we interrupt your regularly scheduled programming…

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming…for a quick trip from the West Coast over to the East Coast.  West Virginia, to be exact.  ”Wild and Wonderful,” as they say.  So, I realized that I forgot to post a couple of photos from my Blackwater Falls State Park last year (and I can’t believe this photo is one of them, as it’s one of my favorite photos!).  So, ladies and gents, here you have it:  a snap-shot of the Upper Elakala Falls.  Absolutely beautiful location.  You walk across the falls on the bridge in the picture, then follow the trail.  If you’re daring like Jay and I, you then off-road yourselves and climb down the slippery dirt and wet rocks to get to a place closer to the falls to take a picture and then prop up your tripod with rocks, jam one of the legs deep in the soil, and use the camera timer so as not to disturb the shot but then slip and fall as you back away from the camera too quickly (again, so as not to disturb the shot).  :-)  I used a wide-open shutter and neutral density filter to get this one.  It was crazy-tricky, as the sun was just starting to fade for the day and it was hard to find a balance between the shutter time and the use of the filter.  But…I got it!   Taken with the Canon Powershot G12 with the built-in neutral density filter.  Specs (just because it took so stinkin’ long to get them right!):  f/5.6, exposure 10secs, ISO 80.   Enjoy!  I do believe I have one or two more from WV, but stay tuned to find out if they get posted next or if we jet back to the California coast!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

happy cows come from california…

 

The skinny on this post:  Happy Cows Come from California.  ‘Nuff said.  Eat cheese, drink milk, and be merry.

Taken with the Canon Powershot G12 on our way up to Santa Rosa, CA via Highway 1.  Indeed, the hills are alive, with the sound of…cows.

I don’t know about you, but I think that these cows look like some of the happiest cows I have ever seen.  How could you not be happy when you live in such beautiful sun-drenched scenery?  This reminds me of a mildly related, brief poem by a dear friend of mine:

I wish I were a glowworm

For they are never glum.

How can you be unhappy

When the sun shines out your bum?

bliss…

I found it!  I really did!  The hills from the famed Windows XP “Bliss” background!!!  As we were driving up the Pacific Coast towards Santa Rosa on Highway 1, I decided to snap some photos from the car.  As the highway curved inland a bit, I remember saying how it looked like we were driving through a Windows XP desktop!  Well, when I looked at my photos later on, this one in particular looked a lot like the “Bliss” wallpaper.  Upon taking my query to trusty Google, I was directed to the all-knowing Wikipedia…which informed me that I had, in fact, been in general vicinity of where the photograph for XP’s “Bliss” was taken!!  Score one for awesome chance photography!!!!!!

Of course, taken with the Canon Powershot G12, and edited in Adobe Photoshop CS5 to remove one stray cow in the photo that looked more like a spot of schmutz on the computer screen than an actual cow.

Stay tuned for more photos from my time in California!

onward, northward…

So, after leaving sunny Sausalito and a lovely lunch behind, we hopped in our Prius and took the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) all the way up to Santa Rosa.  Let me just say, this was one of the best things I have EVER done.  The winding road (very, very, very sharply winding road) clinging to the cliffside, wind in my hair, great music blasting on the radio…what more could a girl ask for?  A cute guy in the driver’s seat?  Check!  Suffice it to say that around nearly every curve I would squeak with joy and say how gorgeous the view was!  Fortunately, Jay was quite amenable to stopping as soon as I would yell, “I have to take a picture!”…how lucky am I?  So, there are lots and lots of photographs heading north on the PCH (and later, lots and lots of photos going south on the PCH).  So many wonderful memories created in that 4 hour drive!

This portion of the trip checked several things off of my bucket list:  drive Highway 1, see the Pacific, dip toes in the Pacific, and take in a rocky coastline.

This photo was taken somewhere between San Fran and Santa Rosa…and is of the aptly named “Hole Rock.”  Beautiful, eh?  I would just like to mention how insanely windy it was from atop that cliff and that this was one of the few shots that was not blurred by a blowing camera!  Of course, taken with the Canon Powershot G12.

Stay tuned for more snapshots from my California escapades!

sunny sausalito…

Wow…I can’t believe its been a month and a half since my last post!!!!  So much going on!  I’m officially in the thick of my fourth (and last!) year of med school.  Rotations have been keeping me super-busy, as well as studying for the USMLE Step 2….and working on residency applications!  So, its 11:30 on a Saturday night and I’m missing my photoblog and I actually have a few spare minutes to post a post!

So, back to the California trip series of photos!  This shot was taken from our lunch table at Bar Bocce in Sausalito (right across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco) the day we arrived in California.  Not a bad view to enjoy with a bite, eh?  A nice leisurely lunch to fortify ourselves for what would become an amazing (and mildly frightening) drive up the Pacific Coast Highway to Santa Rosa!!!

By the way, did I mention that I didn’t realize we were driving across the Golden Gate Bridge until we were halfway across in our rented red Prius (what else would we drive in California?  A Corvette convertible?  Yup, had that booked for our trip until we realized that the trunk would hold ONE carry-on suitcase…so not-compatible with a week-long trip encompassing about  three climates.)…at which point I started squealing with glee (which I did quite a lot on this trip).  Sorry, Jay.  You didn’t need to hear out of your right ear, did you?  Nah…you can be a great pharmacist with one ear.

So, obviously the photo was taken with the Canon Powershot G12.  I officially was on vacation with my two loves:  el boyfriendo and the camera (shall I name it Cameron?).

Stay tuned for more (hopefully more frequent) posts…I have so much to share!!!

check it out…

My photo/micrograph of crystallized glutamine made it into a science web-video!  Its the first picture after the introduction!   Check out the link –>   Science in Seconds  (will open in a new tab)

Click here for my original post of this photograph –>  Original Glutamine Post!  (will open in a new tab)

http://www.scienceinseconds.com/episodes/Life-in-Space

rockin’ rockies…

I almost forgot to post this one first!!!  Obviously, we had to fly over the Rocky Mountains to get to California, but I was beyond excited about this.  See, getting to see a “rocky” mountain (as opposed to the “softer” Appalachians out East) was one of the things on my “Must Eventually Accomplish/See In Life” list.  What better way to start a trip than to tick off an item on that bucket list??  Little did I know that it would be the first of many tick-marks made on this trip!

A little info on the photo:  Taken at 37,000 feet with the maximum zoom on the Canon G12.  I used Adobe Photoshop CS5 to make the photo black and white to bring out all of the detail in the mountains.  A very excellent few hours of flying:  sandwiched between a view of the Rockies and a boyfriend who thought my continuous excited squeals about seeing them were endearing and not annoying.

If you’re going to San Francisco…

Well, world…I finally did it!  I crossed the USA to the other coast!!!  Think of it as East meets West…coast, that is.  My friend from med school was getting married in Santa Rosa (shout-out to the happy couple!), so Jay and I figured, heck, if we’re going that far away, we might as well make a vacation out of it!!!  Thus ensued a week of fun in the sun!

Our amazing itinerary was as follows:

Land in San Francisco (got to see the Rockies & Yosemite from the plane!)–> eat lunch in Sausalito–> drive up the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) to Santa Rosa–> Wedding!–>Trek to Sonoma Lake in Napa Valley plus some wine tasting in the Napa Valley –>Drive to San Francisco–> Sight-see!!!  Take Photos!!!  Quality BF-GF time!!!–> Drive to Pillar Point Beach to collect sea glass–> Drive south on Hwy 1 to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park in Big Sur (stay tuned for the amazing views from here)–>  Continue on Hwy 1 until encounter massive landslide–> take 4 hour detour through a military base at the top of a mountain range (via a one lane road clinging to the edge of the mountain…without a guardrail)–> finally arrive in Long Beach, CA and stay on the Queen Mary for the night (!)–>Ferry to Avalon, Catalina Island!!–> ZIPLINE 500 feet above ground between mountain summits (!)–> beach–>  LAX–> Home (got to see the Grand Canyon from the plane!)

Soooooo much fun!!  I’ll try to post photos in the approximate order that I took them so I can slowly tell the story of my travels   This one is out of order, though, as I will be posting a photo of the Rockies (so excited to finally see real “rocky” mountains, not the worn (but pretty) tree-covered mountains of the East).

Can’t wait to share my trip and photos with you!  I truly believe it is impossible to take a bad photo in California!

