favorite photos of 2010

Below are some of my favorite photos from 2010. It's such a wonderful thing to look back on your work and see improvement. I still remember what it felt like to take the very first photo in this post. (I can promise that if you do a post like this, you will be sick and tired of looking at your photos by the end!)

It was hard to decide which photos to include here. Many that I love are missing here- I'm posting hardly any of my photojournalism and just a few photos from the school auction package photoshoots I offered this spring and summer. Still, I think I did a decent job of collecting my favorites.
You've probably seen them before....on this blog, on Facebook, or even on Twitter. Thanks to those who joined my Facebook fanpage, commented on my photos there, and offered encouraging feedback on my blog throughout the year. I'm terrible at responding to comments, but your thoughts are definitely appreciated:)
I can't wait to start taking more photos in 2011. I've shot so many mess-ups, and will continue to do so - but that feeling of getting a really good capture keeps motivating me.

(I tried to post these chronologically, but many are out of order. Also, the first seven were taken with a point-and-shoot. The rest were shot with the dslr.)

christmas hipstamatic style

technology and a few hipstamatics

A few weeks ago my mom downloaded the Hipstamatic app onto her iPhone. I was initially a bit skeptical of all the iPhone photo apps I had been hearing about...but within a week or so I realized how much fun I was missing out on. My mom has taken tons of fabulous photos with it....so fun to check the phone album and see a bunch of new stuff that wasn't there before. Anyway, I steal her phone now whenever I get the chance.

The Hipstamatic is very agreeable and will take nice photos in less-than-ideal situations, unlike my dslr which requires me to fiddle with the settings if I want a decent shot.


Life was not complete until I met the Hipstamatic.

I do remember when only a very, very small handful of people owned iPhones. (I'm so proud of my good memory.) I vaguely remember when Facebook was used only by college students, but I try to ignore memories like that.This week, however, when I heard that Mark Zuckerberg had been announced Time Magazine's Man of The Year I was confronted again with the uncomfortable fact that before February 4th, 2004 THERE WAS NO FACEBOOK.

Before January 15, 2001 THERE WAS NO WIKIPEDIA.
Before February 15, 2005 THERE WAS NO YOUTUBE. (Wait...there was Facebook before Youtube??)
Before 1998 THERE WAS NO GOOGLE.
Before July 15, 2006 THERE WAS NO TWITTER.

You probably knew all that but I just wanted to remind you all what dull lives we lived before the dawn of funny cat videos and the rise of what-I-ate-for-lunch stati.
Speaking of cats, I have a large collection of prehistoric cat drawings I created before the age of YouTube. If you contact me I can fax them to you. But are pictures even faxable? What is a fax, anyway? A fast text? To quote Inigo Montoya, "I do not think that word means what you think it means."



I was going to show you some Hipstamatic prints, wasn't I?

(The top three were taken in Portland last week. The last few were taken at lunch today with mom.)

scenes from portland

I love Portland, even if it's so gray and rainy in December. Below are some Portland facts I stole from the SWPL website. (And yes - many, many hipsters can be found here.)

1. Named the "greenest city" in America by Popular Science. (What is that even supposed to mean???)
2. Has the highest rate of microbreweries per capita.
3. You're not allowed to pump your own gas here.

None of these facts really interest me, since I'm
1) probably not very "eco friendly"
2) still under the age of 21
3) don't own a car.

Still, Portland is fabulous in my opinion. My parents, brother and I spent part of this past weekend there. Friday afternoon was spent walking downtown, shopping and eating. On Saturday, (after visiting Powell's Bookstore!) we went to a tuba concert held in the Pioneer Courthouse Square. (Andre plays the tuba so it was fun to see so many of of the same instruments being played at the same time.) It was absurdly wet. I actually had puddles of water inside my shoes by the time we left Saturday afternoon - rainboots might be more appropriate next time.
Anyway, this is what I saw: