Being surrounded by as many of my McCord’s as possible is always my happiest place & I hustle to make it happen any chance I get! Continually thankful for these people who I get to call home, regardless of what our addresses might be. Turns out our an annual Oregon coast trip is the key to familial weekend bliss!
Getting out of the city is high-priority since I memorized my street’s bus schedule purely by sound far too easily. Pinnacles National Park is a little woodland gem tucked away a few hours south of the city. On second thought, hand holding my Yashica film camera 3.5f, without a tripod, in a cave may not have given me the best leg up for pristine shots… but this day, this light & feeling very small in this wonderful world, made for a total treasure.
Get out to Pinnacles as soon as you can, and don’t forget your flashlights!
All film: Yashica D | 120mm | Kodak Portra 400
My home Blue Bottle cafe, Sansome in the Financial District of San Francisco, hosted a Barista Faire for its Northern California Baristas! We had live music, prizes, access to various department heads within the company, learn about upcoming products, try a triangulation cupping and throw-down in a friendly latte art competition! As always, I love being in the company of such fine folks & loved getting to run around to document the event. Fingers crossed there’ll be more, it was such a treat to have Blue Bottle’s best & brightest behind bar in our home cafe!
My sweet pal Hannah now has a sweet new baby as of this week (!) A few weeks ago I got to jet out to San Luis Obispo to stroll around, make breakfast, buy matching house plants, play Yahtzee & I guessss you could say take some maternity shots? Maternity is a stretch, since she basically didn’t even look pregnant at ALL from most angles. All the pre-natal goals & dreams - she embodies, folks. Montana De Oro State Park is definitely the dreamiest place in SLO & we stayed until it was maybe too dark & maybe unwise. Itching to get back to this jagged little sun-kissed paradise.
But mostly, weekend getaways are too good, I always forget, so maybe documenting them will make me take more. Also YAY to my Hannah, the gorgeous pregnant queen turned gorgeous mama! These will tie me over till my next visit to squeeze your baby homegirl!
When your love for your day job & your side-hustle/dream chasing/freelance work happen to coincide… you better believe that collision is nothing short of magical! Working at Blue Bottle Coffee Co. as a barista has been such an enriching & valuable part of my life & work! I’m thrilled to be able to integrate two things I’m so passionate about.
Here’s a taste of a barista led & operated palate development/ coffee education exercise (one of many!) with my talented team of fellow baristas at our Sansome location in San Francisco’s Financial District.
Tasting was organized, led & had educational material provided by the wonderful and brainy: Carly Getz
Styling & photography by: Rachel McCord Creative
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Stay tuned for more installments of future palate developments &portrait profiles of the Sansome Blue Bottle team!
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Sometimes you just have to strike when the golden hour light is hot, ya know?! My sweet pal MJ helped me hang my curtains in my new place today & then we got a little lost in them, naturally.
It feels good to make some new casual work in my new space to get my creative roots in the ground a little bit. & Just so happening to live through the windows of crazy pure light is pretty fantastic, too.
Finding myself filled with so much gratitude to be able to try my hand in writing & directing this short film in stride with Nick Chavez, one of my best friends, a part of his ‘Be My Year’ film project. He’s spearheading a quest to make 12 short films this year. In collaboration with fellow creatives, every month this year folks, from beginning to end - so please make sure to hop on this talented man’s band wagon - it’s gonna get wild!
With this piece we wanted to communicate the visceral richness of memory & the sweetness that can unleash, along with dozens more thoughts, naturally. Like family, place, what we can glean from tapping into ourselves and resonating with a memory & just general beauty for beauty’s sake, dammit! It ended up completely moving everyone involved in a way we never anticipated.
I’ve never had so many goosebumps. Nor can I count the giddy conversations from beginning to end about our expectations, to now at it’s close about how humbled we are to have been given a great responsibility of this inspiration that’s been breathed to life. It has been overwhelming to hear the moments people have as they view it; that it allows them to connect to their own intimate memories and to revel in times past. Amongst many other little gifts from this endeavor, I have experienced God’s omnipresence in a way I’ve yet to learn and it’s scintillating. This has been such a treasured experience that brought me so much joy & has my own wheels turning again.
To see my own process be challenged from still to moving frames has blown my brain wide open and is totally wrecking how I’m thinking about new projects & how to continue my constant fascination with visual memory. Which is way exciting! I also mayyy be completely hooked on this medium, as a result, haha. So, have a look!
Do yourself a favor and bookmark, follow or just make a mental note to keep yourself up to date with Nick’s year’s progress on his blog! The man is going places, folks.
& big, big ups to our team of talented creative professionals that truly unified it all: Nathaniel, Riley, Grace & actors Erin, David, Jaca/Chavez/Rouqemore family).
Best friend isn’t a word I like to use loosely because I think I misuse it how some people misuse the word literally. I literally waited in traffic for 6hrs, that kid literally looks 12 (although he is probably 25), I could literally eat 10 more slices of pizza, you get it. I count myself lucky to have best friends from childhood, best friends from college, best friends from work; I am fortunate to count my treasured friends in circles & tribes instead of just on one small post-it note or some such thing. I also realize that I can’t be THIS long winded every time I gush about them to someone else; so I just say best friend, okay? Okay.
So, Nick is one of my dearest best friends. He has been my friend, my co-worker, my second shooter, my fellow wanderer in life, and most recently my roommate. This fellow has literally (really, I lived in his guest room) put a roof over my head when I had none, listened to me rant about frivolities & actual fears, and brought home chocolate milk just because he knew it would make me squeal with joy. He is a pal you want in your corner. And I am forever in his. TDDUP (tilldeathdouspart, duh).
This year Nick is doing a project; a short film each month, collaborating with fellow creatives along the way. February is our month of working together & we’re brewing up something pretty lovely. This is half shameless plug, half beaming with pride for my brave friend doing a brave thing: bettering himself & his craft by working his ass off. Check it out, follow along with his year & stay tuned for our February film!
We took a great big walk around Lake Chabot a few weeks back, I snapped these on my 120mm Yashica & that lake is a time-warping wonderland.
Sometimes it takes all year to make work you’re thrilled about & this year I gifted mine to my sweet family. Keep an eye out for more of my dabbling with illustrated type and portraits! Cheers to many more creative years for you all, my friends!
Are you in the market for a personalized print with original hand illustrated type of one of your favorite people?
Get in touch - let’s make it happen! xoxo
2015 has been full of many things - starting in Portland & ending in San Francisco with new jobs, friends, addresses & lots of steep learning curves. But as far as my work goes, it has been full of fantastic people willing to spend their time in front of my favorite pieces of glass and let me see them.
A beautiful year in more ways than one, but I am grateful to have the opportunity to find split seconds of beauty amidst the busyness of life. A heaping thank you to all of my clients this year - it’s been lovely and I am eager to start a fresh new year with many more sessions, more conceptual work and more time devoted to inspiration - so get those empty picture frames ready, friends & enjoy a few of my favorites from 2015!
Get in touch right this minute to book a session (portrait, engagement, family, event, product, random tuesday afternoon, you name it) for 2016 & maybe you’ll be the very first! Can’t wait to keep stealing sweet moments in this fresh new year. See ya there, pals!