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? 

how to earn points with your wife

i'm pretty sure i have the best husband in the world.  he organized a valentine's weekend getaway to salishan lodge in lincoln city for all three of us.  i had no idea until yesterday morning when he told me that we were going to the coast... and to pack a bag because we'd be there overnight... oh, and that we were going out to dinner, so make sure to bring some nice clothes.  in fact, i had absolutely no idea exactly where we were going until we pulled into that beautiful place.

well, i can tell you that chad earned lots of points from both me and fife.  she was excited that she got to go along, although she's never stayed in a hotel room before, so she was a little unsure of what was going on.  all was redeemed, though, when she got to run on the beach this morning.  

and me?  well, i got the most amazing five course dinner at the restaurant at salishan last night.  duck confit, lobster bisque, salad, filet mignon, and chocolate mousse... complemented by a matanzas creek 04 chardonnay and mayol 02 sebastian vineyard cabernet sauvignon from mendoza, argentina.  not sure what i did to deserve all of that, but it was amazing!  

today, we took fife for a walk on the beach (i gimped along as my knee still hurts from an ongoing running injury) and then chad and i had lunch (and beer!) at rogue brewery in newport.  

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. 

vintage action

one of the things i need to do (and soon) is learn how to use photoshop.  in the meantime, i downloaded some actions and i like how this vintage action came out on this photo of chad: 

goals list check-in

on 17 june, i made a list of goals i wanted to accomplish before i turned 30.  i figured since i only have 4 months to go, i might as well check in:

1) run the cascade lakes relay and the portland marathon (training in progress)  i did the cascade lakes relay and had an awesome time!  i'm actually signed up to do the hood to coast in august 2011 with my tnt girls.  we are called the 'fit beaches.'  hehe.  

unfortunately, the portland marathon thing didn't work out because of IT band syndrome.  i'm trying again for the eugene marathon on 1 may, but - honestly - i'm not feeling so confident.  i had IT band problems again on saturday (the first time this season).  i'm debating on whether i want to go through the whole physical therapy debacle again.  it didn't work last time.  i'm running again tomorrow (12 miles if all goes well), so i'll know more once that happens. 

2) sell the house in nz; explore options for buying here in the valley  we have the house back on the market as of the end of november, but not one person has looked at it.  so frustrating!  the market in cromwell is dead as a doornail right now and the realtors don't seem to have anything optimistic to say to us (that is, if they say anything at all - communication doesn't seem to be their strong point).  we might just have to call this goal a wash for now.

3) start a 401k (i.e. finally be a responsible adult) - plus some other financial goals  started the 401k, but then stopped contributing in january, as i am now working on my debt snowball.  according to my schedule, i should have my two student loans paid off in 18 months!!  how amazing will that be?  

4) buy a nikon d90, keep reading photography books and blogs, and see if we can't create some acceptable images!  i am extremely happy to say that, due to my amazing employer, this is underway!  i got the camera last month and started photography classes this week!  i'm SO, SO, SO excited!!!

5) go to nz for dane and julia's wedding and christmas with the douglas clan  due to dave ramsey, i opted to forgo this trip.  chad and i went solo for a few weeks -- i went to michigan for the holidays and he went to nz.  it worked out very well, as i hadn't been back to michigan since the previous christmas.

6) book trip to chile and peru (even if the actual travel doesn't happen until after my 30th birthday)  the plans for this trip are underway, although it has been edited to include peru and argentina!  we have a whiteboard on our fridge that is tracking our savings goals and we should be on track to book flights in june for travel in november.  we're tentatively going to peru to hike to machu picchu, followed by a couple of weeks in argentina -- mendoza, salta and buenos aires.  


i guess - overall - this isn't so bad.  goals 1 and 2 are kind of out of my hands, goals 3 and 5 got amended for bigger goals, and goals 4 and 6 are very much underway.  

pressing déglacé

this morning, our winemaking team pressed frozen pinot noir grapes to begin the process of making a dessert wine we call deglace.  these are grapes that we grew in our vineyards last year (harvested in october 2010) and they were sent to a commercial freezer until the winemaking team was ready to make the wine.  once it's made, it needs to be bottled right away (i.e. this style of wine doesn't take too well to sitting in a tank), so they are preparing it for a bottling run we have scheduled in april.

if you click on the deglace link above, you can read about why we freeze the grapes and how the wine is made.

in the meantime, here are a few shots from this morning.  it was a frosty, but very sunny and clear day!

66mm, f5.3, 1/3200 sec.

18mm, f/3.5, 1/40 sec

18mm, f/3.5, 1/6400 sec

18mm, f/3.5, 1/3200 sec

28mm, f/4.0, 1/30 sec

40mm, f/4.5, 1/15 sec