the happenings

What a crazy week. I went to the DMV on Friday to get my driver's license. It's a long story involving grumpy government employees, missing paperwork, and a lot of "worry pie." I DID get my license, though. Last night was spent driving around with my brothers until 11:00. I'm not into excessive late night joyriding (and neither are my parents, I suspect), so when the 11 year-old in the back seat said "Let's go fork _____'s house!" I said no and we drove home.
In other news, I did a photoshoot with my friend Autumn yesterday afternoon. Here's one I really liked:

I will be posting all the rest in a day or so. But, if you want to see them now, head on over to my Facebook page!

the weekend

Yesterday evening was spent with my aunt, uncle, and cousins in Washington. We spent the evening eating pizza and laughing and spent some time standing outside on the deck listening to the sound effects of coyotes killing rabbits in the woods. It's really not a pleasant noise. Because I'm not a brave person, my aunt and I drove down the hill to find the coyotes instead of walking with flashlights. This was a much better arrangement because it allowed us to stop the van intermittently and stick our heads out the window to yodel.
Needless to say, there were no coyote sightings that night.

star bokeh!

This morning, before my family left for church in Oregon City, I photographed this wandering chicken:

(Speaking of chickens, go check out my aunt's etsy shop. She specializes in chickens, and has a wonderful eye for detail. Seriously, go visit her page! You won't be sorry.)



Here are some frames I shot on the way home from church. I love old neighborhoods...


Please note that crazy amount of moss. Oregon really needs to start exporting it...

paint

If I could find a way to put watercolor palettes in frames, I'd definitely hang them up.

old, hardly ever used watercolors

homemade wrapping paper made with a bird cage stamp

rainy saturday randomness

I'm convinced that my city is under the biggest rain cloud ever. Thus, instead of spending spare time outside photographing things, I've been inside of the house or the car. Reading, studying, filling out forms, and saving inspiration for when the sun comes out.


Here's are two lovely summer shots I took years ago with a cheap plastic film camera. After uploading them to aperture today I thought I'd share. I might share more of them over the next few days, if I can find some good ones. Old stuff is fun.

Cabin, Bainbridge Island, Washington - 2005

Whistler Mountain, British Columbia, Canada- 2003

And some color film photos I turned into black and whites...

Below are a few more things I want to share....

1. this set- click here to see it. Lovely colors. I want to frame them all.

 2. Lily Fields Photography this talented lady offered to take my photos a few weeks ago. I said yes, of course.

 3. this film actually watched this one last month. It's very well made. If you don't mind documentaries....

  
4. this book I finished the Abolition of Man yesterday. Hard to read, but one of those "why haven't I read this before" books. I'm hoping to get through at least one non-assigned (and short) book every two months this year.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend!

just another week

Last night I dreamed (or is it dreamt?) that my camera lens was broken. So relieved to wake up this morning and discover a very un-broken camera! Below are a few pictures taken in the last few days or so that I like:
This is a big day - The Ducks are playing in the BCS championship game tonight. I'm usually neutral when it comes to sports games, but how can I not hope the Ducks win tonight? If there ever was a time to be a football fan, I'm figuring that now is it. So, family is in town and tonight we will watch the game on TV and maybe go out onto the streets where it is sure to be completely silent.
I would be wearing green and yellow, but I have nothing in those colors.....yellow does not look good on me.

Here is Junior, the English Mastiff puppy I told you about.

power lines

Am I the only one who likes to take pictures of power lines? You can't blame me. They make fascinating subjects, especially when adorned with crows and gym shoes (which for the record, are not mine).
Also, I'm determined to eventually get a shot like this...)
Enjoy.

gabriel {mini session}

I hope no one is tired of seeing pictures of my siblings up here, because I'm not! I really love the concept of "mini shoots." In this region it's too cold outside to be out and around taking pictures for more than an 1/2 hour - so I have to work quickly to execute my plan. In this particular instance I wanted to take Gabe out to a field about a quarter mile from my house to get some decent shots. It was absolutely freezing, but thankfully his nose didn't get to red. (And now I'll just add that he was SUCH a good sport. I told him I owe him a donut.)

I've been having a lot of ISO issues lately, but thankfully was able to resolve a few today by speed reading a tutorial before heading outside.
Winter light is truly special. It's a shame that it's not accompanied by warmer temperatures. I'm running short on models who are willing to freeze for me:)

jerome {mini session}

I took Jerome to the park yesterday - something I've never done before. It was cold and sunny out, and the light was wonderful.

Jerome is a very funny three-year-old. He answers nearly every question with a complete sentence. Our conversation today went something like this...

Me: "It's very cold out today, isn't it?"
Jerome: "Well yes, it is very cold out."
Me: "Look! Do you see the bird in the tree?"
Jerome: "Yes I do see the bird in the tree."
Me: "Do you want to go down the slide?"
Jerome: "Well yes, I do want to go down the slide."

skiing

About a month ago I watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation with my mom. Not sure which scene was the most hilarious (maybe the cat getting electrocuted under the Christmas tree?). Anyway, if you've watched it you'll remember the first part where Clark Griswold takes his family out to the forest to get a Christmas tree in the style of the "forefathers" and his daughter freezes. ("Clark, Audrey's frozen from the waist down!")

My family has had many Griswold-esque moments over the years. For example...
The time we went to the coast for a few days, and Gabe came home wearing Susana's pink leggings because he had only brought ONE pair of pants for the trip.
When we found raccoons in our car during a camping trip.
And lastly, when went snow tubing with friends and forget snow masks, froze our faces off, and crashed into each other at the bottom of the hill. (Also, that was the trip where I accidentally knocked the bunny-hill-attendant's coffee mug over.)

You get the idea...

Anyway, we spent New Year's Eve cross country skiing, which was SO MUCH FUN. It was a savage 13 degrees out but we warmed up soon after we started out. It was the first time I've gone skiing and I learned one thing very quickly - if you fall down it's almost impossible to get up. It seems hard to fall while you're gliding across level ground, right? Wrong.


Picture taken while my dad was putting chains on the tires.

Happy New Year's!