Viva California!

Four days in California... total awesomeness. Having lived in San Fran for a while, I'm kind of partial to Northern California, but SoCal, when done right, can be pretty amazing as well. Day 1 - Magic Mountain. I hadn't been on a roller coaster in years and years, and these roller coasters are no joke. Upside down, getting whipped around, feet dangling... insane. But in that fun kind of way. Day 2 - A chill day exploring in the 'burbs and then dinner with my old roommate from San Fran in Manhattan Beach, which is simply gorgeous. Day 3 - Venice Beach (a.k.a. Muscle Beach) and then Santa Monica Pier and the Ferris Wheel. Day 4 - Horseback riding followed by a big plate of authentic Mexican food. Doesn't get much better.

I decided to practice taking people pictures at Venice Beach because it's known for its craziness there. It seemed like a pretty quiet day, but there was still a lot for the eye to see. What's amazing is the number of "pot doctors" along the strip. Go in and give them any reason why you need a prescription and they'll make it happen, "free gift" and all. Crazy. Muscle Beach itself was pretty slow, but we did find a big skate park which lent itself to some good shots, and of course the usual interesting street performers.


Roller-blading guitar-playing man. All day long...


I wish the skater were in focus, but I like how the arc of his hair frames the people in the background.


I just loved this guy's look.


Cute little skater kid who kept getting stuck in the pit and had to ask for help to get out. He will be awesome one day.

The beach! Beautiful.

Back in love

... with my Nikon. I went to Portland Headlight today and rather than taking pictures of the lighthouse, I instead got a couple nice shots of some seagulls. I'm suddenly more interested in photographing living things, rather than inanimate objects. I have a personal goal of taking better people pictures this year because those are always the ones I enjoy looking at most.

I wonder what this bird is thinking as he stands on his rock looking out at the ocean...

I couldn't tell that these birds were snuggling until I looked at them through my zoom. So cute.

Gearing up

I recently busted out my trusty old Nikon to take some pics. I've gotten lazy with having this little point-and-shoot on me all the time, but it just doesn't really compare. That said, the pics below were taken on it. Nevertheless, I'm starting to get reacquainted with my travel camera as I am planning some upcoming travels! I'll be heading out to LA this month (that's Los Angeles, not Lewiston-Auburn for the Mainers reading this). Going to visit a not-so-old but very dear friend and catching up with another at the same time. It will be nice to get a change of scene as I've pretty much been in Maine for about a year now. Yikes. Time does fly.

Summer will bring with it a trip to Mexico, my first ever if you don't count Tijuana and Cozumel, which I don't. And the Fall, if I'm lucky, will take me to Africa. Fingers crossed! In the meantime, I've been getting my own vicarious travel fix through the blog of a friend of a friend, who frequently travels to Tibet: http://evdecleyre.wordpress.com/

Another friend recently returned from India and a brief stopover in Lebanon. Her blog was also fabulous: http://newarktomumbainonstop.blogspot.com/.

So here are a few recent pics from the great state of Maine... great despite the fact that we have an unfortunate choice of governor in office now.

This reminded me of my blogger friend Elspeth, who takes tons of pictures of hearts in nature. Here is her blog: http://www.nowiswowtoo.blogspot.com/.

Gabe, my parents' dog.

Paris needs no introduction.

Weddings, love, and really bad song lyrics

So this weekend I went back to my roots, at least as far as my love for my fancy camera is concerned. I helped my friend Nicole shoot part of a wedding, the same friend I worked with almost two years ago when I started this blog. The wedding took place in this tiny chapel... located in a cemetery. Strange place for a wedding, I thought. But the chapel was cute and the ceremony was over in record time, which is good because I'm not a big fans of weddings.

I wasn't involved in the reception part of the ceremony, but I bet we can all put together the play list of songs, because there seems to be a limited rotation of wedding tunes. My friend who's currently working in catering can attest to this. Speaking of songs, I've been listening a little more closely to some of the music on the radio these days, especially the snippets I hear when I go into stores. And I've noticed that there are a lot of really bad lyrics out there. Tonight in Staples it was the Backstreet Boys, "I don't care who you are, where you're from, what you did, as long as you love me." Hmm... those seem like pretty low standards. And the other day in the car the catchy tune by Crosby, Stills and Nash, "If you can't be with the one you love, honey, love the one you're with." This strikes me as really bad advice. But of course the underlying theme of nearly every song is love - finding it, losing it, reveling in it, reckoning with it.