Quick story behind this photo:  En route to Sausalito, I realized that we were driving across the Golden Gate Bridge.  After many squeals of excitement that may have left Jay partially deaf in the right ear, I started snapping photos like a mad woman.  Luckily I got a nice skyline shot.  The Bay Bridge is at the left-most edge of the photo.  Naturally, there was a ton of fog in the Bay, so I adjusted the contrast in Photoshop CS5 to sharpen up the photo.  Taken with the Canon Powershot G12!

ENJOY AND STAY TUNED!!!!

New name, same old game…

Well, folks, we all grow and change over time…and it was about time that my photoblog name grew up as well!  Fear not, nothing else has changed.  Just the name.  And what’s in a name?  Isn’t that which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet?

lonely tree…

So this photo was taken in Canaan, West Virginia during a horseback ride through the mountains.  Jay and I planned a lovely day of horseback riding followed by waterfall hunting and hiking in Blackwater Falls State Park.  The ride was lovely–it was a cool day, but the sun was warm on our backs as our trusty steeds followed along on well-worn trails in the mountains and meadows.  As I was riding, I saw this tree all by itself and knew I just had to take a photo…even if I was on a moving horse.  I one-handedly wrangled my camera out of the saddle-bag, pointed, and shot…and fortunately was able to get a nice photo, stay on the horse, and have the horse stay on the trail.  Hooray for multitasking!

Anyhoo, when I looked at the photo later on, I decided that it was just entirely too brown…leafless tree with a backdrop of brown grass and brown mountains.  So, I changed the photo to black and white and hand-colorized it in Photoshop CS5.  I added in a vignette blur and desaturated the tree by hand to really make it pop.  All in all, after spending entirely too much time fiddling with a photo, I’m pretty happy with the results.  It still has that slightly cool, forlorn feel of approaching winter, but a little added interest.

Taken with the Canon Powershot G12!!  )  Stay tuned for more West Virginia trip photos!

wild and wonderful…

So, here is another shot from my trip to Blackwater Falls State Park in West Virginia last October.  If you look closely at the bottom of the valley, you can see the river meandering through the mountains.  As you can probably tell from how tiny the river looks, this lookout point (Lindy Point) is quite high up.  Now, I’m not afraid of heights, but stepping out to the edge of these rocks to take a picture in the ferocious wind was a bit unnerving, even for me!  But, a good photograph is totally worth a bit of risk, right?    One of my favorite things in this photo is the intensity of the autumn leaves still clinging to the trees on the mountainside more protected from the wind.

By the way, the freshness of the air in this wild and wonderful was simply incredible.  Maybe I only noticed it because of my city-girl lungs, but holy cow.  It was gooooooood.   I think you can appreciate a little of the clean air in the clarity of photo.  I seriously couldn’t stop taking super deep breaths just so I could enjoy the pure, clean air!  Did I mention that this park is literally in The Middle of Nowhere, WV?

Of course…get ready for it…taken with the Canon Powershot G12 (and contrast fixed in Adobe Photoshop CS5)!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, folks,  I upgraded (both things!)!  That little puppy is INCREDIBLE (and by puppy, I mean camera, not a reference to my family’s dog Lexie, a white Siberian Husky-German Shepherd mix, who at 3 years of age is still a giant puppy).  Amazing image quality, HD video, swiveling LCD screen, fun effects, and so many dedicated wheels for manual photography (including a front thumb wheel that you can dedicate to whatever function you’d like) that the camera literally turns into an SLR if you want it to!  Stay tuned for more G12 photos, including some more at Blackwater using some of the SLR magic of the G12!!!

My thoughts and prayers go out to those in Japan devastated by the earthquake and tsunami.

windmills of your mind…

…a great song by Sting.    So, this photo.  Modernized Holland?  Nope!  Presque Isle State Park on Lake Erie!  Who would’ve thunk it?    So, I was relaxing in the sand when I noticed the windmill (wind direction/speed monitoring thingie?) behind me.  Naturally, I grabbed my camera.  Thus began my mission to get a stinkin’ photo of the thing without the blades blurring!  I can’t even begin to express how many photos of this darn windmill I took!!!  Luckily, I was satisfied with the minimal blur in this one and fortunately, it also had what I felt to be the most pleasing angle for the windmill jutting into the photo.

Taken with the G7.  Obviously.  Contrast fixed in Photoshop.

Enjoy.  I hope it…”blows”…you away.

“…Round, like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel.
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
Like a snowball down a mountain
Or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that’s turning
Running rings around the moon

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on it’s face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind…”

small sandy stonehenge…part 2

Ok, ok…I know:  its about time I posted Part 2 of Small Sandy Stonehenge!  So, here it is.  Taken at Presque Isle State Park in Erie, PA.  Gorgeous beach.  Lovely daytrip with my mom.  Enjoy the photo.  Short & sweet.

Taken with the Canon G7.  Contrast fixed in Photoshop CS3.

new look for a new year…

Here’s my new look for 2011!  Hope you like it as much as I do!  And check out my new page of photography quotes, which will slowly grow as the year wears on.

P.S.  Shout-out to the boyfriend for snapping the photo that was cropped into the header of the page.  Great shot, Jay!  And yes, that is me wearing my camera bag in the photo.  And that cliff was very high up.  And there was no “guardrail”…we hiked outside of the guardrail to climb onto the ledge.  Smart?  Probably not.  Exhilarating?  Definitely.  Windy?  Like all get-out.

Taken at Blackwater Falls State Park in West Virginia!  What a wonderful day of extreme hiking and waterfall hunting!  More photos to follow!

Uncropped version, to give Jay credit for great composition:

happy holidays…

–Click images for larger versions–

Well, it may be a bit after the holidays, but I completely forgot to post this in a more timely manner!!

A few weeks ago, I got an email from my PI at my old lab that I worked at in undergrad saying that one of the images I took on the scanning electron microscope (SEM) was being used for one of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s (UPMC) holiday cards!  Obviously, I was floored!  So, here it is:  the holiday card featuring my SEM image of “Dog Vomit Mold.”  No joke.  That’s the name of it.  Scientific name:  Fuligo septica.  I scraped it off the mulch in front of my brother’s house years ago, processed it for SEM, and took pictures!  Mmmmm….nothing says happy holidays quite like dog vomit mold.  At least the image is colored blue so they sort of look like snowflakes!

Hope everyone is starting 2011 on the right foot!  Happy New Year!

P.S.  Stay tuned for a few more relics from my undergrad research days…and more photography!

sunset seagulls…

I’m baaaaaack!!!  Oh my gosh…I can’t believe its been 1.5 months since I’ve posted!!  Rotations and other things have just kept me so busy lately that my photoblog  got shoved to the back burner.  But, its officially Winter Break now, so here I am!!!

To help ward off the winter chills, here a warm and glowing sunset shot taken from Presque Isle on Lake Erie during the warmest days of summer!  I shot this one during a much-needed daytrip with my mom.  We stayed for sunset (both to see the sights and to justify another round of fudge milkshakes at Sara’s Camground, as our previous round happened only a few hours prior) and the seagulls were extremely active.  They kept rising up in flocks off of the breakwaters offshore and streaking across the sunset as silhouettes.  Gorgeous.

I cannot even begin to tell you how many photos I snapped of the seagulls at sunset.  The number is a bit obscene.  But it was just so pretty!  With such vibrant colors!!  I couldn’t help myself!!!  Luckily, its not like I’m wasting film!

So, enjoy the photo and warm yourselves up a bit!  And if you’re ever on Presque Isle, visit the diner at Sara’s Campground right at the park entrance:  Best.  Milkshakes.  Ever.

(Of course, taken with the Canon G7.  Contrast improved in Adobe Photoshop CS3.)

 

Happy Holidays!!!

midsummer’s midnight blooms…

So, I know I promised “Sandy Stonehenge Part 2,” but I’ve been so antsy to post this photo for quite a while.  Why not build a little anticipation for the second stonehenge with this picture?

I took this shot back in Philadelphia during one of my riverside jogs-turned-photo-excursion.  These little white flowers were blooming everywhere on the ground by the Schuylkill River.  They were lovely on their own, but I couldn’t resist the temptation to add in a “midnight filter” in Photoshop to really make them into something special.  I love the bit of a fairy-tale glow that they now have!

Taken with the Canon G7 and “made extra-special” with Photoshop CS3 & the Midnight Filter.

Stay tuned to for Part 2 of Stonehenge!

small sandy stonehenge…part 1

Its an itty-bitty Stonehenge!  A small, sandy stonescape!

