My children, outdoors

When the light outside is this great, you can't help but take photos of these adorable subjects! 

Paris: Notre Dame

Continuing from my previous post...

We made our way to Notre Dame, as it's one of the places Evan was very excited to see (again).

Paris: Seine and Saint Chappelle

We arrived in Paris a week ago Monday, much later than planned but ready to hit the city after freshening up at our hotel. Since we'd each gotten a maximum of about 4 hours of sleep on the plane, we didn't have anything planned for the day beyond walking across the Seine to the Ile de Citie to visit Notre Dame and Saint Chappelle, both on the island. Just walking through Paris you see the most beautiful buildings.

WPP: March 18-24

Two weeks ago the theme for our weekly project was "Vintage Cars". I'm not a car person, and I very rarely have the chance to see any that would be considered vintage, much less take a photo. However, that weekend I happened to take a low-light photography class in Georgetown (Washington, DC) and captured this vintage vehicle. No one said that vintage has to mean "mint condition", right?

One of the aspects of the class was to play with white balance to get different "moods" in the photo, particularly as the light is changing due to sunset. I used the tungsten light setting on my camera; when used outdoors, it creates this great moody blue tinge to the photo. I was very happy with how it came out, and can't wait to share my favorite photos from the class here!

For last week (March 25-31), I was out of town in Paris and missed the submission. The title was "Something I See Everyday", which would've been a lot of fun to add to, but being in Paris just wasn't in the cards. I most likely would've submitted a shot of my kids or dog!

Speaking of Paris, I ended the trip with over 1,500 photos to go through. I am hopeful to start on that this week, but we're moving over the next three days (my house is currently a mass of boxes, all to be loaded on the truck tomorrow), and I still have a boudoir shoot to finish editing and get to my client. It will all happen at some point, right?!

And I'm off!

Tomorrow evening at this time, I will be on a plane over the Atlantic Ocean headed to Paris for a week. My husband and I had always talked about going to Paris (or possibly London & Paris) for our 10th anniversary, and somehow, despite many possible impediments, it's happening! Even better, we're going with two of our favorite people on earth, good friends of ours who are also celebrating their 10th anniversary this year (we got married within 3 weeks of each other; she and I were in each other's wedding).

I'm excited for so many things about this trip, but one of the most exciting things will be the photography opportunities! I can't wait to share photos here with everyone. I think I have all of my gear packed; most everything is in my new camera bag (from jototes.com) - I am in love with this bag! It doesn't even look like a camera bag from the outside, which is helpful as I've been told by so many people about the high risk of pick pockets/crime in Paris, so I'm glad to have something that would be difficult to steal (assuming I'm keeping it across my body, as planned).

Winterguard Competition

Throughout high school and college I participated in winterguard - if you don't know what it is, picture a colorguard from a marching band, but indoors with more dance, grace, and performed to a recording, not a marching band. Search youtube for some examples if you're really curious...or if the photos below pique your interest!

American Museum of Natural History: Animals & Bones

As I posted on our family blog, we recently spent an afternoon at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. When not having fun with the kids, I was spending time trying to get the highest quality photos possible in a crowded museum through thick glass, without my external flash (batteries died about 10 minutes in and I had no spares - lesson learned!). Not all of them were winners, but on the whole I'm really happy with these. To prevent the post from getting too long I'm only showing my absolute faves here.

WPP: March 10-17

The theme for this week is "Bridges". I had a few photos from some recent photo expeditions that I were possibilities, but I knew that my ideal photo would be from our trip to Australia in 2009. We spent a couple of days in Sydney, and I have many photos of the Sydney Harbor Bridge (along with the Sydney Opera House, Zoo, and the rest of that beautiful harbor!). Sadly, I had a simple Canon point-and-shoot at the time, so my photos are nowhere near the quality that I like to have now, but despite that I'm still very happy with this photo, and thus it was my submission for the week.

Taken near sunset, April 2009.

WPP: Wrap-up to this week

Ok, these don't seem to be very popular posts, but I'm proud of these photos so I want to get them out for any fans to see. So, instead of continuing to do a separate post for each week as I catch up, here are my submissions from January 28- March 10.

WPP: Week of Jan 21-28

As I mentioned previously, I didn't have anything to submit for the subject of "Doors" for the week of January 14. The winner that week chose the subject "At the Movies" for the following week, and I had a couple of thoughts for shots that I could set up. However, the week started to get away from me, and I found myself in Philadelphia for work. One of my clients is in a building near Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and from their floor you can see this beautiful view of the city. So, my submission for this week was "Philadelphia". The photo was taken on my iPhone through a thick glass window, so all in all I was very pleased with how it came out.