Bad blogger, bad blogger

Nearly a month has passed since I bothered to post anything. School has ended and my other job has taken over in full force. But more than anything, I've been hunkering down and reflecting on my motivations for doing what I'm doing. Needless to say, it's been an exhausting exercise, but one that I've learned a lot from. Growth is painful I've decided.

I finally picked up my camera today after a long hiatus. Every day when I go to work I think, "There's some interesting stuff to photograph down here," on the Portland waterfront. And so finally, here it is. The working waterfront is a fascinating thing, but I think I like it best at the end of the day, when everything sits dormant, waiting for the next day to roll around.

Getting artsy

I've been working hard over the past several days to build a website. First I started with Dreamweaver, an awesome program to be sure, but I'm in waaaaay over my head there. So now I'm working with the templates that are on offer through my hosting service. They're pretty cool, but may be limiting. It's too early to tell. It's always about balance, isn't it? This theme keeps coming up constantly.

Yesterday I spent some time taking photos of a few of the products I hope to sell, with an eye toward using them on my website. They're not all necessarily a clear picture of what the item is, but more artsy, to convey a texture. It was fun. My roommate was kind enough to model a few things as well. Progress!

Vacation!!

I feel a little silly celebrating the fact that it's school vacation considering I just returned from a ridiculously extended one. And honestly, it's not a total vaca for me as I'll be working more hours at my other job. But it's great nonetheless because I don't have to do any planning. Hallelujah!

I haven't picked up my camera since Easter, also ridiculous, but probably a confirmation that I shouldn't be investing in the most expensive option out there as I upgrade. Restraint, restraint. :) A couple weeks ago I decided to try my hand again at applying to one of the stock photography sites online. How cool to make a couple bucks from my images. Well, I think my stuff has improved tremendously since my first attempt, but still they said no. Kind of disappointing, but yet another confirmation that this is just a hobby for me, not my bread and butter.

I'm hoping to spend some time this week doing a little research, both for a company I'm doing some writing for, and for myself. How best to fund a life of travel and adventure? Hmm...

Another fave

I've gone through and flagged all of my favorite images from my trip. This is one of them. It's from the puja in Varanasi, way back at the beginning of the whole adventure. I'm hoping to print some of my images on blank greeting cards and sell them in shops locally, and maybe online. Hmmm... one of many ideas floating around in my head.



The weather here has been gorgeous the past couple days. Yay! And I've actually been running here and there. I'm a big fan of the walk-run-walk-run method. That way you get a good workout but you don't feel like you're dying by the end. I guess I've just never run enough to experience that "runner's high" that people talk about. And to be honest, I'm not particularly motivated to get to that point. As long as I'm in decent shape and doing something good for my heart, that's enough for me. I had contemplated running a 5K with my friend, but I think I've decided against that. I'm just not really that competitive, even with myself. That's true for me with yoga as well. When I started 7 years ago I was determined to eventually be able to do all of the "hard" poses, but I've gotten over that. That's not what it's about at all. It would be nearly impossible to describe what it is about, because I think it's different for everyone. Suffice it to say that balance plays a big part, and I don't mean the kind where you can stand on one foot and contort the rest of your body into something resembling an eagle. More like the kind that applies to life in general.

Memory lane

I just imported all of my photos, over 3,000 of them, into my Mac. It was an interesting experience to watch them flip through a couple seconds at a time, like reliving my trip in a matter of minutes, and remembering how I was feeling at the time.

They look so much different, and in some cases better, on my Mac than they did on my HP Mini. I guess it's because of the bigger screen and the better resolution. Some photos that looked in focus on the HP are clearly not on the Mac. I've been flagging the ones I like best, some of which I hope to sell in the form of greeting cards, and the one below jumped out at me for some reason. I think the contrast could be better, but I like the composition. Unfortunately I only shot in JPEG and not RAW, but honestly I didn't want to take up all that space with RAW files. Maybe next time. I've also been scoping out Craigslist looking for better Nikon DSLR models because I've totally outgrown the D40. I also dream of a luscious telephoto lens. We shall see. I am only working part-time, after all!! Maybe these things will fall off a delivery truck that I happen to be driving behind. ;)


Food prep at the Sikh temple in Delhi.