Over the summer, my mom and I took a girls’ Saturday day-trip up to Erie to chill out on the beach at Presque Isle.  What a lovely day!  Towards the end of the day, my overly-relaxed brain apparently regressed to that of a 3-year-old and I built a tiny Stonehenge in the sand.  Then my brain snapped back to photog-mode and I realized that, heck, my small and sandy Stonehenge looked pretty neat up close!  Thus, this picture was born.

Of course, it was taken with the Canon G7.  Slight sepia tone and contrast fiddling were done in Adobe Photoshop CS5 (yes, you read that correctly…I now have the immense pleasure of using CS5!!).

Stayed tuned for the second part of this itty-bitty Stonehenge series!

 

P.S.A. Time (and, no, I don’t mean “prostate-specific antigen”):  TIME TO GET YOUR FLU SHOT, PEOPLE!  I GOT MINE TODAY…NOW GO GET YOURS!

gliding grace…

Ok!  All together now:  “I believe I can fly.  I believe I can touch the sky!!!” 

So, here we have a seagull gliding above the Jersey Shore.  Avalon, to be exact.  Snapped during a lovely day at the beach.  Of course, taken with the Canon G7.

And that’s all folks.  Short and sweet this time.  Check back soon for more posts!

manhattan from the brooklyn…

Manhattan.  Such a small little island.  So many big buildings!    This is one of the views of Manhattan from the approximate middle of the Brooklyn Bridge that I snapped during the much-longer-than-I-expected-a-bridge-could-ever-possibly-be walk.  I went with the black and white version of this shot because it just seemed so much more…New York City.  I’m also totally excited that you can see the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building all in one shot!  Whoopee!

I took this shot last summer during my trip to NYC with the boyfriend, the  future Dr. Heather, and her future hubby (congrats, guys!).  Lets play guess the camera!  Yup!  Canon Powershot G7!  Stay tuned for more posts!

P.S.  Sorry for the few and far between postings lately…rotations have just been eating up my time.  And my precious free time is usually not spent on the computer posting pics (sadly, most of it is spent studying, eating, or sleeping).  Ah, the life of a med student.  Essentially paying to work everyday with borrowed money.  Gotta love it.

meet Adorable Anika…

This lovely lady is Anika, one of my family’s “fuzzies.”  She is quite fond of being photographed–to the point of pushing other cats out of the way when she sees the camera come out (no joke!).  For those of you wondering, she is a purebred Siberian cat and has such a lovely disposition!

This photo was taken, of course, with the Canon Powershot G7.  When I looked at the picture on my computer, I noticed that the screen door she is behind gave a canvas-like quality to the photo, so I just played with the contrast a smidge in Adobe Photoshop CS3 and added a sepia filter to give it more of a “painted” feel.  Then I had a bit more fun and tried a blue filter on her:

And I just couldn’t decide which to post, so here are both!  Feel free to vote in the comments section for the one you like best!

P.S.  Sorry for the delays between posts!  Third year just keeps me so stinkin’ busy!

footprints in the sand…

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there were one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord,
“You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life
there have only been one set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most, you have not been there for me?”

The Lord replied,
“The times when you have seen only one set of footprints in the sand,
is when I carried you.”

“Footprints in the Sand”, by Mary Stevenson

I took this picture up at Lake Erie during the Great Mom/Daughter Saturday Trip of 2010.  We were walking along the water’s edge when I saw these 2 lone footprints in the sand.  No prints leading up to them, no prints extending from them.  It instantly reminded me of the poem above.  The prints looked oh-so-human, but their isolation on the sand had a slightly divine quality.  Besides, the setting sun had cast the loveliest light upon them, so I simply couldn’t resist snapping the shot.  Obviously, taken with the Canon G7.  Small contrast adjustments made with Photoshop CS3 to bring out the depth of the prints.

Enjoy…and stay tuned!

come under my umbrella…

I’m back!  And I survived my surgery rotation!  Onwards and upwards…to internal medicine!  As a woohoo-surgery-is-finito-and-I-officially-have-time-to-myself confirmation moment, my mom and I took a girls’ day-trip to Presque Isle State Park up in Erie to enjoy the beach.  Well, the combination of the beautifully clear, cloudless day combined with the fact that I haven’t taken a single photo since surgery began turned me into a Saturday Shutterbug.  So, kind folks, here we have what I like to call “Colors of Summer.”  Let’s just say that I pretty much think I have the prettiest beach umbrella ever…and I’m a total sucker for rainbow-colored anything.  Enjoy…and stay tuned for more Erie pictures!

Of course, it was taken with the fabulous Canon Powershot G7.

P.S.  Thanks for waiting out the photography dry-spell with me!  Check back often, as I’ll certainly be more diligent with my posts now!

finally back…

Hello again, world!  So, I’ve emerged from the depths of boards studying, sat for the 8-hour exam, and am now in the midst of my surgery rotation.  Yeah…I’m up at 4am to round on my patients by 5am and I usually get home around 7pm.  So, posts may be a bit sporadic (and have short blurbs) for the next 7 weeks, as I typically have 1-2 hours each evening to do all my stuff and still get a decent night sleep.  That said, how cool is it that I get to help with surgeries and get to have my own patients?  Third year of med school is definitely living up to what I had hoped it would be.  Its also amazing to be back on home-turf in Pittsburgh.  Close to family, friends, boyfriend, and a hospital stuck in a slightly safer section of town than Temple 

So, what would a bleary-eyed med student on a surgical rotation need, second only to air and water?  FUZZ!  So, world, here is the family cat, Sadie.  One lovely lady in a group of 5 (!) sweet kitties.  Oh, and I honestly can’t remember which camera I took this photo with, but I’m going to guess my now-stolen Olympus Stylus 820.

Alright.  That’s all.  Its 9:53 and that means it is 53 minutes past my bedtime.  By the way, this officially means that I am 24 years old and going to bed earlier than I did in middle school.  Sad.  So, so sad.

We’ll be right back after the break…

(Cue Mrs. Doubtfire voice) Heeellooooooo!  Just a quick post so that no one thought I perhaps fell off the face of the earth.  Well, I suppose that I have in a way…studying for 8-10 hours per day for the boards has turned me into a recluse.  A recluse who has been spending an ungodly number of hours with her cats.  Med-student-with-a-brain-that-is-quickly-reaching-its-exploding-point?  Check.  Crazy-cat-lady-in-the-making?  Check.  Kitties very happy to have a stay-at-home mommy for 3 weeks?  Check (don’t get used to it, my darling fuzzballs…once rotations start, I’m just going to be the seld0m-seen character that feeds you and seems to be warm to sleep by at night…and if I’m not warm at night, please call for help…I presume I will have been worked to death).

Help!  I’m trapped in my apartment and can’t get out…until May 7th!  Well, I have been patronizing Borders quite a bit.  And I’d really rather not attempt to tally up the number of sugar-free raspberry iced black teas that I’ve consumed in the past few weeks…mmmmmm…..

That said, May 7th from 9am-5pm (!) is the big day!  USMLE Step 1, better watch out, ‘cuz I’m gonna kick your tushie.  And 8pm to who-knows-when is going to be one fantastic night out in Center City with me and med school peeps who have all been cooped up for way longer than can possibly be deemed healthy by the medical profession.

So, I’ll be back with some photos after the most important test of my life…see you then!

colorful cardinal…

Story behind this photo:  I was talking to my mom one afternoon when I looked out my window and saw a lovely red cardinal sitting the tree of my courtyard.  I yelped to my mom that I’d be right back because I needed to take a picture.  The funny thing was that it didn’t phase her a single bit and she just patiently waited for me to capture my perfect shot.  Can you tell I come from a shutterbug?

Anyhoo, this little red fellow was taken with the awesome Canon G7.  I desaturated everything but the bird in Photoshop CS3 and just tinkered with the contrast a bit.  Enjoy!!

city of bridges…

“Pennsylvania’s Watersheds and You”

Check it out!!  I was contacted a while ago by a Pittsburgh engineering firm–they wanted to use my photography on a conservation poster that they were creating!  Well, just click on the photo above (or the link underneath it) and have a look!  I’m so excited that my photograph is on a real publication that will be hanging in real places! 

The photo is of the Pittsburgh skyline in May, as seen from the banks of the Allegheny River (directly across from Point State Park).  It was a river-fest with free kayaking…hence all of the little banana-like things in the picture.  And yes, I did kayak.  And yes, it was great fun.

The image was taken with the (now stolen) Olympus Stylus 820.  Post-processed in Photoshop CS3 for contrast.

