priscilla b. varner | chitter-chatter

[ 8 ] featuring reagan...

i am actively designing my first book " 8 ". this book investigates childhood dreams and highlights several individuals and their dreams. the idea for this book came out of discussions i've had with my girls. i think it's so important to have childhood dreams...i think it gives kids a long term goal to work toward. the kids and i chat all the time about what we want to be when we grow up. this book is dedicated to my eight year old...rea.

any guesses on what she wants to be when she grows up?? [yes...a teen with with attitude. ;)]

 

that's better!!!! and yes...she spray painted the unicorn herself. :)

 

there we go...both girls. i'll be creating and dedicating a different book for miss k. in the future.

 

i'll photograph the book as soon as it's completed. can't wait. it should be done in about 5 weeks!! stay tuned!!!

p.

[senior] meet skye...

skye's mom contacted me to do his senior pictures and after a reschedule due to snow, we were finally able to get together. ah...the challenges of being a natural light photographer working around weather. ;)

we met downtown reno and initially i wanted to photograph around the semi-pro baseball stadium but the light was horrific!! So...we managed to find a few super cool places to photograph instead.

meet skye...high school senior, musician and athlete.

thanks skye. it was great meeting you and your family!

p.

calling all military spouses...

greetings folks. i have a giant request for all my wonderful military families out there. as most of you know, i am currently working on my military spouse creative project. i am actively photographing spouses, adjusting my project and then re-photographing. i think i am on the verge of figuring out the "look" of the imagery that i've been looking for, so i will be able to share some pics soon.

in addition to my images of military spouses, i would like to include a sculpture. this sculpture will stand in the center area of my exhibition, surrounded by the images i make of the spouses that i am in the process of photographing. this sculpture is going to be created by all of you. if you would, please send me 1 to 2 of your family pictures. make sure the military spouse is in the image...even if it's a cardboard cutout of the spouse, or it can include your family and your "hug-a-hero" doll and even the actual spouse member (imagine that!!!). ha ha ha. i will be creating the sculpture around all of these images. please pass this link on to your military friends and have them pass it on to their military friends.

Address to send to:

University of Nevada

Department of Art

Attn: Priscilla B. Varner

Stop 224

Reno, NV 89557

 

please include your name and email address on the back of each image and please don't include any images larger than 8"x10". I would say "included your physical address" but you and i both know that our physical addresses change as often as we change socks!! i can not guarantee when the images will be sent back. if my series gets picked up by a gallery, it will be on display for an unknown period of time. my goal is to have a "wall" of family images from military spouses. please note: by sending me your family photo, you are agreeing to participate in the series. you are agreeing to participate knowing your family photo will be on view for the public to see and possibly included in nationally distributed publications. (that's the goal at least!!!!!)

thank you so very much for collaborating on this project with me. i genuinely feel as if this is our project...not just mine. i've been a military kid my whole life and a military spouse for half my life. i've met many, many military spouses and military kids throughout my experience and this is just one way i can say "thanks" and we can celebrate our special families.

thank you so very much for your willingness to participate. if you wouldn't mind, please post a quick comment if you decide to participate so i can be on the look out for your images!!!!

happy holidays!!!

priscilla

the lovely t. family...

wow...the t.s. they've been with me from the very beginning. :) i've followed them from cali...to northern va and down the va. beach. they just can't shake me!!! ha ha ha. i've always enjoyed hanging out with them, walking through the brush or running the streets. they are great fun!

please take a moment to check out the t.s.....they probably have the winner for the funniest group photo from this trip. love it!!!

thank you t.s....i hope you had as much fun as I did!

p.

checking out the m's...

halfway through my last day in virginia, i landed at the m's house. i always love spending time with them and watching their kids. they are so very sweet to one another and they just have this wonderful care-free sense of life. they are great people and have really great kids. :))

so...here are some pics of the fam while we wandered around the yard chatting....

thanks m.s!!! it was a real treat to catch up with you guys. i'll see you again this summer!!!

p.

the b's....

so here we have the b. family. the b.'s were gracious enough to loan out their "not farm" farm for several of my sessions. it had great woods, a great tree house and cool metal and wood barns. what more could i want?? the b.'s are great fun and so generous. thank you for letting me tromp all over the place taking pictures. :)

here are the b.'s...

thanks again! i hope you had a blast and i'll go ahead and email you my farm-use reservation for next years pictures. ha ha ha...

p.

we're on a roll...next up, n. family...

