2012 Fifth Annual Santa Barbara Women's Festival

March 9-10, 2012

Honorary Chair & Executive Director; Tracy Beard

Founder and Producer; Patty DeDominic

Co-Founder; Mary Schnack (This 5th Annual Festival was dedicated in her memory)

Master of Ceremonies; Mignonne Profant

*And many, many other men and women who have worked throughout the year to help make this festival happen!

This was my second year photographing the Women's Festival and it was by far my favorite year. Dynamic speakers Kathy Ireland (who graced this month's cover of Forbes Magazine) and Keynote Speaker Lynda Weinman (of Lynda.com) took the stage sharing their life experiences and lessons along the way about being balanced, strong women in touch with living their passions. Local vocal sensation Lois Mahalia sang a tribute during the V.I.P. reception followed by a small but mighty troupe of Girls,Inc. singers who absolutely charmed California Congresswoman Lois Capps who was sitting in the front row for the performance.

Saturday's festival featured dozens of vendors offering health products, consultations, non-profit information, chocolates, glitzy clothing and accessories (b/c what would a women's fest be without things that sparkle and shine?!) as well as a section devoted to local artists (a few of whom donated to the Women's Festival). The afternoon was absolutely gorgeous and the setting was sublime...overlooking Santa Barbara's pride and joy....the Pacific Ocean and outlying Channel Islands. Round table discussions featuring local authors, entrepreneurs, healters, and coaches were held in the afternoon overlooking the whole ocean.

Not that I'm personally biased but....one of the highlights this year, in my opinion, were the dance performances held throughout Saturday afternoon. The Djun Djun Mamas led by Lisa Beck ROCKED THE STAGE...with their thunderous drumming, dancing and singing (yes, I'm a proud member and was seen periodically running around with both my camera and my drumsticks throughout the afternoon). Among several singers and groups were Hip Blessings who drew a crowd with their Middle Eastern choreographies as well as World Dance Workout led by Janet Reineck whose dancers' enthusiasm was infectious! Two Chumash groups performed as well as the frame drumming and dance troupe Gaia led by local goddess Kris Oster. Unfortunately, I missed Jo Williams' early morning "Wake Up!" but know it was fabulous b/c everything she does usually is!

A HUGE thank you to all of you who helped to support the Women's Festival this year either through your donations, your volunteer efforts, involvement as a vendor or performer, or as a guest coming to just enjoy the events. I'm also grateful to Patty DeDominic and everyone on the Board of Directors for including me as their photographer again this year!

I hope that word continues to spread with each year of the festival....and that it only draws in more and more amazing men and women to join in the celebration.

Enjoy the slideshow and feel free to share the link to your friends and other men and women who were involved or who would like to be involved in the Women's Festival next year!

*If the music doesn't come on when you click on "play" then refresh your page and start the slideshow again.

**A special thank you to Lisa Beck's father, Jim Beck, who was able to take my camera for our Djun Djun Mamas performance and get some great shots of our group in action! Difficult to clone myself and do both at the same time...maybe next year. ;)

"The Magic of Mermaids"
Photo Shoot with Local Mermaid Goddess Kris Oster

by r.s.thurston photography

“I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.”
― Anaïs Nin

Since late last summer I've been dreaming and obsessing on mermaids....spending hours online collecting mermaid photos, paintings, and even creating a Pinterest Board dedicated to these magical, feminine sea creatures...completely transfixed by their long, lustrous hair and gracefulness in the water....tails and tendrils swirling beneath the water.

It's incredible how mysteriously our creative minds work....A few months later my good friend, fellow Djun Djun Mama and past photography client Kris Oster called me. She had purpose and intention in her voice.

"I know this is going to sound strange, Rachel, but I have this really wild idea that I want to manifest with you and I think you're the perfect person for it."

Even before the word slipped out of her mouth I knew what was coming.

"I've been thinking about mermaids. Would you be interested--"

"Of course!!!! Of course!!!" I screamed before she could even complete her sentence.

