I was like Mary Lou Retton, short and stocky.  I vowed I would always be able to do the splits, but I’m not that flexible anymore.  I was pretty surprised that I could still do a leap.  Yes, I can see from the photo that I need to straighten my back, my leg, even loose a few pounds.  But there’s just nothing like running around in the Pacific Ocean on your day off.  Especially when you live in Texas.  Photo by the ever-talented Alina Prax of Austin, Texas.

SUZI Q | QWEDDINGS Wedding Photography Austin, Texas

I followed two local Austin bands, The Tagalongs and The Baseline Bums, for two cities of their West Coast tour.  Yes, I was a groupie.  I like the bands, plus I really missed my hubby Noah.  Also wanted hang out in two fun cities, San Diego and Phoenix.  Here’s pix from their gig at The Ruby Room in Phoenix.  It was a really red room with vintage black velvet nude girlie paintings on every wall. Sorry…does this make my blog PG-13?
I also grabbed some shots of the guys doing the band on tour thing:  piled into a van at a Circle K, ready to hit the road.
Plus, one shot of a very tired, but very rockin’ Noah in our cool hotel room.

SUZI Q | QWEDDINGS Wedding Photography Austin, Texas