andrea despot photography blog

{personal} the goggled hero

2012-01-18T14:37:00.000-05:00

My fiancé recently created these awesome "action figures" by first sculpting one in Super Sculpey, then creating dozens more by casting them with silicone and resin. The figure is Krumm, hero of the Smacked in the Head web-comic that my fiancé writes and draws. His talent awes me...

PS. If you're interested, you can read more on his process and see more behind-the-scenes pictures here (as well as the final painted outcome).

{san francisco} study in black & white

2011-12-08T12:27:00.000-05:00

And finally: a decent picture of the Bridge. From a few weeks ago, but better late than never. I'd still like to take a picture of it that doesn't just end up looking like one that's already been taken before. But I believe that's probably impossible.

I need to find a place to develop my 120 film. Stat!

{looking back} bricks and things

2011-11-10T12:39:00.000-05:00

Do you ever look back on something you created, such as photographs, and find that you like them better than you did before? At the time I took these polaroids, over five years ago, I thought they were okay. I liked them but didn't think they were anything special. Now, I kind of love them.

What generates the change in perspective? The time that passed? Or my own change in aesthetic preference? Or did I just need to get away from them, not look at them in hopes of something better until one day I stumble upon them again and they are better simply because I forgot what I was going for in the first place? My memory being wiped of whatever my preconceived notion was?

Regardless, I love them and the feeling they give me. All that old brick... it was such a neat place! Taken in Danville, Virginia. March 2006.

{san francisco} the bay

2011-11-08T16:12:00.000-05:00

I still can't believe I live here...

{san francisco} enter here

2011-11-07T11:41:00.000-05:00

I thought when I moved here I'd have a mad rush of creativity. And yet... most of the pictures I take, I don't really like. They're just normal. Ordinary. Boring. So I ordered some black & white film for my Holga and have been shooting with that a lot lately in hopes of getting more magic like this and this.

Of course I haven't given up on digital. So there's this little railing shot that's the entrance to our apartment. Nothing special. Yet, it's the best thing I've shot in awhile.

{san francisco} fire in the sky

2011-10-18T11:29:00.000-04:00

How lucky I am to be sitting in my apartment, spot this rare blazing sunset through the trees, and then be able to rush across the street, camera in hand, to stand on the beach and capture it!

{san francisco} what i need to do

2011-10-17T15:47:00.000-04:00

Well, it was a long weekend for me as I spent two full days at the APA Photo Assistant Basic Training workshop. I've been meaning to join APA and I finally got around to looking at the site last week and that's when I noticed the workshop coming up a few days later. I can't convey how perfect the timing was! Being new to the area and wanting to work with photographers, I couldn't have been presented with a better opportunity.

Assisting photographers is something that I was encouraged to do back in college but never did. Now, college was four years ago and I find that I don't really know what I'm doing. Sure, I've done a few freelancing jobs and I worked as a full-time photographer at a printing company. But I was the only photographer there and, for the most part, I felt like I was stumbling along doing things the only way I knew how, getting out of practice, creating bad habits (i.e. not using a light meter or incorporating light ratios), and overall not learning from anyone.

People keep telling me that I'm a great photographer and could open my own studio, but I always say that I don't want to. I'm not being humble, it's just that I know how much I still need to learn! I want to work at a studio with someone who knows what they're doing, has worked in the industry for quite awhile, doing the kind of work I'm interested in, and who's willing to take the time to teach me. I don't want to be the photographer right now. I don't need to be.

Looking back at my college days, I realize that yes, I should've been assisting. And now I find myself in this amazing city and it seems to be the right time in my life. For those of you who don't know, assisting is something that is very hard and scary (cold calls!) to get into. You don't make a lot of money at first, yet you still need to be flexible and not having a job right now might actually be a good thing!

So, this weekend went really well! I got a lot of questions answered, refreshed my memory on basic lighting setups, made quite a few contacts, and met some amazing women (even one who went to Virginia Tech and, like me, just moved here from across the country about a month ago).

{for sale} 2012 calendar sets

2011-10-12T13:16:00.000-04:00

As promised, here's the second calendar set for 2012 for those of you who already have the same images from 2011, or if you just prefer these images! I personally can't choose a favorite...

These 5x7 unbound calendar pages are perfect for sticking in a mirror or picture frame, tacking onto a bulletin board, or sliding into a book or day planner. The possibilities are endless! Best of all, at the end of each month you can trim off the calendar section, leaving you with 12 ready-to-frame 5x5 prints. Click here to purchase!

{for sale} 2012 calendar sets

2011-10-11T12:57:00.000-04:00

You might've noticed that I've swapped out my 2011 calendar set for the updated 2012 one. It features the same images as last year, but with the new dates. (I also created a second set for those of you who already have last years, but I'll share that one tomorrow!)

These 5x7 unbound calendar pages are perfect for sticking in a mirror or picture frame, tacking onto a bulletin board, or sliding into a book or day planner. The possibilities are endless! Best of all, at the end of each month you can trim off the calendar section, leaving you with 12 ready-to-frame 5x5 prints. Click here to purchase!

{san francisco} the bay

2011-10-03T12:33:00.000-04:00

Sean's mother, stepfather and grandmother came to visit the past few days! We showed them as much as we could of San Francisco: Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard Street, Chinatown, and the Golden Gate Bridge. We drove across it, which was the first time for all of us! This is the view from the other side, facing San Francisco.

{san francisco} rue magazine party

2011-09-28T11:46:00.001-04:00

There are so many amazing things about living in San Francisco, but one of the coolest is that I was able to go to RUE Magazine's anniversary party on Monday night! I think it's awesome that I actually live in a city where I can go to events like this. That just didn't happen back home in little old Martinsville.

But I won't lie: I was a little nervous. I'm shy and awkward and avoid parties like the plague. I hate being around lots of people that I don't know, I suck at making small talk, and I generally feel incredibly uncomfortable. But I'm in this amazing new place and it's a new chapter in my life, so I actually wanted to go. Pushing myself out of my comfort zone and making connections and all that... Plus, it meant that I got to finally meet Elizabeth who I've been "blog friends" with for about a year now! It was a relief to know at least one person there and not look like a loser walking around by myself.

Also, let me dork out for a bit:

I felt so cool dressed in my skinny jeans, tall cognac boots and pretty sweater, taking the bus across the city, arriving at the front entrance, having my name checked off the guest list, and wandering around the amazing space at H.D. Buttercup with (my very first) gin & tonic in hand! I know it might sound silly to those of you who consider it the norm, but it was a big deal to me. I felt pretty and somewhat stylish (despite my little freak-out of what to wear beforehand), like those girls you see in the movies, dressed to the nines and jetting around the city at night.

I might not have mingled as much as I was hoping for as it seemed that everyone else seemed to know each other: girls arriving in groups of three who happened to know other groups of three. But I would still consider it a success since I got to meet Elizabeth and Cassandra, the Market Editor of RUE. My favorite part of the night was having a poem written for me by Lynn Gentry who typed out poems on a typewriter, creating them in the spur of them moment on the topic of each guest's choosing (which reminded me of this part in Before Sunrise). I chose Astronomy and was incredibly impressed with what he wrote:

"Gazing into the depths I see
The movement of ancient energy
Shining in the infinite
Burning in my eyes
I look up to wonder
And hope someday
I realize
What stars of death
Now take form in sight
A requiem for the living
Celebration of light"

PS. For those of you who remember my gin & tonic post awhile back, here's what I thought of my first time: yum! Of course, it probably didn't hurt that it was made with No. 3 London Dry Gin, which I can only assume is super expensive.