The joys of getting lost

This morning after I dropped off my laundry and had breakfast, I decided to wander in the opposite direction of the center of town. It looked like it might be a little more local, and happily it was. I walked down paved roads, dirt roads, past farms, schools, mansions, and shacks. I had no idea where I was going. Well, I had a general sense, but basically I got lost. It was fun, though. Lots of folks, young and old, would smile as they passed by, either on foot, bicycle or motorcycle. The further I walked the more the greeting became just “hello” instead of “hello lady”. I actually got past my camera shyness and took some pictures of people, mostly kids, who were more than happy to have their picture taken. The kids are so cute here and so smiley. I’ve managed to suppress my tendency to reach out and pat them on the head and instead just go for a little handshake now. Touching the head is a big cultural no-no here as the head is the most sacred part of the body. Conversely, the feet are the least sacred and so it's best to avoid putting your feet up on tables and chairs or gesturing towards anyone or anything with the feet.

I took off on my little jaunt around 10:30 or so. A couple hours later with no water left and the hot sun beating down in a cloudless sky, I started to wonder if maybe I had wandered too far. Luckily an older man, probably in his 50s, passed by me on a motorbike on a dirt side road. I was heading in the general direction of town and he asked if I needed a ride. In some cases this might be a bad idea, and I’m sure there’s crime in Cambodia, but it seems to me that 99.9% of the population here wouldn’t hurt a fly. So I hopped on his bike and 10 minutes later I was back in town. I gave him $1.50 and thanked him wholeheartedly for the lift.

I decided to go get myself a fruit shake somewhere and as I was heading toward the restaurant area, I heard my name being called out from inside an internet café. I turned around to discover that Helena from Sweden (also a Hansen!), whom I had met in Vientiane, Laos, had recognized me. So she joined me for a shake and we caught up on recent travel stories. It’s a small, small world indeed. Tomorrow I head to Phnom Penh, the capital. Who knows who I’ll run into there!


This little boy’s parents called out to me from the other side of the road. I said hello back, then decided to take the window of opportunity to ask if I could take a picture. He's even more adorable in person.


This little girl crossed the dirt road to say hello to me as I was taking a picture of some ducks. She was on her way to school.


Back in town I went into a fair trade handicrafts shop where this man was at the pottery wheel.

New Mexico state of mind

I just started to get a little bit nostalgic for New Mexico. For whatever reasons, there are just certain places that grab a hold of you and never quite let go. For me, so far in this lifetime, those places have been Maine, San Francisco, Paris, Greece, and New Mexico. Perhaps I will add to this list on my upcoming journey.

Whenever I need my faraway fix of New Mexico beauty, I log on to http://www.geraintsmith.com/ and get caught up on the Photo of the Day. Geraint is an amazingly talented photographer and all-around awesome person. It's hard to describe why you like someone's work or not, but I think what I love about his images is that they are simple yet stunning. Definitely check out his website!


A fence is an odd choice I know, especially when there's so much wide-open breathtakingly beautiful scenery out there. I loved these fences, though - a good use of the resources and a work of art in their own right.

I love the nightlife

I did a test run last night with my daypack, which is what I plan to travel around with in the coming months. I was able to fit my mini laptop and camera in there no problem. It's maybe a little heavier than I would like, but I'm determined to bring my good camera and I want to be able to stay in touch, wherever there is wi-fi available at least. I had also thrown my tripod, which I won't be taking with me, into the car to take some night shots. Unfortunately, I forgot the part that clips the camera to it. Ah well. I managed to balance the camera on it long enough to get a decent image. Portland was looking pretty beautiful at sunset last night, so I had to at least try.


Down on part of the working waterfront.


This has always been one of my favorite sights in Portland at night. This store on the corner has these gorgeous lights on every night. I've always thought it would be cool to decorate a room with these, kind of magical.

Mmmmm

Here is this morning's breakfast:

Toasted semolina bread with butter and homemade strawberry jam. Why post this? Why not? Stranger things have happened. Take, for instance, this blog: http://notitleyet.tumblr.com/, where the author (for some reason I feel like it's a woman) takes a polaroid of everything she eats everyday. And then posts it, often with some interesting quote or thought, sometimes in English, sometimes in French.

When I lived in San Francisco I had the opportunity, among other things, to join a few food photography shoots as a food stylist's assistant. What a sweet gig. Now that I've tooled around with my camera for a while, I'm starting to daydream of getting into that scene from a photography perspective. Who knows? Life's possibilities are endless. My friend currently has a great quote on her emails, which is "Life has no limit, if you're not afraid to get in it." I'm not sure if this is her personal quote or what, but I love it.

