Ha ha – I finally had some pictures taken of myself. I figured that since I cut all of my hair off I should at least have a new headshot!
Here’s a screen shot from my portrait website. What do you think?
Thought I’d share a little vacation that I just came back from in Bishop, CA. I did what’s called a “horse drive” where you move a large group of horses across a long distance. It was so. much. fun. I’m already trying to figure out when I can go again…ha!
We rode almost 100 miles over four days, putting in somewhere between 6-9 hrs a day in the saddle. I was in heaven!
First day at camp and we were meeting the horses. The light from the setting sun couldn’t have been prettier.
There were about 25 guests and 15 staff and we all gathered around for a sunset dinner. The food was so great from bacon and eggs for breakfast to steak and pork chops for dinner. I felt so spoiled!
One of our campsites with the sun coming up. I should get up at 5am more often.
The first horse I rode was named “Ears” because his ears are floppy. I thought he was trying to channel his inner mule…
Driving the horses on the streets. We had the right of way, so cars had to pull over for 10-15 minutes while our huge string of horses and mules passed by.
We covered some pretty large stretches of desert.
Our campsite on the third night was so pretty with a little stream running right down the middle of it. If you want to check the place out, it’s called Mill Pond Campground. Rock Creek Pack Station set up some live music for us that night for Father’s Day which was a real treat.
My second horse, Maime. I think she’s the most fun horse I’ve ever ridden. Aw, I just adore her.
We had real live cowboys on our trip, lol! They were all such gentlemen and worked extremely hard not only driving the horses, but helping all of us have an amazing experience.
This was an alpine meadow in the mountains where we had lunch and let the horses water and graze.
Back to good ‘ol Ears for the first half of the day. He’s actually got his ears up in this picture – amazing! 
This is a shot from the last day just a few hours before we pulled into our final stop. Can you believe this view?! I think we were up around 10,000 feet in elevation.
Here’s (almost) the whole crew from the trip. I went by myself and wasn’t sure what to expect but got to experience some of the best riding of my life and made a few really amazing friends.
If you’d like to look into taking a trip with Rock Creek Pack Station, you can check out their website HERE. They have special trips for families if you’d like to take it easy and bring the kids along. They also have wild mustang trips…might have to do that one myself next time!
Just wanted to let you know that I’m taking a little trip for a few days. I won’t have any access to phone or email while I’m gone so we’ll be closed from Friday, June 15th – Thursday, June 21st.
I’m so excited, though! Earlier this year, I made a promise to myself that I would take at least one trip every year…alone…just to make sure I stay connected with that person called “me”, lol! So, this year, I’m going on a horse drive near Bishop, CA. It’s like a cattle drive, but instead of driving cattle, we’re driving horses (while riding horses) from one side of the mountain to the other for five days. When I called the pack station I asked the guide, “What’s the one ride you offer where you really put us to work? I don’t want any of that nose-to-tail walking stuff — I want to really get my hands dirty!” He said they had one ride like that and it was the horse drive. That’s all I needed to hear and I signed up on the spot. It should be quite an adventure! I’m taking along my trusty pocket camera, so I’ll have some photos to share when I get back.
And since a post is no fun without pictures, here’s one of a girl and her horse (seemed fitting). 
Hello. My name is Olivia and I am cute.
My mommy and daddy live in a house in Silver Lake that they designed themselves. They are really good at that stuff. My sister is a French Bulldog named Ava and she already loves me even though she’s only known me for nine days.
My mommy also really loves me and she likes to snuggle all day long. That’s okay with me because I like to snuggle, too. And nurse. A lot.
Sometimes my daddy wants to hold me, too. That’s really the only thing my parents argue about these days…who gets to hold me. I like it.
I think my mommy and daddy love me. Like a lot. They can’t stop looking at me. Sometimes my Auntie Jill asks them to look at her while she’s holding that big camera, but they can’t stop looking at me. That’s okay with me, though.
Oh, and this is my cousin, River. She’s really cute, too. She never stops smiling. And drooling. But then she smiles some more. I like her.
Okay, now my auntie gets a turn…
If you haven’t already guessed, Olivia is my brand-new niece. You saw a sort of “sneak peek” of her from her parents’ maternity session a couple of months ago. I got to spend some time with her in LA recently and everybody is completely, head-over-heels in love with our newest family member. I couldn’t stop taking pictures of her…I’m addicted.
P.S. – This post features a beautiful piece of art by our good friend, Luc Schwab. He’s an incredibly talented artist based out of Monterey, CA. You can find more of his work at www.lucschwab.com.