It would be absolutely perfect to work with Kris on my first mermaid shoot. The last shoot we had done together was one in which we had manifested her connection to a tree goddess. Everything had come together so beautifully when we worked together.

Kris began the search looking for the perfect tail and we met a few times to go over her wardrobe. We even enlisted our good friend Ms. Lisa Beck (leader of the Djun Djun Mamas and also a favorite muse and photography client of mine) to assist me in keeping Kris in perfect mermaid form and in moving her along the sand (as mermaids are quite the aqueous creatures but not so adept at moving around on land until their legs have grown back).

We ended up doing two shoots one in freshwater and another in the ocean. We couldn't have asked for better conditions when we shot along the ocean. The light was sublime as the sun set over the Pacific....she looked like an absolute goddess perched along the rocks as the waves broke over her feet and the receding foam wrapped around her legs like perfectly sculpted clouds of meringue.

I had to keep pinching myself. What a joy to be photographing such a dear friend while being helped by another.

Kris is an absolutely amazing being. She is strong, graceful, nurturing, incredibly bright and creative and has zero trace of any ego so often associated with highly successful people. She is a percussionist, an academic, a leader, a teacher and to top it all, she has an entire background in the field of marketing. She's currently promoting her Elite+Fabulous Marketing Sessions to local entrepreneurs.

Anything Kris Oster touches becomes gold. She is a fabulous creature and epitomizes the idea of a goddess. She looks like a true creature of the water in these photos effortlessly manifesting these water deities.

I hope you enjoy these photos as much I we did doing these shoots together. I have to believe that there's a higher power at work during shoots like this. And I certainly hope that this is just the first of many more shoots to come of mermaids and other magical sea creatures!

If you don't hear the music when you start the slideshow, just refresh your page and click on "play" again.

❤"Love Letter To My Mother"

Photo Shoot with Ms. Karen Custer Thurston....my beloved Mamacita!

by r.s.thurston photography

It’s hard to express how grateful I am to have my mother in my life. She has become more than that. We are sisters, best friends, travel partners and champions of each other’s passions and creative pursuits. I think it’s so much easier seeing the beauty in those we love than in ourselves. The same is true of my mother. She is radiant, stunning, strong, sensitive, supportive, creative, bright, kind, generous, funny (yes, you really are, Mama!), and overall fabulous. I don’t think she necessarily sees these things in herself all the time and I’m sure I struggle recognizing my own talents and assets. That’s what sisters are for, right? To point these out to each other all the time~

It’s been a dream photographing my mother over the years. She’s the one who gave me an artistic sense of composition. Who taught me to dance when I was only three…something which continues to be a passion of mine. She patiently taught me to sing when she thought all was lost and that I might actually be tone-deaf like my father. Turned out I wasn’t after all. To this day, singing with King Bee is a great joy in my life. She taught me that life is too short to not wear the fun, sparkly things! And she taught me to love and to support women in our journeys to a greater love for ourselves.

And she has always supported me in my artistic pursuits. She is my greatest champion. Period.

Over the years she’s learned to trust my eye and my vision when we shoot together. She’s even grown to trust me enough to change her make-up or earrings when I don’t think they’ll “jive” with an outfit.

She’s one of my favorite muses. The camera seems to drink her up like a cool glass of water on a hot summer day. She has a fierceness about her that’s cut by a deep vulnerability and innocence. And burning through it all is a bright light…her passion for life which I thankfully also inherited.

I love you, Mama.

The greatest gift from you this Christmas is to have you in my life. I’m so excited to spend the holidays with you~

Raquelita

★ Enjoy the Slideshow!

Goddess Pregnancy Photos

by rsthurston photography

*Feel free to leave comments below the slideshow~

September 20th, 2011

"To be pregnant is to be vitally alive, thoroughly woman, and undoubtedly inhabited."

Anne Buchanan & Debra Klingsporn

It's crazy to think that not only are some of my oldest and dearest Santa Barbara girlfriends now married and with kids but a few of them are on their second and third little ones. It's a beautiful thing to watch a fellow woman grow from who she was as a single entity to growing into a wife and mother. My dear friend (who wishes to remain unnamed but is pleased to share these artful images with others) has been in my life since the first year I moved to Santa Barbara. I was fresh off the river from years of living in a tent...my Chevy Blazer packed to the gills with most of my living possessions.

