Rayko's 3rd Annual International Juried Plastic Camera Show

I am honored to be a part of the RayKo 3rd International Juried Plastic Camera Show in San Francisco, California. The opening reception is February 26 and the show will be up until April 17.

Click here for more information about the RayKo Photo Center and the exhibition.

2010 April Rocha Photography Floral Calendar

On a whim I decided to create a 2010 April Rocha Photography Floral Wall Calendar.

It's approximately 12x17 and has a hanger and white wire binding (on the top). It is printed on high quality satin art paper.

Click here to view each month and to purchase.

Fine Art Prints on Sale at Local Collection Store at the Glendale Galleria

The first Local Collection store ever opens at the Glendale Galleria on Friday, November 13. It's on the mezzanine level across from Nordstroms.

My Fine Art Prints are on sale at the store.

ShootQ Artists' Reception this Evening in New Orleans

This evening, Shoot Q is hosting an Artists' Reception during Pictage's PartnerCon in New Orleans. While I can't be there this evening I know I'm well represented by my work and am there in spirit.

Dream in Plastic - Analog Exhibit

I was honored to be a part of Dream in Plastic's first gallery exhibit, Analog. The images had to have been shot with a toy camera.

Dream in Plastic is located in Beacon, New York and sells toy cameras (and lots of other gems).

The exhibit ended in September but I forgot to blog about it. Oops.

Pico Art Walk and Car Show

The Pico Improvement Organization presents their 4th Annual Pico Art Walk and Car Show today from 10-5pm.

The walk takes place along Pico Boulevard from Centinela to the Pacific and the Classic Car Show takes place at Virginia Park.

One of my prints, "Circle Vision" will be at the La Foto Gallery until October 28. There is a reception tonight at 7pm at the gallery.

Happy 100th Birthday Santa Monica Pier

Happy 100th Birthday Santa Monica Pier.

My hope is that the images I have shot and will continue to shoot will pay tribute to a place that I love and hold close to my heart.

Santa Monica Pier images for sale on my Etsy site - click here.

See the images on Flick here.

A Little Piece of Home Journal

Don't you wish you could always have with you a little piece of home?

With Kolo's Essex Album customized by me you can.

Santa Monica, my hometown, has many iconic landmarks and I've included some of them in this lovely journal.

The Santa Monica Carousel and Ferris Wheel
Station 26 Lifeguard station
Vintage postcards of Santa Monica
A vintage map of Santa Monica from 1940
A glassine envelope where you can add a Santa Monica bus token or some other trinket

The rest of it is for YOU to fill out yourself with what you consider to be your personal little pieces of home.

The journal can also be additionally customized by adding a 2010 calendar (standard or accordion-style) or an address book.

Click here to purchase this beautiful little book.

Size of book - 5x5" x 3.6"
Each book has two inserts - photo sleeves (one already filled with an image) and
a blank journal insert which includes a glassine envelope. The address book or calendar can also be added for an additional fee.

There is also a pocket in the back of the book

Another Adorable Holiday Card Design Sample

Images of Disneyland Shot with my Circle Camera

I really need to get out my one-of-a-kind circle camera more often. I shot these images a few years ago and recently dug them out of the archives.

Click here for a previous blog entry about this really cool camera.

Click here to purchase these fine art prints on Etsy.

Julia Dean Sixth Annual Alternative Photography Exhibit

Julia Dean is having her Sixth Annual Alternative Photography Exhibit starting on Friday, August 14 (opening reception from 5-8pm that evening).

This year I decided to submit a photo I took a few years ago in Ohio. I shot it with Kodak HIE (Infrared) film (unfortunately no longer available) with a 25A red filter.

It was shot on a piece of property owned by distant cousins of mine right outside Bladensburg, Ohio. I asked family member Dixie Davidson Furlong to reminisce about the property as I knew she could write about it much better than me.

"I believe Dad bought the property in the 60's. In the middle of one of the open pastures on a high point on the property, which is located a few miles outside of Bladensburg, is the Patterson graveyard. There are definitely graves from the 1800's in there, but I'm not sure how far back it goes. Kim remembers that as a young girl she discovered a stone that revealed a female who had lived a short life, one that matched her age at the time. The discovery induced serious thoughts about life and death for her that day.


As I understood it from my father, because the Pattersons created this family graveyard, complete with a beautiful hand-hewn stone wall surrounding the spot, it is always to be maintained by the local township/county. As such, it also is not considered "owned" land. Thus, although my sister now holds the deed for the surrounding land, the graveyard is not considered her property.


Groundhogs have disturbed the grave markers over the years, and some markers have fallen and broken and pieces lie among the grasses around the roots of the protective trees. It's a beautiful, quiet, respectful site and I hope it remains as such."

I went back recently to this contact sheet and found an image I shot of the actual gravestones which is below.

A special thank you to Russell Adams of Schulman Photo Lab for doing such an incredible job printing these images for me.

Contrast Show at the Warehouse in Cleveland, Mississippi

The amazingly talented photographer Will Jacks has a gallery show opening on August 20 in Cleveland, Missisippi and I am happy to say that the gallery chose five of my images to be included in the show.


Unfortunately I won't be able to personally attend the opening but am so happy to Will and for this wonderful event. You can learn more about the show here and view the press release here.

You can see my images below.

Working with a Beautiful New Stationery Line

I am now working with a gorgeous new stationery line, which includes wedding invitations, save the date announcements, baby announcements and holiday cards.

While I don't have my new samples yet, I wanted to share with you the some of the proofs they sent me. Both of these samples are with my images.

To see larger views of the samples, just click on each card.

I will be sharing more samples with you in the next month or so.

Ace Hotel & Swim Club - Palm Springs

My good friend and fellow photographer, Laurie Bailey, came back from this hotel a couple of weeks ago and told me immediately that I had to go there myself. I went to their website and I was hooked!

The Ace Hotel & Swim Club in Palm Springs was a former Howard Johnson that had fallen into disrepair. It reopened as the Ace Hotel & Swim Club in February of this year.

I don't consider myself the queen of hip but I immediately felt at home in this hotel -- from the record player in your room, the vintage-looking bikes you can ride and the old GMC van near the swimming pool (I looked for a choke inside the van but alas there wasn't one, my Dad's 1969 Ford van had one).






When you hang out in the pool or eat in their great restaurant you hear Bill Withers, Johhny Cash and Nick Drake over their sound system. There is also a real and I mean real photo booth in their lobby (which I went a little crazy with since it takes credit cards). I mean you just can't beat it.





I asked hotel management if I could photograph their hotel and they immediately said yes. So I brought every camera I own and every type of film I had in my fridge and shot away. I even shot a roll of (don't freak out people)......Kodachrome film and used a pack of my very precious Polaroid Viva Type 80 film with my Holgaroid.



I will definitely be going back there some time this summer to shoot more.