Christmas!

What a wonderful time of the year... I am so happy to have been surrounded by family this Christmas! It really made me appreciate all the things that are good in my life. My side of the family came into town and we all enjoyed the celebration together with K's family! The best part about it all was how much EVERYBODY seemed to be enjoying themselves! Christmas day went so well that it was well past 11PM before anybody noticed the time! We ate a delicious prime rib roast, had cookies, played games, and watched 3 movies!!! Can you believe it? I can't either. Everybody was in the best of spirits.

I took about 200 pictures on Christmas Day and I couldn't be happier. I took my most portable setup, the camera flash on a light stand with a silver umbrella and a silver reflector. I'd have used soft white, but I knew I'd have to light large areas, so I needed all the reflected light I could get :) I'm still pretty happy about the pictures except for the fact that somebody's little sister decided to make silly faces in 90% of the pics she was in! And I forgot to set the flash to manual mode for a series of pics so the lighting is all over the place. But I can fix a lot of it in post processing. So all is well.

K and I spent about $200 over our budgeted amount for food this month, but man was it all so good! So many good cookies, breakfasts, and other meals left me wanting to eat more. Luckily, I was able to resist over-eating for several meals. I only went overboard on cookies. But hey, they taste the best when they're fresh :) I hope everybody's Christmas was as good as mine was. I am looking forward to a fun-packed New Year's celebration! Bring it on holidays!

Check out my latest photos

So I went to another photo shoot recently with the purpose of re-creating the feel of some of Ansel Adams' portraits. Here are the results.... I'm pretty happy with them.

Recent Photography Adventures

I haven't been keeping up with my blogging, but I haven't just disappeared into a hole. In recent weeks and months I've been getting more involved in photography clubs. It really has been a great learning experience so far. Although it has tempted me on several occasions to spend mega cash on new camera parts! But If I'm patient I'll get them eventually. Maybe next month ;)

On Monday I went to Gary, Indiana and met with a bunch of "photogs" at the now abandoned City Methodist Church. We had a grunge themed photo shoot and we tried to focus on using natural light. However, I couldn't resist using my off camera flash to enhance the dramatic effect. I got some really awesome shots. But see for yourself...

This shot was kind of inspired by the movie Carrie	The deteriorated state of the church really was captured in this wide angle shot
The lockers are a bit too rusty for your average school, but can't you see such a character at such a run down school?	Maybe one of my favorite shots...

Last weekend

I had an action packed weekend. That's for sure! On Friday my sister came to visit and we went to K's sister's birthday party. It wasn't the most fun party ever, but it was something to do, and there was Italian Beef and plenty of desserts! We played catchphrase for awhile. That game is always fun.

On Saturday we went to the Garfield Conservatory Garden and pretended that it was summer! I got a lot of good pictures that day. There really are a lot of amazing plants out there. After that we went to dinner at Penang. We got 3 apetizers and 3 meals. We were so full afterward! I got this one pork chop dish that had the most tender pork chop! It was one of the chef's specials. But I can't remember the name of it for the life of me. We also had some skirt steak dish and a seafood yam pot. After dinner we went to the mall and K and my sister went shopping like they have never shopped before. Ok maybe not, but they had fun. I sat in a massage chair at Brookstone. At night we went to a dueling piano bar called Howl at the moon and we had a bucket of Hurricaine Rush (I think) We partied like it was 1997. So in other words, normally :P

Sunday we went to church. Everybody got lost or lost something except me. My sister got stuck in a one way traffic pattern. I couldn't find her for 30 minutes. She even bought a pay-as-you-go phone to call me! Kristin also lost her work cell phone. boo! After my sister headed back home K and I went to a superbowl party and ate pulled pork sandwiches. MMM MMM. Then the weekend ended. Fun times were to be had by all.

Ski Jump!