{san francisco} magic is in the light

2011-09-26T12:56:00.000-04:00

The living room is fast becoming my favorite room in the apartment, despite a dozen pairs of shoes lining one wall and Ed's random boxes and stuff lining the other. But in the middle is the sofa and table and big window. The walls are light and the floors are wooden and I can retreat from the guys and the noise of their games and movies and talk.

{san francisco} the sun has set

2011-09-23T13:32:00.000-04:00

I can't remember the last time I saw the sun set over the ocean, but this past weekend Sean and I saw our very first West Coast sunset! It's even better because it was only a walk out our door, across the street, through the woods and there it was! It sets our living room ablaze every (non-foggy) evening.

We're so close to the ocean that we can hear the waves crashing and the foghorns blowing, which in a creepy/cool way remind me of the tripod sound from War of the Worlds, which by the way could totally be Sutro Tower!

{san francisco} in the details

2011-09-22T12:52:00.002-04:00

As promised, I finally got out this past weekend with my camera! It was a rare bright and sunny day, though at first I was grumbling about it because I was hoping for some moody foggy shots that I'd been seeing lately. But it was a perfect day to walk around and explore some of the neighborhoods near where we live.

This is the Richmond District in particular and it clearly illustrates what it was that made me fall in love with San Francisco in the first place: the textures of plants and buildings, the intricate architectural details, and how no two buildings are alike. There's always something new and interesting around every corner...

{san francisco} around the apartment

2011-09-14T13:30:00.002-04:00

I've been in San Francisco a little over two weeks now and have yet to take any pictures other than these few around the apartment. I'm not sure what it says about me as a photographer, but sometimes I just don't want to lug a camera around and just want to see things without looking through a lens. I also think I'm psyching myself out, thus taking my time in getting used to things and feeling comfortable. I have yet to take the bus by myself without Sean (something I am definitely doing this week). I have yet to even cross the street and explore the beach that's practically right outside my window! I'm not sure if I've just been scared or lazy and letting all of that get the better of me... but it's something I need to get over. Stat! I need to start thinking of this place as my home rather than this scary new place where everything and everyone is completely different.

So, my goals for this week:

1. Take the bus (by myself) to the DMV to get my California drivers license
2. Take the free shuttle downtown (and go shopping for a pretty scarf or two)
3. Go to the beach and take pictures

On another note: I love our tiny apartment (that we share with two other people). We have lots of big windows that let in the most perfect light. The walls are white and the floors are wood and it's exactly what I hoped for. We're scarce on furniture, though the dressers, night stands and desk that I ordered from IKEA arrived yesterday. I can't wait to finally decorate and organize and start making this place look like home!

PS. Yes, those are LEGO salt and pepper shakers in the bottom photo. Be jealous!

PPS. I also just realized that everything you see in these photos: the pillows, the bedding, the glass bottles and the ceramic jar are all from IKEA. Obsessed much?

{personal} my last day

2011-08-23T20:51:00.000-04:00

And now... I am officially unemployed! Eek!

Today was my last day working at Collinsville Printing Company. I sort of already talked about it on my other blog, but I'll reiterate here:

So... I'm excited! This time next week I'll be living on the west coast! It's crazy! At times I get so excited that I literally feel like jumping up and down. Like a little kid. And yet it still doesn't seem real. Despite all the packing, it just feels like I'm taking a regular trip to go visit Sean for a few days. Today is my last day at work and yet it doesn't feel like it is. My mind can't comprehend that it's the last day. The last day that I won't see the same people I've been seeing almost every day for the past three and a half years. The last day that I'll really get to talk to the few amazing people I've become so close to. Even though they're old enough to be my parents, I've been able to talk to them so easily about anything: friends, relationships, life, parents, movies, books, silly things and important things. Proving that age really is just a number.

It's weird. It's like I'm feeling so much, I'm almost feeling nothing at all. When will it all hit me? The day I leave my parents in the airport? When I actually land in San Francisco? When I start unpacking all my boxes? Part of me doesn't think I'll get homesick because I'll have Sean with me and everything will be so new and so exciting.

When will I really feel three thousand miles away?

{looking back} at the office

2011-08-17T16:26:00.000-04:00

Nothing exciting, just some simple little shots I scrounged up. I took them a few years ago for a power point presentation to illustrate our company's mailing, design, and recycling departments. The same company I just gave my two weeks notice to. The one I'll be leaving in four days.

I can't say I'll miss my job here; I never had any creative freedom or much photography work at all. But I will miss the people...

{shop news} moving sale!

2011-08-09T14:16:00.002-04:00

In honor of my big announcement on moving across the country at the end of August (and, let's face it, to help make some extra cash for the big move), there is a sale going on in my Etsy shop now through August 24th. (After that, my computer and printer will be en route to San Francisco.)

{personal} the blue hour

2011-08-02T08:13:00.001-04:00

Last week Brian of the blue hour was talking about just that, the blue hour:

"At the end of a sunny summer day, there's a particular quality of light just after the sun sets. It is most pronounced if you're in a park, or in the woods, or even sitting on a lawn. It's the blue hour, the light of dusk, gloaming - but combined with green foliage in summer, it's really distinctive to me. It's hard for me to put into words - it's a feeling more than anything. I think about being a kid during summer vacations and playing outside with friends until late, summer humidity, a walk after dinner outside, cicadas, stillness, the day fading into quiet, a hush."

I know exactly what he's talking about.

And I feel lucky enough to have captured my own "blue hour" last week, though mine was taken in the early morning hours rather than at twilight.

Oh, and now it's available in my shop here and here!

{looking back} cloud atlas

2011-07-26T14:11:00.000-04:00

This is a collection of cloud photographs I put together a few years ago. It's still one of my favorite things I've ever done, though I can't explain why. Probably in part because it holds a personal meaning to me as it's inspired by one of my favorite books, Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

{looking back} bridal

2011-07-22T10:37:00.000-04:00

These are some images from my first bridal shoot back in 2008. Dreama was a girl I went to high school with and I was so honored that she'd chosen me to take her bridal portraits! We took some pictures inside and some outside, but the ones in the studio are my absolute favorites. As anyone who knows me knows, I love how working in the studio gives me complete control of lighting. And as any photographer knows, it's a wonderful feeling when an idea you've had in your head actually works as planned. I couldn't be happier with the way these turned out: the bright white where her dress fades into the background in a very painterly way, and the shadowy blacks where her freckled skin and lacy textures really pop!

{looking back} rocky knob

2011-07-12T08:23:00.002-04:00

Back in 2006 I went to Rocky Knob along the Blue Ridge Parkway and photographed this amazing tree in late Winter and again in early Summer. The composition is exactly the same in both photographs - the grass grew so long it makes the tree seem shorter in the second! I love seeing the difference the seasons make...

{personal} of shadows and light

2011-07-01T09:23:00.001-04:00

Happy Fourth of July weekend to those in the States! I'm off work all next week so I'm heading to Ohio (an eight- to ten-hour drive from Virginia) with my dad to spend an extended weekend with our family.

Purple Hyndrangea from my mother's garden and a rose Helianthus goblet from Anthropologie.

{personal} a different look

2011-06-29T13:01:00.000-04:00

Hmmm... I just might like this one better in black & white!

