lioninoil

I AmSterdam

jackie — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 23:34:44 +0000

When I visit a new city, I have a habit of doing this thing where I go completely nuts trying to see everything. Consequently, upon arriving back home, my body raises the white flag, forcing me to make up for all of that lost sleep. So, after everything I did in just three short days in Amsterdam—dim sum in the Red Light District, a chef-prepared meal on the canals’ snappiest boat, the city’s best cheese tasting, a shot of herring, the Van Gogh Museum, a six-hour meal at The Dylan Hotel’s Michelin-starred Vinkeles, the city’s newest Marcel Wanders-designed hotel, the Anne Frank Museum, a mind-bending art-space-slash-hotel, and an unfortunate run-in with a sassy cyclist (of course)—it’s no surprise that I just about went into hibernation upon returning home. Pity so much action rendered so few photos. But, alas, sometimes life is meant to be lived rather than documented. (more…)

Shore Thing

jackie — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 20:10:50 +0000

My trip to Honolulu was as much of a quick jaunt as one can achieve when living five time zones away. My three-night stay may have been bookended with two 10-hour flights, but that didn’t stop me from getting the most out of my trip. Highlights included Doris Duke’s Shangri-La, racing an outrigger, and learning to surf (that last one being something I had predicted I would totally crush with mad skill and yet I turned out to be just as mediocre as ever). But the main attraction for my trip was the new Modern Honolulu hotel, which, with minimalist decor and a cool South Beach vibe, truly lives up to its name. Throw in a Morimoto restaurant and spectacular Waikiki views and you’ve got the hottest ticket in town. Does it get any bigger than Wilmer Valderrama spending his 33rd birthday at the hotel’s Addiction nightclub? (I’m told it doesn’t). Then this happened a few weeks later on one of the hotel’s balconies, just after the Academy Awards, which, if you ask me, would have been a way cooler sighting. (more…)

Brainwashed and Brainfed

jackie — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:23:40 +0000

My quick trip to Toronto was all about art and food, thanks to the city’s new Four Seasons Hotel, which was filled with both. All of the hotel’s art was created by local Canadians, from the giant dandelions in the lobby to the gold-foil Artimals in the rooms. Then there was the Cafe Boulud restaurant, whose walls were covered with pop-icon pieces from a non-Canadian, and someone I’m about 95 percent sure is a total hoax. I actually almost spewed my water all over my duck terrine when I realized that screen print of Charlie Chaplin over a spray-painted heart was the “artwork” of one Mr. Brainwash. I had coincidentally just re-watched Exit Through The Gift Shop a few weeks earlier, and was sort of amazed that so many people haven’t quite caught on yet. Of course, who is to say what art is? At least there was no question the next day when I visited Frank Gehry’s Art Gallery of Ontario, which was not only a stunning architectural wonder, but also the exhibition space for the amazing Frida and Diego show. I’m still kicking myself for not buying the book. Oh, and I also fell in love with Evan Penny’s sculptures. Can’t get enough of that uncanny valley! (more…)

Jupiter Barking

jackie — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 17:59:35 +0000

“Ugh! Don’t you wish we were still there?” Three months after our honeymoon, this has become my weekly mantra of sorts. It’s like I’m almost disgusted that we are no longer trekking through mud and staring with our breath held at 400-pound gorillas. Luckily, I’ve been granted the opportunity to relive what I’ve taken to calling “The Best Trip EVER!” (capitalization and punctuation compulsory) by writing a few articles about the whole fabulous adventure. The first came out in the January issue of Robb Report, and I’m so happy my editors decided to keep that first sentence in. From what I hear, it narrowly escaped the axe, but I do just love it so! (more…)

Something Unexpected

jackie — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 03:00:49 +0000

A few weeks before Christmas, I got a call from an old graphic design chum for a job that was definitely a first for me—photographing billboard ads at JFK. Not one to turn down work, both for experiential and rent-paying reasons, I headed out to the airport and shot away. Though the assignment was to capture the ads, I couldn’t help but don my creative cap, and this shot, I must say, turned out quite nicely. Anybody can take a pretty photo of something gorgeous—say, the new Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto for example (stay tuned for that one!)—but it’s shoots like this that I enjoy most.

