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.
so, i mentioned a couple of months ago that i have been working on implementing dave ramsey's baby steps into my financial life and i'm on step two: list your debts smallest to largest and pay them off as a 'debt snowball.' (chad is working on step 3 since he is already debt free.)
i'm happy to announce that debt number two was paid off just moments ago. so, i now have $0 in credit cards and $0 in car loans! YES!
there are still two student loans for me to work on, though, while chad continues on his savings plan for our emergency fund and a "one last hurrah before kids" trip to south america at the end of this year.
it's a slow process (or at least it seems that way), but we are getting there little by little. it will be so worth it in about 16 months when everything is paid off and we have a fully stocked emergency fund!
if you're in san francisco before april 17th, i highly recommend checking out the wine exhibit at the san francisco museum of modern art. if you have even the slightest interest in wine, i think you will find it highly interesting.
it amazes me how small the world wine industry is (in terms of how closely different wine producing regions and countries are connected). for example, the first photo below shows the peregrine winery in central otago featured in a winery architecture exhibit in san francisco. the fact that i've been inside that winery and i was seeing it on display in the states just fascinates me. it's a small world after all...
this is a portrayal of the "judgement of paris" tasting in 1976:
i was working on my photography assignment this week to take a photo of someone i don't know. what did i learn from this assignment? that it's really unnerving to take photos of people when you haven't asked. plus, they turn out better when you do ask... and a photography class is a very good excuse for taking photos of random people. they don't seem to think you're as much of a creeper as they otherwise could.
this was a study on wine label design. you can see how they have it divided up by categories:
a rather humorous wine label on display:
great quote from wine writer matt kramer:
chad and i had a GREAT day in sonoma county! we visited seven wineries today: seghesio, rochioli, copain (I ♥), j vineyards, ridge, bella, and sbragia.
it was a little bit hit-and-miss, but our favorites by far were copain and sbragia. ridge was a very close third. the guy pouring at j vineyards wins the style award, though.
tonight we're going out for a vietnamese dinner! having so much fun and loving my husband! i'm a lucky girl. :)
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.
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!):
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.
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?