She had just moved here from Oregon and was beginning an equally exciting adventure and chapter in her life.Those were the days when we didn't know the difference from the Eastside and the Westside or the Riviera from the Mesa. We were just happy to have a roof over our heads and a little piece of green out our backdoors. I lived off of plastic plates and ate on a coffee table stitched together from plywood and bricks for the first year. My girlfriend "G" and I paddled outrigger together, partied with sailors, went to music festivals, and lived the free-spirited lifestyle of 20-something women unfettered by commitment, mortgages, or a biological clock.

In short, them were some fun days...

I look now at how much our lives have changed. I definitely couldn't fit all that I own into an SUV anymore and I'm a lot pickier about the plates I eat off of and the neighborhood I live in. She's married now to a sweet engineer with a Midwestern raising and taste for travel and good art. They're on their third child now but seem to maintain a closeness with each other as if they were just entering their first year of marriage together.

While we both acknowledge the incredible times we had here during the "good ole days," I doubt either one of us would trade where we're at now. I've discovered a serenity and blissfulness here in Santa Barbara that I never knew when I was moving every three months and living out of tupperware.

And my girlfriend has grown into this amazing, radiant, calm, and collected wise, sexy wife and mother. To see the woman who I once danced on bartops with and lost at a music festival in the High Sierras becoming this pregnant goddess is truly an unimaginable transition yet it just feels right. Girlfriends like her are blazing the way for me in the next chapter of my life...

We're blessed to be the women that we are. And as the old saying goes...."You can never step in the same river twice." But why should we? It's a magnificent, heart-wrenching, and beautiful journey this life of ours....and I wouldn't trade any of it.

The adventure of motherhood awaits....

We had fantastic timing, by the way, with this shoot. "G" gave birth only a week after these photos were taken....her precious little one was born on a Sunday morning...hence the title of the soundtrack I chose by Maroon 5 which I thought fit the mood purrfectly....Enjoy!

August 12, 2011

Photo Shoot with Cynthia Ziemer

Friend, Superstar, and Fellow Djun Djun Mama~

by r.s.thurston photography

"There is just one life for each of us: our own." ~Euripides

*Feel free to leave your sweet comments at the end of this entry~

It's a dream to have the chance to photograph more girlfriends and among those a very special group of women: the Djun Djun Mamas. I've photographed both Lisa Beck, our leader, as well as Kris Oster another phenomenal woman in her own right.

Each of the women in this group are extraordinary. Accomplished. Creative. Kind. Generous. Wise beyond this life. And radiant.

Cynthia is all of these and more. I continue to learn more about her through moments together like this shoot. How she is capable of giggling and smiling most any day of the week. How she loves bringing coconut water to our Djun Djun Mama potlucks. How she adores driving her '64 Red Corvette (which has a story of its own). How she loves music concerts and volunteering locally. And how gorgeous she looks in jewel tones like purple, green, and turquoise!

We had originally planned this shoot b/c she'll be featured on the back of an upcoming issue of Casa Magazine with her company Prospect Mortgage.....but it gave us the opportunity to have way more fun with it and get a little more artsy.

And not surprisingly through the process of working with her, I learned that Cynthia is truly a beautiful woman inside and out.

And now for the slideshow...

If the music doesn't come on when you play the slideshow. Refresh your webpage and restart the slideshow.

Enjoy!

"Bliss Salon & Spa" Photo Shoot by rsthurston photography

Santa Barbara, California

Among many goals for my business, I’ve been wanting to expand my business and network with local salon owners this past year (for what better place to find cool local women?!)

My good girlfriend Kimi Vandyk recently connected me with a sweet, beautiful little salon on Mission Street aptly named “Bliss Salon & Spa” and owned by Santa Barbara local Tracy Grossmann. Beautifully decorated with Buddha statues and warm colors, it’s a very inviting place to spend a couple of hours feeling pampered.

