Travel and the Ethereal - Our first solo photo gallery show!

One of the Centerpieces of our show

Travel and the Ethereal  is our first solo photo gallery show! Beginning Nov. 2nd,  16 of our most treasured images displayed in a  limited engagement at the wonderful Miraflores winery in California's Sierra Foothills. Artists' receptions November 2nd and 3rd at 1PM each day, with wine and one-on-one time with Juliet and me. This is one of the proudest moments of my adult life and 2+ years of devotion to this craft to make it happen. If you are in Northern California we would love to see you, and please tell your friends. It is because of the amazing support I have received on this blog that I am at this point in my career. A huge thank you to my amazing readers and brilliant colleagues.

Here is the release from Miraflores  -

Travel and the Ethereal — A mobile photography exhibition
Michael and Juliet Housewright are mobile phone photographers
inspired by years of foreign travel. Their work has been featured
in yearly shows in Denver, Vermont, and the outstanding online publications,
Your Life is a Trip, and Hipstography. Their first exhibition at Miraflores
features images shot using only an iPhone in Hong Kong, Italy, California,
Utah, Vietnam, and Colorado. Their work often blurs the lines between
the concrete and the abstract. What is apparent immediately is how close
the viewer feels to the subjects of the photos and how incredible the sense
of place has been captured using only a mobile phone. You may see more
of their work at www.theblissfuladventurer.com or at Miraflores. A reception
for the artists both days at 1 pm.

"Find a place where there is joy, and the joy will burn out the pain" - Joseph Campbell

iPhonePhotography 101 Course

Captured and Edited with an iPhone

I am teaching an iPhone Photography 101 Course next Saturday September 14, 2013 at the Miraflores winery in gorgeous El Dorado County, CA. This reasonably priced and very fun course includes lunch, a wine tasting, and the chance to learn a few of my secrets to successful iPhone images. Please join us there are a few spaces left :-) These guys make some fine wines and it will be fun to explore the property and capture it with our iPhones.

Sept. 14th iphone magic — Make Beautiful Winery
Images using only an iPhone. HOW? Join expert iPhone
photographer and travel writer Michael Housewright for a day shooting
and creating amazing images using only a iPhone and some carefully
selected editing tools. In a few short hours you will learn the basics of
photo composition, lighting, and editing your favorite images. From simple
portraits to sweeping landscapes, you will learn why the iPhone in your
pocket or purse is the most powerful imaging tool in the world. The intro
to iPhoneography is limited to 20 students. Light lunch provided and of
course a sampling of the fine wines of Miraflores $57 per person includes
light lunch. Class starts 11am. RSVP at (530) 647-8505.

Hipstography and Hong Kong - They Love Me

Hong Kong Cash

I was recently published in a very cool online magazine for Hipstamatic photographers called Hipstography. This gallery of 18 of my native Hipstamatic images from my journey to Hong Kong was a real honor. To date, this has been my most successful photography trip and I look forward to returning there soon. I encourage you all to check out Hipstography and give a shout out to its fabulous author, Eric Rozen (the blog is in English and French) While I have been noticeably absent from my blogging duties I have been quite fortunate with my photos lately as I will share in subsequent posts.

I appreciate very much all the support from fellow bloggers over the past 2 years and my art is starting to gain traction thanks largely to your encouragement and readership. Stay tuned :-)

Photo trip to Puglia - The Time is Now

Capture Images Like These

Only one week remains to join us for The iPhone and Puglia trip to Italy Oct 22-29. Click Here to See Trip Details. 

The iPhone Puglia is an 8 day - 7 Night Journey with me, The Blissful Adventurer, and iPhone Photography Icon  Sam Krisch to the must-see region of Puglia, Italy. From October 22-29 of 2013 an intimate group of passionate travelers will experience the most authentic journey into the heart of Southern Italy. Equipped with iPhones, passion, and lots of local wine, we will document one of the last remaining realms of traditional Italian living. Southern Visions Travel, the most authentic operator in the region will be managing every detail for us on this trip, and trust me, they are the absolute best in the business

You will get to experience Puglia like Juliet and I have experienced it for years. You will explore thousand year-old olive groves, a 19th century converted fortress now making some of the best wines in Italy, and even hang out with local octopus fishermen cooking their morning catch just for you.

