2.28.2012

Monday Funday

Recently I sorta played hooky and spent the day home on a Monday with Chris.  We really didn't sleep well the night before so the extra day off helped us rejuvenate (well for me) for yet another week.  After I napped for a few hours and Chris rested in his own way we both started to get a little stir crazy.  It was a beautiful sunny day so we decided go for a walk/hike.

One of my favorite things to do is explore parks in the area I have never been to.  The closest one I hadn't been to was Brush Creek Park in Beaver Falls, PA (in the middle of nowhere).  I had never heard of it but Chris ran there in high school a few times for MACs (not sure what it stands for - running was not my thing).  I fell in love with the pictures of the place when I googled it because of the covered bridge.  I love bridges but REALLY love covered bridges.

Knowing I wanted to get photos of the covered bridge we drove a few miles deeper into the park.  I (being the one who drives often because I get car sick pretty easily) passed the parking spot closest to the covered bridge.  I kept going thinking there was a spot EVEN closer (I can be really lazy sometimes).  Alas, there was not, so we trail-blazed a little from our parking spot to the covered bridge.  As always, I had my camera with me and was already starting to annoy Chris by stopping to get a photo of the log, the leaves, the trees, the sun shining through the trees, our shadows, etc (you know how it goes).  It wasn't until I took my finger off the trigger for a few seconds and looked at my screen to see the photos I had just taken that I realized that I had left the camera chip AT HOME!  After a profanity or two (and maybe a little tantrum) I remembered I had my iPhone.  iPhone to the rescue!  I'm sure Chris was just thrilled;)

I am still a little disappointed I wasn't able to get pictures with my "big camera" (hehe Jenny, get it?) but so glad I had something with me to capture the moments from the walk.

Most of the photos were taken with my Hipstamatic App but a few with Cross Process.  Since Hipstamatic has added a "favorites" (where I can keep all my favorite lens/film combinations) I have been using it a lot more.  Before I was so intimated and overwhelmed.  Now, I love (bordering obsessed) it!  
light at the end of the tunnel. 
reflecting sun
uphill
keep keepin on
view from the top
peering over
looking through 
no hunting
One of the problems with being the one always having the camera and taking the pictures is I rarely have a photo of myself.  Chris dared me to walk across this log.  I tossed him my phone to get the photo.  And yes, however not gracefully, I did make it.  No broken bones either;)

shining on 
entrance - Instagram 
Wouldn't that bridge be just perfect for a photo shoot?!  Hint Hint;)

2.27.2012

Photo Scavenger Hunt

As I have mentioned before I have been looking for any excuse to bring my camera with me anywhere I go.  That way Chris can't role his eyes when I say "I'm bringing my camera" and give me a hard time about it... MUAHAHAHAHA!

Anyway, browsing the blogs I follow I found one.  It's called Sunday Scavenger Hunt from Ashley Sisk's Ramblings and Photos.  Each week you are given 5 ideas to photograph and you photograph them throughout the following week.  This past week was the first week I decided to participate.

(And yes, I do realize the photo challenge is called Sunday Scavenger Hunt and I do know today is Monday not Sunday.  Luckily, you are given to Tuesday night to upload the photos to your blog and link it to Ramblings and Photos.  My excuse is I was out of town;))
1. Glimpse
This was taken while driving to work one morning last week.  A glimpse behind me told me it was going to be a beautiful day. 
2. Bliss
Remember being a child and how happy you were on those warm days when you were free to escape for a few hours before the sun went down in late winter months?  Pure bliss
 3. Gray
Weather in Pittsburgh this year has been strangely mild.  Lately, it has been even a little warmer.  I went out for a photo walk on my lunch break to take advantage of the gorgeous day before having to spend another 3.5 hours in the basement/dungeon office.  I cut through this playground back to work. 
 4. Crossed
This past weekend Chris and I went to Ann Arbor to visit my sister.  We were getting a little stir crazy and decided to take a walk (cough cough) around the University of Michigan campus.  What a beautiful campus.  The vine covered walls of most the buildings are my favorite.  
 5. Handwritten
The 47 images I am in the process of editing from a Senior Portrait Session for a week and a half ago.  

Have you been looking for an excuse to carry your camera around with you?  Isn't this the perfect one?  I have learned so much in the past weeks just experimenting with the different settings on my camera.  

2.23.2012

Laughter

I knew this week's challenge would be difficult.  It is so easy to capture a smile in a photograph but to capture laughter?  You really need to be there with a camera at just the right moment.  I had tried that approach this week sitting with my coworkers who are always laughing with and at one another so I thought I'd be able to capture at least one laugh.  WRONG.  Unfortunately for me, but a lot like me, my coworkers do not really care to be photographed so they were turning their heads away from the camera not allowing me to get what I wanted.  Thanks a lot coworkers:-P

Luckily, I stumbled across this photo I took a few weeks ago (which you may recognize from this post) and thought it was perfect for this week's laughter photo challenge

I just love this face.  Looks like I told him something that he thought was just hilarious.  