Tracy is looking to expand the look on their website with more colorful, artsy images as well as to celebrate their upcoming one-year anniversary with an ad in The Independent.

The eight of us were lucky enough to catch a break in this crazy spring weather last week on the morning of our shoot.….relishing the early morning sunshine pouring through the windows of the salon then tramping about at one of my favorite local gardens where you can assured something will always be in bloom!

I’m looking forward to continuing my relationship with the women at Bliss Salon~

Check them out…it’s a gorgeous place to spend an hour or two feeling doted on…

Pictured in these images are the following gorgeous women:

Tracy Grossmann, Mimi Anderson, Laurie Campbell, Alison Fuller, Angela Ireland, Laura Weidl, and Lauren Woodard.

Note: If the music doesn't come on when you click on "play," try refreshing your screen and clicking "play" again.

Photo Shoot with Karen Custer Thurston....

Turkish-Egyptian Dancer and Choreographer Extraordinaire!

by rsthurston photography

"Gorgeous, Sexy Goddesses

in the Woods"

Photo Shoot with Karen Custer Thurston's Middle Eastern Dance and Drumming Troupe

"Al Rakasaat"

by r.s.thurston photography

r.s.thurston blog

"Dance is the hidden language of the soul."

~Martha Graham

I was born a dancer to a mother who was born to a dancer who was also born to a dancer. As far as we can see, the love of music and dance--that's as natural to us as being women--goes back to at least my great grandmother Ruth who was a hard-working farmer and saved up $ from selling butter and eggs during the Depression to put my grandmother and great uncle through dance classes and training to become performers.

It's not something that my Mother and I were ever told we needed to do. It's something that we find we have to do. It brings me such joy, such bliss to dance and to have music in my life. My Mother has been one of my greatest inspirations in the world of dance. As I've followed my dancing path here in Santa Barbara, she continues to expand as a dancer, teacher, and choreographer in Flagstaff. Her dance troupe "Al Rakasaat" is composed of a beautiful group of women who have studied with her over the years as they've all grown together in their dance and their friendships through their shared love of dance.

Flagstaff is like a second home to me (along with Indiana!) and it's been a dream of mine for years to have the opportunity to photograph her with her dance group. Many of the members have become friends of mine over the years and it's been a joy to watch them perform on my visits out to Flagstaff.

For anyone who has music and dance in their life, we are blessed! I cannot imagine a life without dance anymore than I can imagine a life without air, water, and good friendship.

To my Mama I say, "Thankyou for being an amazing mentor to me in my own pursuit of happiness through music and dance! And thankyou for always being such a solid foundation of support for me through thick and thin." And to these women I say, "I hope that you continue to have music and dance in your lives for many, many years to come and that your friendships continue to deepen and expand~"

Thankyou for giving me the opportunity to photograph you all~

Dance on!

all my love, Rachel

These photos feature Turkish Egyptian Dancer/Choreographer/Teacher Karen Custer Thurston and the current Dancer and Drumming Members of "Al Rakasaat": Crystal Drumheller, Cintamani Ellsworth, Sandra Gomez, Meredith Rankin, Nicky Sanders, Sarah Vrba, and Janet Wilson.

*Visit my Fanpage on Facebook as well at r.s.thurston photography~

Enjoy the Slideshow!

r.s.thurston photography

*Make sure to turn up the volume for the music. If the music doesn't come on, refresh the page and play slideshow again.

Goddess Photo Shoot With Lisa Beck

....Basking In the Sun!

by r.s.thurston photography

r.s.thurston blog

"Joy is a flower that blooms when you do."

Author Unknown

I've had the opportunity to photograph the divine spirit that embodies Ms. Lisa Beck....she's a veritable Goddess in every sense of the word. In the past ten years of our friendship, I've seen her blossom into this tour de force. Using a unique range of talents, she and her partner Mr. Budhi Harlow have created a dynamic community of dancers, musicians, and percussionists from their loyal following of students. She sings, she dances West African and Bollywood, she's a fabulous djembe and djun djun player, dance choreographer, and she's able to share these passions with her dance students who can't seem to get enough of her classes!