DON’T POLLUTE YOUR WATER SUPPLIES!!!  Keep them fresh and safe for yourself and generations to come.

miles of manhattan…

And the computer is up and running!!    I can officially add Tech Master to my skills.  Many thanks to Jay for all his help.  Pharmacist and doctor-to-be saved a (computer) life!!

Anyhoo, lets get to some photography!  This lovely panorama of the Manhattan skyline at dusk was taken from Hoboken, NJ.  Click on the image to see it larger.  Not much to say about the picture except that it was the grand finale to a weekend in NYC.

Of course, I used the fabulous Canon Powershot G7.  I think the image was originally 6 or 7 frames that I then digitally stitched together, adjusted for contrast in Photoshop CS3, and finally, to top off the sundae with a cherry, I transformed the photo into an HDR image.  Enjoy!!!

technical difficulties…

“To err is human.  To really screw up, you need a computer.”

Yup.  The computer has been diagnosed with intractable Blue Screen of Death disease complete with symptomatology of random crashes and error messages.  Thank goodness for regular hard drive back-ups.

It’ll take me a week or so to rebuild this puppy…in the mean time I’m stuck using my new little netbook (which just can’t handle all my photos).  Sooooo, it will be a little while until a new post gets put up (sorry to anyone who is regularly following me!).  On the bright side, as med school is now more or less entirely digitized (as is most of my boards studying), I’m at least not overly stressed because I do have a fully-functional, albeit teensy weensy, computer-like-netbook-thingy.

See you all soon!

through the drinking glass…again…

So, once again, I was a thirsty med student trying to diligently study…but succeeding at getting distracted.  If it wasn’t the cats trying to play with me (Izzie always brings me toys so she can play fetch!), then it was my favorite blue-and-clear glass full of water.  I know, I know, you’re wondering why the heck I was spending so much time staring at my water glass.  Well, try studying gastrointestinal pathology and drugs for constipation and diarrhea and then let me know what percentage of your time was spent trying to picture anything but the inside of someone’s colon. 

So, I whipped out the Canon G7 and shot away.  It was quite fun playing with the coloration of the glass and the water level.  And here we have it!  Contrast enhanced in Photoshop CS3.

Oh, and don’t worry.  I finished my studying.

a rose by any other name…

This pretty little bud made its debut in my mom’s garden this past summer.  It just looked so lovely after a sunshower that I simply couldn’t resist taking a few snapshots!  Aren’t rainy roses just wonderful?

Sorry for the few and far between posts!  Med school is a bit demanding right now, especially with my boards just a few months away, so keep checking back for a new post!

As usual, taken with the Canon Powershot G7.  Post-processed for contrast in Photoshop CS3.  Enjoy!

For Grammy, 11/10/1918 – 2/12/2010.  You are loved and missed.

surfacing at sunset…

The grand finale in the “People Series”!!!  Once again, a shot of my lovely sister.  Everything just sort of lined up perfectly in this shot…her pushing out of the water, the sunset, the sliver of  sunlight highlighting the edges of her silhouette, and (my favorite) the sun glinting in the small drops of water falling from her arm.  This was taken about 200 feet out in the water at Playa Norte, Isla Mujeres, Mexico (see previous Isla posts for me going on and on and on about the gorgeous water there and how you can walk out about 300 feet…uh oh…I’m going on and on again…).

I don’t think there’s much to say about this photo, except that I think my sister should scrap her career and become a model.  Perk of this:  she could visit locales such as Isla Mujeres more often.  Perk of this for me:  perhaps I’d be able to tag along for a vacation when my brain is totally fried from my clinical rotations!! 

I hope everyone enjoyed the People Series.  I’ll post more shots of people as they come along, but until then, back to random photo posting!

Oh, yes.  I almost forgot.  The picture was taken with the amazing Canon G7.  Contrast fixed in Photoshop CS3.  That’s it.  No airbrushing needed on this model!

gone fishing…

He’s a man with a mission:  to catch his fill of fish!  And second to last photo in the “People Series”!!   I took this shot down in Puerto Morelos, Mexico while admiring the view from the dock.  It was quite a site to see.  It was a bit after lunch and many of the fishermen were headed back out to sea for the afternoon catch.  One minute all the boats were lined up along the shore, the next, they were zooming off into the distance.  I like this photo because its very tranquil with the gradations of blue in the water, but also because I think it shows off just how small people are compared with the vast sea.  Whenever I look at this photo, I get a sense of serene isolation and a refreshing dose of perspective.

Of course, the photo was taken with the Canon G7.  I adjusted the contrast in Photoshop and also converted the image to an HDR image.  Enjoy!!

contemplative in kensington…

Hello, world!  It has been so long since I last posted an installment in my “People” series!  A little thing called exams decided to crop up in med school…and then I was outta Philly so fast for break!  Hence, no pics.  Oh well.  I enjoyed all of the sleeping and holiday eating.

So, this photo was taken at the Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby, which I attended with the wonderful Dr. Heather.  This guy was just leaning against an abandoned building for quite a while, looking rather deep in his thoughts.  He was quite fascinating to photograph, as I could only imagine what inner workings were keeping him so occupied for so long.

As usual, taken with the amazing Canon Powershot G7.  Contrast and hues were adjusted using Adobe Photoshop CS3.  Also, the ugly garbage can was cropped off. 

On another note, the photoblog has passed the 50,000 hits mark!!  Yay!

On yet another note,  HAPPY 2010, PEOPLE!!!  Let’s make this year the best yet!!!

solo soccer…

Fourth photo in the people series!  Este niño jugó fútbol en la arena del campo de juegos, acerca la playa del Puerto Morelos.

Okay, sometimes I just feel the urge to write descriptions of the photos I’ve taken in Mexico in Spanish.  C’mon!  Its fun!!  Anyhoo, for those who think that previous sentence is all Greek to them:  “This young boy was playing soccer in the sand of the playground near Puerto Morelos’ beach.”

No, I wasn’t being creepy and watching this kid playing soccer and taking photos.  In fact, my sister and I were enjoying the seesaw that was more or less right behind where I was standing to take the picture.  Has anyone tried, as an adult, to get on a seesaw?  We couldn’t do it!  We’d try to keep the thing at a height so we could both get on, but, wow!  A lot harder when you’re 3 feet and an undisclosed number of pounds larger than when you first learned to mount that contraption.  Anyways,  I was taking photos of the brightly painted playground and the kid got in my way.  Then I figured, heck, he might be the superstar of the FIFA World Cup in a decade or so, so I’ll take his picture now!  Actually, I wish that was what I was thinking.  The fact of the matter is, the kid got in my way when I was taking pictures and when I finally looked at them on the computer, they looked nice with a live human in them.  Thus, Niño Boy was not cropped into oblivion.  Kind of creepy that you can just make people disappear *poof* with the modern photography.  Gotta love it, especially when you’re taking a great group shot of your friends at a restaurant and there is inevitably the jerk that has to crash the photo behind the group.  Be gone, Photo Dude.  *Poof*  You’re no longer in existence.

The photo was taken with my Canon Powershot G7.  Processed in Adobe Photoshop CS3 to fix the contrast that so easily gets out of whack in bright Mexican sun and to mute the colors a little for the feeling that I seem to apparently be trying to evoke with this photo series.  What is that feeling?  Emotion.  Nostalgia.  Innocence.  Slight surreality.  Take your pick.

strolling down the street…

The next installment in my series on people!  I visited the Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia this past spring and was taken for quite a wild ride!  The sculptures were absolutely crazy and the whole derby had a cool bohemian vibe to it.  Luckily, I brought my camera!  Granted, I brought it so that I could better show my mom exactly what this “thing” was, but I got some cool shots as well.  As the crowd was beginning to line up at the finish line, I noticed this little curly-haired girl enjoying a solitary stroll down the street with her balloon and little stuffed puppy.  Fortunately, she wasn’t walking down the lane for too long, as that was the exact street that served as the final leg of the derby.

Of course, this photo was taken with the Canon Powershot G7!    I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 to remove the company logo that was splashed across the balloon (it was so distracting!).  I also enhanced the contrast and lighting in the photo for a slightly more dramatic “solitary” feel.  Enjoy!  Stay tuned for more in my “People Series”!

playing on the “playa”…

Second in my series of people photography!!  Now, I know I said that the Mexico series was done with, but, surprise!  More Puerto Morelos pics!  Were these strategically saved for this series or did I just forget to put them with the other series?  You’ll never know.  Anyhoo, its fun to photograph kids doing their kid-ly things.  They always seem so completely absorbed in what they are doing and bring such a fun, carefree-because-they-don’t-have-bills-to-pay  feeling to the photo.  I find that looking at pictures like this always makes me remember how much I liked to do (blank) when I was (blank) years old, long before medical school sort of owned my soul.   

