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...

Porsche 911 Targa 4S

Yesterday I had the opportunity to drive the my personal dream car that I may actually have a chance at owning one day. This wonderful example of German engineering was the Porsche 911 Targa 4S with a manual transmission. Of all the Porsches, I think this is the most practical. It has all wheel drive, 385HP, and a fully glass roof that retracts into the back window. This car has a top speed of around 180MPH and you can tell the second you start driving it. You can cruise at 65MPH in third gear (of six) at under 3000 RPMS (the red line is 7000RPM) So 3000 RPM is pushing the engine about as much as 2000-2500 RPM in most cars. Needless to say, if you press on the gas pedal, you'll definitely notice that you are at 65MPH in under 5 seconds. I had a little sticker shock when the dealer told me that the particular model I was in was around $120,000. However, you can get your own for the "bargain" price of $101,100. Being as young as I am, I feel honored to have even drove such a wonderful car and If I ever get the kind of money to buy a car in that price range, this one will be on the top of my list.

Milwaukee

K and I went to Milwaukee this weekend and we had a blast! She had been wanting to go on a mini-vacation for the longest time and we finally settled on Milwaukee a few weeks ago. The crazy thing about this town is that it appears to have all the fun and conveniences of Chicago, but practically no traffic. During the short time we visited, we found the beach, a ritzy mall, breweries, bars and clubs (with a young crowd even), an art museum, a public market, distinct, higly rated restaurants and even an ultra modern 5 star themed hotel! And this was all in under 36 hours!

We started our trip by taking a brewery tour at the Lakeside Brewery. It's really a great tour because for $6 you get 2 pints of beer and a glass pint to take home. I love these kinds of tours because they always try to keep you entertained. Our tour guide was constantly making jokes and was very animated. I'd recommend this tour to anybody my age!

Next, we checked into the Iron Horse hotel. This hotel is a motorcycle themed hotel, hence the name Iron Horse. The decorations in the hotel are all dark and modern. You feel like you're in a different world in this hotel because of all the unique design elements they use in their rooms. They serve you hand and foot at this hotel as well with programs like the "Desires" program where they give you complimentary beverages and will give you recommendations for things to do based upon your tastes. Soon, they'll be opening up a massive hot tub that converts into a pool during summer months. I might have to come back to try that one out! I'd recommend this hotel to anybody that wants to have a unique hotel experience.

After the hotel check in, we headed to a famous German restaurant Called Mader's. Their dishes seemed pretty authentic to me, but I've only been to Germany a few times, so who knows. They also had a couple more unique dishes such as their rueben rolls, which were basically egg rolls filled with sauerkraut and corned beef that you could dip in either a sweet and sour or mustard sauce. For the price though, I might be tempted to try another restaurant as none of their food really wowed me. Milwaukee has several German restaurants. So I'll be tempted to try another the next time I visit.

Next we went back to the hotel to prepare for our fun night out. But at this time I realized I didn't pack any shoes other than sneakers and I only brought t-shirts as well. So with quick thinking we decided to run to Target and pick up a couple club-appropriate items. After all that fun we noticed it was raining and had to re-evaluate our plans. Since we were not familiar with the roads and we'd have to drive at night in the rain most likely with a drink or two in us, we chose to only visit the night life within walking distance of the hotel. We first went to the packed hotel bar downstairs. K tried a gingersnap martini and I had a beer. The crowd was mostly young and everybody seemed to be having a good time. We next moved onto a Jazz club where they had a cover, but they let us in for free since it was our first visit. It was a great experience even though the crowd was older and there was smoking. It was nice to go to a "different" type of club. After that we decided to call it a night.

The next day we packed up our stuff and headed to the public market. Th is place is somewhere everybody who visit's Milwaukee should see. They have the best bakery C. Adams Bakery. We were both sad that we didn't have more time to sample the delicious baked goods. We purchased a cheese danish there among other things that was so buttery and full of cream cheese that we couldn't believe our taste buds! We also went to a Mediterranian/Indian booth where we pu rchased samosas and Egyptian rice. Both were pretty good. The market also has a candy vendor, fish, meat, bread, cheese, juice, and wine vendor along with a full-fledged restaurant upstairs. Being Wisconson, you can be sure to find some very unique cheeses along with all the variety of cheese curds you could ever want. I bought ranch and cajun flavored varieties.

The last stop on our trip was the Milwaukee Art museum. This museum is probably one of the most architecturally stunning buildings you will ever visit in your life time and it is worth seeing for that reason alone. But the art exhibits could easily keep you occupied for days! This is another must see for tourists! To round off the weekend we took a scenic drive up the lakefront to the largest beach we've ever seen along Lake Michigan followed by a surprise run in with the nicest looking upper-class neighborhood I've seen in a long time. 95% of the houses in the area had a timeless and warm design, while at the same time being extremely luxurious, especially the houses on the lake front. We even saw one house whose lot was surrounded completely by a brick wall with two separate servants quarters!

All in all we had an excellent trip and we look forward to exploring more of Milwaukee next time. This city has to be one of the best the midwest has to offer and it can definitely keep you occupied no matter what you are into!

I painted my living room!

Today K and I took a couple hours out of our busy day and painted my living room. It was pretty fun actually. We bought a couple of rollers, taped up the trim and ceiling and then got to work! It looks pretty nice overall, but there are some imperfections that I wish we could've seen before the paint dried! But that's ok, it was our first attempt and it still looks pretty good. It makes the room feel warmer and it increases my comfort level in it as well. White walls were just so boring!