Most of what I love about Lisa, however, is what a steadfast, radiant spirit she is and I think that these portraits capture the grace that emanates from within her. She inspires me on a weekly basis both as a teacher and a friend and to me, that is exactly what being a Goddess is all about!

To find out more about their classes and community, visit Panzumo.com.

Make sure to check out the slideshow...if the music doesn't come on at first, try to refresh the page.

Enjoy!

with love, Rachel

September 24, 2010
Goddess Shoot With Kris Oster...Afro-Brazilian and Cuban percussionist, researcher in mythology and rhythm, and the founder of "Gaia," a women's conference in Santa Barbara.

Serendipity comes sometimes when we least expect it. Just around the time I decided to switch my business name from "Rachel S. Thurston" to "r.s.thurston photography" and to focus on Goddess Photography, along comes Kris Oster, another sign from the universe that I'm going in the right direction!





I've been drumming with Kris for the past year or more with the performance group The Djun Djun Mamas and knew she was a gorgeous, multi-talented goddess but had no idea just to what extent her goddess roots went! Besides spending the last handfull of years completing her doctorate in Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute and regularly leading workshops and classes in goddess mythology and drumming, she's also a radiant Mama and wife. To top it off, she comes from a family of percussionists and has been drumming professionally and recording since she was twenty.

Which makes her all the more of a rock star in my eyes!



And then she tells me that she's running a goddess women's festival this coming fall called "Gaia," which celebrates the divine spirit and that she'd like to have some beautiful, goddess-like photos to promote the festival and her own work.

Voila!

So I continue along this goddess path...having the opportunity to photograph incredible women who are divine inside and out.
We played with the light, the shadows, and a few fun wardrobe changes. Best of all, Kris really feels a deep connection with the tree goddesses and I've been wanting to take more sensual photography of women wrapped up among tree branches... I really love what we created together!

I'll let the photographs speak for themselves.

Here's to Kris and all that you continue to create, my love!
Hoping that our goddess paths continue to cross and overlap....

much love,
Rachel

July 25th, 2010
Santa Barbara, CA

Co-Creating The Journey:
Photo Shoot With Lisa Beck and Budhi Harlow of Panzumo
West African Dancers and Drummers

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”
Ursula K. Le Guin.

I don’t’ even know where to begin with explaining my relationship with Lisa and Budhi. Friends. Mentors. Co-creators. Teachers.




We perform together. We dance together. We drum together. We commune together. And we occasionally sing together. It’s difficult to separate out the levels of relationship that we have together. But one of the most cherished of these relationships is as their photographer. In the past ten years, we’ve had several photo shoots together which have unintentionally archived our journeys as artists from their first music cd around nine years ago with their first band to their connection with the ocean and Lisa’s growth as a dance teacher to this summer during which our creative energies only seem to growing without abandon and Lisa has become something of a mythical creature…graceful, gorgeous in a very unself-conscious way, strong. There is so much that I wanted to create with her photographically this time around that we decided to do a separate photo shoot of her as goddess portraits (to be released soon) and another of her and Budhi shining in their musical elements….



Budhi is a phenomenal musician, composer, teacher and performer. And in the past ten years, Lisa has not only blossomed as a highly talented musician and dancer but she has become one of the most gifted dance teachers I’ve ever known (up there along with Vanessa Isaac and my beloved Mamacita). Her humility, grace, unending ability to combine her multiple talents have helped make her such an amazing leader. Together they have helped to create a truly beautiful community of drummers and dancers in Santa Barbara over the past several years and one which I consider to be one of the many amazing blessings of my life.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do. There is a beautiful synergy that occurs when creative spirits come together with a similar vision and you can almost taste it in the electrical texture of the photos….This is the path that I have envisioned for many years to come. It’s difficult to imagine having more fun than we did together on this shoot but, after years of experience with them both, I know it’s always possible! ;)