On that note, I took my first salsa lesson last night, and I'm thoroughly hooked!! Yes, it is as fun as it looks. And no, it's not as easy as they make it look. It gives me a whole new appreciation for the folks who go on Dancing with the Stars. It's no joke!!

Photo shoot

Today I helped out my brother-in-law, trying to get some pics that he could use on his new in-progress website. We borrowed the music hall at the local university and went to town. It was an interesting experience. I confirmed one thought that I had previously, which is I much prefer working in natural, rather than artificial, lighting. Maybe with more experience I'd like artificial better than I do now, but natural is always best, in my opinion. I think to get really good at studio-type work, I would have to apprentice with someone, but I'm not sure that's where I want to go with photography. Nevertheless, it's good to get a variety of experience.


Full hall lights.


Ahhh... natural lighting. :)

Photo hop

As David was watering the plants this morning, he called up to let me know there was a baby rabbit in the courtyard. So I trotted down with my camera to take some pictures. This is the smallest rabbit I've ever seen - so cute. He was a little wary as I moved in closer, but pretty brave nonetheless. He hopped around to various spots in the courtyard, so I was able to get a few shots. I could really use a zoom lens, though, for these animal pictures!


Spot #1 - enjoying a mid-morning snack.


Spot #2 - "If I hide under this bench, maybe she won't see me."


Spot #3 - catching some rays.

Pool Day!

What started out as a day with no real plans quickly filled up with fun stuff. I walked up to the Saco Sidewalk Arts Festival, wisely leaving my purse at home. I had considered setting up a booth there and trying to sell some images, but the scene was pretty saturated with photographers so I was glad I didn't. I did get some interesting ideas for things you can do with your photos, though, in terms of products to sell. Someday, perhaps.

It turned out to be a gorgeous day and so I decided to sit out for a bit at my parents' pool. At first it was just me and the dogs, but then everyone showed up, including my sister and nephews. Little E headed straight for the pool, insisting that he didn't need a vest. Well, we managed to get one on him and off he went. He loooves the water! Soon he was kicking and swimming around all by himself. Amazing. His older brother was less interested in swimming and more interested in engineering the kiddie pool. It's incredible how different their personalities are.


Leaping into Grammy's arms. "Big work" as he calls it.


Blowing bubbles, Grammy's smart technique for not breathing in underwater.


Everything needs to be just right...

Serenity now

I recently mailed off a disc of photos to the pregnant yogi I photographed a couple weeks ago. One of the photos I really liked, but there was a lot going on in the background, so I experimented with Photoshop. Here is the result. I kind of dig it because her expression is so calm amidst the chaos going on behind her.

You know you're obsessed when...

you pour yourself a bowl of granola for dinner and think, "Ooh, that might make an interesting photo!" (Yes, I eat cereal for dinner sometimes... doesn't everybody?) Some days nothing catches my eye, and other days everything does. The trick seems to be not to force it when it's not there and to make sure you have your camera with you when it is!

Bella luna

WOW. Normally I wouldn't post twice in one day, but as I was wandering around my apartment tonight I looked out the window and the full moon was beckoning me to come take pictures of her. So Paris and I headed to the beach. I got to use my new tripod, which I'm totally psyched I bought. I have a long way to go with night photography, but here's my favorite shot from this attempt. By the time I figured out what I was doing with exposure time and whatnot, the moon had crept up into the clouds, but it's still a pretty cool effect nonetheless.

Also, randomly, I ran into a guy I knew in high school who was also out there taking pictures with his new DSLR. He just happened to be back in town from Colorado with his wife, visiting his parents. How funny. I can tell he is going to develop a healthy obsession with photography much like my own.

Now you see it, now you don't

My polarizing filter came in the mail this week, so I've been tooling around with it to see what it can do. I've been meaning to take a picture of this bookstore door downtown, so today I finally stopped and did. Conveniently it was propped open, causing a reflection in the window of the wine shop next door. The difference is pretty dramatic! You can either keep the reflection or eliminate it completely just by turning the filter. It also seems to make the colors richer.

On the short drive the rest of the way home I was remembering something we talked about at the start of our yoga teacher training. I think it's a Zen Buddhism thing: "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few." And I was thinking about how I'm just really scratching the surface of this whole photography thing... learning new things, re-learning things I used to know. It's a lot of fun, and kind of like a puzzle. I'm sure there will always be something new to learn, which is kind of how I feel about life in general.