So, this boy and girl were playing in the sand on the shore by the Puerto Morelos pier in Puerto Morelos, Mexico.  They are in front of the original lighthouse that was transformed into the Leaning Lighthouse of Puerto by Hurricane Wilma.  Since it’s more or less non-functional now, there is a new lighthouse a bit further back from the shore.  It is much taller and, personally, if I were a sailor, I’d be glad Wilma killed the old short lighthouse so that I could guide myself home with the more modern upgraded model.

The photo was taken with the Canon Powershot G7.  I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 to adjust the contrast a bit and to bring out the slightly sepia tones in the picture to help create a more nostalgic feel and to highlight the angle of the sun.

surf’s up…

So, this photo is the first in a series I will be posting featuring people as subjects.  I’m excited, as I usually do landscapes/macro/anything-but-people!

I took this photo while at the Jersey Shore over the summer with my boyfriend (see previous post for more another product of that trip).  Avalon Beach was lovely, fairly empty with lovely water.  I love to body surf, so I was quite content.  Some areas had larger waves that surfers were taking full advantage of.  I was lucky enough to snap this shot, right as the surfer hit the top of the wave.  It wasn’t until I looked at the larger image of the photo on my computer that I realized he was also touching the top of the wave.  Cool stuff.

So, anyhoo, this shot was taken with the Canon Powershot G7.  Contrast was fixed with Adobe Photoshop CS3.

Surf’s up!!

X Adobe X Avalon X Beach X Blue X board X boyfriend X Canon X Canon Powershot X computer X CS3 X foam X G7 X gray X Horizon X human X Jersey Shore X man X New Jersey X Ocean X people X photography X photoshop X sea X series X sky X summer X surf X surfer X travel X water X wave X White X whitecap

the wild side of central park…

Interspecies sunbathing?  YES!!  This lovely heron seemed to know that it was posing for the camera as it gracefully posed to fully show off its figure.  And the turtles?  Well, I’m loving the little guy in the middle who seems to be trying to replicate  the heron’s moves, complete with outstretched neck and head.  He’s (she?) just trying so hard.  I think he achieved the overall effect, albeit by replacing a bit of the grace with comedy.  The other turtle, well, I just don’t think he got the memo about the sunbathing photo-op.  That, or he’s just not quite as proficient as his cronies at “finding the light”.  Or perhaps he feels his backside is his best angle…

Taken, of course, with the Canon Powershot G7.  The location:  Central Park, NYC.  The post processing:  a quick crop and contrast fix.

Enjoy.  I found  few more photos from my NYC trip that I forgot to add into the NYC series.  They’ll slowly make their appearances!

a stroll down memory lane…

Autumn is my favorite time of the year.  It makes me want to study for hours on end in coffee shops.  I love pulling out my cozy sweaters.  The crunching of the leaves on the ground makes me feel like a little kid without a care in the world.  And yes, at the age of 24, if presented with a pile of leaves, I will still jump in and play.

There’s a certain ‘feeling’ in the fall and it just makes me feel happy inside.  Whenever I need that feeling at other times during the year, I’ll take a look at this photo.  My boyfriend and I embarked on a fall photo shoot in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, and this was one of my favorites.  Looking at it evokes that happy autumn feeling and the feeling of contentment that comes with strolling down a colorful leaf-laden path with someone you love…

Taken with an Olympus Stylus 82o and processed as an HDR image to help bring out the vibrancy in the leaves.  Enjoy the fall!  Get a nice mug of cider, step outside, and breathe in the sweet brisk air that will slowly bring in the winter!

mermaid…

Well, here’s a change of pace.  I usually photograph things, places, and my cats…but….omigosh!  Its a person!!!  My sister and I were having a bit of fun in Playa del Carmen, Mexico a couple of years ago by staging a teensy “America’s Next Top Model”-esque photo shoot out in the water.  Naturally, she looked gorgeous.  And she’s ready for her close-up now…or at least to have her photo on my blog!  You go, pretty sister!

Taken with an Olympus Stylus 820.  The photo was played with a bit in Adobe Photoshop CS3 to add a glow, fix contrast, and create a sepia tone.  It was then converted into an HDR photo.  Enjoy!!!!

hasta luego, mexico…

Well, I do believe that this is the last photo I’ll be posting from Mexico…time to move on (until it is the dark, cold, middle of winter and I find it imperative to post something warm and sunny).  This photo is a shot of Playa Norte’s crystal clear water at sunset (hence the yummy pink cast on the sand!).  Playa Norte on Isla Mujeres, Mexico is such a gorgeous place–truly what comes to my mind when I picture a tropical paradise.  I hope you have enjoyed traveling to Mexico with me through my photos.  Stay tuned!

Why, of course it was taken with the Canon Powershot G7.  Contrast was fixed using Adobe Photoshop CS3.

tempting tranquility…

So this little slice of heaven was taken at Playa Norte on Isla Mujeres, Mexico.  Have I mentioned how much I loooooove Isla??  I did?  Oh, yes.  That’s right.  I found it impossible to drink in all of the serene shades of blue so I snapped tons of photos to help me in that quest at a later time.

I love the blue gradient in this photo…from the turquoise of the water all the way up to the sky’s blue hue, with an interspersing of fluffy white clouds!

To help you slip into this tranquil moment, picture the breeze gently blowing, waves softly crashing on the soft white sand, and the bathtub-temperature water enveloping your increasingly relaxed body.  Ah, there you go.  Now you’re there.

Yup.  Taken with the trusty Canon Powershot G7.

radiance…

Alright.  I’m not going to say much about this photo, except that it is one of my favorite shots from my trip to Mexico this summer.  It was sunrise at our hotel (Ocean Coral and Turquesa) and the sheer serenity of the world in front of me was breathtaking.  Luckily, the (amazing) Canon G7 has a fun little feature that lets you select only one color in your photo to show through the black and white.  Well, I found the perfect shade of sunrise and photographed away!!!  This shot is pretty much straight from the camera!!!  Only needed a smidge of contrast fixing.  I recommend using this picture for a 5 minute mental vacation…it definitely works for me!!  Enjoy and bon voyage!!

bunches of boats…

“Twelve little boats, sitting in a row

Each colorful one with a rope in tow.

Docked for the day and dark starry night

Ready to depart at dawn’s first golden light.”

Okay, okay, perhaps its a cheesy little poem, but whatever.  I’m in an artsy mood.  I even arranged “Streets of Philadelphia” for SATB a cappella on Sunday with the boyfriend.  Photos and poems and songs, oh my!!

Anyhoo, this photo was taken with the amazing Canon G7 next to the fishing pier in Puerto Morelos, Mexico (right in front of the old lighthouse).  All of the boats were moored for the night and I was stunned by how much colorful character they all had.  That translated to a boat photoshoot!  To help you create  a better mental image of the Puerto Morelos fishing pier, if you faced the pier (looking out to the ocean), these boats were to the left and the previously-posted pelican was to the right!  Alright, here’s the pier:

The boat photo was cropped to remove the gargantuan dead fish that was on the beach and was then post-processed to an HDR photo!  Enjoy!!!!!!

Who can? PELI-CAN!!!…

This little photo was taken from the Puerto Morelos (Mexico) pier.  Apparently there is ALWAYS a pelican on that specific pole.  Seriously.  I’ve heard this mentioned on numerous travel blogs…he (she?) even shows up in lots of pictures in Google!!  My theory is that he’s (she’s?) just a bird trying to catch his (her?) big beak…er…break… in these hard times.  You know, just trying to get his (her?) picture out there and hopefully be scouted by a top bird modeling agency.  I mean, look at those wings!!  And that arch in his (her?) neck!  So perfect!

