rhythm of peace

One of my favorite places is the butterfly house at the Pacific Science Center. I am always in awe at the abundance of the beautiful winged creatures, and watching them gracefully float through the air reminds of purity of nature's beauty. Despite the crowds & an annoyingly loud staff member, I still found some much needed tranquility with the butterflies on Saturday. As an added bonus, I was able to introduce my place of refuge to my photographic partner in crime.

I usually will go there and enjoy the butterflies; the trip on Saturday was the first time that I brought my dslr with me. (Of course, I do have a set of pics of the Corbinator there that I took with my little canon...) It was a great opportunity to practice manual focus & messing with my aperture settings. I was surprised at how close I could get with my camera, and ended up switching over to my bff the 50mm along with close up filter for some shots. How friggin' cool is that? My friend, the fong puffer, also got quite a bit of use in the buttefly house.

ooo aperture!
These two butteflies perched on the petals were a great study for trying different aperture settings.



take off
I like how the butterfly looks like it is about ready to take off. To inifinity... and beyond!




Up close & upside down
To me, the hour that we spent in the butterfly seemed like five minutes. I could have spent hours there. I haven't really explored the world of insect photography, and am still amazed that these images came out of my camera... how did I get Here?

Editing

I was happy with the "realistic" look of the pictures that I took... I am a big fan of "baby steps" or "small wins" so my heart is content with just being able to get the darned things in focus. The artistic side of me, though, wanted to do at least a *little* bit of editing, so I chose the picture below to work with...

ta-daaaa!

The Rhythm

You know what.... the Seattle Center in general is one of my favorite places. There always seems to be something funky and cultural going on there. Its a weird, but cool kind of vibe. Saturday's event in the Center House was the World Rhythm Festival. What a lovely surprise... we had ventured into the Center House in search of rest & caffeination and walked right into the pulse of a thousand drummers. Okokok, it probably wasn't a thousand, but dang, there were a ton of people.

see?

I wanted to capture the movement of the moment & took a picture of a lady near me as she was hitting her piece of percussion. I didn't have the greatest vantage point, so I cropped in to get rid of the clutter and added some noise, just for fun. I can't believe that I just added noise.

And here we are at the end of pics. Thank you very much for stopping by & checking things out. You Stay Classy... Planet Earth.

business park trek ala spring

This post is a product of procrastination, exahaustion & sunshine.

Procrastination, because, well... its what i do ;) I am supposed to be on a plane in ten hours and I have yet to pack (I do have my clothes picked out; isn't that the hard part. really....) so I am drinking wine, eating grapes & editing pics. (fyi... the drinking wine part is the cause of this rather wordy post. brevity and bordeaux aren't good friends. dang, I should have drank more when I was in grad school - those 12 page papers would have been a piece-o-cake.)

Exhaustion because a crummy cold and extensive super-multitasking at work are wearing on me. I wanted to enjoy the liberty of being single with no dependents and head up to the tulip fields after work, but my to-do list at work had other plans for me. I am pooped and the thought of driving (solo) 50 miles up I-5 is pure craziness.

Sunshine because, as I was watching tv, I realized that, much like attending daily Mass, I am way too young to watch Evening Magazine when it is sunny out. I had to get outside & enjoy the fabu spring weather.

I did something unusual for me; I went for a photo shoot with just my camera, cell phone & keys (oh and a few kleenex's). That is it - no bag, no bff the 50mm, no cokin filter (which was a bit limiting, but I survived, eh?), no cheese OR carrots. It ended up being a pretty enjoyable trek through the business park. I took over 50 frames, but a lot of them turned out kind of crummy. I was trying a bunch of different settings, so it is to be expected. I am not bummed out about it. Actually, as I got home, I laughed a little bit thinking about how sometimes my frames remind me of a Magic 8 Ball... a bridge, a field, a duck, a path of cherry blossoms & roadside deflector construction thingy.

oooook... here are the pics! aaaaww snap.


the bridge
the bridge over the creek always catches my eye. Today's interest was on the line formed by the cross structure and the faint clouds in the distance.

random trunk-na

this was my first trip around the business park with my 18-135mm. I had fun exploring my new world of 135mm.

and, since I didn't bring my bff the 50mm with me, I took this one by setting my 18-135mm to 50mm. I think my bff would have been a bit crisper, with the ability to go to f1.8, but I am happy with the bokiko.

one more

just when I thought that my interest in spring blooms had expired, I found my self taking pictures of sweet little petals again. they are so vexing! I have a confession, though. I wanted to try to capture falling petals, so I shook the branches of nature a bit. I didn't want to disrupt them, too much (I felt kinda guilty...), so I don't have any quality pics to share.

