Merve Girgin Yanar came to the Weekly all the way from Istanbul, Turkey, with hopes of helping illustrate our website and stories with her photographs.
She brings a fashion-photography background, so for one of her first assignments, I sent her to the pinnacle of our local fashion calendar, the Butterfly Parade in downtown Pacific Grove.
As part of the annual event, each elementary school class crafts costumes to help welcome back the iconic monarch butterflies that migrate through the city every fall, strolls the streets of America's Last Hometown and wraps things with a family-focused festival.
Her favorite images from the parade appear above right.