part one

These are a few of the pics that I took while in DC last week, oh wait shoot it was the week before. Time flies when you are having fun, eh?

I was happy to have my beloved nikon with me for this trip; it was oddly comforting. I actually stayed in the district for this trip, and was not too far from this famous spot....

On Monday, the evening's plan was to hang out with my dear friend Beth. I was actually early for once, and had a chance to do a little random photography. I snapped these pics from the corner of 18th & I. The sun was setting and casting shadows everywhere. I remember some guidance from my mom about including shadows in pictures because it draws your eye in a bit more. I took many many pictures of people's shadows as they walked by, and chose this one below to edit a little bit. Here is the original pic:

and here is the pic after some msg editing magic:

Beth and I went to Cafe Asia. I loved the chic white-on-white style. We had a pretty cool vantage point, too, from the second floor.

On Tuesday, I took a quick walk around the Dupont Circle-ish area and found a beautiful cathedral. Mass was about to start, so I just took a few quick pics. Beautiful isn't it? I would have loved to have walked around here a bit more.... next trip, perhaps?

And this one is my little dose of random for the trip.... I noticed that the name tags that we were using for training were an actual official government form. Really? huh. I just thought it was funny and took this pic.

By Saturday morning I had taken over 200 random pictures that documented the week's funtivities & adventures. I still have more to process, but wanted to get a few shots up here before too much time had passed, so, uh, stay tuned ;)

Hope you are having a beautiful day & thanks for checking out my pictures.

bighorn

Perhaps its my Arlington roots, but MAN, getting a truck muddy is fun. dma's explizard has some bright & shine new 33's so we headed for the hills on Saturday; partly to survey trail conditions, and partly to test out the new tires.

These pics of Gale Creek. the creek was flowing fast, and I loved the way the light and shadows were hitting the water.

This one I took with my tripod.

Then, I switched to taking hand held pictures. I took them quickly though, because I am not so certain that we were supposed to be where we were (nothing new, eh?) Oh, and the pic below is one of the roads we "tested" but was much, much, more mild than some of the other ones.

I really feel more connected to my camera when I don't use my tripod. I do actually like my manfrotto (muuuuuch better than the cumbersome quantaray) but there is a disconnect with my tripod. Maybe its that I just make small, subtle changes in my vantage point all the time? Hmm, don't know. The pic below was taken hand held, and I prefer it (compositionally) to the top one posted above.

Wow, this was a long creek. Between the rocks, the water,the fallen trees & the sun/shadow mix this turned out to be a very cluttered picture. I wanted to capture the length of the creek (I haven't run across many long & straight creeks; usually they are turning a corner, emerging from a rock, or turning into a waterfall). So, I converted this one to black & white. I am not a big fan of the solid white spots, but I was able to dim the brightness a bit by warming the picture.

Sadly, I will be MIA for about a week! I am headed to DC for work; I am going to bring along my camera for the first time ever...so check back in a week or so to see if I had any cross country adventures! Take care & enjoy the SUN!!!!

p.s. dma.... thanks for the invite! keep me posted on other adventures!!!!

DC & United

Time to dust off the ol SD card in the A520... the pics from this post were taken last month when I went to DC for a super speedy trip. Speedy is the truth: I left Wednesday morning, crossed the country and was back on Friday (or Saturday if you are using east coast time, eh?)
I knew it would be a quick trip and that I would be lucky to even get any interesting pics, so I opted for my nice, compact little A520. (Although... I am headed there again next week and am seriously contemplating lugging my Nikon there. I am a bit scared, though... yikes!)

Old Town Pub
Jennie, New Dan & I headed to Old Town Alexandria after our workshop was over on Thursday. This is one of my favorite places in DC; I love the architecture & am a sucker for any town by the water. Since this was our only night out & New Dan's first trip to DC we bypassed the chain restaurants and headed to a good 'ol pub on a side street. Union Street Pub, caught my eye: Jennie was intrigued by a new venue & New Dan was up for any adventure so we headed in. While we waited (and waited and... wai-ted) I got full use of the shutter priority on my camera and took a bunch of long exposures. I liked this one the best.

Tripod-na

Packing light meant no tripod for this trip! I have a tiny travel tripod, but, silly me, I left it somewhere (at the hotel, at home, I can't remember and it doesn't matter I guess...). but I WISH I had a tripod here! The shadow of the gate on the front boat was interesting and I took many, many frames here. (p.s. thanks you guys for being so patient with me!)

Just because I can
I am not too inspired by this pic, there isn't a great story that goes with it; its just one of those that I took just because I could. ha! And effortlessly at that. I have night shooting skills yo! with a point & shoot no less ;)



Made in Portugal
This pic represents an inside joke that is probably best kept within a small circle. Ohgosh! Its nothing bad... just might not be as funny to others & I don't want to diminish its humor by trying to explain it. made in china. made in china. made in japan. made in china. made in ?