I feel very lucky to be able to call these two gorgeous people my family (the handsome guy on the right is my husband’s brother, Adam). Their baby girl, is expected to arrive in April, and we couldn’t be more thrilled! She will be the first grandbaby on Drew’s side of the family, and all of the grandparents are SO excited.
Lauren and Adam came up from Los Angeles for their spring-time maternity session, and we had a lovely reception from the local blossoming almond orchard. It was the perfect backdrop for such a gorgeous couple. Isn’t Lauren just stunning?!
I love how the light comes through the fabric of her dress, showing just enough, but not too much.
Lovely light, beautiful location, awesome people. Ah, it was a good day. I can’t wait to share pictures of my new niece!
Jill
When I was planning my honeymoon last summer, I had to decide what camera(s) to bring along with me on my trip through Croatia. My first instinct was to take the best camera I owned, but I’d had an awful experience several years before, lugging my massive camera and several lenses around with me in Paris, and the darn thing was just too heavy! I ended up taking very few photos because I couldn’t be bothered to wrestle “the beast” out of my bag every time I saw something photo-worthy.
Before I left, I asked a friend of mine (who is a world traveler and long-time professional photographer) what camera he takes with him when he travels. His answer surprised me — an iPhone. That’s all he brings. Really?
A little later, I saw an interview with Annie Leibovitz where she refers to the iPhone as “the snapshot camera of today”. Wow. But it’s true: you will take pictures with the camera that is the most accessible and easy to use. And for many of us, that ends up being our phone because it’s always right there in your pocket or purse.
So why did I title this post “iphone + instagram”? If you’ve never heard of it, Instagram is a free iPhone app, which their website describes as a “fast, beautiful and fun way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures.” In other words, it’s a great way to make your pictures look awesome and to quickly and easily share them with just about everybody.
I probably use Instagram more than any other app on my phone…even Facebook and Twitter! The reason I love it so much is because it has several great filters AND you can link it to your FB, Twitter, Flickr and Tumblr accounts, saving you time from going and posting your image on each account separately.
Here are a few recent snaps using my iPhone and Instagram together:
There was once a time when barely anybody had heard of Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, and all three have since become insanely popular. What’s next for the social media/image-sharing world? Maybe it will be Instagram. For now, it’s still pretty small (well, if you consider 15 million people “small”), probably since it’s restricted to only iPhones, but it’s exciting to get in on the fun during the first stages of a really great thing.
One of my favorite clients often jokes with me that she would love to bring me along with her on all of her family vacations. I always politely laugh along, but I secretly fantasize about being “dragged” to Bali and Venice. But really…if there’s anyone out there who would like to tuck me into their pocket while on their exotic vacation, just give me a ring…really.
So, for all of those moments when you don’t have a professional photographer there to document those oh-so-darling smiles, pull out that iPhone and give Instagram “a shot” (haha, I love puns). Maybe I’ll see you around the still small and quirky Instagram community. You can find me at @jillcarmel.
Jill
This is a loooooong overdue post, but I’d like to officially announce the “arrival” of our new “dog-child”, Legacy. We call him “Lego” for short, because we think it just sounds cuter that way, lol! Bueller (our first Boston Terrier) was asking for a brother almost every day, so we were very happy to bring home his half-brother and welcome him into our little family.
Lego enjoys cuddling up on the sofa, licking faces, chewing cow hooves and long walks in the rain.
Do you see his funny little pose on the right? Well, here’s a side shot, just in case you were interested…
God, I love those little legs.
Anyhow, that’s enough of my puppy obsession…
Until next time,
Jill
P.S. – In case you’ve been thinking of adding a sweet Boston Terrier to your own family, both Bueller and Legacy are from an amazing breeder, Danielle Campbell of Campbell Clan Bostons. Jump on over to her website at www.campbellclanbostons.com where you can see a whole ton of pictures that we worked on together, quite a few of which are of Mr. Legacy himself.
Drew and I got married on July 11th of this year. It was a small event, in the company of our immediate family. The day was completely magical from start to finish and we couldn’t have been happier with, well, just everything. I’m thrilled to be sharing these with you all: our family, friends and my faithful readers.
Instead of showing you just a few pictures here on the blog, I thought that the best way to share our wedding images with you would be in a story format, so I’ve put together a slideshow to show you how things went from start to finish. Click the links below for more. Oh, and by the way, the cute blond guy in the pictures is my amazing husband, Drew.
Featured on the Jill Thomas Photography Blog
P.S. – Jill Thomas (photographer) and Kami Christensen (stylist) were AMAZING to work with! If you’re planning a wedding, keep these two ladies in mind. Jill is a goddess with the camera and Kami is a styling genius (she does clothing, hair and makeup). Plus, they are just plain awesome people!