howdy folks. as you can tell...i've been a busy chica. :) next up to bat is the n. family. i've known the n. family for awhile now. they are so much fun! i've been photographing the n.'s for quite some time now and i love every minute of it!

meet the n.'s...

i'm trying some new things with some of my families. let me know what you think! :)

next up...the b. family....

p.

finally!! we have a family that doesn't start with r!!!!

it is now time to welcome the m. family. i've been photographing the m. family for quite awhile now...even before the littlest m. came along. it's wonderful to see how much the kids have grown! little m. has the most amazing eyes!!! and the littlest m. is so stinking cute with that blond hair! and mrs. m., if i could look as put together as you do...even for just one day...i would feel great. ha ha ha.

enough of my gushing...here are the m.'s...

it was great see y'all and i can wait to catch up some more....

p.

guess who...yup...another r. family...

seriously??!! can i buy an "s" or a "b"??? ha ha ha. this is the r. family...are not related to the last two r families. the first time i photographed this family, we were in bahrain and they were getting ready to have a baby!!!! now they have two. :) it was wonderful meeting the newest addition to the family and great to see big brother growing so big!

check them out...

the r's are off to yet another new adventure. best wishes and we'll see you soon!! :) P.

and here's another r. family...

once again, it was great catching up with everyone. apparently, your last name has to start with an "R" for me to photograph you. sorry to all you folks whose last names don't start with "R"!!! ha ha ha...

so...again, the kids have changed so much...especially the littlest one. he was very much in the belly the last time i saw this family!!! it was great to meet him finally. :)  mom, you looked great! we gave the kids a little reprieve at the end so I could do some alone images of mom. she was lookin hot and these fab photos will show ya how awesome she is.

check them out...

thanks so much mrs. r!!! can't wait to see again this summer!

the r. family...

so so so excited to see the r's! i haven't seen mrs. r. for...ah hem... a "couple" of years. ;) it was great to see her and her munchkins. she hadn't changed a bit! she just added a couple of kids. (cute ones too!!)

so after our session, we promised to get together soon. she may regret that decision after our first visit. ha ha ha. i will not let another "couple" years go by before we see each other. that's a promise...or a threat. ;)

here's her fab family...

thanks mrs. r!!!!!!! big hugs and i hope you enjoyed your photos. :)

p.

the p. family...

at bat...is the p. family. I've been photographing them since their oldest was 9 months old!!! It's been awhile. it's great watching the kids grow up. i haven't seen many of my clients on this trip for two years!!!! the kids have grown so much and the mom's haven't changed a bit. :)

on to the pics...the p. family:

tooooo cute! on deck...the r. family...... :))

s. family...

well...i had a VERY quick trip to virginia beach last week to photograph a bunch a families. the trip was FANTABULOUS!! but...way too short. :(  i definitely needed extra time to catch up with everyone. next time....i promise to chat more instead of looking like a crazed lunatic. ;)

my first session of the marathon was the s. family. i met these folks in bahrain a couple of years ago. i didn't have an opportunity to photograph them in bahrain due to my super quick exit and all the traveling that was done between the two families. it was great to finally get the opportunity to photograph them when i hit virginia.

check out their cutie patootie family:

stay tuned. more fun pics to come!!!!!!

p.

the andrews family....

and here are the andrewssssizzzzizz. ok...so i may be bias...but i had so much fun on this session. fun smiles...we adopted someone and even had a bevie break whilst waiting for the sun to go down a bit. we had a blast! check it out for yourself....

we hung out in the bushes....

we got our sm-eyes on... [smiling eyes]

adopted a moroccan super hero...

tortured the children for just...one...more....picture

m tried to shoot dragon fire at him but he wasn't really impressed....

i thought you said that was the last picture??? that's it! i'm holding my breath until we are really done!

1....2....3...awwwwwweeeeeee. love it!

he he he....that is a boy after my own heart. :)

so i need to send an apology to mrs. andrews. i asked if i could post a couple...meaning two...images from her session. well...i couldn't find just two. soooooo...sorry. :)

next up...images from abu dhabi! :) thanks for checking in!