{personal} on the rhine

2011-06-28T08:23:00.000-04:00

I had a lovely weekend with my friend, and fellow blogger, Huong! Of the many things we did, such as shopping, eating, drinking smoothies and holding cute puppies, the highlight was going to AmRhein's Wine Cellars. We drove up a winding mountain road to where the vineyard was nestled among sunshine and textured greens. The weather couldn't have been more perfect with a slight breeze and puffy clouds dancing across the sun.

I'd never been to a winery before, so I was able to cross it off my list of things to do (though this definitely won't be the last)! It was also my first wine tasting - we only tried the whites and I confirmed that I do like dry better than sweet so I bought a bottle of the Pinot Grigio.

All in all, the wine was good and the vineyard was absolutely gorgeous. Here are a few pictures:

As we headed back down the mountain, we stopped off to the side of the road so I could get some pictures of a "road leading to nowhere" (commissioned by a client) and some pretty purple thistle.

{engagement} george & skye

2011-06-21T07:51:00.000-04:00

My favorites from an engagement session a couple months ago! Taken at Virginia Tech.

{personal} my family

2011-06-16T11:37:00.000-04:00

In case you're curious, that's me in the middle surrounded by my family! This was taken on mine and my twin brother's birthday this year - an updated family portrait that was six years overdue.

(I can't take credit for actually taking this picture, that belongs to my brother's friend. But I did process it in Photoshop.)

{personal} scenes from the weekend

2011-06-13T11:52:00.000-04:00

After weeks of consistently sunny 90-degree weather, we finally got some rain showers here in southern Virginia! The results of the long-awaited rain were brighter flowers, greener greens, water droplets and a dead moth caught in a filled-to-the-brim watering can.

{personal} business cards

2011-06-08T07:46:00.003-04:00

I got new business cards printed (through Overnight Prints)! And I couldn't be happier...

{personal} pinhole press

2011-06-06T10:34:00.001-04:00

My new favorite website: Pinhole Press. They make wonderful photo gifts, holiday cards, notepads, calendars, albums and journals. The quality is absolutely exquisite and so far the color has always been spot on!

Above are two photo notepads that I've made: one for my mom with two of my flower photographs, and one for my fiancé (creator of Smacked in the Head) with two of his drawings. I'm a bit obsessed with how stunning they are!

Another reason I love them: I won a set of personalized stationery via A Cup of Jo and received a credit for a free photo notepad for joining Pinhole Pro. Here's what I made:

{looking back} it's in the jeans

2011-06-01T10:09:00.000-04:00

One of those rolls of film I recently developed was apparently from 2006! There were only a few images on the roll and these were two of them. I'd completely forgotten about taking them until now! I remember I took the color shot below of a pair of jeans for a macro assignment in our Studio Photography class and I vaguely recall quickly taking the black & white shots above with my Nikon film camera back at my dorm. It's so fun to have these back!

{personal} around town

2011-05-23T10:03:00.001-04:00

(In case you didn't see my update on the Expressions post, I won Second Place in the Photography category for Wizarding World!)

I recently got some rolls of film developed and, unfortunately, I'm not very happy with the way most of them turned out. They seem rather dark and contrasty - I don't know if it was because of the camera (which I'd never used before), the expired film, or the way they were developed (at a place I'd never used before).

But there were a few gems, so I scanned them to share with you. These are from a weekend walk (circa Winter 2011) with my parents and our dog around Lake Lanier:

And some scenes from our front yard (yes, that's straw on the ground in the last picture; moles have completely ruined our yard, but it's looking better now that it's Spring):

{competition} expressions

2011-05-20T07:52:00.006-04:00

Remember when I asked for your opinion on what to enter in Expressions, a local art competition? Well, I had many votes and The Wanderer and Wizarding World (both pictured above) were the clear favorites. The Opening Reception and Awards Ceremony is tonight - wish me luck!

Update: I won Second Place in the Photography category for Wizarding World! Yay!

{personal} fieldale heritage festival

2011-05-19T12:33:00.001-04:00

This Saturday is the 6th Annual Fieldale Heritage Festival, an arts and crafts festival that celebrates the unique history of the small town in Southern Virginia. I've participated before but I won't this year because it falls on my birthday (I'll be in North Carolina celebrating with my twin and our family). However, a few months ago I was contacted about an old photo I'd taken of the Fieldale smokestack to be used for promotional pieces. Apparently it was the only photo anyone knew about, so I was more than happy to oblige!

To the left is my photograph and to the right is a keepsake ornament designed from my photo which will be sold at the festival. How freaking cool is that?!

{looking back} pepper poopy puppy

2011-05-18T08:05:00.002-04:00

While I'm sharing photos of my dogs, here's one of my favorites of our current dog, Pepper! She's part Corgi and has "Corgi's paws" and a "long boat" body and a "fluffle butt." Yes... my family is full of dog lovers and we can't help but come up with our own terms for her body parts. She also has a million nicknames.

{looking back} i miss you

2011-05-17T08:07:00.003-04:00

09.01.1996 - 03.31.2009

These photographs, taken by my mom circa 2002, are my favorites of our family dog, Cynthia. We had to put her to sleep a couple of years ago, so she's no longer with us. She was a lab-chow mix and her coat was actually a dark red-brown, so I don't know why it looks so light in these pictures. I'm not sure if it was the lighting that day, the film, the processing or a combination of the three, but I've always loved the silvery look to her hair!

She will always be the best dog ever, my favorite dog. Of course I love our current dog, but I grew up with Cynthia and knew her from the day we got her as a puppy from the SPCA until the day she died. Words can't express how much I miss her.

{for sale} canvas print

2011-05-16T08:09:00.001-04:00

I recently had one of my most popular images, The Fog, printed onto standard wrap canvas. It's framed and ready to hang... and now available in my shop!

{looking back} to roanoke

2011-05-11T09:15:00.001-04:00

Lacking things to do in my small hometown of Martinsville, my fiancé and I celebrated our two year anniversary (almost three years ago now!) by spending the day in Roanoke, Virginia, an hour north of where I live.

We went to Mill Mountain Zoo and Center in the Square, places I'd been during numerous school field-trips as a kid. The zoo was infinitely smaller than I remembered growing up! And Center in the Square was not nearly as fun... Strange how time and age can change the most seemingly familiar things.

We also spent the day eating way too much at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet, in awe of the many paintings at the Taubman Museum of Art, walking through Barnes & Noble (of course), and getting to-go drinks for the drive back at Starbucks (of course).

Images taken with a Nikon N65. August 2008. The last image was taken from the Roanoke Star at the top of Mill Mountain.

{looking back} japanese film camera

2011-05-09T08:10:00.001-04:00

Some old images taken with a really cool medium format camera my fiancé bought at an antique store in Japan. Circa 2008.

1. Rocky Knob, along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Southern Virginia

2. Our dog, outside my family's front door in Martinsville, Virginia

3. Bamboo growing in the backyard of my fiancé's old house in Plantation, Florida

{looking back} coagulated rubies

2011-05-02T10:30:00.002-04:00

"...and her arms and legs were of a deep golden brown, with scratches like tiny dotted lines of coagulated rubies..."
- Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

These are two more pictures from when I first started using my Holga camera. (I cropped them but you can see the originals here and here.) I hardly ever use color film in it anymore. I should buy some the next time I place an order! Circa 2007.

