Seattle, Port Ludlow, Port Townsend, oh my.

I’d forgotten how much I like the northwest. I like not having to wear sunglasses every day, and not being sweltering after thirty seconds outdoors.

(I like kayaking and fishing trips and hiking in the woods and eating thimble berries and riding on golf carts and getting picked up by seaplane and drinking mojitos and in-room facials and dancing like a lunatic and dog portraiture and dark chocolate and rocky beaches and lighthouses and sea captain’s houses with “widow’s windows” where the wives would sit and watch the waves while their husbands were away and little snakes and little vole things and starfish and rabbits and baby deers, too.)

Oh, and volcanoes! Love volcanoes, too.

Back in LA, now. Still love the weird improbability of this place.

Good thing my parents’ ‘plane didn’t land yet. They’d turn right round and go all the way back to Heathrow if they felt that.

The BBC website’s funny:

I was never all that bothered about N*E*R*D*. I mean, I liked them just fine and everything, but I never really got the whole OhMyGodPharrELLLLLL!!!! thing.

Of course, once I busted my way through all the over-made-up, under-dressed whinie girlies begging to be let backstage and made it into the pit and I started taking pictures of Pharrell, I was suddenly very bothered indeed. Sigh. I love being a photographer.

In contrast, before I’d ever even seen a picture of Amanda Blank, I knew I wanted to take her picture. She just *sounds* good to photograph. I had a really strange but strong feeling that she should be high on my People I Like To Take Pictures Of list, and I was right. Rooftop in Austin = photolove at first sight, for real. She and Naeem from Spank Rock are so much fun to take pictures of. They’re just brilliant.

Knowing what a total pathetic Amanda Blank Spank Rock fangirl I am, Prefix’s publisher knew exactly who to ask to shoot the HARD Summer Fest. Best assignment ever.

There’s a Russian saying that crops up in fairytales all the time, and it means “morning is wiser than evening”.

In theory, it means “sleep on it.”

In practice, at least in the fairytales, it means “husband, go to bed so your wife can stay up all night working her magic on your problems and in the morning when you wake up everything will be better.”

So, what I learnt from advice in Russian fairy tales is “when something needs doing, tell everyone to get out of your way then stay up all night working your fingers to the bone and do it yourself,” which works very well every time.

Rachel’s first NME photo credit. Aww.

When I was 14, the shop up the road had to order the NME special for me because no one else where I lived wanted it.

Now read Laura’s story www.nme.com/news/the-strokes/38145 and one of these days, if you’re lucky, I’ll tell you the tale of my Agyness Deyn bathroom photoshoot. Or maybe I won’t, because that last sentence was pretty much everything there is to tell.

Little Miss Sally Fay Dalton had this as her Myspace picture, but Myspace deleted it on the grounds that it was “too violent” to be viewed by the delicate little petals that use the site.

That’s ridiculous, of course, but I am fantastically proud that my pictures are apparently worth banning. Getting my pictures deleted from Myspace gives me even more joy than being obviously braless at Disneyland.

THE LAST KNOWN PHOTOGRAPH OF DITA DIMONÉ, NAKED AT A GARDEN PARTY ON THE NIGHT OF HER STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE

JACQUETTA DOWLING, SURPRISED BUT UNPERTURBED BY AN UNINVITED GUEST WHILE TRACING THE MENHENIOTTS’ HONEYMOON ROUTE ON AN ANTIQUE MAP OF PARIS

HADLEY MONTPELIER, RECLINING AFTER HANGING UP ON HER TRANSATLANTIC CALLER

HARLOW JONES ENJOYING HER LAST CIGARETTE AT HER FAMILY HOME JUST NORTH OF GREENBRIER, TENNESSEE, MOMENTS BEFORE AMNESIA SET IN

STRAWBERRIE PORTSMOUTH, THINKING OF THE FUTURE

I’ve got an Edendale preview for yous, so don’t miss it.

PS — Remember to bring your hazmat suit.