Venice Beach, CA first thing in the morning before all of the hustle and bustle.

Always on a search to for new and fresh ideas to push the limits of my imaginative creativity, I set out on a trip last month to diversify my portfolio on a collaborative mission with one of my favorite photographers, Samantha Collie, to Venice Beach, CA. On that trip I accomplished my goal and left richer in friends and memories.

The day we arrived in LA, Samantha and I had a meeting to attend with agencies and start scouting locations around our home base in Venice Beach. Let me just say as a young girl growing up in San Diego, I was never exposed to Venice Beach Boardwalk and in all of my years of traveling to LA, I had never been. Taking in everything with child-like eyes, this was a first for both Samantha and I. Immediately I was captivated by the "breakers" dancing on the boardwalk. But with lots to do, there wasnt a whole lot of time to sit and watch.

We walked to a near by coffee shop on the beach that following morning to get some work done and a bit more scouting before our model arrived. Sitting in that coffee shop I recognized a fellow patron as one of the dancers from the crew dancing on the boardwalk the day before. That morning, Sam and I befriended one of the B-Boy's of the world famous LA Breakers crew, Giovanni, the self-professed "Sexy Oompa Loompa" over coffee. If you have spent anytime on the Venice Beach boardwalk, you have probably seen these guys performing. Giovanni was gracious enough to let us glimpse inside their world and introduced us to a few of the other dancers as well. With a certain asthetic in mind for our shoots, LA street style with high end fashion, Samantha was able to incorporate an authenic account of Venice Boardwalk culture with (Some of the dancers into our shoot. Big thanks to Giovanni, Jaime Burgos and Ron Myles.)

Take a behind the scenes look into our adventures in LA LA Land:

Giovanni and I on the boardwalk on our last day in Venice

Inside one of the shops on the boardwalk

Samantha shooting Gaby Haugh with LA Models

WAIT! You can't be in LA on Coachella weekend and not at least stop byyyy! So on Friday, with an invite to Samantha from Mui-Hai Chow, fashion editor of Flaunt Magazine, to their "Virgin Sacrifies" themed party at Coachella, I became Samantha's plus one. Sustaining on red-bull, we made the trek from LA to the desert after our photo shoots just for the evening before it was back to work again. We dined on BBQ served up by singer songwriter and certified chef, Kelis. Her milkshake once brought all the boys to the yard and her BBQ followed suit. There was a healthy line of people waiting to try her delicious rendition of jalepeno mac n'cheese, thai coleslaw and ribs. Special performances by Suko and The WOW... and Lindsay Lohan even stopped by. We had to keep our tradition alive of always hitting the photo booth at parties... this time wasnt any different.