Back in 2013, Kurt and I moved out of our apartment and into a beautiful 1967 Dodge Travco Motorhome, the same kind of motor home Johnny Cash used to tour in :) 

It might have been a 46-year old motor home but it surpassed a lot of current RVs in quality and craftsmanship. We took our Travco on a cross-country road trip to Florida and lived in it for a total of 11 months. 

Sadly, we encountered mechanical issues that would have required thousands of dollars to fix so we sold our beloved Travco to a friend who added it to his collection of vintage travel trailers.

We replaced the Travco with a 6-person REI Kingdom tent and lived out of the tent and our van for 5 months while we volunteered in the Southwest. In Joshua Tree National Park, our REI Kingdom 6 tent was set up so we could work, cook and get dressed. The low temperatures at night, occasional downpours and frequent high winds made it difficult to sleep in the tent, so we made the van our bedroom. We loved the entire tent experience and wanted to improve on it so when we returned to Minnesota, we purchased a sturdier straight-wall tent made by Barebones Living.

The Barebones tent has been used throughout the world to house victims of natural disasters so we were confident it would be durable enough to serve our needs. We set the tent up on pallets to keep ourselves and our gear dry in rain storms. We went through half a dozen severe thunderstorms with 50 mph wind gusts and we barely felt it. We have been cooking, sleeping and working out of our Barebones tent for the last 4 months. We outfitted the interior of our tent to be like a small cabin with small book shelf, full size air mattress, toaster oven, blender, small electric space heater and lamps.

It's liberating to live small. We have more time to focus on the things that matter to us, like photographing miniatures :)

Yesterday, a friend of ours stopped by to show off a couple of her new kittens. Of course I grabbed the camera and started firing away! It's dangerous holding them because you begin to rationalize... "You know, we could travel around with a cat. Yeah, they basically take care of themselves!". Reality sets in as soon they are out of sight... "How would a cat do in the desert heat, living in a van and/or a tent? We'd have to keep the litter box at the foot of our bed". Okay, that settles it... NO pets! "...but I want one..."

- Kurt

Kurt was commissioned to photograph a piece involving miniatures in New York City. He took the opportunity to photograph for our side project featuring larger figurines (more on this in a future post) and for Un Petit Monde, of course.

Although we were short on time, in most cases we walked instead of taking the subway. It allowed Kurt to explore other photographic opportunities for our projects. We're definitely planning to go back to New York sometime in the future to document more Un Petit Monde scenes. 

We are currently working on a commission for an article on climate change.  We are thrilled that the miniatures are being used to illustrate such an important issue, one that we are very passionate about!

Kurt has been creating/transforming most of the props and characters to fit the different scenes. 

For one of the scenes, we needed access to solar panels. The owner of a solar company agreed to let us climb on the roof of a client's business in downtown St. Augustine.

To get to the roof we had to climb up a rickety ladder for the last few feet. I didn't want to make it a big deal because we were on a mission, but it was my first time climbing a ladder and I was a bit nervous!

It was around 2 p.m, hot and sunny. The shot turned out great!

We consider ourselves fortunate to be spending extra time in St. Augustine! Every other day, Kurt and I are in the Historic Old Town, photographing miniatures in the streets.