Weather is getting nicer

It's so nice to finally see weather getting nicer outside. I mean it's still not "warm" outside, but at least it's warm enough for snow to melt! I really can't wait until it gets warm outside! I'm going to spend so much time outside! I'll probably just be doing yardwork, but hey it's something. I'm also looking forward to walking around downtown and buying Garrett's caramel pop corn! It is seriously the best! And then I'll be able to grill outside comfortably again. I'm looking forward to making Alabama barbeque chicken. It uses a white barbeque sauce that's based off of mayo instead of ketchup and vinegar! It is so awesome!

Photography and saving money

Well, to start off I'd like to say that I've done an absolutely terrible job budgeting. And up until this point, I didn't really have a need, but with the economy and having a lot of new expenses. I have decided that I need to pay closer attention to where my money goes. So, good thing I decided that THIS week AFTER I bought a whole bunch of new photography stuff!

Last week I bought a camera flash, light meter, and one step gray card, white balance adjuster, and exposure aid! The one step aid is really 2 steps, but still it's nice to have! I bought the flash on eBay and the hot shoe was damaged, but the seller was not aware of this and he quickly refunded me the amount for the replacement part. I was so excited! Now it's fixed and it works great! I joined a local photography club and I was inspired by the studio lighting setup that this one guy had. So I set out to buy myself the minimum to take some great looking shots. I also bought what they call a strobist kit that you can mount your flash on and bounce the light off an umbrella. I can't wait until I receive it! I've already been taking a lot of great pictures.

I also switched my web hosting provider to save myself $5/mo to pay for a tiny bit of what I bought. A very tiny bit haha. Last weekend they had a special speaker who talked about how to keep yourself afloat and out of trouble in a recession. He also promised that if you really stuck to the "common sense" steps, that you could easily become a millionaire by retirement. Of course, in 40 years, $1,000,000 will probably be worth $200,000 of today's money. Either way what he said made sense. And most of it was common sense. Unfortunately, most people don't do it and that's why this recession is having such a big effect. The first common sense step he had was to make a budget and stick to it. Just having the budget makes you more conscious of where your money goes and you can control it better. The second step that was not too common sense, but actually may work. He said that there are stats showing that if you spend cash for everything you spend 10-12% less on average. I partially think this becomes true because when you run out of cash, you don't spend more. But your checking account is virtually a botomless pit compared to the $50 most people keep in their wallets. You also will have to plan your spending and take out the proper amount of cash. He also said that you feel the effects of your spending much more when you count it as you spend it! The last and most common step is to not have debt! Now, at first I was thinking bull crap. You can't not have debt. But he began to explain it better. Most people have multiple forms of debt including, credit cards, student loans, car loans and home mortgages. I currently have all of this debt! He went on to say that the way that you get rid of debt is to pay off your smallest loan as quickly as possible first and make minimum payments on the larger loans. Now, you may think that you will be paying more interest on the larger loans. This is true, but when you really think about it, the interest you would save by paying off the smaller loan is the same you would save by paying off only part of the larger loan. And then you still have to pay off the smaller loan. So once you pay off the smallest loan, you have that minimum payment as extra cash flow plus the cash you spent monthy to pay extra on that loan. You go to the next smallest loan, and repeat. Soon you have that minimum payment added on to your extra cash flow once that loan is gone. Eventually, you will be able to pay off exponentially more on your loans. Now this not having debt step also means saving up for thing you want like cars and toys instead of buying now and paying over time. So when you keep driving your 8 year old car for a few more years, people will probably make fun of you. But once you buy that one car with cash, you save on all that interest you would've paid to the bank. You also have to make sure you have an emergency reserve in cash. That is your first priority. You should have 6 months of cash to cover your expenses. Before paying off your debt, you need to save at least this much. Wow, that took a lot of typing. I think I'm done!

Money

Why does money have such a great importance in my life? I wish I could figure that one out. Is it because there are so many "things" that I give such a high importance? Is it because I don't like the feeling that if something, anything, happened that I didn't plan It could put me in the poor house? Or is it because I just feel like I could do so much better for myself and my future?

I guess it's probably a combination of those things and a few more. I wish I could just stop worrying about it though. Something keeps nagging me that life just isn't right where I am. And the only things I can really think that I am worried about just boil down to money. I didn't get a raise this year. I may get laid off. I need a new car (well want). Motorcycles are so fun, and I want a more reliable one. I want kids, but they're expensive. I want to get married some day, but engagement rings and weddings are expensive. My house doesn't have a deck, seeded back yard, enough windows, and the hot water in the shower sucks. My sink drains, also, don't drain very well. So much for buying "new" to avoid the problems of an old house. I feel like I need to upgrade already because many things don't work as well as they did in my apartment and aesthetically, I feel depressed because I can't afford to buy the visually appealing upgrades that I want. I want to travel and get away from everything I've known my whole life. I want to hide in my own box. I don't want to fail. So I don't want to try. I want to exist without worry.

Why do I let so many things bother me? I have a girlfriend that loves me deeply. My whole family is healthy and happy. I am an engineer. Most people would love to have a job that pays as well as mine out of college. But I want more. Why? Why can't I just be happy. It's money. I know it now. Money is said to be the root of all evil, but for me it is just the root of my sadness.

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!