Oh! look at that! my glass of chateau vieille tour la roche is quite empty.... and my bag still isn't packed. thank you for checking out my pictures and reading through my overexplanations of a trip across the street. I am bringing my little Canon to DC with me; I am already thinking about the random pics that will be gracing my sd card soon.

oh! and one more thing!!! I saw TWO cute little bunnies!

oishii

This post includes pics from a trip to Lincoln Park on Thursday and a little road trip to Anacortes on Sunday.

(ok, this paragraph has nothing to do with the pictures on this post, feel free to skip past my jack handy-style deep thoughts...)I need to reflect a little bit on something that has been on my mind. Well, basically the "something"is the whole month of April. It turns out to be a month with a bunch of "anniversaries," and not really the kind to celebrate. On Friday, my sister and I were at a M's game with my friends from work, and I commented on how different our lives were around this time in 2006... she was quick to agree. I am surprised by how happy we are now; at that time sorrow was overwhelming both of us. And on Sunday, it popped in my head that eight years ago, to the day, I would have never EVER imagined that I would have the life I have now. I am surprised by how much happier I am now, too, because that was supposed to have been happiest time in my life. I know this reflection is vague; for once it is intentional. If you know me well, then you know what two events I am referring to, so I don't really need to explain myself on a publicly viewable, google-based blog. Anyway, my closing reflection is just that I think about this weird stuff sometimes, and it blows my mind a bit when I think about how we really can't imagine the future. I think its cool; I don't want to know the future. I do though, want to experience life, the ups, the downs the odd little sideways trips. I think that not knowing whats coming up on the road of life, but still being able to look back at where we've been, is one of the greatest gifts that we have. I think the future road of life is my source of optimism... there's always something down the road... let's go check it out ;)

Ok, now here are the pics....

Awwwe, pretty blossoms
Up until Thursday, I have never been to Lincoln Park in Seattle. Actually, I just learned about it a few weeks ago. Since I am always interested in the intersection of nature and urbanity, I put this destination on the short list. As always, my photographic partner in crime was interested in a quick trek & little photo shoot.

Sadly it was a shadowy, overcast day. My landscapes from there turned out a bit blah, but I do like this picture of some lovely little blossoms. (Note: the only editing I did to this was to increase the sharpness. the rest is pure nikon gold...)

oh, and then me being me... I had to convert to black & white just to see. I adjusted the contrast a bit too, but did all editing in View NX.

... and now we have some pics from Sunday's trip to Washington Park in Anacortes...

bonzai

eleven cuties
The tall wheaty/grassy plants caught my eye, and I wanted to use them to frame my picture. The setting sun was gorgeous to kick-back on the grassy knoll & watch, but man, the lighting was a killer.... see?

I tried a different angle, but the bonzai-ish tree in the background cluttered up my shot. see?

Ah, that's better. I tried a third angle, and this time I had better luck. I changed the white balance & made a few other View NX adjustments to get this shot.

contemplation

While scrambling along the rocky beach, we noticed this guy just standing out on the edge of the rocks in deep thought. He looked pretty sad, like he was either thinking over a tough decision, or mourning someone he misses. The water is a source of comfort for me, too, when I have heavy things on my mind, so I could understand why he chose that spot for reflection.

Thank you for checking out my pictures... peace be with you.

on demand

It is funny the moments that you are more of an "artist" than a "photographer".

This past easter (well, belated easter, but that is a whole other story...) I was tasked with the job of taking pictures of my nephew hunting for easter eggs. I say "tasked" because I wasn't actually planning on taking pictures of him outside... the lighting was crummy, the weather was less than pretty & dang it, I just wanted to stand back and enjoy the moment! Instead, I dutifully jumped to the occasion of "auntie lori is going to take your picture" and then wondered "why in the heck am I doing this" as I snapped away.

I can tell in my the quality of my pics that my heart just wasn't in it. At first, I thought I was just being stubborn and took the pics anyway, but a few days of reflection later, I realize that I need to "feel" the pictures, not just snap on command. It is a good thing to realize.... to know when to trust my inner voice & just put down the camera & actually enjoy the moment.

I ended up snapping almost twenty pics (every little move, of course!) but these four are my favorites.

this was the little guy's expression when he saw the eggs in the yard. priceless, huh?

I snapped this one while he was running from egg to egg. I like how his profile shows a subtle hint of childhood joy.

He is a big fan of the camera and did stop running around for one posed picture for me.