The OHare Series

Flying to DC for work means that I have the joy of flying United. The good part is that I almost have enough miles to fly to Europe (2010 Jess, remember!). The not so good part is that I get to spend quite a bit of time in O'Hare. ugh. On the way home I had TWO hours to spend in the airport. Hmmm... what to do, what to do.... OH! I'll take some pics!

I always seem to be running between Concourse B & C, and am always fascinated by the lighting on the ceiling of the underground tunnel. I took quite a few long exposures while enjoying the luxury of the people walker.

My first attempt was too bright.

aaah. that is better.

and then I took one to the side. I like this one the best; the colors are rather calming, yes?

As I was just about to put my camera away, I noticed this bay of telephones. I can't even remember the last time I used a pay phone.... in college, maybe? I figured this would be one of those historical shots; who knows how long they'll be around, eh?

Wow, exactly a week from now I'll be in DC again.... funtivities! oh, and uh, serious work too. yay! training!

Oh Schmitz!

Alrighty, I am almost caught up with my posts!

these were taken on Saturday at Schmitz Park in West Seattle. It was the perfect day for a spin in Spydo & a run over to Schmitz was the perfect answer. What a lovely little in-the-city adventure! There are tons a little trails, perfect for an afternoon of good ol laid-back urban hiking. (ohmygoodness. I just used "perfect" three times in that sentence. well, guess it really, really was then, eh?)

backlighting
The backlighting of these trees caught my eye.... pretty huh? I tried some other shots where I metered off the front grouping of trees, but ended up liking the darkness better. Oh well, it was good practice!

Blue Bells

apparently, my specialty is taking portraits of common weeds. Ha! I don't care, they are still a gift and are still beautiful!

And there you go! I am caught up! In fact, the fern pic above was the last one on my SD card :) Sounds like it is time for another adventure.

msg everyday: laundry

For awhile now, I have been tossing around the idea of doing a series of "everyday" shots from around my house. Someday last week (I dunno, probably Wednesday?) I washed a bunch of my kitchen towels. The different patterns caught my eye as I was folding them, and so I grabbed my camera for a few quick pics. I still had my 50mm on from taking the baby fern pics on Sunday, and it turned to be the best lens anyway. The lighting in my laundry room is crummy (really, whose isn't?), but my bff the 50mm's f1.8 did the trick.

thanks for checking these out! Happy Laundry to you too!

boulder belated

Where has the time gone, and why in the heck did it scurry away so fast?

These pics are from *last* Sunday, when dma and I headed for a non-snowy hike. It seems to be a particularly tough year finding trails that aren't still buried in several feet of snow. I've been watching the WTA trip reports for this one, Boulder River, up in the Darrington area. Its kind of funny because I grew up in A-town, and never ventured into the hills. Oh yeah, so not too long ago, I read a trip report that said you can get to not only the trailhead (hey, thats a start!) but easily make it the quick 1.5 (?) mile trek to the falls. The trail continues, and I pretty sure that I will be headed back up there to beat the heat this summer!

Gee...
Hmmm, can you tell why they call it Boulder River? Aptly named, oh wise namer of river, aptly named.

Some pics of the falls

The two above were taken with my tripod. While I definitely need the added stability, sometimes I can't compose the shot as I want it. Is it impulse? Is it control? Is it just natural? So, the pic below was taken handheld, very near the river bank.

Wouldn't be complete

A trip to a gorgeous vista or picturesque landscape spot wouldn't be complete if I didn't find something to focus on via close-up. sigh.

Baby Ferns!!!!

Second to the magnificance of the falls, these cute little baby ferns were my highlight of the hike. I love all the detail, and the compact little leaves. I only wish it wasn't the end of magic hour & end of good lighting because I had to use my flash (and dma was too far away to ask for his help on dimming my flash output!). Even with the puffer the flash is too flashy, but at least I still have something to remember my joy. flashy and all.

a return to...?

Two years.

It honestly blows my mind to think about all that has happened in just the past two years.

Two Years ago, del and I had went for a nice, Sunday drive out to the Skagit Valley tulip fields. That crazy dude had never visited the tulips. At that point in time we were still getting to know each other, and I hadn't officially eliminated the possiblity that he was from outer space. Really. Who hasn't been up to see the tulips. Aliens.... aliens, with their cooky alien furniture, haven't seen the tulips.

He was still shooting with a Panasonic Lumix megazoom; I had my trusty little Canon A520 securely in auto-mode. I remember being amazed that he had the knowledge and skills to do something called "metering" and wished that I knew how to get a tulip picture with some bokah (only, I didn't know it was called bokah. obviously. I just wanted a nice pretty blur behind a moderatly sharp, brilliantly colored bloom!)