Venue: Costanoa
Photography: Jill Thomas Photography
Styling: Kami with a K
Flowers: Blumengarten
After Croatia, we thought it would be nice to spend five days in England, relaxing and seeing friends. Since you’re likely sick of my travel blog posts at this point (ha!), I’ve condensed all five days of England into one post. I’m excited to get back to blogging about my recent work and the upcoming fall mini-sessions (hooray!).
We didn’t arrive with any specific agenda. We just “planned” to do whatever we felt like doing each day. In the end, we mostly walked around London and just enjoyed that. All of our trips to England previously had been so jam packed, that we never got to experience what it was like to just “hang out” here. So we did just that!
A few snaps on the iPhone while relaxing at Hyde Park and visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum. We passed this little restaurant where apparently they sell “proper hamburgers”.
I’ll never get over England’s signs and the way they write them, lol!
The Thames — look at all of the construction going on all over the city. I think I count ten cranes.
St. Paul’s Cathedral.
The Victoria and Albert Museum. Gotta love the red brick.
A local pub. Why can’t they do this to more buildings???
For one day, we hired a private car to pick us up from London and tour us through the Cotswolds. This was someone’s home from the 1400′s.
This is officially the most photographed street in London. Cute little houses — all of the front doors were only about five feet tall. Made me think gnomes live here.
The UK has the best thistle.
I could get lost here…
This little tower (below) was built by a man for his wife as a gift. I told Drew that’s next on my birthday wishlist.
Back in London, we visited Monmouth, which we heard was the best coffee in town (it’s near the Bourough Market, in case you’re interested). They didn’t disappoint. My latte (pronounced LAH-teh in England) gave me the jitters until late that night, ha! The local coffee buffs say it’s comparable to Intelligensia.
They serve their bready goodies out the open – self-serve style. I thought it looked so beautifully rustic.
We discovered this garden on top of a high-rise department store.
This building was designed to look like it was inside-out. The stack of square rooms on the right are all bathrooms — very efficient space planning!
Sad to leave, but happy to return home, we finally landed in Sacramento with surprisingly little jet-lag.
I’ve had a few people ask, since I started blogging about the trip, what cameras I ended up taking with me. I decided to bring a Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF (small camera with interchangeable lenses), an Olympus Stylus (shock + water proof), and my iPhone 4. I ended up using all three quite a bit and I don’t think I could’ve brought just one of them, especially considering how many days we spent doing water sports in Croatia. I was very glad that I didn’t bring my monster work camera as it would’ve just been too heavy, likely resulting in my not using it as much.
Thanks for reading this far! I hope you enjoyed reading about our little adventure. Feel free to leave a comment — I’d love to hear which day of pictures was YOUR favorite.
- J
Dubrovnik. I would wage that it’s likely one of the top three spots that tourists visit while on vacation here (evidenced by the throngs of tourists pouring off the nearby cruise ships). And it could’ve been one of my favorite spots, had I not been COMPLETELY spoiled by all of the amazing off-the-beaten-path spots that we’d visited prior to this one. But all that aside, it is a lovely city, completely surrounded by walls that were built in the 10th century.
The red roofs on the houses within the walls are a pretty sight. 
I think Drew is getting pretty good at taking pictures at this point! This is one of my favorites. 
Here’s a good view of the wall, as it wraps around one of the residential areas. 
A girl saw us standing together and offered to take our picture. I’m so glad she did, because I love this picture of us, on our last day in Croatia.
After visiting the inside of Dubrovnik, we drove up the mountain to see the city from above. 
You can see the complete wall from this vantage point. What an amazing place. 
Final thoughts…
Wow, what a trip! I have to say that we were both thoroughly impressed with our guides and the REI Adventures program. Every detail was thought of ahead of time, making this probably THE most relaxing trip I’ve ever been on.
The Croatian people are just beautiful people. Their casual hospitality is what would be considered outstanding service in the US. We also very quickly discovered that about 95% of the people that we talked to speak English…and good English at that. It’s a required language in the schools, with classes starting from a very young age.
Although quite popular with Europeans, Croatia seems to still be largely untraveled by Americans, making it something of a treasure still. At times, it almost had a Wild West feel, or a combination of Mexico (but cleaner) and Greece (but less crowded and less expensive). We heard that Croatia may be joining the European Union next year, so if you’ve been thinking about visiting, do it sooner rather than later.
After today, we spent five more days in England. So, up next — London!