I was hoping to get a shot of him looking up at me and his little bag of eggs (really? no basket? what is up with that?) but I couldn't break his intent concentration on the eggs.

so there you a go... a few lil a-town pics. thanks for looking at them and reading through my little rant.

the conclusion

Wow, here it is... almost the weekend again! Almost time to gear up for another round of pics?

Trade Secrets
I wasn't really happy with the landscapes I was capturing on Saturday. dma showed me his pics on his lcd and I was stumped... I have a great camera complete with an excellent lens... why were my pics so blah compared to his?

This is what I had:

This is what I had after a few little, um, trade secrets ;)

While my dear friend was intently & rather patiently snapping some pics of little birdies (I forget their names, the little 50 cent piece ones...) I got out of the way and kept myself busy trying to get handheld macro shots in the shade. These little daisies are so cute and they bring me back to my childhood days of making little bouquets with them. I would also try to break them off as close as I could to the ground so that I could braid together the stems. My cousins and I used to also color rocks. yes, yes we were strange kids.

I cropped in on the daisy in the lower left hand corner, made it noisier & did a few other ps moves to get this piece below.

Oh, I almos forgot! When I checked the time on my phone, I noticed my reflection on the front. So, I snapped this quick pic as a "self portrait."

good morning, kitties

Its been awhile since I have taken pics of pinky & junior (laser cat magnets! whoot whoot!), so I tested the power of the 18-135mm & snapped these shots. Isn't junjun sooo sean connery? and *for the record* i love baby pinknas. (I do! Its on my blog so ya know its the truth, yo!)

And there you. the weekend all wrapped up. Thanks for checking out my pics and I wish you peace, love, joy & an abundance of good health.

its the freeken weeken baby... bounce bounce bounce

much like last week's post... pressures at work have been wearing on me. what can I say... ugh. I better get used to it, though, because my professional life won't simmer down till mid-May. The flip side of the coin is the pure bliss that the weekend brings. No worries, no timelines, no uber-multi-tasking, no use of the royal "we."

The pics below are pics from the weekend, part I. There are more, I just need to download & review them still. I should get a laptop, so that I can review my frames from somewhere other than my stinkin desk.

this is my friday night
an evening stroll along Alki is just about perfect anytime of year. wouldn't you agree? Just like everytime I go there, instead of glimmery pics of the sound, I was drawn to the light hitting this dandelion. At first tried to capture the whole scene...

buuuuuut, it was windy, and I couldn't get a fast enough shutter speed to capture the look I was after (note: the picture above is definitely not what I had envisioned). So, I took a different approach and came up with this frame:

I was captivated by the lights on the deck of siam pur, but ended up with some pretty wicked lens flare in each of my artfully composed shots. dang it! I also took a few inside the restaurant; this dessert, uh, menu caught my eye. I like the heart dotting the 'i'.

do you see what I see?

ok, now fast forward to Saturday... dma and I headed to a wildlife preserve along the banks of the Snohomish River. (p.s. hey, butcher... we missed ya! you sleepyhead!). It isn't as expansive as the Nisqually park, but dang, its close.... only 10 miles or so from Botheel. The trail wasn't too wet from Friday morning's showers, but there were some big 'ol raindrops on the blades of grass. I thought that was pretty cool to see.

oh dandelion

I was also captivated by the dandelions! it was probably the hearty pop of yellow against the green.

This first pic is taken in a style that a year ago I would have tried to work with...

Now, I don't mind "pruning" a bit to get a less cluttered frame ;)

The first two shots were taken with my 18-135mm, but I wasn't quite getting the look I was going for, so I switched to my bff the 50mm & fabulous glass close-up filter (seriously worth the $100, thanks Kenmore Camera dude for the advice!). Not too shabby for a portrait of a weed...

being the self-named and founding member of the macro superheroes, I coudn't resist cropping in using photoshop to get an even closer look. i like it (dma - reminds me a bit of your starburst shot...)

and there you go! The weekend, part one. I am headed up to A-town on Monday for "easter" with the fam, so it might be "awhile" till I post again.... hopefully I'll be able to get another round of cute pics of the little guy, though! Thanks for taking a peek at my pictures & I hope that you are having a lovely day!