Today I went to the ski jump event at the Norge ski jump and took a bunch of pictures. I only made it in time to see the last 3 jumpers. But I'm glad I got to see it seeing as they only do this twice a year! It was a lot of fun. I wish I had gotten more time to play around with my camera, but I took the shots that I could in the limited amount of time that I had. I am surprised with the image quality that I got from my 70-200mm kit lens this time. It was a lot better than I remember it being in the past. Maybe my lens is useful after all!

More of my life

Well I ended up going to Busse Woods again to take advantage of the beautiful fall colors. I got quite a few good shots off too! One thing that was annoying is when K and I found a tree we wanted to take photographs under, a minute or so later an older couple with an SLR and a point and shoot stood near the tree looking like they were going to photograph it. We were there for no more than 5 or so minutes. And the old man blurts out "we're losing our light!" Nothing corteous, nothing subtle. Just blunt and rude. Apparently we were at the only tree in the whole gosh darn park and this guy couldn't fathom taking a picture of another tree! I didn't put up a fight because I had gotten off several shots already and the sun had fallen behind a tall building in the distance. I kind of felt happy that they actually did lose their light because of how rude the guy was! But really, it was a very beautiful tree.

My house is getting even closer to being completed. It'll be any day now. I'm sure! I've been saying that for the past couple months, but one of these days I'll find myself telling the truth and I'll actually move in. Although I have my doubts sometimes :)

All in good fun

Last weekend K and I went to a pumpkin farm and browsed all of the fresh produce. Most of it actually wasn't overpriced surprisingly. For example, you could get a whole spaghetti squash for $1.29. But there were of course the ridiculously overpriced items such as the $10 gourmet chocolate covered apples... There were a lot of fun sights like camels and some pretty crazy squash for sale. It was so packed there I felt like I was in a sea of people. But I loved it.

This week K and I baked a cold oven pound cake from the America's Test Kitchen "Lost Recipes" cookbook. I swear every single one of those desserts are the best I have ever had. The pound cake had a thick flaky crust on top due to starting the baking without preheating the oven and the cake was just perfectly moist! We brought slices into work because we couldn't possibly manage to eat that much cake by ourselves. Everybody loved it. My coworkers think I am some baking genius or something... Awhile back we made This thing called "Peach Puzzle" which was like a superior peach cobbler, if you even want to call it that. You basically bake whole peaches sitting in a sweet biscuit dough with brown sugar and butter and eat it warm. It was so good that I will want to make it again as soon as peaches are in season again. If anybody is ever around K or I during peach season, you absolutely have to request it!

Peach Puzzle

This weekend we went to a forest preserve and walked around. I saw a family getting portraits taken at dusk with all the fall colors and it inspired me. I think I'm going to go back tomorrow (today) with K and take some glamour shots. I really have to remember to buy a reflector and a stand online, because the local camera shops charge an arm and a leg for them! But anyway, back to the weekend. We drove around and got menus at many of the restaurant's around K's place and I ended up getting hungry and ordering the 3-meat combo at Sweet Baby Ray's. I had never eaten there before and it was pretty good for a chain. The ribs had a delicious rub on them that reminded me of the kind that was on this special order cajun meat that my dad used to buy for read beans and rice. Oh the memories. The weekend has been so good so far. I can't wait for more!

my life in pictures

Seattle

I'm in Seattle for work and I've already relived one of my wonderful food memories I have been wishing to have again. Last night I ate at Typhoon, a Thai restaurant. I had the Royal Duck with a sweet red curry sauce. It was the best. And for only $17 it was even more scrumptious! Last time I was there in 2006 I ate dish with scallops and shrimp in Chinese dumplings in a green curry sauce on a bed of fried spinach. I loved that meal too. I hope I can make it there again before I leave.

The Embassy Suites is friggin awesome. They have an upgraded exercise room where all the treadmills and ellipticals have their own LCD TVs! Last time I was there I was disappointed by the two old treadmills and rusty weights. Now they have 3 plus 2 ellipticals, and a couple bikes! The complimentary cooked to order breakfast really can't be beat. And if you are on the ambassador floor you get extra snacks, free internet, and the drinks in the mini fridge are also free!