{personal} backyard shadows

2011-04-26T08:20:00.001-04:00

I love our backyard... The actual "yard" is rather small but then it drops off into a little valley full of trees, our own backyard woods. It's my favorite during the warmer months when the trees are at their fullest and they hide the neighbors' houses in the back. It's green and full of texture. I particularly love when the sun sets behind, casting long, deep shadows.

This past weekend was one of those warm days with the wind blowing dogwood petals, covering the ground in a carpet of white.

{looking back} wild nature

2011-04-25T08:30:00.003-04:00

Wild nature. Wired nature. Unearthing the similarities between an IKEA pillow and a barren backyard forest. January 2010. Winter 2010.

{personal} happy easter!

2011-04-22T09:33:00.003-04:00

Have a lovely Easter weekend! I have Friday off so I'm already enjoying mine!

{personal} easter egg experiment

2011-04-21T08:00:00.001-04:00

These are some macro shots of some super cool Easter eggs that my mom dyed! They're reminiscent of the terrain of alien planets: plateaus, craters, ice trails, canyons and polar regions.

And here, my fellow earthlings, is our home planet:

{jewelry} the dark side

2011-04-20T08:08:00.004-04:00

Some more from my new series... Enjoy!

{for sale} the comet's tale

2011-04-19T08:02:00.008-04:00

"Great men are like meteors, consuming themselves to light the world."
- Napoleon

New print available in my shop!

{jewelry} the dark side

2011-04-18T08:34:00.004-04:00

Here are some new product shots I've recently added to my portfolio! It's been awhile since I shot something in the studio just for fun and it feels great to finally post something I'm proud of.

I've had this idea of shooting silver jewelry with silver utensils for a long time now. I've been wanting to do something a little different, something with different lighting and a different background (rather than the usual soft light and grey background).

While this series didn't turn out at all how I first imagined, I actually like it more than my original idea. I had a bunch of shiny jewelry and shiny utensils which equaled a lot of reflective surfaces. Any photographer knows how very tricky they are to light and photograph... So, rather than give up, I embraced the older, dirtier jewelry and spoons, which meant that they were also less reflective (bonus!). I ended up loving the added texture from the old spoons in combination with some detail shots of an old carved pewter jewelry box.

{looking back} a holga cemetery

2011-04-15T08:09:00.004-04:00

These pictures are from the very first roll of film I took with my Holga. A friend had given it to me for my birthday and at the time I knew nothing about it. After receiving the prints from that first roll, I fell in love with the vignetted corners, the unexpected light leaks, the soft focus, the uncertainty and artistry of it! And I'm still in love...

Taken at Evergreen Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. 2006.

{competition} in your opinion

2011-04-13T08:04:00.003-04:00

I need your opinions, please! Every year I participate in Expressions, a local art exhibit where I can only enter two original pieces created in the past two years. I always have trouble choosing which photographs to enter. So this year I thought I'd ask you!

Of these images, which two do you think I should enter?

{personal} spring dream

2011-04-12T08:18:00.002-04:00

The dogwood trees are in bloom!

{san francisco} where he cooks

2011-04-07T09:58:00.002-04:00

Sean's kitchen in San Francisco. It's super tiny but I loved it...

{san francisco} final thoughts

2011-04-06T08:05:00.003-04:00

Some final thoughts on my trip to San Francisco:

"You know what San Francisco does to people who have never seen it before... Everything about the city excited her; she had to walk all the hills, explore the edge of the ocean, see all the old houses and wander the old streets; and when she came upon something unchanged, something that was as it had been, her delight was so strong, so fiercely possessive! These things were hers."

- a quote from a scene cut from the movie, Vertigo

This quote describes my San Franciscan experience infinitely well. It might as well be talking about me: I wanted to wander every street, discover every nook and cranny, document every window and archway, become acquainted with every corner café... I wanted all of it to be mine, my every day. I could so easily see myself living my life there...

{san francisco} the last days

2011-04-04T08:15:00.002-04:00

The rest of the week (Wednesday and Thursday) was spent uneventfully: rainy days in Sean's cool, thin-walled dorm room watching movies such as Megamind, Coraline, and Seven Samurai, while evenings were spent in the hotel room playing sudoku and watching AMC, the only channel that would come through that didn't eventually turn to static or suddenly switch stations. We also may or may not have watched two or three episodes of The Nanny until one in the morning.

My second to last day there, Friday, started off with a trip on MUNI metro, an exhausting wander through a winding, hilly neighborhood to yet another nonexistent place.

Then it was back onto MUNI metro and a walk along Hayes Street (with a stop at Paulette Macarons) to Alamo Square, across the street from the famed Painted Ladies aka Postcard Row.

Picture this: Sitting in front of the picturesque Victorian townhouses in pastel shades of green, beige, olive, yellow, purple, blue and brown while eating macarons out of a sweetly packaged box in pastel shades of raspberry red, almond pink, pistachio green, lavender cassis, chocolate brown and coffee. Cute, right?

Lots more walking ensued to get back to Sean's dorm. We spent the rest of the evening surfing the internet, watching television and eating (almost) an entire bag of double stuf Oreos and milk.

And then the last day. Saturday.

My return flight wasn't schedule until 10:30 that night so we had time to actually enjoy the day. A quick recap:

Checked out of hotel at 11am
Argonaut Book Shop up the street
30 bus from Stockton to Columbus Cafe: turkey club and caramel frappé
Chocolate chip cookies at Mrs. Fields
Walgreens for Coffeemate and sugar
Instant coffee and flipping through magazines
All Over Coffee by Paul Madonna
Lori's Diner
Flight delayed by one hour
BART to airport
And the short goodbye, which for once didn't involve tears

And that's it. It already feels like a lifetime ago, a world away. Which, being all the way across the country, is. And, as is obvious, I can't wait to go back! I've never been anywhere so exciting and so different and so attainable. Being a traveller at heart, I've always had a bit of wanderlust, so this whole trip thrilled me and filled me beyond description. But of course I had to try, so thanks to all of you who took the time to read all of this and for giving me such encouraging words on my writing!

The end.

{personal} through the blinds

2011-04-01T11:56:00.002-04:00

Happy first day of April! Though it's been officially Spring for almost two weeks now, it actually snowed this week! Just a little bit, but that's a little bit too much for me.

Here's to giving Spring a little push! And to seeing more flowers and plants like these!

*I love shooting through blinds, experimenting with how changing the depth of field effects the subject behind.

{san francisco} day five

2011-04-01T08:12:00.003-04:00

Wednesday was the cooking fiasco. Not really fiasco, but definitely eventful.

Me and Sean. Sean and me. When the two of us live together, it will definitely be interesting. Unfortunately, neither of us have had much cooking experience and usually stick to eating sandwiches and frozen foods. So we decided we needed to mix it up a bit, but without going out to eat every single night.

While at the grocery store a couple days before, we'd bought some kind of lemon-herb marinated boneless skinless chicken breast, which in itself was a bit confusing. (At the store we were looking for the cheapest chicken breast we could find, and it all seemed scattered around. Sean frustratingly asked why there wasn't a sign for "Cheap Chicken," which I thought was a very relevant question, no matter how silly it sounded.) But we found the pre-marinated version which also happened to be the cheapest, so that settled that. Add in some rotini, Alfredo sauce and broccoli and we had somewhat of a plan.

