2008... ugh?

I've had a "2008 is crummy" cloud looming over my head for pretty much the whole year. (For once, I'm not exaggerating... the crumminess actually began on January 2nd).

I've had 2009 on the horizon, though, since the spring ;) c'mon, I'm naturally optimistic...

Earlier today, I was in the kitchen at work, carefully adding just the right amount of cream to my coffee when I made a comment to one of my coworkers about how much I am looking forward to 2009. I told him that 2008 was crummy. "But you graduated...." yeah, good point, that was pretty cool... "And you got your camera!" Just thinking about my camera made me smile and, I am a bit surprised, it kind of changed my outlook on my life this past year.

When I was younger and faced with frustrating moments, I would let off steam by playing my flute. I have a copy of an arrangement of Pachelbel's Canon for a flute trio that has some melodic sections that were sweet to listen to, fun to play and would set my mind at ease. My outlet has changed; now I have photography as a way to take my mind off things and just get lost in creativity. Its different with a DSLR than with a point and shoot... the pictures might turn out alright on the point & shoot (especially with a three-year old, 4mp, little Canon A520, eh?), but the thought process is different. I wonder how am I going to set this up? What can I do to make this shot interesting? Is there another angle that I'm not seeing? Is my hand steady or am I gonna need to grab my tripod? Where is the light? Ok, now how can I maximize my depth of field? These are the questions that I ask myself as I set up each shot.

I realized that I did not have these skills a year ago. I didn't have my camera, I didn't have my handy, lightweight tripod, I didn't know that you can rotate a circular polarizer to get different effects, or if cokin was even a real word.

So, as I bid a hearty farewell to 2008, I wanted to also extend my gratitude to two of my friends. In their own ways, they have been great teachers, even as they are just figuring stuff out themselves.

I am thankful for Cole's perspective on the scientific side of photography... my brain functions well on the artistic side, but he has helped me get a better idea of the Hows and Whys of what we are doing. Plus, he introduced me to my bff, the 50mm ;) I am also thankful that he is willing to roam parks in the wee hours of the morning in order to get a sunrise shot.

And Del, my fellow bandito and photographic partner in crime, I don't even know where to start. Without you I would still be content with my little A520. Over the past year, you've given me countless pointers, explained technical points over and over with patience, encouraged me up mountains, and helped me find the right gear. Your photos are amazing and, no matter what, I AM still your biggest fan.

Hey, this blog is another good thing that emerged from 2008! Thank you, too, my dear friends and family that have ooo'd and aaah'd at my pictures. I truly, truly, truly appreciate your encouragement.

... now then.... is it 2009 yet? ;)

Brrr!

I'm back!

The pics below were all taken around Christmas. I only had my little canon with me, so they were all taken with a point & shoot.

One of my photographic goals is to just take great pictures of my family. Pictures that we can look at down the road and smile over, instead of cringing because they are so generic. Thankfully, Corbin is a (mostly) willing subject (although, it was a heckuvalot easier to take this picture when he was a wee little baby and didn't move very quickly. sigh.)


Corbin watching the ducks at Country Village in Bothell

A random side of the building in Country Village

"Too Many Reflections" the view from Katie's living room of the dining room overlooking the fields, with reflections from the neighbor's window, too. See... too many reflections.

The view from Katie's Porch, 1 of 2

The view from Katie's porch 2 of 2. (you can baaarely see the foothills. weird.)

Christmas morning, 1 of 2

Christmas morning, 2 of 2. I know that his hand is blurry, but I kinda like the motion.

And that is all! Thanks for checking out my pictures, and for putting up with more pictures of my favorite little guy.

Holiday Greetings

I'm heading up to the great white north on Tuesday and I'll be taking a break from the blog & email for awhile. I'm looking forward to a toddler's version of Jingle Bells, a bunch of "oh goodness"'s, and outrageous laughter with the neighbors and fam. (ooo, and maybe some Wii bowling on the basement wall?)

Hope that both Santa & Mother Nature treat you well.

With peace, love, joy & gingersnaps, Lori

Christmas Cheer

Another snowy, snowy day in Bothell.

Having another day at home gave me the chance to do three of my favorite things: watch Elf, bake & take some random pictures. OH wait... four things. I also made a lovely pot of coffee in my french press made from freshly ground starbucks. aaaah, lovely day, no?

I took a bunch of pictures, so I'll keep the narrative brief. The pumpkin muffins reminded me of little acorns, and I am pretty happy with the depth of field, too. The angels, frosty, mr & mrs. claus and the happiest ornament ever are pretty old (antiques, maybe?). My mom painted frosty & the ornament when I was a baby. I can tell by their happy eyes... she always paints such happy eyes! (plus, she signed them... frosty was made in '76 and the happiest ornament ever was a gift for me in 1977). The UW ornament is the only "something new" that caught my eye today. It is common for us to see decorated trees straightforward, or sometimes artistically focused on a branch. BUT I, being the weirdo that I am, wondered what a decorated tree would look like upside down.