It's in the 40s/50s here but everything is green and there are flowers everywhere. So it feels more like spring than home does. I am looking forward to going around taking pictures this weekend. It'll be a blast!

Last weekend

I took a long time to write about my weekend this week, but I really had a great time. On Friday I went out to John Barleycorn with some friends. I hadn't seen most of them for months! The night ended pretty early for who knows what reason, but at least I got plenty of sleep! I guess we're all getting old and can't stay out like we used to!

Saturday was a sad day. My 3 week old pro lens broke all of the sudden. I went to use it and what do you know? The AF motor didn't move the focus ring! Man, you'd think when you drop a load of cash on a specialty lens from a good brand, that you lens will last longer than 3 weeks. At least I can get it repaired under warranty and the lens is insured. But The lens will be away for about 2 weeks. That's no fun!

On Sunday Kristin and I had a St Paddy's day dinner party. That was really a lot of fun. We made corned beef and cabbage from scratch. We even corned the beef for a week! Everybody had a blast. Even Dino had a great time. He danced and partied like crazy!

A random job

I applied for a random job today. I figured, what could it hurt? They're planning on laying off a lot fo people. Even though I don't think I'll be one of them for several reasons. It doesn't hurt to see if any companies nibble on the line. And hey, if I actually get a really good offer, maybe it was meant to be anyway! Life's fun like that.

I've been going around town with my camera all weekend. It has been an experience, but I have learned that it will make my neck hurt if I carry it around for hours. I need a backpack if I am going to do that more often. next time :)

The Photography of Cooking

Most everybody loves cooking with friends and family and I've started to notice that it really brings out a lot of laughs and smiles. This really is perfect for photography because you have the opportunity to get a lot of impromptu shots and the people being photographed will love it because they're in such a good mood! These pictures are also great additions to anybody's photo album because so many warm memories are wrapped up in those cramped moments in the kitchen. I should do more of this type of photography, because even if I take a bad photo it still seems to come out good. But that's the thing about memories, you don't need an artist to sculpt them, you just have to remember.

OK I changed my mind

I LOVE my camera. I had a great time photographing just about everything yesterday! And people do enjoy my hobby as much as I do, hehehe. But seriously, I'm excited because it is looking to be a super fun hobby from here on out. I'm getting used to the camera, and I'm getting better and better at taking good pictures with it.

I also had fun Saturday when I went out with K and another friend. We had some good conversations and we really had a blast. I made country fried steak as well that day, but it tasted more like pork chops than anything because the recipe called for a bread crumb crust.

Maybe I shouldn't have bought this camera...

Well, it's a powerful machine. I was so excited to play with this feature rich time fighting machine, but then I realized I have nothing to take pictures of. Either that or I suck. I can't get people around me to be excited about it or to share in my passion for it. So I have been taking pictures of the wall basically. I guess I can't force people to do anything, but as is life. It'll be better in the summer, I hope when the weather is better and there are more colors than white, brown, and black.

Breakaway weekend

This weekend I went on a church sponsored trip to a winter camp in Michigan. Besides the horrific bus malfunctions and delays, the trip was wonderful. If I were in middle school I would've been so excited about the whole trip. And the whole time it was action packed and there were a lot of fun activities to do including snow tubing (tube-ing), paintball, swimming, rock climing, basketball, video games, Euro-bungee, and lots of other fun stuff. I really have to compliment the church on how well they cater to kids desires and make the camp fun and even make the worship services entertaining (all 3 of them). There were supposed to be four. However, the bus ride took an extra 3 hours on Friday so they had to cancel that evening's events by the time we arrived at 2AM. I really appreciate how they make the services entertaining for kids and that the messages are tailored to fit their lives. If I had this as a kid I probably wouldn't have went through my super pessimistic stage regarding religion. It is truly amazing that they were able to have 19 busses full of kids behave as well as they did too, but that just goes to show how tailoring everything towards the kids can subdue their boredom and keep them from going crazy :P