Each guest or couple will have their own unique apartment in the whitewashed hillside town of Locorotondo. Wine for a $1 a liter can be filled at the local shop, coffee aromas fill the air each morning giving way to the smells of fresh drying laundry under the bluest afternoon skies. You will eat, drink, and love like locals, while learning to create gorgeous images on your iPhone, worthy of the memories they represent.

We will dine together in local places serving food farmed, harvested, or raised often a few steps from the restaurant. We will walk in the footsteps of  Romans, Greeks, Saracens, Normans, and other Blissful Adventurers that have swooned under the languid days of luxurious life in Puglia.

Unlike any other vacation in Italy you will spend your time each days with an eye towards experience and creation. You will be seeing Italy the way it wants to be seen, and while there is a plan, there is no script. Your images will make this an experience completely your own.

The Beautiful Baroque of Lecce

I will be there each day shooting as well, eating, drinking, and laughing along with you. This is a vacation from the banality of of life and canned Italy tourism. Memories, built here in Puglia, will shape your travel lives for years. After my first time in Puglia I knew it would be hard to find its equal, and I have not.

Follow this link  for the full itinerary and pricing. Contact me directly at michael@blissfuladventurer.com with any questions, or feel free to fill out the contact form here on my site. We have limited spaces available and Sam, Juliet, and I would love you to join us.

The Amazing Odie Housewright - Happy 95th Birthday!

Me, Odie, and Juliet

Odie Housewright is my grandmother. She is 95 years old today! Happy Birthday Little Odie, Juliet and I are sick we cannot be there to celebrate with you.

She is without question one of the most amazing people I have had the privilege to know in my lifetime.

Odie sings and plays guitar

Odie retired from Freestone County at age 89

When I was a child I would stay with Odie almost every day in the summers. We played dominoes and rummy. Odie taught me math and gamesmanship.

Odie is one of the best cooks you will ever meet. Even my discerning Italian friends over the years have loved Odie's food and always want to see her when they come to Texas.

Odie picked cotton as a child and has always worked in some capacity. Even now she cooks regularly for my father and stepmother.

Odie can do a crossword puzzle faster than I ever will.

Odie can laugh and cry at the same time because her joy is overwhelming and just as infectious.

Odie is also stern in her will and uncompromising in her faith.

Odie makes quilts that should hang in The Smithsonian.

Odie and I once canned a tomato juice product we affectionately called V-3. It may have only been 3 ingredients but it truly embarrassed V-8 in quality.

Odie makes Caramel Pie, Buttermilk Pie, Rhubarb Pie, Chocolate Pie, Chocolate Fried Pie, Coconut Cake, Fantasy Fudge, Blackberry Cobbler, and a Jell-O dessert I would choose 9 times out of 10 over anything at any restaurant I frequent.

Odie loves with 100% of herself and she could care less about what others think of her. The funny thing is: others love her because she is so real and without social hangups.

Odie takes NO medicine of any kind except for 1/2 an aspirin every once in awhile.

Odie is the Matriarch and the soul of the Housewright family. We are the luckiest family we know to have Odie in our lives; healthy and still Odie.

Odie makes meatloaf, hamburger steaks, okra and tomatoes, turnips, pork steak, ham, turkey, dressing, gravy, turnip greens, spinach, fried chicken, cottage cheese salad, plum jam, biscuits, green beans and new potatoes, and black-eyed peas with cornbread

Odie has taught Sunday school, sang in the choir, worked for the senior center, worked for a rich woman, sang at reunions, given speeches, and prayed every night

Odie will beat you in 42, Chicken Foot, Dominoes, Canasta, or any other game she fancies

Odie always answers her phone and always has encouragement and kindness for me. Odie has never wavered in her belief in me.

When I grow up I want to be just like Odie.