Now, in all seriousness…oh, heck.  How can one be serious when making a post devoted to pelicans?  Is it just me, or do you find yourself a bit giggly when you think about those birds?  Okay, maybe its just me.  Anyhoo, I played around with the tint in Photoshop and decided that sepia (rather than color) suited the photo quite well.  Precisely the feel I was aiming for.  And I think it brings out his (her?) features wonderfully and thus increases his (her?) chances of getting that big break.  C’mon America’s Next Top Pelican, this is your bird.  Oh…yes…of course it was taken with the trusty Canon Powershot G7!!

tequila sunrise…

This seaside sunrise panoramic was the fruit of my efforts to arise before sunrise after a week of fun in the sun in Mexico (no small feat, especially when bedtime was 2am!!!  Darn DeGrassi reruns in Mexico that hooked my entire family!!).  I can’t truly convey with words how tranquil and silent the sunrise was…no vacationers on the beach yet, no playing in the pool…just the sun, sea, and the lapping waves.  Simply stunning.

This photo was taken at the beach of the Ocean Coral and Turquesa Resort in Puerto Morelos, Mexico.  I merged two sequential photos into one panoramic image using Adobe Photoshop CS3.  The panel was originally 7 photos long, but that caused a large curvature in the image…plus one of the images contained a gentleman strolling the beach in a Speedo, with all his glory bathed in morning rays.  Yup.  The panorama was reduced to the two panels that I thought came the closest to doing the sunrise justice.  Obviously, taken with the Canon Powershot G7. Contrast and color saturation enhanced in Photoshop to make the photos look as much like the original sunrise as possible!!  Enjoy!!

on a distant sandy shore…

Ahhh…yes.  You can almost hear the gentle waves lapping on the sand.    The beach in front of our resort (Ocean Coral and Turquesa) was simply gorgeous.  The only bad thing about the beach was that the red flag was flying everyday…i.e. swim at your own risk.  I came, I swam, I learned why the flag was red.  There was…stuff…in the water.  The bits of seaweed?  Nah, I could look past those.  The biting, stinging things in the seaweed?  OUCH.  Lets just say that I don’t particularly enjoy the simultaneous feelings of fire and tiny knives in my legs.  Naturally, this was a very unfortunate situation for this self-proclaimed beach bum/water baby.  This was precisely the reason for repeat treks to the idyllic waters of Isla Mujeres.   No problems there, other than it being so gorgeous that I never wanted to leave.

Water complaints aside, the beach was still beautiful.  The palapas provided ample shade and the chaise lounges were oh-so-comfy.  It pays to upgrade to VIP status at this place.  Did I mention that this stretch of beach was completely reserved for VIP guests only?  Oh, I didn’t?  It was heaven.  The beach was the perfect setting for water-gazing, people watching, and sunrise photography.  So, stay tuned for more photos of my trip to Mexico!

Almost forgot!  Taken with the handy-dandy Canon Powershot G7.  But you already guessed that, didn’t you?  I used the awesome color-select setting on the camera to capture a bit of the sand color to add some interest to the black and white.  Contrast fixed and enhanced using a touch of pseudo-HDR in the Dynamic-Photo HDR program.

sailing…

“…Takes me away
To where I’ve always heard it could be
Just a dream and the wind to carry me
And soon I will be free

It’s not far down to paradise
At least it’s not for me
And if the wind is right you can sail away
And find tranquility
The canvas can do miracles
Just you wait and see
Believe me

Sailing
Takes me away
To where I’ve always heard it could be
Just a dream and the wind to carry me
And soon I will be free”

Yup, couldn’t resist.  Just had to throw in those lyrics with this picture!   So, this sunset shot was taken, well, at sunset, on Isla Mujeres, Mexico.  Have I mentioned before how gorgeous that island is?  Yes?  Oh, ok.

Sunsets from Playa Norte are simply stunning.  One of the few places in the Mayan Riviera that you can see the sun set over the ocean.  Beautiful.

Taken with the trusty Canon Powershot G7!  Stay tuned for more glimpses of Mexico (just bear with me with this period of scanty posting…med school’s a bit crazy!)

colorful cemetery…

Death never looked so…colorful!  People are just dying to get into this place!  Ok, ok, I rest my case.  This cemetery was undoubtedly one seriously full house and had a lot of…character.   And there’s nothing quite like a massive set of transformers to top off a cemetery skyline!

Just posting this picture since I was describing this place so much in the previous post.  The picture isn’t particularly pretty, but the place sure is unique, so I figured I’d share…until you’re able to visit it yourself!

Taken with the G7.  Duh.

heaven on earth…

Okay, folks!  Back again!  I have to apologize for my scanty postings…second year of med school is crazy!!!   But, I’m ready to make up for lost time.

This photo is from my trip to Mexico this summer.  My family and I visited Isla Mujeres (everyone must go there!  GORGEOUS!) mainly for the white sand beaches (will post beach shots soon!), but we found the town was simply amazing to wander around in.  A cemetery on Calle Lopez Mateos was particularly eye-catching.  I can’t even begin to describe the intense colors of the monuments and how densely they were packed in there (hmmm…perhaps I’ll just have to post visual evidence).  However, there was one monument that towered above many others and that was this particular angel.  To my luck, when I looked at the photo I had taken, I noticed that the flare of the sun combined with the angel looked just like a tiny glimpse of heaven!  How…divine!

As usual, the picture was taken with the Canon Powershot G7 (oh, what fun we had in Mexico!).  I then cross-balanced the image in Photoshop CS3.  Enjoy and stay tuned!  More photos to come, I promise!

from my point of view…

Okay, folks!  I know you have been waiting with bated breath, but alas!  The wait is over!  Here is one of my photos from my trip to Puerto Morelos, Mexico.  It is a small, sleepy fishing village nestled on the Mayan Riviera coast of the Yucatan Peninsula between Cancun and Playa del Carmen.  It hasn’t been overrun or completely adulterated by tourists yet and retains its cultural charm.  It sure made for one amazing trip to Mexico!

The hotel my family and I stayed at was the Ocean Coral and Turquesa Resort…basically a small slice of heaven on the shore.  This picture was the result of me enjoying being both sneaky and creative while taking pictures on my last day.  It really is fun taking snapshots from angles and places that you don’t necessarily notice at first.  I can tell you that I only saw the “pool view” through this tiny arch on my last day…after 7 days of countless trips past it!   This was taken shortly after sunrise (hence the perfect lighting and strange lack of pool-goers).  I just love the yellow of the wall contrasted against the blue water and hotel (& reflection).  More sunrise photos and Mexico photos to come!  And, obviously, taken with the G7!

And feel free to ask any questions you may have about Puerto Morelos (or Playa del Carmen or Isla Mujeres, for that matter)…I’d be more than happy to answer them (especially if you think you want to visit yourself!).

new york city, we have lift-off…

Okay, okay.  I know I promised photos of Mexico soon, but I realized that I haven’t finished my New York City series yet.  That and the fact that I just started my second year of med school last week and holy cow!  Second year is crazy already!  Thus, not much time for uploading and perfecting my week-long photoshoot down the Mayan Riviera coast.

So, here we have a heron in Central Park taking off for what I can only imagine is a giant birdfeeder in the sky.  The funny thing about this heron was that as soon as he made his entrance in the pond, people with cameras flocked out of places that I didn’t know existed to snap pictures of him (her?).  Everyone was acting as if they had never seen a bird before, let alone a heron.  This seriously must now be the best-documented heron in history.  Yes, I was one of those shutterbugs, but at least I had already been taking pictures of the adorable bridge and the pond…and the 3 cute turtles on a rock.  Then the bird arrived, and I merely shifted my attention to it.  I didn’t run to it.

Then again, why am I poking fun at all the people  who kept snapping bird pictures?  I may not have many bird pictures, but I have about 35 of turtles.  Hmm.  I’ve never seen turtles before.  That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

Taken, of course, with the fabulous G7.  And at this time I am proud to announce that I have converted my sister and she just purchased a…G7 after months of ogling mine!!!

quick update…

Hello all!  It has been a while since my last post…and that would be for a very good reason:  I just returned home from MEXICO!!!  Yay!!!  Once my gazillions of photos from my trip have been uploaded from the marvelous G7 (which thoroughly enjoyed its foreign escapades) to my trusty laptop, I’ll get to posting some shots of Mexico!

Stay tuned!

New York City: Part 3

Third in the series!  Now our little travel troupe had made it over to Brooklyn…and was enjoying some much-needed ice cream.  Of course, there was a post-ice cream photo op.  So, here we have it.  The pylon of the Brooklyn Bridge that is actually in…well, Brooklyn!

Taken with the Canon G7, naturally.  Contrast fixed in Photoshop, image transformed into HDR.