Hey There, 2013

jackie — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 19:29:03 +0000

Normally around this time, between taking down the Christmas tree and writing the dreaded thank-you notes, I get a little sulky. But this year, I’m just way too pumped about work to succumb to the post-holiday blues. Despite a ridiculous amount of present-giving and party-going, I managed to amass quite the archive of new work over the last month—from photoshoots abroad and at home, to articles on Mexico, Italy, and Africa. But I just about went all over the globe to perfect this piece about the hottest wedding locales of 2013 for Destination Weddings & Honeymoons magazine. From an elephant ceremony in Phuket to quickie nuptials at the airport in Amsterdam, I think I covered just about every conceivable dream wedding out there. Here’s hoping 2013 is just as fun! (more…)

Gorillas in our Midst

jackie — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:27:08 +0000

Odzala’s Ngaga camp spoils all typical notions of safari. Not because the gorillas are so much more thrilling to see than most other animals (which they are), or because the setting is so much more beautiful than you’d imagine (which it is), but because you have to work damn hard to see what you came all the way to the Congo for. Unlike my other safari experiences, we didn’t pile into a Land Cruiser and roll past lions and giraffes who marched before us as if on cue. Rather, we walked, and we hacked through giant marantaceae leaves, and we listened, and we waited, and we walked and hacked some more. And when we finally found the gorillas—with whom we were permitted to spend just a single hour each day—we were always, without fail, swarmed by sweat bees that wanted nothing more than to blind us by flying kamikaze-style into our eyeballs. In spite of (or perhaps because of) all of this, interacting with the gorillas is an experience like no other. Whether watching an infant cautiously shuffling down a tree trunk, spying a lone female napping in a tree, or trembling with fear as a silverback charged us within mere feet, every moment seemed poised to be the most magnificent we’d experience for the rest of our collective lives. And if that wasn’t quite the essence of a romantic honeymoon, we at least had private dinners on the terrace of our hairy-looking raffia hut most every night. Oh, and plenty of Ngok. (more…)

Born on the Bai

jackie — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:30:44 +0000

Most people don’t fantasize about a honeymoon that entails waking up at 5 AM every morning to slosh through murky swamps and mud so deep you almost lose your shoes. Then again, most couples jet off to Maui or Jamaica to sip Mai Tais and lounge on beaches—something I certainly don’t disparage, but nothing I’d consider particularly life-changing. Since we had hoped for something closer to the “mind-blowing” end of the travel spectrum (and since, truth be told, we’d already been to Maui and Jamaica), John and I decided to go all in and head to the Republic of Congo’s newest, and quite nearly only, safari lodge. First stop was Lango camp, located on the edge of a bai where buffalo, bongos, and elephants regularly congregate for their own version of cocktails and sunbathing. We humans, on the other hand, boated through the Lekoli River alongside hundreds of agile mangabeys, trekked through jungles filled with chimpanzees as startled to see us as we were to see them, and, in-between, dozed off on our porches to the sound colobus monkeys swinging and snacking in the trees above. Of course, this was all just precursor to the main event—gorilla tracking on our next and final stop! (more…)

Bright Spot

jackie — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 21:16:56 +0000

Between Sandy, election fever, and now this blizzard that appears to be happening outside of my window, the arrival of French architecture mag, Decoration International, in my mailbox today was a welcome respite from the frenzies of late. For the cover of their second issue, the publication featured one of my favorite shots from my trip to Tierra Patagonia in Chile. Those blue skies sure seem like a world away right now—and I guess they kinda are.

Vine Intervention

jackie — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 19:06:26 +0000

Even if I hadn’t been reveling in our newly-wedded bliss, I would have been amazed by La Residence Hotel. Set among private vineyards in Franschhoek, where springbok and ponies frolic, this drop-dead gorgeous oasis along the edge of a picturesque lake was made for honeymoons. I had been to Franschhoek several years before so knew a few of the good stops—Huguenot Chocolates for a mid-morning snack, The Common Room for lunch, and La Motte for some serious Shiraz (a varietal that John claims to dislike, and yet not a drop remained in any of his tasting glasses). But La Residence, in its secluded location behind the town’s suburbs and away from its main street, had escaped me. This time, we were so lucky to stay in the Frangipani Suite, where a marble quarry had seemingly exploded, and the bathroom was larger than our apartment. And will you just look at that pink chair? It’s possible I have never been so sad to leave a hotel. (more…)