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?)

futures

today at adelsheim, the consumer direct department hosted a futures event, in which consumers can taste wine from last year's harvest right out of the barrel.  the owner (david adelsheim), winemaker (dave paige) and associate winemaker (erik kramer) were all there sharing their knowledge with the masses... and sarah king was there pouring in the most amazing red coat i've ever seen!

for this event, i rented a 50mm 1.4 lens and a flash.  i have to say that, after friday evening, i kind of gave up on the lens.  i didn't like it's extremely shallow depth of field (which frankly ended up making most of my photos show up out of focus... due to operator error, i know).  i decided that, until i figure out exactly what type of photography i'd like to focus on, i'm sticking with the kit lens.  i'm very partial to wide angle shots, so i'm thinking about going in that direction perhaps.  i'm not really a portrait photographer, so i'm now not convinced that i need a portrait lens.  at least i rented it first without just buying it outright!  

but i digress...

back to today's event!  (disclaimer: the image quality looks fairly poor on this blog posting, but they are much better on flickr)

adelsheim in spring

since i am taking pictures of the futures event at adelsheim tomorrow, i wanted to test out some things today... namely the flash i rented for the weekend.  chad offered to model for me, what a sport!

thankfully, i got a couple of decent shots of the space.  hopefully i know what i'm doing tomorrow when there is more than one person milling around.

after we finished in the caves, we took fife out into the calkins lane vineyard next to the winery to get some energy out.

eugene

chad and i just returned last night from eugene, oregon where we attended the oregon wine symposium.  here are a couple of shots i took while there.  the one of the guy on the computer was for my photography class assignment this week (to take a photo of someone i don't know).  i really like what's going on with the three guys in the background.

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.  

hazelnuts and sky

if i tip my head in just the right direction, this is the view out of my office window.  nice, huh?

i am really digging the desaturated vintage action i downloaded for photoshop.  if i actually knew how to use photoshop, i probably wouldn't use it as much. however, i like how it came out here, and also in the rogue brewery photos in my last post.  

what do you think? 

this little piggy went to market

i have two very talented friends, bubba and sarah king, who are going to rule the food world one day (soon!).  in attemping to list everything culinary that they are involved in, i'm sure i'll miss something...but here it goes:  canning, cheese-making, gardening, beekeeping, brewing, baking bread, making pasta from scratch, and raising pigs.  yes, there must be more to that list.

they are in the process of putting together a business called the collective and are very excited to have one of their pigs being used at the cochon 555 event in seattle in 9 short days.  yes, one of these pretty piggies will be used at that event - the spotted guy.  sad face.

bubba was gracious enough to let me come out this afternoon and take some photos before the rain starts again tomorrow and before... well... you know... 

without further ado, i introduce you to the pigs of the collective: 

 18mm, 1/60 sec, f/4.5

 58mm, 1/20 sec, f/5

this pic is my favorite!   35mm, 1/30 sec, f/4.5

 32 mm, 1/30 sec, f/4.5

 24mm, 1/60 sec, f/4.5

 28mm, 1/100 sec, f/4.5

28mm, 1/125 sec, f/4.5

28mm, 1/200 sec, f/4.5

18mm, 1/250 sec, f/3.5

 24 mm, 1/30 sec, f/4.5

hazelnut-finished pork = sweet flavor to the meat + other health benefits that other pork doesn't have (i had to google 'hazelnut finished pork' for this line -- you might want to do that, too, to find out more).   32mm, f/9, 1/30 sec

42 mm, 1/60 sec, f/4.8

to learn more about the collective, visit their website or their facebook page.