New York City: Part 2

Second photo in the series!  I decided to have a little fun with this one.  I wanted to take a panoramic shot encompassing all of times square.  Thing is, the only thing tall enough to see over the heads of most people (tripod didn’t quite cut it) was Jay (the boyfriend).  So, I kindly asked him to stand super-still in the middle of times square while I put my camera on his head and carefully rotated around, snapping shots.  12 photos and many strange looks later (oh, what one will do in the name of photography!) I had my prize.  I stitched the photos together with the G7′s provided computer software when I returned to Philly…only to find that my rotating was not quite as good as a tripod’s, hence the funky curve in the image.  But, with the magic of Photoshop, a funky curve can be transformed into a “bowl” of sorts for a funky title.  So, this picture isn’t pure photography, but I think its fun nonetheless!

As usual, taken with the Canon Powershot G7.  As not-usual (unusual?), taken with the help of  Jay’s noggin (I always knew that head was good for more than just pharmacy and remembering anniversaries!)

New York City: Part 1

I finally made it to the Big Apple!  About time, considering I’ve been living a mere 2 hours away from it for an entire year now!  The wonderful future Dr. Heather served as one of our guides…and certainly showed us some impressive sights.  My next few posts will be shots that I took in NYC.

This photo was taken from on the Brooklyn Bridge, back to Brooklyn, facing Manhattan.  A much longer bridge than I thought…nearly 1.2 miles.  Guess I’m just used to Pittsburgh’s myriad bridges (446 to be exact) which happen to be a fraction of the length of this puppy.

Anyhoo, I couldn’t resist taking this classic shot of the Brooklyn Bridge.  Another classic shot that I couldn’t resist taking was what I call my “chick flick pic”.  The boyfriend and me stealing a quick kiss on the bridge with a backdrop of NYC, complete with a popped leg.  And no.  I’m not posting it.  A lady has to leave something to the imagination.

So, enjoy the Bridge.  Taken with the fabulous Canon G7 and post-processed into and HDR image.  And keep checking back for more city shots!

busy as a bee…

I’ve been as busy as this little bee lately…hence the severe lack of new posts in the past couple of weeks!!  I’m in between my first and second years of medical school (read:  last summer EVER) and I have the most amazing job honing my clinical skills in the Temple ER!  That said, I’m pulling insane hours at the hospital/preparing my body for the sleep-deprived years to come and simply haven’t had the time to really sit down with my photos and put together a decent post.  So, for all of you anxiously awaiting a post, I apologize for the delay and present you with…A BEE!

I snapped this little bugger on my brother’s porch over the Memorial Day weekend.  A wee bit of cropping was done, as it is pretty darn hard to properly compose a shot when your subject is a centimeter long and constantly moving.  A little bit of contrast fixing was also done, as yellow flowers + yellow bee stripes + super sunny day = totally washed out color/contrast levels.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot…this was taken with the fabulous Canon G7!!

put a lime in the coconut…

Now for a brief mental vacation!!  This stately palm tree (complete with coconuts!!) was gently swaying in the breeze on one of Playa del Carmen’s beaches.  Now for a little news update:  I will be visiting Mexico once more this August, so stay tuned for new photos!  WOOHOO!!!

The photo was taken with an Olympus Stylus 820 and was turned into a high dynamic range photograph when I got back to Pittsburgh .  Can’t you  just feel that Caribbean tradewind by looking at this picture?

have i told you lately that…

This one goes out to the one I love (sorry for the REM quote).  Some say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I think this one says precisely three.  THE three little words.  My wonderful boyfriend (of over 3 years!) and I embarked on an adventure out to the Jersey Shore on Friday.  I love the beach.  I love my boyfriend.  I was ridiculously happy.    Anyhoo, the water was wonderful, particularly for body surfing, and lounging in the sunshine was simply delightful.  He fried to a wonderful lobster-red shade, I turned a lovely golden brown.  Ah, the wonders of sunblock.  Towards the end of the day, I noticed that the clouds were simply beautiful overhead and I got an idea.  I had seen silhouette “writing” somewhere and I thought it would be a cute surprise for the aforementioned man in my life (who will willingly watch the Bachelorette with me while enjoying Chinese take-out and ice cream)  if I did a little sky writing myself.  The people behind me on the beach obviously thought I was nuts as I kept making contorted hand shapes in the air and then snapping pictures of them, but oh, what one will do for love.

So, now for the specs:  Six pictures taken against a beachy sky with the Canon Powershot G7.  Compiled and contrast-enhanced in Photoshop to really make my hand-letters pop.  Size of final image reduced in Photoshop because the original compilation was over 3oo inches long and my computer was visibly having trouble handling and touching up such a massive photo.  Enjoy.

glutamine, shmutamine…

Its been a while since I put up a hardcore nerd photo.  And, well, there’s no time like the present!  I made a solution (at my old lab, of course) of the amino acid glutamine.  When a drop of the solution is placed on a microscope slide and allowed to dry out, crystals of glutamine form.  I tossed those puppies under the microscope (Olympus BX51) and took a picture at 10x.  Gotta love the ice-like quality of the crystals and the rainbow refractions!

Gosh, I sure do miss the good ol’ lab days sometimes!  I was always able to do the most unique microscopic photography there!!!

through the drinking glass…

Allow me to fill you in on the birth of this photograph.  I was studying for my Block 6 Pharmacology/Pathology/Immunology final (fun, right?).  At the same time, I was enjoying a nice cold glass of grape juice.  Drinking the grape juice was infinitely better than studying, so I sat there and finished it in one shot.   Placing the glass down on my desk and looking inside of it to waste yet more time, I noticed that, “Heck, this could be a cool photo.”  Translation:  anything, including photographing grape juice residue, is better than studying for this darn final.  Grabbed the trusty Canon G7 and had a small photo shoot with my glass.  Then I popped the picture into Photoshop for some contrast adjustment and bleaching effects…and there you go!  Amazing timewaster…I mean, piece of photographic art!

Oh, and for those of you who are wondering, yes, I did pass that final and successfully completed my first year of medical school.  Yay!

young love…

A sweet romantic moment captured at Cherry Springs Park!  Everyone together now:  “Awwwwwww.”

Taken with an Olympus Stylus 820 with an insanely long exposure time.  Contrast was adjusted in Photoshop.  Enjoy!

divine dahlia: part three…

All good things must come to an end…including the Divine Dahlia mini-series!    Hope you have been enjoying the photos!  Now, I know that this flower was beautiful in all of its colored glory, but I really wanted to try some good ol’ black-and-white to bring out the details in the petals…and I think it worked!

As usual, the photo was taken with the Canon G7.  Post-processed in Photoshop to select the color of the black-and-white filter.  Enjoy and stay tuned for more pictures!

divine dahlia: part two…

Part two in the mini-series!!  Again, taken with the Canon G7.  This photo had its contrast fixed a tiny bit in Photoshop.  Enjoy one of the bloomin’  beauties of spring!

divine dahlia: part one…

Ok.  I’m in love with this flower.  It is one of the gorgeous dahlia plants that my mother has at home…and it was so beautifully colored and flawless that I simply couldn’t resist making it the star of its very own photo shoot.  This photo is number one of a 3 photograph mini-series.

As usual, the amazing Canon Powershot G7 was used.  I think it was definitely more fortuitous than planned that the detail in this bloom showed up so well…who knew dahlias have tiny hair-like things on their petals (look at the center petals up close).  And, I’m happy to announce that the sunlight was so perfect that absolutely nothing was “fixed” on this photo…straight from the memory card!  Yay!

one of these things is not like the other…

Can you find it?  The one thing that’s not quite like the others?  Yes, okay, that was pretty easy.  The open window.  So much for that bit of fun.  This photo was taken out in Old City in Philadelphia…near Shirt Shop Corner!  I simply fell in love with the old worn brick and weathered blue wood around the windows…it felt like that building just had so much history in it.  Perhaps Betsy Ross or Ben Franklin visited friends in that building at one point?  Who knows, but its fun to imagine the happenings in old historical places!

Anyhoo, the photograph was taken with the lovely Canon Powershot G7 (of course!) and just had a smidge of contrast adjustment done to produce the final product!  Enjoy!

there’s always a silver lining…

Well, if this photo doesn’t convince you, then let me have a try:  SUNSETS FROM PRESQUE ISLE ON LAKE ERIE ARE GORGEOUS.  If you live in Pennsylvania (or not!), you simply must venture up to Erie for the solar show of your life.  Grab that special someone and settle into one of the numerous jumbo lifeguard chairs on one of the many beaches to watch a dazzling display of colorful light dance across the rippling water.