So. Wednesday we cooked. We pulled out the brand spanking new stainless steel pot and pan bought specifically for the occasion, lit the gas stove, boiled water in the pot for the noodles, poured some olive oil in the pan and plopped in the chicken. Within less than a minute the bottoms were seared to the metal and the smoke detector was blaring. Freaking out, we pushed open the tiny window and grabbed paper bags to circulate the air. The alarm stopped and I attempted to save the chicken. Fearing it would get burnt beyond edibility, I continuously flipped the chicken on one burner while stirring the noodles on another.

The smoke alarm went off again. So back to waving paper bags around like idiots.

Eventually, the chicken looked like chicken and the noodles looked like noodles. So we put it all together with the Alfredo sauce and ate, quite content with what we conjured. Even the slightly burned parts weren't so bad!

Afterwards I started cleaning the pan. But the residue from the chicken would not come off no matter how hard I scrubbed and how long I let it soak.

So to the internet it was! After finding several methods to remove stubborn stains on stainless steel, we decided on the cheapest and easiest which required combining baking soda and water into a paste. Which of course prompted a visit to the drugstore down the street to buy said baking soda.

Half an hour later I was in the kitchen dumping half of the baking soda into a cup of water to create something that resembled a paste. I then dumped that into the pan and let it sit.

And it worked! It was a relief to know I didn't ruin Sean's only pan on the very first use.

Feeling rather proud of ourselves for making our first home-cooked meal successfully and for figuring out how to fix the stubborn residue problem all on our own, we then realized we'd completely forgotten about including the broccoli!

So a couple days later we used the trusty internet yet again to learn how to steam broccoli (no, neither of us had cooked broccoli before.) Obviously it was very easy. So we cooked the rest of the noodles, threw on the rest of the Alfredo sauce, stirred in the broccoli and leftover chicken and tada! Another home-cooked meal! A very tasty home-cooked meal, might I add. I was rather proud of ourselves for making something without using a recipe, no matter how sarcastic all of this might be sounding...

More to come...

{san francisco} the souvenirs

2011-03-31T12:17:00.002-04:00

These are my souvenirs that Sean bought for me in Chinatown. I love that tiny red box so much. Really! I'm absolutely obsessed with it and can't keep from staring at it!

{san francisco} day four

2011-03-31T08:06:00.002-04:00

Here I am, trying to process it all, trying to document it, mostly for my own benefit, but also for my family and friends and anyone else who is interested in reading through my ramblings.

It all feels like something I should remember. And without my pictures, I'm left with the words.

I can recall exactly what we did on certain days very easily. The first days and the last days I remember quite clearly. But the middle days, Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday, tend to blur together. But I do remember this:

Tuesday was Chinatown. On and off rain. Umbrella up. Umbrella down. There were two kinds of shops in Chinatown: those that were terribly tacky full of tourist junk and those that were unbearably exquisite, full of intricately detailed and ornately patterned items. Expensive things. For having admittedly different tastes, for some reason Sean and I share a love of Asian art. I think we both wanted to buy everything we saw in those pretty shops. Origami crane earrings, art-covered pill boxes, rusted Chinese coins in various sizes and various stages of wear, colorful elephants, elaborate villages carved out of ivory, sake sets and tea sets, deep red statues of frogs and Buddhas, Kama Sutra-lined jewelry boxes. Sean bought two cloisonne wiggle fish: a navy one for him and a gold one for me. Someday we will hang them in a birdcage, swimming in arched circles around each other. He also bought me a delicately carved miniature cylindrical box made of cinnabar, a bright red Chinese lacquerware which I was absolutely obsessed with and carried back and forth between the hotel room and his dorm room.

After passing through Chinatown we went to the 901 Columbus Cafe, an understated coffeehouse that Sean frequents between his art classes. The cafe was everything I love about cafes: dim and cozy with an eclectic, artsy feel, miss-matched seating, comfy sofas and armchairs, brick walls, original photographs and paintings, the menu handwritten on the wall, chairs and tables outside, and drinks served in actual glasses, mugs, and cups and saucers. I ordered a Zebra cappuccino and we sat for a short while.

We then headed to Z. Cioccolato for fudge: Cabernet Dark for me and Raspberry Cheesecake Swirl for him. Then it was off to City Lights Books which I could see myself spending many hours in. It's a bookstore with the newest books, like a Barnes & Noble, but the likeness ends there. City Lights is independently-owned and had a more intimate, alternative feel with bookshelves lined diagonally and haphazardly rather than parallel. The main floor was Literature, the second floor was Poetry, and the basement was full of Science Fiction, Cooking, Travel, Biographies, Science, etc.

With tremendous effort, neither of us bought anything but we made mental notes and jotted down titles for future reference. (I also made a mental note to further explore the block surrounding the bookstore, like Vesuvio, The Beat Museum, The Dreaming Room, and Jack Kerouac Alley.)

More to come...

{san francisco} day three

2011-03-30T09:53:00.003-04:00

San Francisco. Day three. The day where I really saw San Francisco.

After years of hearing about Ed, Sean's friend, who lives in San Francisco, I finally got to meet him.

Ed. He's a cool guy. I only really know him from what Sean has told me. And I'm so grateful for him. If it wasn't for Ed, Sean wouldn't know anyone in the entire city, wouldn't know how to get around, where to go, etc. Ed grew up in San Francisco and has really helped Sean with all of that stuff.

So we met up with Ed for brunch at a diner and then walked to a bus stop where we hopped onto a MUNI bus, my first bus ride in the city (no, not the same things as a streetcar or a cable car aka trolley.) Which was interesting and crowded, but still better than walking.

We got off somewhere around Fillmore, got some coffee at a Starbucks, and walked around some nice neighborhoods in the Pacific Heights district which led us to the Palace of Fine Arts, a monumental rotunda situated next to a lagoon, covered in Greek- and Roman-inspired carvings essentially designed as "a fictional ruin from another time."

Then we walked across the street to the site of Lucasfilm headquarters where Sean fawned over the Yoda Fountain and all the books and cool Star Wars memorabilia and vintage B-movie posters in the lobby. (He's a dork, but a cute dork, and I mean that in the best way possible. He'd be boring if he wasn't.)

After missing one bus and then another and continually getting passed by buses in training, we eventually caught one which took us to a corner lot on Columbus where we picked up a Zipcar for the next few hours.

And for the next few hours I got to see San Francisco.

The seemingly miniscule San Franciscan skyline from Crissy Field. The crimson monolithic Golden Gate Bridge, up close and personal. The coast along Lincoln Boulevard: up and over winding hills mounted on sheer cliff faces covered in lush green trees overlooking a surprisingly blue Pacific Ocean with waves bigger than any I'd ever seen crashing onto giant rocks jutting from the depths of the water... And the Pacific Ocean, out there, stretching as far as the eye could see.

We went around to the far West side and stopped at a grocery store to stock up on essentials for the week. We couldn't afford to eat out every night...

So we got "real" food to cook in Sean's tiny dorm kitchen. Which prompted a visit to TJMaxx to get pots and pans to cook the real food in, none of which Sean had. Which then lead to purchasing a spatula to cook with. Which led to a visit to the Dollar Store to get a fork because Sean only owns one. Where Sean got distracted by awesomely illustrated B-movie plates and cups. Which Sean bought, all three of us completely forgetting about buying a fork until we made it to the car parked a half mile or so up the road.

We finished day three with increasingly sore feet and legs, a giant five-cheese store-bought pizza, and cake.

More to come...