I took all of these with my 50mm, and for the ornaments & the Mr. & Mrs. Claus I used my close up filter, too. So much fun. They were all taken in ISO 100 on a tripod (Oh, except the muffins (ISO 400, handheld) and the horizonal pic of the happiest ornament ever (ISO 200, tripod). My f-stops were all across the board... f 1.8 for Mrs. Claus, F22 for the angels. I couldn't decide whether I liked them in color or black & white, or sepia, so I posted some of the variations.

Enjoy.

Wishing you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas, filled with peace, joy & love.

Ice Flower

Another day of snow, another trek to the office... another round of pics from the little canon!

I took a differnt route home today, but didn't have as much luck for photo ops. I saw this bush with barren flower stalks; a chilly reminder of summer's passing. The little chunk of ice caught my eye; is it an icy bloom?



Side note: When I got home, I grabbed my XTi and headed out to explore the neighborhood. I wanted to try out a swing set shot that a friend of mind captured last week. Well, two little glitches: 1) my apartment complex's playground doesn't have swings (huh? poor little kids!) and 2) I forgot to bring a stinkin CF card with me. I am such a dope. Sometimes I annoy myself ;)

Walking Home

Because of the heaps and heaps of snow, my office closed today at 10am. No worries for me though, because I had walked into work. Hoping to catch some pics during the day, I thought ahead and brought along my little canon... I didn't want to pack around my XTi today, in case the weather took a horrible turn. I am still in love with my little A520, and continually impressed with its abilities. In order to thoroughly enjoy the winter wonderland I took the scenic route home.

Here are a few pics from my lovely walk...

The last picture, droplets, was taken outside of the public storage place on 228th. Proof that beautiful pictures can be found just about anywhere.

It just started to snow again! So pretty. Maybe I'll be out again later this afternoon, armed with my 50mm and close up filter? Then again, I'm so indecisive, so maybe not... But for now, I am going to make a big 'ol pot of split pea soup. If you are in the Bothell area, stop on by :)

Falling Snow

Part I:

I love this picture.

There is a spider web below one of the lights on my apartment building, which turned out to be an excellent focal point for this shot. I can't believe that I captured falling snow. How friggin' awesome is that?

Ok, I'm headed back outside. Peace.

Part II:

Ok, I'm back. I grabbed my tripod & headed back outside for another round of shots. FUN.

One of the trees that lines the street by my apartment is right below a street light. For some reason, this tree just kept catching my eye. I wanted minimal noise in this shot, so I used ISO 100... which meant a sweet 30 second exposure. nice. I did some editing, too. I converted the picture style to monochrome, added an orange color tone and put the color saturation to sepia.

... and of course, no lori shoot would be complete without a random close-up. I used pretty much the same processing effects for this pic, too.

And now, we have the "honorable mention" category. The sky was so cool in this spot. I wanted to capture it, but I went about it the wrong way. I did have the aperture set to the lowest number I could. But that was about all I did right. I didn't take the movement of the clouds into consideration, so my 30 second exposure was not such a good idea. It was pretty dark on this part of the street and I forgot a flashlight, so I needed to use manual focus. As you can see, that didn't really work so well. I also couldn't see that the branch of the tree in front of me was in the shot. It could have been cool if I focused on that and had a blurry background, but that wasn't the composition I was interested in. I wanted just a straight forward landscape. D-ang, those clouds moved fast. Before I could fix my mistakes and try a faster shutter speed and higher ISO, the clouds had completely blanketed the sky and my so cool sky moment was gone. sigh.

Well, we'll just call this one a learning opportunity.

Alrighty. Thanks for checking out my pics and for sharing this cool snowy moment with me!

Cozy

My life has been in transition for awhile. Proof of this? I haven't been in my own place for the holidays since 2004. Four years! I decided to stay put in Bothell for one more year, so I am able to spend this Christmas in one place instead of packing.

I made a trip to Ikea for some splashes of red, but the rest of everything is a compliation of things I've collected over the years, gifts from my mom, and treasures handed down from my grandparents. I have tons more in storage... but I am in a small space so I kept it simple.

Here are the "before" pictures:



And.... drumroll please....
Merry Christmas

Well thank you very much for checking out my decoration pics. I'll have more artistic pics throughout the holiday season of lights, ornaments, angels...

Warmest wishes.

Business Park Trek

It snowed! It snowed! It snowed!

Although, because I am such a chicken, snow means that I am stuck at home, able to go wherever my feet will take me. I couldn't pass up a chance for some snow shooting, so I headed over to the wetlands across the street. Sterile, yes, but close by :)

I didn't bring my tripod because I figured that the metal on it would be unbearably cold. You would think that with all the Norwegian and native Alaskan heritage I would be fine in cold weather. Not so much. Anyway, I wish that I had packed around the tripod because most of my shots turned out blurry.

