Spring Summer 2016

Other Works

Creative Magazine Spring/Summer 2016



California

Contributors

Joy Coakley Sean Dagen

Poppy’s super soft goods stylist also With a keen eye for capturing the mood
gets behind the camera in her free time. of any everyday object through his
Joy is a tea drinker, magazine addict, camera, Sean is always creating stunning
and mother of two beautiful little girls, still photography. He is the least likely
Phoebe and Sybil. guy to enjoy hunting, but does, and he
also loves his son Cypress more than
Eric Zepeda any father I’ve ever known. Sean has an
amazingly talented wife as well.
A food photographer with an amazing
way of making even the vegetarian’s Shaun Sullivan
mouth water at the sight of his grilled
ribs, Eric enjoys all things outdoors. When Shaun is Poppy’s veteran photographer
not shooting for a client, he’s at home with 20+ years experience in shooting
test shooting his latest edible creation. beautifully elegant images for a wide
variety of clients. He has a reputation
Ana Homonnay & for being the most amazingly calm guy
Ashley Thompson on any crazy set and always gives the art
director and client something more than
We’re delighted to announce Poppy was expected.
Creative Agency’s newest members,
Ana Homonnay and Ashley Thompson!
Ana was born and raised in São Paulo,
Brazil. After receiving a film degree and
working as a documentary director for
MTV, she packed up her cameras and
moved to California to begin the next
phase of her career. Ashley, born and
raised in Arkansas, grew up with a strong
connection to the art world, leading her
to pursue a degree in Art History. Her
love for the American landscape prompted
her to document her vision of the USA.
Fascinated with the magic of childhood,
the storytelling photography duo formed
Thompson Homonnay in 2014.

Magazine Design: David Valentine
Copy Editor: Lindsay Pietroluongo

A Note From The Editor

California Dreamin’ - that’s the theme of
this season’s enchanting edition of the
Poppy Creative magazine. Being from
California, this is a topic that’s sincerely
close to my heart. Not only am I a native,
but my mom is as well. This is something
that seems to be fading into the past
quickly as more and more transplants
take over our beautiful state. Everyone
wants to live in California, don’t they?!
Stunning sunsets, miles of coastline,
majestic redwoods and sunny days for 80
percent of the year – who wouldn’t want
to live in this idyllic part of the country?
As I reviewed the images my team put
together for this issue, I could actually
feel the breeze off the ocean while hiking
Mt. Tam, I could smell the salty sea while
sipping a glass of wine on a deck that
overlooked Bodega Bay, I could feel my
breath catch upon seeing the Golden Gate
Bridge for the first time ever. My gratitude
is abundant for being able to have my life
and career in such a glorious place. Being
able to call California my home strikes
me as living in a dream, truly. As you flip
through our magazine, I hope that you see,
hear, smell and feel how lovely it can be
to live here and that you experience some
blissful California dreamin’ of your own.

Cheers, Traci

A Dream Within
A Dream

By Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a
dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

photography by Joy Coakley – shot on iPhone







I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,

And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they
creep
Through my fingers to the
deep,
While I weep- while I weep!





O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?



Nick’s Cove

Even on a rainy day, Tomales Bay is a place
of quiet beauty. It doesn’t have the bustle
of California’s other scenic spots, yet it still
holds its own, with a muted elegance that I
find consistently amazes me.
I have the fortune of living pretty close to
Point Reyes, which is separated from the
California coast by Tomales Bay. One of
the places where I love to stop for lunch
is Nick’s Cove. It’s welcoming and kind of
shiny, especially compared to when I first
peered into its shuttered porthole windows
years ago.
The bar’s rope detailing and stuffed
animal heads fit perfectly into my idea of
a travel getaway. For the record, I’m not
a fan of shooting Bambi just to stuff her
head and put it in a bar setting, but hey,
if the damage has already been done, we
might as well enjoy it. At that time, Nick’s
was closed, and it took several years and
millions of dollars to bring it back to life.
Though it’s been restored and it’s now, like
I said, a bit shiny, there’s definitely still an
oldness that lingers - and I love that.
If you’re in the area, take a walk on the pier
and stop in for lunch. If you have a day
or two free, stay in one of the oceanside
cottages that are built on stilts – waves lap
below and I can’t really think of
a better way to wake up.

photography by Eric Zepeda















Northern
California
Love

There is something special about living on the
edge of a continent. It seems remarkably vast
and full of potential.
I just love taking photos on a foggy, quiet,
Northern California beach. The color palette is
always muted and interesting.
Since I’m not native to California, I feel like
I have so much to see and capture with my
camera. I’m tempted by an urgency to take it
all in.
Here, I chose simple, watery images that
embody a distinct aura of living in Northern
California.
I shot these with my iPhone during weekends
when my son played by my side.

photography by Ana Homonnay



















Boardwalk

While I imagine everyone has their own idea
of what evokes that “California Dreamin’”
feeling, I know one of the things that does
it for me is the coast. The sand, the surf,
the soft yellow sun flares, the blue sky that
turns into a pastel pinkish-red wonderland
at sunset... Where better to experience all
that than on the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, with
the wooden planks beneath your feet, the
Giant Dipper on its rickety tracks and the
Sea Swings flying high over the beach. The
Boardwalk evokes a true feeling of nostalgia
for me. To sit on the beach at the end of a
long day of rides, games and greasy food,
and to look out over the vast ocean and
watch the sky begin its slow fade into a
magical, brilliant sunset - for me, that truly
is California dreamin’.

photography by Ashley Thompson















An Ode to A
Things W

“Man always kills the thing he loves,
and so we the pioneers have killed our
wilderness. Some say we had to. Be
that as it may, I am glad I shall never be
young without wild country to be young
in. Of what avail are forty freedoms
without a blank spot on the map?”

photography by Sean Dagen











photography by Shaun Sullivan