{san francisco} day two continued

2011-03-29T08:33:00.002-04:00

Our second evening in San Francisco consisted of that same walk where I gave up on the prospect of taking pictures. The recap:

Out the hotel door and left onto Geary.

Left onto Powell. And up and up and up.

Left onto California where things leveled out for a bit.

Right onto Jones. And up. Again.

Passed Vallejo, the scene of both crimes.

Continued to the intersection of Jones & Green, where we got an amazing view of Alcatraz.

Left onto Green.
Right onto Leavenworth.

Passed notoriously squiggly Lombard Street.

Merged left onto Columbus.

And left onto Beach.

Where I caught my very first glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge! It was a couple of miles off in the distance. Tiny and orange-red and hazy from the distance. Like a dork, I almost cried with excitement. How strange it was to see something so familiar, so widely known and seen in movies and photographs! How strange and wonderful to see it in person!

We braved the crowd and headed up to Ghirardelli Square, but decided not to go in. We did some more wandering along Fisherman's Wharf, searching for an apparently non-existent Barnes & Noble. All the while, the sun was shining and we were happy, though our feet were tired after two days of seemingly endless walking. So we took a chance with a streetcar and ended up at Market, near our hotel. We arrived in the early evening, the sky darkening around us, and decided it was finally time to eat. Something. Somewhere.

We settled on Chinese food in Chinatown. Where else?

Apparently Chinatown is practically dead at nine o'clock at night but we managed to find a subdued Dim Sum House still open. We were served tea in tiny white handleless tea cups from an aged silver teapot. We ate wonton soup and loads of lo, excuse me, chow mein. The meal ended with the requisite fortune cookies where my fortune was the answer to his:

Something on four wheels will soon be a fun investment for you!

A four-wheeled adventure will soon bring you happiness.

We left Chinatown and in the darkness, on one of the streets, a musician was playing the saxophone, the acoustics reverberating between the tall buildings. A confidently round sound, neither lonely nor joyful, but perfectly fitting for a dark, cool night on a slow corner.

More to come...

{san francisco} days one and two

2011-03-28T09:45:00.003-04:00

After my first trip to the West Coast, my first time seeing the Pacific Ocean, my first trip to California and my first trip to San Francisco, I have no pictures to show for it.

Yes, that's right. I'm a photographer with no pictures. Which I guess is what I deserve for being a snob and only wanting to bring my mom's old Pentax K1000 to shoot black & white film. Which, unbeknownst to me, was apparently broken. (But I'll get back to that in just a minute.)

My first impression of the city was completely overwhelming.

Now, I realize that I've grown up and lived most of my life in a small city in southern Virginia, but never before had I really felt like a country girl until now. I've been in airports more than fifty times in the past five years, but absolutely none of them compared to the vastness of SFO. I got lost. But found my way. And found Sean (my fiancé). I was then thrown onto Red Lines, Blue Lines and BART (my first experience with a subway) which hurled me into the epicenter of the shopping district on a cold, windy, rainy Saturday morning. Two rolling suitcases in tow, we traversed the mall (that's a sentence in itself), slippery out-of-order outdoor escalators, those famed 45-degree angled hills, a crowd of pedestrians like none I'd ever seen, and eventually found our way to Sean's dorm.

My first day there, quite frankly, was a whirlwind. After getting a bite to eat and checking into our hotel, we set out to walk around the city. Which I immediately fell in love with. Despite the slight drizzle, the walk was refreshing once we got away from the crowd. I oohed and awed over absolutely everything: the architecture (how every building, window and archway looked better than the last), the trees, the succulents, the bright flowers, the hills, the views, the glimpses of Bay Bridge between the buildings to the East.

And then it turned sour. The rain picked up and after such a far walk, I found that the only shoes I'd packed for the weeklong trip were completely soaked, my only umbrella turned inside out at every gust of wind, and my hair drenched. Way too much for a girl who hates to get wet.

To say the least, I felt grossly unprepared. I didn't have the right shoes, the right umbrella, or even a hat.

I then decided I hated San Francisco and proceeded to curse obscenities all the way to the hotel.

After being awake for almost twenty-four straight hours and three time zones away from my home, it was time to get some much-needed sleep.

Upon waking the next morning and seeing that the forecast called for rain all freaking week, I vowed to buy some rain-boots. No matter how expensive.

So, after waiting for my tennis shoes to dry in the dryer, Sean and I set off for Union Square, that same crazily crowded shopping district as the day before. Saks Fifth Avenue. Macy's. H&M. Bloomingdales. All the places I'd seen in Vogue ads, but never in person. Even with all the shopping possibilities, I still didn't know where to get rain-boots. (Remember, I'm really just a country girl at heart.)

After wandering around Bloomingdales trying to find a shoe department, we had our first stroke of luck. A stroke of luck which basically turned the whole week around for me. A girl walked passed us and Sean called out her name: Christina, one of literally a handful of people that Sean knows in the entire city. After a quick introduction, and deciding she was a woman of style and knowledge, I practically begged for her help on where to find rain-boots.

It ended up that she worked at Bloomingdales, knew exactly what I was looking for, and lead us to a little corner where Hunter Wellington boots were on display. Exactly what I'd been lusting after for months. And now needed. And they were on sale.

It was meant to be.

The day looked up. It was actually sunny. And not raining. In fact, it didn't really rain too bad most of the week even though the forecast kept saying it would. The first day really was the worst of them all.

With a new skip in my step, armed with my new boots and the only skinny jeans I could squeeze down into them, Sean and I set out to explore the crazy hills of San Francisco, I with my camera in tow. We took a route similar to the one the day before. Up the glass elevators at the Westin St. Francis, passed a hotel we recognized from Vertigo, passed the beautiful Grace Cathedral. After ascending and descending each hill and turning around, I found yet another photo opportunity, combining towering glass buildings, ornate architecture, and lush greens.

Everything was so photogenic!

After completing a roll of 36 exposures, I wound the film and opened the back. Only to find a little tongue of film sticking out of the cartridge. When I plucked it out, the top of the cartridge popped off and the film unwound into a pitiful spiral.

I wanted to get mad. I might've, just a little. But I decided it was okay, we had all day, all week. So we went back to the hotel to get more film and retraced our steps.

Thirty-six exposures later, at the scene of the crime with the unfortunately ruined first roll, I wound the film again. Opened the back. And tada! The film was completely out of the cartridge, still wound onto the far right side. Sean immediately said "I love you!" while I tore the film out and threw it on the ground and walked away. I wanted to cry. But decided that maybe the pictures wouldn't have come out anyway. It was better to realize it now than to get a bunch of blank, undeveloped film back a few weeks later.

So we set out to simply enjoy the place. No pictures. Just the experience of a completely new city through fresh eyes. It was almost refreshing not to have to take pictures. To be pushed to experience something for what it really is rather than being behind a lens.

Plus, I can always go back and retrace my steps, again. And I will.

More to come...

{personal} the last light

2011-03-18T08:04:00.004-04:00

Have a lovely weekend!

By this time tomorrow I'll be in San Francisco! It will be the first time I've seen my fiancé in about eighty days, the first time I'll be on the West Coast, the first time I'll see the Pacific Ocean, the first time I'll be staying in a hotel without my parents. My first real grown-up vacation, if you will.

I'm a traveler at heart, with more than a bit of wanderlust. I hardly ever get the chance to travel so to say I'm excited is an understatement!

