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!  

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.

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? 

portlandia

this morning, after running 10 miles with team in training in northeast portland [time 1:43], i decided to wander around and take some photos of the city.  thankfully, the weather cooperated very nicely.  it was pushing 60 degrees with partly cloudy skies - not bad for the end of january!

admittedly, what i really wanted to do was take photos of people, as i think that is truly what tells the portland story.  i seriously saw a guy today that looked like mc hammer -- à la the early 1990's!  there is just so much creativity and expression to capture in this city... but i just felt really strange about pointing a camera at random people like some kind of stalker.  i'd be really interested in talking to some street photographers about how they do this without offending people.  perhaps then i'd feel a lot more comfortable about it and actually give it a try.

anyway, here are a few shots for your viewing pleasure.  i'm proud to say i shot most of the photos today in manual mode.  the light meter is now my best friend.  i did use the aperture priority mode a few times and the shutter priority mode once or twice as well.  

i call these first ones my 'gritty southeast portland' shots.  i had a hard time getting inspired over on that side of the river today.  it just seemed very void of people and very industrial.  as such, i added a lot of grain in the following shots and changed them to black and white.  [actually, now that i've typed that, i realized that the second shot was actually on the west side...but i'm sure you get my drift.]

28mm ISO 100 1/640 sec at f/4 

80mm ISO 100 1/100 sec at f/5.3

28mm ISO 100 1/640 sec at f/4

the following were taken on the west side.

this looks like something the college might use on a promotional postcard or an annual report. 

48mm ISO 100 1/100 sec at f/4.8

i was trying to play around with slower shutter speeds on this one and catch the bike in motion.  it didn't really work that well, but i'm posting it anyway so you can see my first attempt at trying.

24mm ISO 100 1/100 sec at f/4.0

can't have a portland series without a brewpub!

18mm ISO 100 1/50 sec at f/3.5

21mm ISO 100 1/200 sec at f/4.0

this was a fountain that i came across.  it was dedicated to someone for their support of the arts.

38mm ISO 100 1/50 sec at f/4.5

38mm ISO 200 1/200 sec at f/4.5

this was taken at barista.  i love the variety of colors and textures in the bricks.  it makes such a complex look, especially given that most bricks look so straight, clean and boring.

35 mm ISO 200 1/60 sec at f/4.5

this might be one of the few times that you'll see a photo of chad.  he usually gets kind of annoyed when i stick the camera in his face!  

18mm ISO 200 1/200 sec at f/3.5

and because she's such a wonderful, beautiful wee girl, here is a shot of fife.

66mm ISO 1250 1/6 sec at f/5.3

now, in honor of the title, i'm going to watch the latest episode of portlandia online.  gotta love that show!!

p.s. chad bought me a crumpler camera bag today as a late christmas present.  so excited!

¡Salud! success

wow, i really am the worst blogger on the planet.  i do all my updates on facebook, so i forget (or fail to take the time) to update my blog. 

today i have a reason to update since i have this amazing photo to share.  doesn't my husband look awfully dashing in a tux?   

it was taken by my friend carolyn wells-kramer at the ¡Salud! auction on saturday night.  she is a great wine country photograper here in the valley. 

the new zealand travel package i put together was the highest earner of the night, fetching a whopping $15,000!  that package itself will give nearly 188 vineyard workers comprehensive preventative medical, dental and vision care next year.  very cool!

at last glance, we had sold 16 tickets for the nz/oregon pinot noir "showdown" tasting, so less than 20 to sell and still two months to do it in.  we should get there! 

word for the day: discouraged

i had another physical therapy treatment this morning and discussed the option to postpone the marathon with my therapist.  we both agreed it would be in my best interest to switch to the spring season (eugene marathon).  that will give me 3 months to rest my leg, do some strengthening exercises and try to correct the muscle imbalances.


i'm not going to lie, i'm not happy.  to have trained all this time and not be able to cross the finish line with my team pretty much sucks.  but, from all accounts, the eugene marathon is a cool event and (added bonus) at least one of my current teammates will be running the season with me.  oh, and my funds for TNT transfer with me.  so, all is not lost. 


unfortunately, the weather today is cold and rainy, so i think that's just exacerbating my discouraged mood.  i'm drowning my sorrows in a latte. 

i hate quitting.

the portland marathon is 19 days away and i have 3 days to decide if i'm running it or not. if i don't run it, i can still transfer to another season (probably the summer season and do the eugene marathon on 5/1/11) and not lose too much of the money i fundraised.

but i hate quitting. the competitor in me wants to run (we're "thisclose" to the race and i've been training for 4 months!).

knee -- you're killing me here!!!

iliotibial what?

i kind of suck at blogs! i always get really excited about the prospect of keeping a blog, but then i suddenly realize that i haven't posted in two months, which kind of defeats the purpose of keeping a blog.

at any rate, the big news lately is that i have been battling with iliotibial band syndrome (according to wikipedia, one of the leading causes of lateral knee pain in runners). with the portland marathon less than 3 weeks away, i am getting less and less optimistic about actually accomplishing my marathon goal this year. which, i'm not going to lie, is a huge bummer considering i've now put 4 months of time into it (7 if you count the half marathon training from january to april). but when i can barely make it through the first 6 miles of a 20 mile run, i'm not so sure that 4 1/2 hours of running in excruciating pain sounds like fun.

so, i'm very, very, very cautiously optimistic that this thing will work itself out before 10/10/10. after all, it came on without warning, so perhaps it will go away without warning. in the meantime, i'm going to physical therapy and hoping that will help.

next year, I might try biking instead!

blue skies... smiling at me...

nothing but blue skies... do i see...