Oh... juanita BAY

Tuesday was a hectic day at work... I had a ton of data entry to do, which was complicated and tedious. I knew that I needed to do something creative and figured a trip to Kirkland was in order. Great minds think alike; dma & al were already on their way there.

baby steps
Ok, I am the first to mock those boring nature shots... you know the ones with no interesting lighting, not much of a background, and the wild creature perfectly centered in the frame. That being said, look at my duck picture! I was just happy to get some stinkin bird in focus and filling up most a frame! I didn't crop this pic at all; I know that I could have changed the focus on the duck with a bit of cropping, but I like the movement of the water.

landscaping 101

For this pic, I went back to landscaping 101.... I used a tripod, set the aperture to 25 to get tons of detail, set the timer so that I wouldn't have even the slightest motion blur & used my cokin gradient filter. My horizon was a bit goofy, so I did crop in a wee bit & straighten the pic in photoshop.

macro addiction

I know. In my previous post, I wrote that I am trying to break out my macro world. I was impatient; bird watching takes quite a bit of concentration (... and waiting....); I found myself noticing things to macro. Seriously, I almost macro'd the dock.

Look Closely

I had my 18-135mm lens on my camera, but still lacked the focal distance to get a crisp shot of this "bird" (it has many identities; some say a turkey vulture, some say osprey & recent experts determined it to be a lil' eagle). I knew that even if I cropped in the image would be blurry, so I composed this abstract image of the eagle instead. The sky wasn't really this color; I worked some ps magic.

I am a big fan of the Juanita area & think that this may be my new spot to find some peace and comfort.

Skahjee

On Sunday, I headed up north with del & his brother al. It has been fun hanging out with them, and inspiring, too. Del's talent and aptitude for, well, anything, is always encouraging. Al's newfound interest and pure excitement in photography reminds me of how cool the world around us is, and what a gift we have been given in being able to photograph our lives.

I only have a few frames from this adventure... I was absorbed in the natural beauty. I was also trying to break out of my macro world, so my mind was occupied with envisioning different angles and techniques.

sCary
ohmygosh, this bridge was scary. s-CAR-y. It had an open grate, so you could quite clearly see the danger below your feet. It looked out to a fantastically tall waterfall; one which this scared chicken did not stop to take any pictures of. I edited this one to really bring out the colors of the bridge and hope that the angle brings a certain feeling of peril.

landscapes a bit rusty...

I haven't photographed a mountain's reflection in a lake in awhile. Magic hour was overwhelming my sky, and even changing the white balance & some handheld cokin action didn't help. One thing though... I feel like this shot is so blah; no creativity to it. I haven't figured out yet how to add my own little twist to this type of landscape shot.

niii-iice
I am pretty happy, though, with this geese shot. I noticed them coming towards us (you can see them in the reflection shot above) and just camped out on the bridge trying to keep them in focus. After a distinctive bit of squacking, they took flight. I can't remember what shutter speed I had, but I was able to pan a little bit.

Thanks for checking out my pics!

urban jungle

wow. Saturday was a long day of shooting... but what a better way to enjoy the sunshine?

The destination of the day was Seattle's Discovery Park. I have been there a handful of times, and still feel like there is a ton to explore. Guess the park is aptly named ;)

spring
Of course, I saw little buds of springs everywhere. I was a little burned out on photographing buds after my adventure to Ballard the day before, but I like this spot. Te Puget Sound provides a nice blue background.

yep, the lighthouse

I wanted a unique vantage point for the lighthouse, so I focused on the grass in front of me instead of the actual lighthouse. I wish there weren't as many people, but hey, it was one of the first nice days of spring.... what are you going to do? I was also really happy to capture the Olympics in the background!

lighthouse window
I seem to be drawn to architecture. I like the simplicity of this aged window and neutral toned wall.




Last Look
This one was taken on the way back to the truck. I had actually taken a bunch of frames of a similar plant on the way down to the beach, but I liked the lighting and composition of this shot better.

The first pic is in color. I did a few basic edits in View NX. The second shot was converted to black & white in photoshop, using the portrait format. For the third shot, I made some adjustments to get a softer "black & white."

Part II

The second part of the photoshoot was along the waterfront. I couldn't be happier... being near the water on a sunny day is one of life's simple pleasures. Add in good company & a chance to take some pictures and hey... you're golden!

While dma was scounting a pesky bird, this group of boats and their reflections caught my eye. nice, huh?

night blossoms
When I am out on a photo shoot, it is as if I have a new set of eyes. My brain switches gears, and I begin framing the things I see as if I were taking a picture of them. I don't know if I am explaining this quite right. This process helps me think abstractly and artisitically. Thankfully, dma shares this same thought process; he pointed out these lavish cherry trees and encouraged me to capture them. How perfect... I've been wanting a unique pictures of cherry blossoms! The tough part, though, was the slight breeze. I underexposed this shot in order to use a fast shutter speed. I like it.

This is another shot of a blossom from a neighboring tree.

aaaaand thank you. the end.