{looking back} summer days

2011-03-17T08:56:00.003-04:00

It's not even Spring and I'm already feeling nostalgic for Summer (tis my favorite season). I took these photographs during the last days of Summer back in 2009. Sundrops clinging to the last bits of overflowing green. Bright pinks putting on their final show. The last of the hazy days, the lazy days, the Summer days. Sigh.

Okay, that was mean! I promise not to tease you with images of Summer anymore.

{featured} where i blog from

2011-03-14T11:00:00.003-04:00

I've been featured on Jane's Where We Blog From series! So this is it. Where I blog from. Click here.

{personal} note to self

2011-03-09T11:09:00.003-05:00

Note to self: shoot more film!

Even though I broke the lens on my very first 35mm SLR (so sad!) last summer, I have no excuse: my mom has lent me her very first 35mm SLR and I have loads of 35mm black & white film just waiting to be used!

No. Excuses.

{personal} the first sign

2011-03-04T11:41:00.004-05:00

Spring is near... Have a lovely weekend!

{personal} the tree of life

2011-03-02T08:19:00.004-05:00

A beautiful oak tree nestled among the hills and creeks of a friend's farm in southern Virginia.

{personal} spring greens

2011-03-01T08:13:00.005-05:00

My weekend was absolutely beautiful, with little plants and greens popping up everywhere. It's March! And only 20 days until Spring is official.

{food} chocolate peanut butter cups

2011-02-28T08:32:00.003-05:00

Taking a cue from Alana and Ashley, I made my own chocolate peanut butter cups over the weekend. Pardon my english, but they're f***ing fantastic! They're two and a half inches in diameter, an inch thick, filled with a mixture of peanut butter and sea salt, and extremely decadent!

Beats a Reese's any day. Full recipe here.

{personal} a discovery

2011-02-27T09:59:00.004-05:00

My fiancé currently lives in San Francisco and I give him full credit for taking this photograph! However... due to my recent discovery of how to fake tilt-shift in Photoshop, I had a little too much fun tweaking it just a bit. (You can see his original here.)

And now I'm left wondering why the heck it took my so long to look up! I've always loved the miniaturized look that tilt-shift gives to landscapes and cityscapes, and to find that it takes only a few quick clicks of the mouse is beyond amazing. So you can bet I'll be busy playing with all the images I can...

{personal} the bookworm

2011-02-25T12:32:00.003-05:00

Do you like to read? Do you have a must-read list half a mile long? Do you enjoy buying books simply because the cover is so beautiful you can't stand not owning it? Have you ever gone to the same book store six times in one week? Or two times in one day? Do you set ridiculous reading goals for yourself such as participating in a monthly book club, reading half of the books on a 100 Best Novels list by May, reading 50 books by the end of the year, scouring ELLE magazine for the newest chicest book, all while asking fellow bloggers for their own book recommendations?

Then you are a person after my own heart. And you should consider joining the Book Club Bloggers. Just go here and talk to Charlotte.

*You can read my most recent review here.

**I just noticed I unintentionally used a different postcard as a bookmark for each book! Kinda cool...

{for sale} spring note cards

2011-02-18T13:00:00.004-05:00

It's never too early to start getting ready for Spring!

Spring note cards are for sale in my shop. Choose from three different sets: All Color, Pink & Grey or Green & Grey. Blank on the inside, four white envelopes included.

{looking back} on a roll

2011-02-17T08:09:00.006-05:00

Just a fun, somewhat humorous, photograph taken in 2005 from the first roll of film I developed and printed myself. Location: my parents' bathroom, with my head and shoulders squeezed between the toilet and cabinet.

{looking back} vizcaya prints

2011-02-16T10:55:00.004-05:00

These are two old prints from a Zone System assignment back in college. Exposed, developed and printed by myself in the darkroom.

Taken at Vizcaya in Miami, Florida. Circa 2006.

{giveaway} enter now!

2011-02-15T13:59:00.000-05:00

The lovely Sami of A Glimpse of Glamour is hosting a giveaway over on her blog! Click here for a chance to win a free 5x5 or 5x7 print of your choice from my Etsy shop or my Flickr. Giveaway ends Sunday, February 20th.

{looking back} summer triptych

2011-02-03T13:07:00.007-05:00

Polaroids from when my fiancé (then boyfriend) and I went to The Morikami Museum & Japanese Gardens in Boca Raton, Florida, and The Holocaust Memorial in Miami, Florida.

Summer 2008. That Summer.

{personal} in the big city

2011-01-30T11:10:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I spent the day with blog friend (now real-life friend), Huong. I found her flickr stream a couple of years ago and had been following her blog until one day I realized she only lived an hour away! So we decided to meet for coffee once before and then I went for a longer visit yesterday.

It was really wonderful to get out and visit the "big" city (I live in a really small city with absolutely nothing to do). It was a refreshingly warm winter day full of walking, picture-taking, antiques, Mediterranean food (yum!), books, more books, Starbucks, lots of talking, ice cream and Scrabble (I won!).

Both Huong and her husband, Jeff, are really nice, talented people and I had a lot of fun hanging out with them! Huong and I seem to have a lot in common as far as the same taste in photography, books, maps and globes, travel and antiques.

You can see more images on my flickr and Huong's images from the day can be found on her blog and her flickr.

{looking back} before and after

2011-01-28T13:34:00.004-05:00

Back in college I learned photography on a 4x5 large format camera. We would shoot on 4x5 transparency film, but first we had to set up the shot, meter the lighting and then test it on polaroids before taking the final exposure. We only had one chance to get it right: if the lighting was wrong or something was off, we had to change it and hope it was correct for the final shot which we would be graded on. It was absolutely awful at the time, stressing out and running out of time...

But part of me misses those days. Looking back, there was more of a process to taking a picture instead of just shooting until it looks good.

I think I would enjoy it more now. I would have more than just four hours (believe me, four hours goes by extremely fast) to shoot and I could really play with the lighting and have a chance to explore the camera, something I never really got to do because we were always rushing to meet deadlines. I could shoot more now instead of just the required assignment; 4x5 polaroids, transparency film and developing was extremely expensive, even more so for a poor college kid.

Below are the final results. (I have a fondness for the fish picture because it was my very first attempt at shooting it. I ended up having to reshoot for some reason and my second attempt was with a Canon 5D. I like how it evolved in stages, from a very basic and simple black & white polaroid, to color transparency film, to a digital file, and then the final result with all the retouching.)

The orchids picture also has a story behind reshooting it - though not a very happy one. A fellow student acted as my assistant on the shoot and he was the one to load the film. But it ended up that he'd loaded the film backwards, resulting in a dim, ghostly red image instead of vibrant color. So I had to book studio time, check out equipment (funnily enough, my now fiancé was the check out guy!), reshoot, find someone I barely knew to drive me to the photo lab to get it developed in time for class the next day. And I still got a bad grade for turning it in 15 minutes late because a friend had to go pick it up from the lab for me because I had other classes beforehand.

Yeah, photography classes were pretty awful sometimes.

{looking back} film film film

2011-01-27T13:06:00.007-05:00

Sometimes I think I was better at photography before I became a "professional" and knew what the heck I was doing.

The first two photographs are from my very first rolls when I got my very first camera (circa 2001-2002). The last is from the first roll I took on real black & white film and developed and printed by myself in the darkroom (2005)!

All were taken on the automatic setting on my SLR, before I learned to control the aperture and shutter.