yes, that's right, we haven't seen the rain in oregon for several days now! yippee! in fact, i even put shorts on yesterday. yes, shorts at the end of june - crazy thought, right?

it's amazing how good you feel when the warm sun hits your face. i think that's the good thing about spring and all the rain. it makes you appreciate the great weather so much more when sun finally comes your way, and not take the sun for granted. this logic could be applied to a lot of things in life, as i'm sure we've all experienced.

this week was quite something. i got a lot done:

i signed up as a monthly donor to the un refugee agency and am currently filling out a volunteer application for global soul international.

i met with the panel members for the new zealand vs. oregon pinot noir "faceoff" tasting i'm organizing to raise money for ¡salud!

i celebrated my 1 year anniversary at adelsheim - and therefore could finally become a responsible adult and sign up for a 401k.

we made a decision on packaging changes for our wallace brook label. (yay! forward motion!)

we started making plans for the winery's 40th anniversary next year - quite the event line-up!

coming up:
i'll run 9 miles in the morning with team in training!! then i'll be helping on saturday, sunday, monday and tuesday with oregon pinot camp!

on monday, chad and i will also be attending a lecture called "food, labor and immigration," which should be extremely interesting - especially given chad's work as a viticulturist managing a non-english speaking all-hispanic crew.

all this while the blue skies keep smiling! :-)

what i'm thankful for today - seasons. winter and spring make you really appreciate summer when it finally makes an appearance! fall is simply gorgeous.

my internal conflict

on tuesday night, i watched the movie beyond borders which we had from netflix. i actually used to own the movie and lost it somewhere along the way (i think it ended up being left behind at the abbey in pontlevoy). at any rate, i can honestly say that it is one of my favorite movies ever made. it touches me beyond words; i was literally crying throughout the movie. i know exactly how angelina feels when she is at the charity ball and clive owen bursts in with the ethiopian boy. he starts talking about life in the western world, about champagne, and dancing, and the wastefulness of it all... all while the ethiopian boy he has brought lives on less than 300 calories a day. she breaks out in tears and the next thing you know, she is in africa bringing medical supplies and food - and ends up working for the united nations refugee agency (UNHCR).

you probably all know that during college and after graduation, i had longed for a career in diplomacy, international relations or international development. after a failed attempt at a state department internship in bangkok in 2003, i applied for the peace corps. i was halfway through the application process (about to get my medical exam) when i got the offer to go work in france. and we all know that's where i met chad and went to new zealand and ended up in the wine industry.

i love working in this industry, don't get me wrong. wine people are very passionate about what they do - not only that, but they are just plain fun. the wine we make is really beautiful and i certainly enjoy drinking it. wine bonds people and is part of some very memorable social experiences. it sparks conversation, it speaks to its home, it comes in many different forms, it is wrapped up in cultures all over the globe - in much the same way as cuisine. oh, and my office looks out on a vineyard. seriously. it's a beautiful place to be.

that said, over the last nearly six years in the industry, i have really struggled to come to grips with what i do. when it comes down to it, i'm not helping anyone. what i'm doing is promoting a product that is a discretionary expense. i deal with people with too much money and too many coture clothes for their own good. winemaking is farming and fermenting fruit. however, people make it out to be much more important than it actually is. i help sell $75 bottles of wine when what i really want to do - if i'm completely 100% honest - is send that $75 to the UNHCR for refugees. i mean, really, there are 10.5 MILLION refugees in the world right now. can you imagine being uprooted from your home, never able to return due to war, civil unrest, persecution or otherwise...? walking for days upon days just to get to some help, facing wild animals, crazy guys with machine guns, rape, murder, torture along the way? that really puts things into perspective, doesn't it? watch the movie hotel rwanda if you want to see it in full moving color. the quote "you're black. not only are you black, but you're african" makes me, in a word, sad.

today i came across the blog of photographer joni kabana who is from here in oregon. she recently spent some time in ethiopia documenting maternal medical projects. i had no idea that something like fistulas even existed. the fact that joni met an 8-year-old girl with one because she had been sodomized just makes me completely disgusted by what horrible things one human being can inflict on another. even more than that, the fact that women in the developing world walk for days to get to these clinics is astonishing. many of them are turned away because there is so much need for help and there are so few doctors. one of the things joni talked about was the pain of turning someone away when you knew their need was just as great as the person you chose to help. how do you decide who gets helped and who doesn't?

i want to donate to global soul international. i want to help. i want to buy that nikon d90 and learn every nook and cranny so i can help tell stories like the stories of these women in ethiopia or the stories of the refugees that unhcr helps on a daily basis. i want to travel abroad and volunteer. i just can't shake that need to help, even when sitting here in my air conditioned office looking out on the vineyard and drinking my readily available cold and clean water. for now, i donate. then i learn. then i travel.

watch this space. and in the meantime, donate to UNHCR, global soul international, or one of the many hundreds of aid organizations that exist, if you can. even $15 helps.

p.s. the thing i'm grateful for today is technology. without it, stories like those joni heard in ethiopia wouldn't get told as easily or to as many people.

stretching and strengthening in a dimly lit room

i am at peace with the fact that i will never be able to do this move (above), but i still love power yoga all the same.

in all my inflexible glory, i get to do the half series in a dimly lit room with wonderful soothing tunes in the background. while we all balance on one foot and reach our arms forward and our foot backward, and we shake while we try to hold ourselves in place, i find incredible peace. i can stand in warrior pose feeling the strength in my arms, rooting myself into the mat, and finding power in my soul. it is one hour of my week where i can take my time breathing in and breathing out, slowly stretching, feeling my muscles unwind... and working some muscles that would (i am ashamed to admit) not get worked otherwise (boat pose with arms open wide to one side, obliques burning, is one example).

in short, he who invented power yoga is a genius.