My camera and me spent some time in the back streets of Truckee today, and found countless intriguing details – I just love weathered wood, peeling paint, colors and patterns. So here a few impressions:

I went to Squaw Valley with the family today to watch the dual moguls competition, part of the U.S. Freestyle National Championships (o.k., so, what I really wanted was to shoot some action!). It’s so amazing what these guys do, especially off the jumps – and they make it look easy, too! Squaw Valley’s own Shannon Bahrke took the women’s, Sho Kashima the men’s first place. Congrats!

Baby Dray was back – boy, has he grown! He is now 9 months old and crawling – which means he doesn’t sit still for longer than 0.05 seconds – and he is oh so cute! And into Cheerios : )

If you haven’t been to Tahoe House, stop by next time you’re in town! They have delicious European inspired pastries, breads and gourmet foods. Today, it’s run by sisters Barbara and Caroline, and was founded in 1977 by their parents; their mother is from Switzerland, thus the European delicacies. I always feel a little closer to home when I walk in there…


I sat down with Barbara to chat about wedding cakes. She started doing them in 1994 on the side as her own endeavor, to be able to do something more creative and fun, and it took off – she now does about 100 cakes per year! In fact, she did my wedding cake as well – me being the spoiled German when it comes to baked goods of course chose to go with the Swiss baker! It was delicious, I even got a small version of it for our first anniversary.


I asked her what the most popular flavors are, and she said, clearly light cake with strawberries and cream for the summer, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for fall and winter weddings (which is also her personal favorite). She is very accommodating to make a cake to your taste, using only the finest ingredients, some even imported from Switzerland.


Barbara is getting married early May herself, to the funny and smart Jonn I always enjoy seeing at Tahoe Vista Post Office; they’ll say their I-do’s at Squaw Valley Chapel and celebrate at Graham’s; Barbara’s long time friend Heidi Wilson (who even worked at Tahoe House for a bit after moving here!) will provide their photography.


In her very limited free time Barbara enjoys skiing, of course, having grown up in Tahoe; and traveling to Switzerland, which she doesn’t get to do nearly often enough.


See you at Tahoe House!

I decided to change my logo to reflect my web address, and while I was at it, I overhauled my entire branding – stationery is still on its way, this is what it’ll look like:

Yesterday morning I met with Meghan and JJ about their August wedding; Meghan’s mom Kathi and two of her bridesmaids came along for support and to enjoy a beautiful weekend at the lake. At the end of the meeting they mentioned that they were going to go take a “tie-the-knot” picture; well, I happened to have a camera in the car and offered to do it for them. So we went to Sunnyside pier, where I borrowed Kathi’s boots (I was in heels – great for snow!), and off we went into the untouched snow. Meghan and JJ were a lot of fun, up for anything, and great to work with, even just for 15 unscripted minutes! Look at how happy they are together –

Wanted to share this quick capture, taken after a great day of skiing after a huge storm; it came in wet, with buckets and buckets of rain, then turned into snow and dumped foot upon foot of powder on us – I included the deck, so you can see – and we live in the “banana belt” of Tahoe, this is not even half of what the West shore or the ski resorts got! I just loved the view after coming home tonight. (Then I got to shovel it!)