Sunflowers on Sunsets: A Friday Afternoon Adventure

There's something sort of magical about sunflowers during the dog-days of summer, isn't there?

You see them in the grocery store, at the farmer's market -- even peaking up over the fences of neighbors who have the luxury of a garden. They've always been a favorite of mine, sunflowers, so cheery and bright!

I remember when I was growing up (I think I was four or five), I begged my mum to let me grow a small batch of sunflowers in our yard. One of my favorite childhood pictures is of me standing in front of those tall, wonderful flowers, looking so proud at what I had grown...

As I've grown up and moved into the big, bad city, I don't have many opportunities to see sunflowers in their natural habitat anymore-- unless I seek the opportunities out, that is!

A few weeks ago I was reading online about how the Maryland Department of Natural Resources's McKee-Beshers WMA plants a few huge fields of sunflowers each year as food for the local dove population. Cue social media perusing, gawking at other photographer's photos, frantically emailing friends to see who would come along with me on my search for these epic sunflower fields... and before you knew it, I had a date on my calender to visit the beauties.

While we didn't get there during peak bloom, my crew and I did have a wonderful (HUMID!!) evening walking among these bright, cheery flowers. Here's some of my favorite snaps:

#TBT to the Summer of Yoga Video I Shot for lululemon Washington, DC!

Guys. This is big. Like huge, ginormous, Totoro-size big!

A month or so ago a Facebook invite lead to an email that lead to a few phone calls that led to an awesome gig... for lululemon. Yeah. You read that right. THE lululemon. The lemon to the lulu. Excuse me for being ridiculous, but six weeks later I still think that landing *this client* totally warrants a ridiculous response.

Anyway. Back to the details.

Summer Yoga Series | lululemon athletica | Washington, DC from Sandi Moynihan on Vimeo.

Long story short, I got to shoot a short highlight reel for lululemon Washington, DC at their fabulous Summer of Yoga event on the Georgetown waterfront.

Originally, I was supposed to paddle out on a kayak with my camera and shoot SUP yoga, but it was too windy outside, so yoga was relocated to dry land (which, in all honesty, I didn't mind at all -- bringing my gear out on the water = YIKES!).

The yoga itself was awesome and featured local instructors from FloYo Standup Paddleboard Yoga (who did a great on-land class) and a post-workout refuel from Nooma. After the sunset, lululemon moved the party Malmaison for cocktails, small bites and smiles.

All in all it was an awesome (picture perfect!) event to be a part of. I can't wait to work with lululemon Washington, DC again.

P.S. Washington, DC is one of several stops around the country lululemon is making this summer as part of the Summer of Yoga series -- maybe there's a stop near you!

It's always beautiful and magestic in the Canadian Rockies

Sometimes its hard to believe that I was born so close to paradise. The Canadian Rockies are just one of those things that never, ever gets old to see when you look outside of your car window.

This morning my mum and I decided to go on a 12 km hike up to the Plain of Six Glaciers teahouse, which is near the fantastic Lake Louise ski area.

First of all, we couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous day. It was about 65 and partly sunny -- perfect hiking weather!

In all of the years that I've visited the Canadian Rockies, I'd never been able to squeeze this hike in, so image how excited I was to finally conquer it after all of these years!

The views are simply stunning. It was so hard to not stop every five minutes to take pictures. Although the hike was slightly challenging, I would say it was more than worth the trek up the mountain-- even so, the delicious tea biscuits at the teahouse up top were incentive to keep going!

Bonus picture: A nice moonscape from my backyard. Not bad, eh?