portland saturday market

a few days ago, i was perusing meetup.com and found a group called women learning photography together... well, whaddya know?  i'm a woman learning photography!  so, i figured i should join these ladies on their photography field trips!

today was my first meetup with the group and we met at portland saturday market.  this was great for me because i'm in love with street photography, but i'm too chicken s#%t to actually approach people and ask if i can take their picture.  and i'm even more chicken s#%t to take their picture without asking them.  saturday market is nice because there are so many people around and so many tourists, a photographer kind of blends in (or at least, a photographer doesn't look awkward taking photos in places they shouldn't be).

this first photo was taken in an empty lot at 4th and burnside.  it really makes me wonder why there is a table and chair in an empty lot... and why is the window bricked up?

the next three were shot along the waterfront.  the first one (with the words) is of some steps that surround a fountain.  it seems to speak about the people who came to portland, where they came from and how they got here.  

i had to get some blossom shots... spring is here (although the temperature didn't feel like spring today at all!).

and now for the saturday market... 

this woman had the best stall of any merchant at the market (not to mention that her pottery is beautiful).  

hats galore!

this band was pretty awesome.  they were belting out some southern bluegrass for shoppers' listening pleasure.

the band wasn't the only person out there trying to make some money.  this guy was putting on a dance show while his friends played some percussion on 5-gallon buckets.

this woman was drawing some pretty awesome chalk art on the sidewalk.  not sure the point of it, though, since it later rained!!

after the market, i made my way back to my car via 4th street (china town).

there were definitely other people taking photos of this sign at the same time as i was.  they must have an adolescent mind like me - lol!  

centered

tonight, i had the best yoga practice i've ever had.  this is what people must mean when they talk about being "centered."  i felt amazingly strong throughout tonight's practice and, when we finished, i felt like my life was in balance again.  and (this is going to sound incredibly hippie, i realize this, but...) i feel this aura of positivity around me tonight.  i really feel happy to be alive.  :) it is such an amazing feeling... almost like a runner's high... but with yoga.  does that make any sense?  

i may not ever be able to do this: 

in fact, i'm pretty sure that i will never do that... but that's OK.  as long as i keep feeling like i feel tonight, that's all that matters.  

kudos to whomever it was that created yoga!!  i definitely put you up there with the guy that first fermented beer.  :)  (gee, i sound like a real oregonian now, don't i?)

beat down

you might remember here, here, and here when i talked about battling illiotibial band syndrome last fall.  i was supposed to do the portland marathon on 10/10/10, but two weeks before the race, i decided to postpone it and try again for the eugene marathon on 5/1/11.  i started training for eugene in mid-december and i did well for about two months before my i.t. band started acting up again... but on the other leg!  ugh.  so, for the last month, i have hardly been running, i have been on prednisone, been to the doctor, and been to the physical therapist.  in fact, this is what one gets for going to see the physical therapist (she did graston on me).  nice, huh? 

anyway, here is my dilemma... on friday (two days from now), i have to tell team in training if i want to "recommit."  this means that i agree to continue to train and do the marathon on may 1st.  they will register me for the event and book a hotel.

the problem is that i ran on the treadmill tonight for 30 minutes and now i can barely walk, especially to get up and down the stairs.  obviously, this presents a problem if i want to try and run for 4 1/2 hours straight.

i have to admit that despite the knee pain, despite the GIGANTIC bruise on my leg, despite the doctors and the physical therapists, i so stubbornly want to do this race!  i want that finishers shirt, darn it!  and i want to check it off my "things to do before i turn 30" list.

anyway... just needed to get that out.  thanks for listening.

p.s. on a completely different note: if anyone wants to learn spanish, come on over!  chad has spanish language cd's playing and we also now have post-it notes all over the apartment with spanish words on them.  :) 

photography field trip at omsi

my photography class met this morning at the oregon museum of science and industry (omsi) in portland for a field trip.  monday is our last class, so our goal today was to take 3 - 5 photos to share and explain why they are interesting.

i'm not sure why they're interesting, but here they are.  i must admit that i was feeling a bit uninspired at omsi, especially with such a broad assignment (pretty much anything i wanted to shoot).  that said, i tried panning for the first time and i liked how they came out.  another observation: i also really need to work on incorporating people into my photos and getting over my fear of asking to photograph them. photos with people in them are so much more interesting and dynamic.

snow day!

i'm sure all my friends in the midwest are going to laugh at this, but i had a pretty slow commute this morning after snow fell overnight last night.  unlike the midwest, we do not have many snow plows, nor do they use salt here, so the roads (especially the country roads going to the winery) were very much covered in snow this morning and fairly slick.  add to that a 700 foot decline down a mountain and i was very glad to have had anti-lock brakes this morning that worked!

the benefit of all of this was getting to the winery before anyone else and taking pristine photos without car tracks in the driveway or footprints in the snow.  here is a selection for your viewing pleasure (these are unedited and i am still learning to meter for snow, so forgive me!):

dari and her entourage

my assignment for my photography class this week was to take a portrait of someone i know using only natural light and shooting in manual mode. my beautiful friend and former roomate, dari, was gracious enough to let me use up a couple of hours of her time this morning to take some shots of her and her entourage, including her horse, smoke, and her puppies, strom (great dane) and sloan (doberman).

like i've heard from reading about taking portraits online, it takes a few minutes for both the photographer and the subject to get warmed up.  that was true this morning, but once we got going, i think we got a few good images!  this spot in front of the barn was the 'money spot' of the day!  it was awesome!

since my 30-day lightroom trial has run out and i haven't purchased the full program yet, i tried editing these in photoshop.  then i decided that i was doing more harm than good, so i scrapped that idea and just posted these straight out of camera.  enjoy!

dari rode smoke in the arena for a little bit. i really loved this photo and i thought i'd also give it a whirl in the vintage finish.  like usual, i think i like the vintage better.

and speaking of vintage, here are three glamour shots that i did in a vintage finish...  her outfit was to. die. for.  

that said... yes, i know the light is far too bright!!  as soon as i put all the photos from the shoot up on my computer, i started thinking about all of the things i would have done differently throughout the morning.  i guess that's why they call it 'practice,' right? 

showing smoke a little love... 

when i was looking at this on the camera screen, i commented that smoke looked a bit like a camel here - LOL.  but i actually really like this shot.  

her is dari with her fur baby, strom.  despite what you might think from his massive size, he really is a sweetie!!

here is the whole johnson clan... andrew, dari, sebastian, strom and sloan.