 

the a. family...

and so starts the busy month of march. i kicked it off with a fantastic family session with my bud cheryl and her family. we strolled around adliya, in bahrain, and found some new cool places to use as backdrops. it's amazing what you find when you're just roaming around. we even found a caped super hero. you'll have to wait to see that pic but here's a sneak peek of the a. family session..

can i just say how luscious their skin is???? oh my gosh....i didn't do an ounce of editing except make the image black and white. geeeeeze....what do i have to do to get skin like that??? i know what their mom would tell me "STAY OUT OF THE FREAKIN' SUN!" can you tell she's told me that once or twice?? ;)  more to come....

more of muscat...

today we continue to check out oman. fun times! the buildings are old...they use my favorite colors...and it was such a pleasant day to be walking around. here's an old mosque next to the souq. the wood work kind of looked like a little southern crossed with a little arab. it was pretty cool...

windows...

'

ugh...this is going on my wall. LOVE that door!

haven't seen old glory out in public and under the sun in quite some time. brought tears to my eyes! and then i realized...that is one bright flag!

the ship we were on docked at a working port. tons of shipping containers!!!

they're so cool. :)

view of the old part of muscat...

look who i found!!! oh wait...he was with me the whole time. ;) ha ha ha...

some sunset action

so i've decided...i need a really big house so i have the space to hang all my freaking pictures!!!

reflection from another cruise ship docked next to us. i thought it was pretty cool...

the coolest thing ever!!! this is a shot...in the dead of night of the ships wake. this is called bio-luminescence. it was amazing to see...and this is what it is thanks to the bio-luminescence web page:

the causal organisms are almost always dino-flagellates, single-cell algae, often numbering many hundreds per liter. They are mechanically excited to produce light by the ship's passage or even by the movement of porpoises and smaller fish. [and yes...the coolest thing ever!]

in the morning...this was our view...iran. this will as close as we'll be allowed to be to iran for quite some time i'm sure. this was just 2 days before they started their exercises in the straits of hormuz. we squirted through just in time.

look who stopped by the ship!!!!! the girls were so excited. :)

well that's if from me for now. next up...some more shots around bahrain. we'll be heading back to europe this spring but stay tuned for some other cool things that will be happening on my blog. :)

enjoy! p.

 

trying on some muscat...

our next stop in our adventure was muscat, oman. we stopped in old muscat and to be honest...this is what i thought bahrain was going to look like when i found out we were moving here. it's cute..and the folks there are very nice. taxi drivers are a bit aggressive...but other than that...really nice folks. muscat was an important trading port from for the east and west. it has been know since 1 A.D. now that's old!

this greeted us upon our arrival. it's a giant mabkara, i believe that's the correct word. arabs use this container to burn incense. this version is a bit larger. so large that it has an elevator in it!

the sultan's boat. there's another boat just out of the pic that is really large as well. it's the sultan's staff boat. so when he goes out...everyone goes out.

a feeding frenzy! the omani's dress slightly different than the bahrainis. they have the thobes...but their thobes have a tassle, or karkusha, sewn into the neckline. it is said that the tassel is scented. also, they wear a kummah, which is what this man is wearing, or a muzzhar.

the entrance to the souq. it was so clean and nice!!

the first shop we stop in at the souq and this is what i see....

one of the numerous shops...

concerned customer. the kids actually made me take this pic. they were begging...ugh. it did turn out kind of cute though.

old stuff at one of the shops. i LOVE me some old stuff!!!!

i also dig this urn!

anyone want hanging elephants??? i found a couple. ;)

coins anyone? they were coins from EVERYWHERE!

i could have shopped all day in there. so much cool stuff....jason just thought it was old stuff. what does he know. ;)

alright folks. that's it from oman for now. next up...part two of oman. we get to check out some cool architecture and you can see who we parked next to. stay tuned!

 

wadi ham and bithna fort...

the tail end of our dune bashing included a stop in a wadi and a view of an old fort. The term wadi is an arabic term for valley or dry river bed. sometimes the dry riverbed will have water in it during heavy rains...which i'm sure you can imagine...isn't very often. ;)

bithna fort. built in 1735, although there is discussion that it wasn't built until a bit later, was considered one of the most important fortresses in the UAE.

the girls chillin in the wadi...

palms...

next up...a few shots from muscat, oman....

 

a quick stop in fujairah, uae...

the family and i headed out on the open gulf for the holidays. there's a cruise ship that heads out of dubai and travels through the arabian gulf and the gulf of oman. it stops in a few places along the way. we thought it would be fun...so we headed out.

our first stop was fujairah, uae. it's taken me about 3 months to figure out how to say "foo-jai-ruh" i kept wanting to call it fallujah. that's actually in iraq and they are not ready for tourists quite yet. any who...we decided to do a little dune bashing whilst we were in fujairah. we rode out of the city...basically half way back to dubai...and went strolling through the hills. we had a great conversation with our driver, from dubai, about arab customs like arranged marriages...curb service in the middle east and a bunch of other things. it was very educational. i really enjoyed the chat. here's some pics of our dune bashing:

this is our posse. there were about 8 vehicles that headed out on the adventure together.

the girls hanging in the dunes

dunes to be bashed...