What about you?  What makes you laugh? Do you have any pictures of laughter you'd like to share?  

Almost the weekend!! WOOT WOOT!

2.22.2012

afternoon drive

Yesterday I was driving back from getting Inspection stickers put back on my car (I have been driving around without them for a month or two because I got my window replaced after it had been inspected) and noticed this gorgeous sky.


Happy Hump Day and first day of Lent!  What are you giving up for the next 40 days? 

2.19.2012

Movie/Song Title & Light

Wow, I have been slacking this month in my posts.  Oopsy Poopsy.  February has just been flying by...

This past week was busy.  A good kinda busy though:)  Last Saturday I had a Head Shot shoot for a local entrepreneur and on Wednesday I had a Senior Portrait session.  Hoping to share soon.

Along with everything else, I have been falling behind on my weekly photo challenge posts.  Due to my laziness, this post is dedicated to the last two weeks LensProToGo weekly photo challenge.

The Week of Feb 6-12 was Movie/Song Title.  I knew trying to pick just one song or movie was going to be difficult.  I love music and I have so many favorite songs that really just depend on my mood at that moment.  Like always, I had my itunes library up set to random (even though I really don't think it is random) jamming to some tunes while editing photos when a song I had not heard in a while and love came on (don't you just love when that happens?).  Hello Aha moment!

"All I Want Is You" by Barry Louis Polisar from Juno
"If you were the winter, I know I'd be the snow
Just as long as you were with me, when the cold winds blow."

Chris was so great.  When I asked him if he would pose for me he said sure but when I asked him to go outside he said "WHAT?! Like for how long?"  After about 5 minutes he started to get a little inpatient asking are you done yet.  Who can blame the guy.  Danke Christoph:)

This past week, Feb 13-19, category was Light.  I actually thought the past week's category was next week's category but was relieved to see this morning I was wrong.  Phew!  Anyway, being as it is a sunny day here I knew I wouldn't have a problem capturing light until I was reminded, while dumping my iPhone photos from the past week, that I had actually captured a photo fitting for the week's Light category. 

Instagram - Earlybird 
My original plan was to only shoot the photos for the weekly photo challenge with my DSLR.  But you can't always plan moments like this.  Being that my phone is always close by I was able to grab this photo yesterday while we watched 24 as Chris biked on his stationary bike.  I was starting to get irritated that the sun kept shining through causing a glare on the TV so that I couldn't see.  After flipping out taking a deep breath I was able to see the beauty.  I love the sun rays shining through.    

What are some of your favorite moments you captured during the past week?  

Time to shower and get ready to meet high school friends for lunch for another, at least i hope, 5 hour lunch:)

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

2.15.2012

Passin' on the Liebster Love

On Friday, I was busy at work when I got a notification on my phone saying I was tagged in a post on Facebook.  Even though I was oh so busy (HA!) I checked it out.  I can't help it, I'm nosy (Yinzers call it nebby).  What a great surprise to see I was given the Liebster Blog award from Kristen over at un homme et une femme!  If you have a minute do yourself a favor and head over to her blog.  I promise, you won't be disappointed.

What a great way to end a hell of a week and start the weekend.  Merci beaucoup (or should I say Danke?) Kristen for thinking of me and the kind words.  Like you said, it is really nice to know someone is reading my posts (and I do appreciate the German aspect of the word).
The word Liebster is a German word meaning "favorite, beloved, dearest."  A blogger is nominated for this award if they have under 200 followers.  And once you have been nominated you are to pass on the award to bloggers who have inspired you.  

Without further ado, I'd like to pass it onto 3 of my favorite blogs/bloggers who inspire me with every read: 

1) Angie from Aloha: Yinz Mangia!
I went to high school with Angie and played volleyball with her.  Unbeknownst to me, she was a secret chef.  You'd think after all those volleyball dinners I would have discovered this.  She shares her passion for cooking and her favorite recipes all the way from Hawaii (it's okay to be jealous) on her blog.  Now, I am not much of a cooker but her posts do make my mouth water and trick my brain into thinking I am a cook.  And while you're visiting her blog, make sure to congratulate her.  She just got engaged!

Melissa is an amazing interior designer based in Richmond, VA with a vision I can only dream of one day (maybe) having.  She finds furniture, pictures, decor, etc from Anthropologie and makes similar products from her discoveries at local thrift stores for loads cheaper and, in my opinion, a lot nicer.  She also makes beautiful bangles that she sells.  