Personally, I really enjoyed going and I was able to connect more with a lot of the other leaders. I hadn't really talked to any of them up to this point and it was really nice to finally have a couple conversations with these people and learn that mot of them aren't really that different from me and that they also had their periods of un-religiousness. You know, I'm still on the fringe, but I'm trying here :P I, of course don't let the kids onto any of this. I don't want to be the reason that they leave the church! But back to the main topic, I also took a lot of pictures while I was there. I really wish I had a DSLR camera so that I could take a virtually unlimited amount of pictures. I got off about 25 shots, but because the film was old, most of the low light pictures have a very washed out appearance and the colors are off (probably because the film lost some of its sensitivity at different levels for each color mask) I learned that color film actually has 4 layers of "photo receptors" one, for each primary color and one for black and white. The pictures I took outside with ample lighting came out very well though. Because this weekend was so good for me and I think that the kids loved it too, I would totally do it again!

Me Want!

Sony Alpha A700

If I were to get anything that I don't need that's over $1000 it would be a DSLR camera. I've been wanting one for so long, but I just can't convince myself to put that kind of cash down for something `i'd probably only use about 30 times a year.

But I think after using my dad's DSLR, I'm almost ready to buy one. Half of the reason I don't take so many pictures now is because I feel so limited with only 24 exposures and I have to wait for development. My compact camera just doesn't capture the dynamic depth of field or have the ability to use different lenses for different situations. So if I'm ever feeling arty, I always lean towards an SLR.

And the DSLR I am leaning towards most is the Sony Alpha A700. It works with my existing Minolta lenses and has built in image stabilization. This comes only in the lens with Canon, and that really increases the cost of ownership of a Canon. The noise level at ISO 1600 is better than the EOS 20D and they say the light metering on the camera is spectacular. As soon as this camera hits $1000, I'm gonna buy it. Right now it's $1199, but I figure it'll drop pretty quickly as soon as they release their flagship model. I can't wait.

Picture taken with Sony Alpha

And so we leave Germany

As the trip comes to a close. I took the time to reflect upon how blessed I am for being able to travel this distance and and do so many things in such a short amount of time. And even now, the vacation is not over. I still have New Jersey and New York to visit yet this week!

Today we went to Castle Neuschwanstein (New Swan Stone) in Southern Germany. Well we also got a good look at Hohenschwangau while we were there because the father of the king that built Neuschwanstein built Hohenschwangau so they were right next door to one another. Anyway, Neuschwanstein was built in the 1800s because the king was reminiscent of the old castles built during medieval times. He built his castle to replicate the styles of those times. It is truly a beautiful castle but unfortunately, they do not allow you to take pictures of most of the castle and I was not able to document that leg of my trip :( However I got a lot of shots from the outside and the fantastic scenery around the castle. I probably got some of the best mountain shots of the whole trip.

After the castle we ate dinner at a restaurant by the castle. We all had traditional German dishes. I was ecstatic about this because one of the most fun parts of traveling abroad is enjoying the local dishes. I had the Jägerschnitzel, which consisted of a thin pork chop on bed of mushrooms in cream sauce with potato croquets. MMMM

I also bought a couple of souvenirs. I got a real German beer stein for less money than I would've though and a surprise for Kristin that I hope she likes. My sister bought a cuckoo clock as well, and it's prettier than mine, fooey. I've already been outdone. I think she fell in love with mine while I had it hung up here :) It is so much fun though. I really love it. So I guess that's all for now. I'll see you all back in the states!

Beautiful Sights

It may be 30 degrees colder here than Iowa, but that doesn't detract from the fact that it is so much more beautiful out here than the flat, boring Midwest! Out here they have winding roads that carve paths through the mountains and through beautiful old growth forests and you can see mountains and valleys in most of the directions you look on a clear day! It's so amazing how beautiful a few large sized rocks can look if you're not used to seeing them!

Yesterday we traveled to Lindau, Germany near the Austrian and Swiss border by the Bodensee. It was Sunday, so all the shops were closed, but even with that, there were so many picture taking opportunities in Lindau and during the drive to get there and back, I don't feel like we wasted a day because we couldn't browse the local goodies, which seems to be a big part of any vacation. ...you know admiring the local crafts and foods that you don't have at home.

