ooo teleconverter

ugh. November in the Pacific Northwest means one thing... rain. ugh.

Saturday afternoon had a few moments of tranquility, and dma and I explored the Lowell Riverfront Park in Everett. I have driven past this place many, many a time as I took the backroads from Bothell to A-town, and never knew about the coolness that existed in the area.

For this shoot, I was armed with my 70-300mm and dma's teleconverter... I have had it in my camera bag FOREVER but have been severely sidetracked by the big move. ugh. I was happy to finally have a chance to use the teleconverter; what a tremendous learning opportunity.

I took a few classic msg style shots:

and learned how stinkin difficult it is to get somoe bird shots without a tripod...

well, it is hard to take any shot without a tripod. guess I am just shaky :) makes sense... I lack grace in that respect.

and, of course, I managed to find a random water fountain to photograph also.

It was a nice trip, and I am happy to have another local spot to add to the mix.

Hope the chilly, windy, rainy, yucky November weather is treating you well. Stay warm!

lite bright

After a week of packing madness, a photoshoot was in order. Yes? I had *almost* all of my stuff packed up on Friday night, so Saturday I was free to hang out with dma & his brother, aka the butcher. We headed over to butcher's neck of the woods, grabbed some west side teriyaki & headed to the docks!

These first three pics are from a group of old railcars that we came across on our adventures.

These two boat scenes were taken from a waterfront park with interesting picnic shelters that I may, or may not have already visited. I used in-camera black & white. pretty dang cool!

These three are my lite bright series... I used a soft-focus on the waterfront lights. I love them. It was more challenging than I expected, but I had fun trying to get the right speed (to eliminate motion blur in the water) enough light (so I didn't have a black picture!) and focus (so that the lights didn't look too perfect...)

This concludes my post for today... I am exhausted, but wanted to get a few images up before too much time passed. OH one more thing... I took these pictures in both jpeg & raw, but ended up editing off of the jpegs. PLUS, the black & white pics (in-camera) and the soft focus frames are all unedited. nice, eh? Hope that the windy weather is treating you well & thanks for checking out this round of pics!

msg everyday: moving

tomorrow is the big day... I am leaving my dinky little place in bothell and headed to the very lovely town of Woodinville. 970 lavish square feet with TONS of wall space. aaaaah, can't wait!

My days (& nights) have been filled with packing, sorting, recycling, donating stuff, blah blah blah for several weeks, so I haven't been able to pick up my d80 very often. Sad, isn't it? I have managed to snap a few pics on my little elph, though. I am realizing more and more how important photography is to me, especially when it comes to documenting things from the past. In a way, it helps me let go...

Take this set of dishes for example:

I love them. I love the feel of them. I love the texture of the green plates, I love the hue of the blue petals. BUT... they remind me of times that were pretty tough for me. They were wedding gifts for Paul and I back in 2001, and were "our" dishes until our break-up in 2005. When I look at them, all I could think of was the 2001 "me"... the person that was so hopeful, optimistic, determined; so naive. I have changed a lot in the past 4-8 years; both for the good and bad. When I looked at these dishes, it reminded me of how jaded I am now. I have kept them all this time, partially hoping for a link to my old past, and partially because dang it, the bowls were such a perfect size! But, it is time to move on; time for the dishes to go. Before they left though, I arranged them on my living room floor, moved my lamps around for "lighting" & took this picture. I used in-camera settings to get the sepia effect.

On a more positive twist, last night I cleared off all the random papers and photos that have been collecting on my fridge for the past two years. I took a few frames of my collection of fortune cookie papers, and have posted my favorite one below:

This one is both my favorite picture AND favorite fortune ;) I have actually held on to the same stinkin fortune since sometime in early-mid 2007, and even took it with me when I went to DC in the fall of 2007... it reads "There will be true and sincere friendship between you both." I relate this fortune to my friendship with my very dear best friend, dma. We are wierd, and our friendship really, really doesn't make sense to most people. Who cares?... The fortune cookie gets it... true and sincere friendship. I used ELEMENTS to convert this frame to black & white, added a very heavy vignette & believe it or not, lowered the contrast.

And here is a preview of the new place!

Hope you are having a beautiful day, and thanks for checking out these pics!

ki'i leka

Every once in awhile, people ask me "what made you interested in photography?" Well, like most of my explanations, it isn't really a short story ;) I have always loved photography, and there have been a few images that, over the years, stand out as especially inspiring.

One is a photo of a lilac with raindrops that one of my college friends took and used on an Easter card. I loved the level of detail of the graceful raindrop contrasted by the super blurry background, and the striking hue of the lilac. Another one is a close-up of one of my former employers' son; I loved how the photo captured the sweet innocence of the baby. It was simple, but powerful.

And there is one that is mine! From 1999-2001, I lived in a village called Ha'atu'a on the beautiful, pristine island of 'Eua waaaaay out in the middle of the South Pacific. I was blessed with the sweetest neighbors in the world; a great comfort while being so far from home. The picture below is my favorite photo from the hundreds that I took over those two years. The little girl on the left is Kefi, my neighbors' youngest daughter, and the girl on the right is Toisi, the daughter of a woman that taught me how to tau'olunga (a tongan dance... NOTHING like a hula!). Kefi was a frequent visitor, and loved being my little helper! In this pic, Kefi and Toisi are helping me with my laundry, working together to wring out my pajama pants. This was taken with a point & shoot film camera. I had just one roll of black & white film from home; funny, eh... my how times have changed! I often think back to this image when I am photographing people, it is kind of like a benchmark... a reminder to capture the moment.


p.s. I scanned this photograph, so the image quality is compromised a bit; hopefully I'll run across the negative someday & be able to convert it to a digital image!