{personal} i am star stuff

2011-01-26T09:00:00.002-05:00

I love this picture that my fiancé took of me at Kennedy Space Center last Summer. We're such nerds... And I love it!

{illustration} the sketchbook project

2011-01-25T10:04:00.002-05:00

"It's like a concert tour, but with sketchbooks."
- The Sketchbook Project

Have you heard of The Sketchbook Project? I participated in the making of a group sketchbook with some fellow bloggers headed by Shannon of Happiness Is... with the theme of "happy thoughts." This was my sketch, taking up two pages of the book. You can see all of the pages on Shannon's blog here.

The coolest part of the whole thing? When the project goes on tour, I'll actually be in San Francisco the date that it's there, so hopefully I can see our book in person!

{looking back} near and far

2011-01-24T10:34:00.003-05:00

"The space between..."
- Dave Matthews Band

{personal} sunday mornings

2011-01-23T12:44:00.002-05:00

Sunday morning walk with the dad and the dog.

{looking back} moonshot

2011-01-21T09:19:00.006-05:00

This is from the first "road trip" with my fiancé back in 2006 when we first started dating. We were driving back to Fort Lauderdale after I met his parents for the first time. I remember being transfixed by the crescent moon and the planet so near (Jupiter?) so we pulled into an empty parking lot somewhere off I-95 and I set up my tripod and Holga camera. I remember when I got the prints back I wasn't happy with any of them, but after looking through old photos a few weeks ago, I came across this one and actually really like it.

I love having photographs that I can hold in my hand that bring back memories such as this. It wasn't anything I would've written about, but somehow having this photo reminds me of that entire trip and how we felt driving back.

{for sale} three new prints!

2011-01-10T08:05:00.004-05:00

I've been missing all the grainy and imperfect magic of film lately, so I decided to list these three film images in my shop.

1. Cygnus
2. Cotton Candy Clouds
3. Wizarding World

{for sale} the highest height

2011-01-07T08:09:00.002-05:00

"Let's go fly a kite
Up to the highest height!
Let's go fly a kite
And send it soaring
Up through the atmosphere
Up where the air is clear..."
- Mary Poppins

New print for sale in my shop!

{personal} happy new year!

2011-01-04T08:08:00.003-05:00

*Some personal favorites of my own work from 2010

My fiancé's brother recently posed the questions:

"Is photography an art form to capture the reality of our life? Is it a fictional format to depict what we personally wish life were like?"

I find the second part so true about my own photography. I'm always aspiring to create something "prettier" or something that looks better than what is really there. And sometimes I feel bad about that, because isn't that lying? Am I too controlled by my own perfection and society's opinion of what is aesthetically pleasing? Or is that simply what makes me an artist?

{for sale} strange plant

2010-12-30T09:20:00.002-05:00

Whenever I type the title of this photograph, "Strange Plant," I always want to type "Strange Planet" instead. It makes me think of some sort of strange, bizarre flower on an undiscovered planet... For sale in my shop!

{personal} engaged!

2010-12-29T08:05:00.003-05:00

I received the best Christmas gift this year! Long story short: my grandmother gave my boyfriend and I her mother's wedding ring, a family heirloom from the 1920s. So, we're engaged! Officially! Finally! You can read how it all went down here.

{looking back} a collection of things

2010-12-16T10:47:00.005-05:00

A series of photographs I was doing at one point that I never continued.

{personal} don't mind if i do...

2010-12-14T08:56:00.003-05:00

Some more from the series!

{personal} let them eat cake!

2010-12-13T10:24:00.003-05:00

These are some photographs from a fun little photo shoot I've been working on! It's nothing special, not for a job, just something fun I wanted to do. Very Marie Antoinette, don't you think?

There are still a lot more pictures, so maybe I'll share more with you little by little this week!

{fashion} part three!

2010-12-09T08:59:00.002-05:00

Check out Lady Gaga!

{fashion} part two!

2010-12-08T08:16:00.002-05:00

And then we got a little crazy!

{fashion} kira*kira & stand out salon team up!

2010-12-07T15:42:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago I volunteered to take pictures at an event celebrating the first birthday of Kira*Kira, a makeup boutique in Roanoke, Virginia. Kira*Kira teamed up with Stand Out Salon to spend a day giving free makeovers to local volunteer models and to have a mini photo shoot with each model.

I went in not really knowing what to expect, nervous about working with people I'd never met before. However, everyone there made me feel completely comfortable, which is saying a lot since I'm very shy-natured. I never once felt out of place or awkward, everyone there was not only extremely nice, welcoming and helpful, but extremely talented and overall fun (and hilarious) to work with!

I really can't properly express what an amazing time I had working with the other photographers and makeup artists and shooting all of the gorgeous girls and women who came out for this awesome event!

You can see more on my Facebook fan page here!

{looking back} shadow & light

2010-12-06T16:57:00.003-05:00

Just some old pictures... I love experimenting and creating cool shadows!

{for sale} the descent

2010-12-03T08:17:00.002-05:00

Darkness descends... New print available in my shop!

{personal} over the rainbow

2010-12-02T09:41:00.002-05:00

Just two pictures I think look good together! One is old (2003) and one is newer (June of this year).

{personal} hilton head island

2010-12-01T09:34:00.003-05:00

Some more scenes from my Thanksgiving weekend!

I've been to Hilton Head twice before, but for some reason it never had the impression on me as it did this time. I never really noticed, or appreciated, how big nature is on the island! Nothing is allowed to be built higher than the tree-line, and all the buildings have to be earth tones (even fast food joints and gas stations - no shocking reds, yellows or blacks!) All the signs are short and, though it makes it hard to find places, everything is pushed back into the trees and shrubs. Everything is overgrown with twisted trunks growing up and around and Spanish moss dripping from every tree.

{personal} hilton head island

2010-11-29T15:18:00.016-05:00

These photographs are from my Thanksgiving on Hilton Head Island! Not a bad place to be for Thanksgiving, if I do say so myself...

My mom and I traveled to visit my twin brother who lives and works there. He's been there for a year and a half and I was the only one who hadn't visited him yet, so the trip was long overdue! As expected, it was really wonderful. Thanksgiving day was spent visiting my brother where he works at Marriott SurfWatch. It's nestled right next to the beach and is the only resort where you have to walk across the marshes to get to the beach. (I really loved all the textures of the grasses and all the different trees and shrubs.) While he worked, my mom and I sat reading under a cabana right next to the ocean; it was hot but the beach offered the perfect breeze...

It was a perfect, relaxing way to spend an extra-long weekend.

{personal} happy thanksgiving!

2010-11-24T08:59:00.002-05:00

I don't say it enough, in fact I probably don't say it at all, but I'm thankful to have parents that completely support me in being an artist. I could've taken the easy route and become something like a doctor or nurse or dental hygienist or anything with a stable career outline, but I didn't. Instead I chose to be a photographer which isn't always easy. I think I took it for granted that they supported me when I chose to go to art school; they didn't try to talk me out of it or anything of the sort. So thank you very much Mom and Dad!

And since we're on the subject, I'm also thankful to have siblings that don't annoy me (all the time) and that I get along with for the most part. I'm thankful for the few really good friends that I have (even if we don't talk that often). I'm thankful for my beyond amazing boyfriend (I really could go on and on about him, but I'll spare you). And I'm thankful for all the surprisingly genuine people I've met through blogging!

Happy Thanksgiving!