See?

I did manage to find capture some good close ups featuring that fluffy white stuff. I kept my camera in shutter priority, figuring that a fast shutter would compensate for my shaking hands.

Towards the end of my stroll, I found these berries behind one of the business park buildings. I wish that I had composed this differently; perhaps a little bit more to the left?

Ths composition is a bit better. These berries were on the non-windy side of the bush, so there was even lighting and minimal movement.

The pic below is from the same area as the pic above; I just played around with the processing. I lowered the saturation to give it a chilly look. brrrr.

And that concludes my little stroll around the business park wetlands. Not too bad; although I am getting a bit bored with staying in the city limits ;)

OH, and here is an update on the holiday decorations: I am *almost* ready to post some pics! I think I have everything in place, just need to finish putting away some boxes, vacuum, blah blah blah...

Tulalip Royale

So, last Friday night I indulged my sophisticated nerdy side and hung out at the Seattle Art Museum. This Friday night I was livin it up with my A-town people at the Tulalip Casino.

The pics below were taken with my sleek Canon A520. I haven't really used the manual features on this camera, so I had fun taking my typical random shots. I dunno how to use the meter on the A520, so I just used shutter priority to experiment with different effects.

Someone Else's Beverage
I used someone else's beverage as a prop for this pick (because a pic of diet coke with a lime would be bor-ring). I had the shutter open for one second on the first pic, then five seconds on the one below. I wanted a picture with some movement in the background, but something focused in the foreground; although,I like the five-second pic better because it captured more movement.




The Band
We went to the casino because my sister's favorite band, Stripped, was in town.

The first pic was a long-exposure (maybe one second?) and I panned while shooting. I like it; it reminds me of the way notes would move on a piece of sheet music. Plus, streams of lights are always a bit exciting.


I like how the second picture captures the atomsphere of nightlife. You have entertainment, lights, smoke, people dancing, people smiling. Good times.

The one below was just taken in auto mode with the flash turned off. I am not really crazy about the composition; I wish I didn't have someone's shoulder in the frame, and I wonder if it would have looked cooler to get more of the drummer in the shot, too? I do like the guitar on the side of the stage and the light coming through the smoke. I did some editing, but not too much because this pic is a jpeg, not a raw file.

... and there you have it! Thanks for checking out my pics. OH! I almost forgot! It snowed last night! I had to drive in it, too. Scary yo.

Candy Cane Curtains

I've officially started to deck the halls. Stay tuned ...


Candy Cane Curtains... oh my!

drip drip drop

I've been trying to get this shot for months.

It catches my eye time and time again as I whiz by it on the stairs that lead up to my apartment. Usually, I notice it at lunch time, but am too busy to grab my camera and capture the moment. Plus, sometimes I lose track of time while taking pictures; something that doesn't mix well with a 1/2 hour lunch break. Or, sometimes I do have the luxury of time, and dang it, those are the times there aren't any raindrops.

Today, though, I had the luxury of time and adequate raindrops.

The pic below was taken at f 5.6 (the lowest f-stop I could go to while zoomed out to 55mm), 1/15th of a second with an ISO 100. I shot it at negative 1/3 exposure compensation, but didn't like the way it turned out. So, a little bit of editing later (increased the contrast, lowered the saturation, and pushed the sharpness to the extreme) and .... ta-da!

metro 41

After work today I did a little dawdling then headed downtown. I had hoped to attend a lecture on Salish Art at the Seattle Art Museum, but ended up just cruising through the museum (oh, and I purchased a membership!).

The holiday lights and festive atmosphere were calling me.

I am a chicken when it comes to driving downtown. So, I took the bus! I took the 41 from Northgate. See... this is my transfer stub.


I realized that I forgot to bring my ipod or even some sort of reading material. Grrr. No worries, I filled my time playing with the manual settings on my little A520. oooo, macro.



When I arrived downtown, I headed west. Near Pike Place I saw these postings in a construction area. Awwwe, these remind me of New York.



And here we go, the destination du jour.

In only went to the Hopper Exhibit, the Salish Exihibit, and of course, the Italian Room. So, I had some time to roam the streets. I didn't have my tripod with me, so my motto was "have post will photo." For almost all of the pics on this post I had steadied my camera on some random type of pole... street lamp, but shelter, parking sign. I'm creative like that.

And there you have it. Friday night in the city. As I was walking back to my car in Northgate, I realized that it was this weekend last year that I was in New York. That means that "gimme yo gold" is one year old. Wow. I have to admit, that while Seattle has some nice areas, it is no New York. Or DC. All night I kept looking for something funky, and all I came across was sterility. True, if I headed to one of the neighborhoods (Freemont, Capital Hill, Queen Anne, blah blah blah) I could find some funk; but in New York the different parts of town just blend right into one another. sigh. If only NY was closer to A-town.