Andy's Idea Factory

While in Las Vegas last week, exploring the Paris casino, my husband and I squeezed into a chair, held the camera out in front of us, and snapped a self portrait. Then a stranger sitting next to us asked to help and took the same shot of us, only it was no where near the same shot. While it was a better shot of us humans, it got nothing of the background of Paris. (Notice this stranger made it into our "self" photo too!) What makes excellent photographers stand out above the rest isn't their equipment, it's their eye for composition. If you took everything I learned in four years studying visual arts and crammed it into one word, it would be "composition." What most people do when shooting photographs is look at the shot, hold up the camera, and snap. But sometimes all it takes is a different point of view and a few reminders to improve your photos results by 100%. The goal is to achieve unique photos that even if they're of something quite familia...

We love to camp, but we don't technically like to "rough it." I don't know many who do, so I don't feel terribly bad about being a "car camper," since who wants to go out into the woods without their kitchen anyway? Not me! But I do like to make cooking very simple when we're cooking by campfire, and thought to share these awesomely-easy recipes for your next trip to the woods. 1. Hobo Chili - for us, the key to campsite cookin' is the lack of cleaning, so this one is the highest maintenance of all with one big pot to clean. If you time it right however, you can make this meal last and bring home a dirty dish to clean in a more civilized location. You'll need: Big soup pot 2 packages of hot dogs 3 cans of chili, chili beans, or combine cans to your liking Chopped onion Shredded cheddar cheese 12 hot dog buns And a roaring fire with a cooking grate Spoon or fork Put chili, dogs, and onions into the pot to heat up. When hot, break up...

I'm going to go out on a limb on this one, proving my lunacy to some I'm sure. But since 1995 I have worked with my lead guide, guardian angel, spiritual master, whatever you chose to call them, and have a list of miracles and fascinations as a result. Fifteen years with this man I call Merlin; he has guided me from studying crystals to teaching classes, through courses in energy work and healing, and in creating meditations, journeys and quests for myself and others. He calls me "my child," and our sacred place is atop a lone butte with miles of views in every direction and with a cave that houses our talks on the rainier days, which has two nice "sky chairs" hanging in the protected entrance. But how did I come to find Merlin? That summer in Oregon I took two classes from Sarah Felez, a woman I found at the Saturday market whom I now call my first spiritual teacher. The first class was in "Basic Assumptions," where we learned about our soul ...

How fitting that this is posting as we're on our way to Sin City... Yes, I said poonani. And nothing's wrong with that, unless you're in a convent. I got approval from Craig to share this, so here we go.... I can't take full credit for this idea from the factory, but I adapted it, and in art, that means it's mine. :) The idea came from ABC's Cougartown , when Christa Miller's character Ellie gave a sex card to her husband Andy. Andy and Ellie have a newborn, so their sex life is latent. The theory is that Ellie has Andy wrapped around her finger so tight that he has to earn these sex cards to get any nookie (or in our house, poonani) at all. We don't have kids, but we've been together 10 years this year and married for four. I'm not ashamed to admit that just like everyone else, our sex life is great sometimes, and quite latent some of the time as well. So for Valentines Day this year, I made him some of Ellie's cards to give our sex ...

A very long time ago, some random guy in the Denver airport was sitting by the big windows near me, and we started chatting about how I wanted to be a writer, and how my boyfriend and I were starting a company geared at helping people with disabilities travel more adventurously. In just five short minutes I gained a lot from this stranger, who happened to be a business owner and journalist himself. His biggest advice was for us to start a newsletter. Others have told us the same thing many times since then, but this guy hit the nail on the head when he said, "You have to set yourself as the expert in your field," and added that by starting a newsletter, we'd get writing experience, as well as get the word out about our company and products. That was late in 2004, and we had about 6 months into the research for our first guidebook Access Anything: Colorado . In March of 2005, our first newsletter appeared , on the headwind of the release of Colorado. I was still new to...

I'm a baker, it's in my blood. Vivid memories from my childhood of making pasta and cookies and breads and elaborate oven concoctions swirl my brain when I enter the kitchen, and I know all my mother's gifts lie at the ready in my hands, and I feel the presence of my grandmothers double checking my measurements. I like the science of it all, and I love the aromas and results even more. And after living in the high desert of Colorado at 7,000 feet for 12 years, I've learned some great techniques for high altitude baking and cooking. Thanks to my friend Amy for reminding me to share these. Practice makes perfect, and many of these techniques I've learned from trial and error even after all I've read on the subject. One thing that confused me for years was while water may boil faster at a lower temperature, baked goods will actually take longer. Why? Mainly, atmospheric pressure is less at high altitudes than at sea level, this lower pressure affects the bakin...

As the light begins to extend as we approach Spring Equinox (happy spring!), our bodies want to wake up earlier and stay up later, whether our schedules or minds want them to or not! I'll be the first one to admit that I'm not a morning person, but every photographer will attest that there's something magic about the "magic hours." The "magic hours" are the times around sunrise and sunset where the light is simply magical. It catches the ridgelines and mountainsides turning them to rose, it glistens off water and reflects off the clouds, but while it's magical for some subjects, it's also not good for some. For instance, faces become back-cast, shaded, glared, or blown out, but silhouettes are gorgeous during the magic hour. Action shots are blurred out of focus and again dark or blown out, but the animals are always out at the magic hour, especially in spring. And the spring season adds to the magic hour because the light is still softer due...