Fast forward Two Years of... well, just fast forward already... to now. "The List" is not "the list" and his "little hobby" (BICHIA!) now has over 4,000 web hits per month. I even have this silly little blog (impressive, actually, for someone as low-tech as myself). His gear... whoa... he has already surpassed the mid-level cameras, is using a pro-level and teasing me about one that is like a luxury automobile. And I have left my Canon family to join the world of Nikon (also impressive for my inner low-tech granola person). And I am very well aware of bokah.

Beyond the gear and the photographic skills, over the past Two Years we have formed a truly unique friendship. He has many, many friends that are special to him (ugh, many... lucky guy, huh?) I don't now where I fit in the mix for him, but I can honestly say that among my good friends over the years, he understands me the most. Its kinda cool. The thing I appreciate the most in our friendship is balance; we compliment each other well, both photographically and just in life in general. I think we help each other out in more ways that either of us realize. Does that make sense?

Well, the story continues with del getting a D40x not long after our trip to the tulip fields. That turned out to be the instrument that helped him fly; it seemed like from that point on his skills multiplied (hmmm, was there an eclipse two years ago???).

Thankfully, he shared his skills along the way ;) and now, Two Years later, I can look at my own tulip pictures with awe and amazement. They are beautiful. I love them. I can't believe sometimes that they are my photographs. thanks, man.

oooook, now on to the pics :)
cliche shot
I couldn't resist this cliche shot of the tulip gardens. Its still pretty ,darn it!
Gonna...
I didn't take stock of the names of the flowers, but I wish I had. This one is so un-tulip-y to me. I love it! It looks like it wants to eat you.

Gonna Getcha....
Per usual, I tried a bunch of settings. Same flower, different setting.

Technical skills, yo!

I chose this set of pics to show some of the things I am currently working on ...

Ok, this one was taken in usual macro supergirl style; I used my bff the 50mm set at f 1.8. I autofocused.

aaah, but now I am less afraid of manual focus. this one is still at f 1.8

Hmm. maybe I need to not focus so tighly on just a little fraction of the picture? I am venturing into the world of more detail...

In a very uncharacteristic manner, I used f22 for this one. I have to try it, right?

Now, the old msg would have been content with the shot as taken, with minor edits here and there.

I've changed.

I cropped in...

.... and then did a few other things. I like it!

Lonesome Daffodil

As magic hour ended, we found ourselves in a daffodil field surrounded by sunset-lit beauties. The backlighting was awesome. I found myself drawn to this one, lone daffodil at the end of the row. In someways, I see this daffodil as a reflection of myself; but we'll keep that introspective for another post ;)

Thank you for checking out my pictures! I love sharing my photos with people; I love sharing the beauty that we have surrounding us all the time. Thank you to all that have supported me throughout my studies and of course, dma... you're... oodaleedo.

Plan B

Man-o-Man, I am happy that it is Friday already. Its been quite a blustery week at the office, thankfully just blustery and not blitz-er-y (?). The pics from this post are from a lovely hike on Sunday with my dear friends, dma & butcher. The original plan was to go on a nice 14 mile hike around Mt. Gardner, but the creepy road was snowed in three miles from the trailhead. brrr! dma had a back-up plan, and after consulting with directions from "the book" we were on our way to Mt. Washington.

Switchbacks e nada
This is a pic of the trail... I need to work on my landscapes more, so I snapped this one of the trail. (btw... does this look like a logging road to you? )

Natural Elements

Of course, I took quite a few pictures in my usual, random close-up style. Is it odd that random is my usual?

The top pic is out of sequence... (we made a trek through Twin Falls State Park after Mt. Washington) but I don't care. Wooo-hooo the joys of having my own, unedited blog! yay! Oh yeah, so the top one is a close up of one part of the falls. I coverted it to black & white. yay.

oook, back to the Mt. WA trail.... there is a little creek along the way. I stopped here for about five minutes taking pictures of the water falling on the rocks. I love how the droplets are suspended in mid-air... so shiny!

totally out of sequence... this was one of my first pics of the day. There is a cool climbing area toward the beginning of the Mt. Washington trail that dma & butcher were captivated by... I loved the way the light was hitting these huge rocks & spent my time being random and trying out different focal areas.

Landscape, ugh.

While dma & butcher were capturing some amazingly adventurous shots, I took a more tame route and peacefully strolled through the park. It was magic hour. The lighting and shadows were enchanting. I didn't have my gradiant coking filter. arg! The pic below is my attempt to landscape, and the pic below that is my attemp to edit said landscape. hmmm, still working on it.

What a lovely day! This spring has been sooo beautiful, and I am appreciate the weather I have been blessed with this year.