 

camel spotting...

our two sand bunnies...

you can only imagine how much sand we brought back into the car after this stop. and it all managed to be in rea's pants!! ;)

lovely dunes sans truck tracks...

yes...we slid down this hill in a vehicle. yes...i screamed like a little girl...and yes...we went down dunes much steeper than this. and finally...yes...that vehicle in the top left is stuck. our driver was kind enough to drive by laugh...and then proceed down the dune. ;) i liked our driver!

another stop along the way. our entourage had to stop because one the vehicles couldn't make it's way up the hill. you had to use major stategery to make it. our driver dropped us off at the top and then went down the dune...picked up the tourists in the other car and brought them up to the top. now that the other vehicle was empty...it was able to make it to the top. i really enjoyed the blowing sand on the tip of the dune. brought some of this back in my hair....

the other drivers watching the last vehicle finally make it up the dune...and figuring out how we were going to get down from the top...

the varners...yes...the driver took my several thousand dollar camera and said "give that to me...i will take a picture." you can't see my teeth grinding...my sweating armpits and puckered booty. that was the tensest moment for me the whole day!!!!

more dunes...

and this is why you double check your frame before firing away. who knew there was a man chillin' betwixt my hubby's legs. nice one p!

my feet. i do believe i had a great shoe choice this day. everyone had tons of sand in their tennis shoes. me? i just shook it out. :)

next up...a real wadi...a fort and little bit of muscat...oman that is. :)

p.

 

european finale...

all good things must come to an end, right? well...here are the last few bits of our european trip. we'll start off with the pantheon in paris and then move on to some last lingering tidbits.

the pantheon...

so...we didn't have to walk far to see this site. it was literally 2 buildings down the street. it was originally built as a church dedicated to st. genevieve now it is a mausoleum for distinguished french citizens.

inside. it was beautiful. unfortunately...the ceiling is falling in little bits at a time. so...they have some of the walkways blocked off so a piece of ceiling doesn't crack you in the head.

one of the hallways under the pantheon. each archway on the side leads to a room that holds about 4-6 different concrete boxes holding distinguished french citizens. i've always found these places to be so peaceful.

a physicist and chemist and chemist famous for her research with radioactivity. she was the first woman to receive 2 nobel prizes and was the first woman professor at the university of paris.

braille was created in 1825 by louis braille. braille is still an important tool for blind individuals.

strange place to see your sorority letters hanging about...

cool windows around the basement that lets in a wee bit of light...

this was  on the ceiling in the pantheon some where. i LOVE it!!!!

university of paris...in 1970 the  university of paris was divided into 13 different universities. several of these universities are affiliated/or share the name with sorbonne.

these days...sorbonne is no longer used to refer to the university of paris but is used to refer to the historic building.

after visiting major universities in the US, most certainly for educational purposes mom, i surprised at how small this place was....

now for the odds and ends...

i forgot to include this shot from the musee d'orsay. sorry...

the kids asked to go back to the louvre...so we did. who's kids ASK to go to the louvre. OURS!!!

so...here's my pic of "winged victory" during our december trip. it was wonderful. we stood there...just the four of us...marveling at this beauty. it was fabulous! in august...

we stood there with hundreds of our closest friends trying to sneak a peek at a part of here. just not the same experience. :( oh...and these were the folks i could fit into the frame. there were a bunch more i couldn't fit in!

more pieces for you to enjoy...

from napoleon's apartments...still in the louvre...

the girls found a bed they liked. it was a little too spendy for me...but maybe we can create a similar decor on our ghetto budget. :)

a full on performance in the metro. they were GREAT!

kinsey wanted me to take this pic for her friend maddy. it was actually a metro stop. ;)

lastly, a chick made out of back lit glass. i swear...you can lock me in a metro stop for a week and i wouldn't run out of things to photograph!!

so that's it for europe for now. we had to come home as school was starting soon. next up will be pics from some stops on our middle eastern cruise and then i'll be working in some bahrain, dubai and abu dhabi images. fun times ahead!!! :)