3) Lindsey Orton from Lindsey Orton Photography
I have never met Lindsey and to be honest I am not quit sure how I stumbled across her blog but I have been blown away by her work ever since.  Rather recently she has been sharing her photos from a series titled Princess Bridals where she photographs brides with a Disney Princess theme.  My favorite is Jasmine.  You know that is a good idea when you say to yourself; "damn, I wish I had come up with that myself."  

It has been such an honor to get this award and I am more than happy to pass it on to my favorites.  Us bloggers need to look out for one another;)

2.10.2012

Music Love

I love good music and am always looking for new music to listen to and add to my iPod/iPhone.  My favorite station to listen to in Pittsburgh is  91.3 WYEP.  Plays great music (mostly Indie Rock) with few interruptions.  On my drive to work during the week around 7:15, Cindy (the Morning Mix DJ, for lack of a better word) announces the Daily Feedback.  The Daily Feedback is a list of three songs that are played every day at 4:20 (giggle giggle) chosen by the WYEP staff from a category named that morning.  Today's category: "Songs you hated as a child, but like as an adult."

Cindy introduced the topic by saying how common it is for us, as adults, to hear music we loved as a child but cringe when we hear it now.  For me personally, I love hearing songs from my childhood.  Popular music played in my house during childhood were Wilson Phillips, Bonnie Rait and Van Morrison.  I don't necessarily cringe when I hear them but laugh instead at my parents' taste in music and what was once popular.  My first concert was Hootie & The Blowfish... with my parents.  Go ahead and laugh (but chances are you had their CD).  Even though I may be embarrassed by parents' (mine by default) choice in music I can't help but feel nostalgic and smile from whatever memory that song brings.

This morning I literally laughed out loud when the first song Cindy played after announcing the Daily Feedback:

Annie Lennox - Walking On Broken Glass

Holy flashback!  This song immediately took me back to driving with the fam to the Memphis Zoo in my parents' Suburban (so economical I know) circa 1992.  Amazing what a song can do.  

For those of you who are interested the three songs chosen for the Daily Feedback today were John Prine "Donald & Lydia," Joni Mitchell "The Last Time I Saw Richard," and Steely Dan "Green Earrings."  Any of those ring a bell for you?  Yeah, me either.  

With all that being said, what are your favorite songs from childhood?  Or are you too embarrassed to share;)???

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Friday Photo Dump:

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Heading to a concert tonight with Chris and some coworkers!  Hoping to have my camera with me to get some photos.  I'll be sure to share what I can with y'all later.  

Happy Weekend!

2.05.2012

Playtime

A few weeks ago Pittsburgh got some snow that actually stuck to the ground.  As with most Sundays, Chris and I headed over to his parents' in Sewickley.  The human Cornmans weren't there but we were greeted with the canine Cornmans (with the new addition barking in the distance) that always put a smile on my face.  With my camera in tow I let them out to play in the snow covered back yard.

This is Ziva, the new addition to the canine Cornman family.  Can you tell she is a shit starter? 

 This is Sammy.  Ziva likes to give him a hard time.  

 And this is Jack.  He is the sweet one.  

See?  Ziva shit starting. 
Thought this one was sweet.  
It looks like I just told Jack something and he thinks it is just HILARIOUS. 
Ziva playing/annoying Sammy
Reconvening to discuss what their next plan of action is.
Patiently waiting for their treats.  Ziva has learned this routine pretty quickly. 
Now can you see why the Cornmans greeting committee brings a smile to my face each time I go over there?

2.03.2012

I Left My Heart In...

I was a little disappointed about this week's LensProToGo photo challenge.  Not because I didn't think it was a good idea.  But because I wasn't challenged to take a new photo as the category was "I Left My Heart In..."and it was acceptable to use an old image.

My original idea was to use a photograph taken at my parent's lakehouse in Drasco, AR.  The lakehouse represents relaxation, family, comfort, laughter and love for me.  It has been a great "go to" vacation spot when I've been in need of a little R&R.

But yesterday, as I was feeling nostalgic, I started to look through my good ole Webshots albums from 6 or 7 years ago.  As I was browsing I came across a photo I took of my family's house in Sewickley, PA on the first, last snow at the house (circa 2005).  Like I mentioned in this post my parents relocated in June 2006.  Moving around a lot as a kid I never really got attached to one house.  But spending 10 years in one home (the longest house we lived in) it is not hard not to get attached.  This house was just perfect.  Everything about it.

I left my heart on 622 Grove Street...


And doesn't the snow add that extra... something?  Seriously, perfection.  

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Happy Friday Photo Dump Day:

As you can tell, I had a LOT of fun with Hipstamatic this week:)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  Chris and I have an exciting weekend of cleaning and organizing... 

Alyson