I was able to take a lot of good pictures and post them on Flickr. I have some that are only visible to friends and family when they log in, so if you have an account, log in before viewing! I also upgraded to a pro account so that I could organize my pictures into sets. They limit you to 2 sets if you have a free account. So I figured it was high time to upgrade. And besides, it was only $25 for the whole year :)

I've had cold cuts for most of my meals out here so far. I think it is far more common to eat cold cuts out here than it is in the states. It isn't bad though because they have so many varieties of sausages, salamis, hams, cheeses, and breads that you can eat cold cuts for several days and never eat the same thing. That is nice in itself, however, I do wish I could get a hot local meal :)

My dad was introduced to pesto the other day. I bought a jar in the store, and now my dad has been putting pesto on almost everything. I guess you can say he likes it. He even put it on his picked fish sandwich! I'm glad that my dad likes it so much. He even asked me to keep introducing him to foods I like that he hasn't tried. That made me feel good because it lets me know that he appreciates my opinion :)

And so with that I think it's time to add pictures and let you all be jealous of how beautiful it is out here. I wish you all the best and I hope you are having as much fun as I am!

clicky!

Branson Finale

Today in Branson I started off with a run on the treadmill and a swim in the indoor pool. Then I ate a nice hearty breakfast and we eventually made our way to the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum. It was pretty fun because I got to see a lot of crazy crafts like scale replicas made out of matches, shrunken heads, meteorites, optical illusions and a lot more interesting stuff! I took the tripod in so that I could take as many pictures as possible without the flash. That came in handy several times because most of the displays were enclosed in glass and the flash bounced back. My parents also had a custom picture of themselves made with their faces inserted into the two main Shrek character's faces. They even colored them green, so that was pretty fun. My dad lives by the motto "better out than in" ;)

After that we all ate sushi for lunch and then headed to Table Rock Dam and lake to take nature pictures. I was really glad that I finally got them to come out into nature with me so that I could photograph some of the scenery. We also got off a lot of portrait studio quality pictures of the whole family during this trek and I got off about 100 shots! Everybody should now have new pictures to show off of one another now!

We also got the chance to watch Fred Claus in the movie theater that was supposedly IMAX, however, I didn't notice any difference from the regular theater. I guess IMAX is only special when you have a film created with a super wide angle lens and a ton of microphones. The movie was funny and it made me wish that every child everywhere got a present for Christmas, naughty or nice :)

Clicky!

More Ozarks

Today We had a pretty event packed day. First we went go-karting on a wooden roller coaster-style track. We all really enjoyed bumping around so much! That ended up being a random detour on the way to the "Inspiration Tower." The tower is a location where you can see all the way to Arkansas and also view all the scenic mountains and the lake nearby. It was a real trip! I got some really good photos taken there, so that was nice.

After that fun we went to the local Super Wal-Mart with the intention of buying pork chops and cooking them for a late lunch the way my mom used to when I was younger. Unfortunately, by the time we got back to the hotel, it was nearing 4PM and we decided just to skip lunch and just have a small snack. I ate a banana. Para continuar, we then went to The Talking Caverns cave and had an awesome tour. I really appreciate nature much more because of it! Before the tour I bought some Ammonite and Orthocerid fossils that they had for sale because I thought they looked so cool. Neither of them are native fossils in Missouri, but I couldn't help myself, they looked so cool! The Orthocerids are from Morocco. In the cave I thankfully got off a couple good indoor shots with no flash. That was pretty difficult especially since the exposure required was about 4 seconds on average.

We came back from the cave starving for dinner, but instead of eating pork chops, we all decided to go out for dinner because we passed so many good looking restaurants on the way. We ended up choosing a seafood place with a horribly depressed waitress but good food. I ended up having the tilapia with a white wine sauce with mushrooms and lump crab meat. I really enjoyed it.

And now here I am writing this...

clicky!