Photo was taken with an Olympus Stylus 820 and the contrast was fixed in Photoshop (because it seems that basic point-and-shoot cameras can never properly capture sunset colors and dynamics…but that little bugger of a camera was water resistant and quite nice for a day at the beach).  Enjoy!

a stroll down a sunny street…

This photo was taken on that wonderfully sunny day when the amazing future Dr. Heather gave me a tour of South Philly and the Italian Market.  There was just something about that sleepy, sunny street with the bicycles leaning against the stoops that was screaming, “Take a picture of me!!!”  So, here we have it.  Taken with the amazing G7 and softened to create the pretty glow and muted colors in Photoshop.  Enjoy!

22,000 and counting!

Woohoo!  I’d like to thank all the people that have visited my photoblog in the past year…I just hit 22,000 visits today!  I suppose that in the world of Google and Facebook, 22K is mere pocket-change, but heck, it makes me happy!

To help celebrate and make it easier for people to stay updated, I’ve added a widget so that you can receive an email subscription/update to my photoblog.  Just direct your gaze to the upper right portion of your screen and you shall see it!

So keep on clickin’ and enjoying photos!

when life gives you lemons…

Ah, yes.  My first foray into the wide world of still life!  These were the lemons that I purchased at the Philadelphia Italian Market…10 Meyer lemons (the really yummy kind) the size of grapefruits (no joke…I have a photo to prove it) for $2.  Yes, you read that right.  10 for 2!  So, I used the lemon rinds to make some homemade limoncello.  If you are interested in trying to make the stuff, just check out Michael Chiarello’s recipe on FoodNetwork.  Its much simpler than most online…perfect for someone who has never made liqueurs before.  So, the limoncello left me with 10 naked lemons.  As mother always said, “when life gives you NAKED lemons, make lemonade.”  I did just that…with the whopping 3 cups of juice I got from these gargantuan lemons.

Now down to business.  I plopped the lemons into a lovely large blue bowl that I have, hung my afghan over a bookshelf, placed the subject on my ottoman, and went shutter-happy.  I know…I’m working with such high-quality props, right?  I used my amazing Canon G7 to capture the lemons and did a smidge of post-processing in Photoshop (namely a “bleached” effect).  So, pucker up and enjoy some lemons!

verdant fern…

This shot is of a rather interesting fern that happened to catch my eye during a stroll through Pittsburgh’s Phipp’s Conservatory.  It was taken with an Olympus Stylus 820 digital camera and colorized in Adobe CS3 to make the leaves really pop!  Enjoy!!

teratoma…tera…tera…teraWHAT??

Image description:  Human teratoma, 60x magnification, immunofluorescent confocal microscopy on Olympus IX81 with a Fluoview 1000 confocal head.  Note the simple columnar epithelium with goblet cells (reminiscent of intestinal epithelium) and extensive vasculature.  Image taken at the Center for Biologic Imaging (CBI).  The tumor specimen is, in fact, my own.  I had a softball-sized mature cystic teratoma on my ovary and it was removed during emergency surgery.  See the comments section if you’d like the whole (fun!) story.  Remember…I worked in an imaging lab…that’s why I was able to take the specimen with me and image it at the lab.  What scientist could resist the chance to image something so cool and uncommon???  Not me, that’s for sure!  And don’t worry…the lab thought it was cool, not gross.

P.S.  They mention a teratoma in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”  Don’t believe me?  Watch the dinner scene towards the end where the parents meet each other.  The aunt talks about her friend who had one on her neck.  Dead serious about that.

Philadelphia Phood Phun…

Mamma mia!  This Italian girl just found her heaven on earth!  Fresh produce, spices, cheeses, pasta, and meat as far as the eye can see!  All for pocket change!  Oh Marone a mi!!!!!!  Many thanks to the awesome future Dr. Heather for showing me the things that truly make this town great!  Oh…and many thanks to her for watching my back so that I wouldn’t get run over as I stood in the middle of the street to take this picture!

As usual, this image was taken with my beloved Canon G7.  Post-processing was done to bring out the vibrance in the photograph that I could see on the street in person, but the sun drowned out a bit on camera!  The photo was also done in HDR-style.  Enjoy!  Eat, drink, and be merry!!

sakura!!!

It is that wonderful cherry blossom (sakura in Japanese) time of year!  This little gem was growing, of all places, on a lovely little tree in East Falls underneath the Roosevelt Expressway!  I used my shutterbug syndrome enabler, the G7, to snap the flower.  Post-processing was done to transform the photo into HDR-style and to bring out the details in the petals!

happy birthday, dear photoblog!

Just realized that my photoblog has been active for a bit over a year now!  Hooray for that.

So, dear photoblog, I would like to extend my sincerest thanks for giving a forum in which to share my photographs with the whole wide world for an entire year!  Happy Birthday, dear photoblog!  And here’s to the next!

note:  yes, I totally cheaped-out on this one…its Clip-Art.

just add flower and water…

So I went out to my car this morning to start the daily commute to good ol’ med school and it just so happened to be pretty much the one day that I had my camera with me, as I wanted to take some pics of our acapella group (shout out to the Transplantations!!).  And, as luck would have it, my windshield presented me with the perfect subject to shoot in the morning light!  So, I quickly chose to get on the road a bit late in favor of a bit o’ photography.  Thus came this shot.  The flower is actually the underside of some flower that had fallen off of a tree and drifted onto my car.  The water was courtesy of the veritable 10 minute monsoon that we had the night before.  So, here’s the recipe for a photograph:

Add flower to water.  Marinate overnight.  Capture in the morning light.

steel…er…spring magnolias!

These gorgeous magnolias were in full bloom right in front of my apartment.  Endless flowers that seemingly touch the sky–what a wonderful way to bring in spring.  The image was taken with a Canon Powershot G7.  The photo was then post-processed in Photoshop to fix the coloration and then transformed into a high-dynamic range image.  Enjoy!

a morning silhouette…

This beautiful tree is on the University of Pittsburgh campus between the Cathedral of Learning and Heinz Chapel.  I took the photo at approximately 5am during the 1st annual Relay For Life at Pitt, just as the morning sun was starting to come up!  An Olympus Stylus 820 was used to capture this delicate silhouette.

On distant shores…

This photograph was taken during a lovely trip to Presque Isle State Park in Erie, Pennsylvania last May.  The slight glow of early sunset was truly gorgeous as it cast a rosy hue across the island…and I just had to capture it!  I used an Olympus Stylus 820 digital camera and color balanced the photo in Adobe Photoshop CS3.  Additionally, the image is an HDR (high dynamic range) image.  If you have a free summer day, get thee to Erie!!

green with envy…

This little bugger was snapped with my new lover…er…Canon G7.  I just can’t get enough of that little gem!  The tiny tree sprouting on a wall by the Schyulkill River (in Philadelphia)  looked ever so lonely, stuck between essentially a rock and a hard place.  I used the color selection capability on the camera, coupled it with the macro setting and just went to town.  I also post-processed the image into an HDR photograph.

A little something green to tide everyone over until spring!

Shameless video advertising…

Okay, okay.  I know this is a PHOTOblog, but perhaps for this one post it can be a VIDEOblog as well?  Take a gander at my adorable kitten, Izzie.  Her tail is one of her favorite toys, as this video, which was filmed when she was about 5 months old, clearly shows!  She especially loves her tail when its wet…apparently she sees it as a whole new and improved version of her ol’ fave!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsFVe-OJbW4

Alright, alright.  I’ll get this post back to its photograph roots.  Here’s a little snapshot of my darling fuzzball:

In this shot, she’s about 5 months old (she’s currently 9 months).  Such an adorable little sweetheart!  And yes, that is her wearing a tiny sombrero on the computer screen.  And please ignore the plethora of cables surrounding the laptop…it is the carnage of attempting to set up every electronic item that I own in one afternoon, in a new apartment, one day before I started medical school.  Oh, and if you were wondering, Izzie is a Siberian cat.

It seems a little ERIE…

This picture was taken at Presque Isle State Park on Lake Erie.  The sunsets viewed from Lake Erie’s shore are rather well-known for being nothing short of stunning.  The photograph was taken using an Olympus Stylus 820 digital camera.

Pretty in Pink #3

This lovely pink zinnia was grown by the green thumb of my brother.  I have to say that I love the contrast between the pink flower and the blue glass behind it   The picture was taken with an Olympus Stylus 820 digital camera.  Enjoy the third image in my “Pretty in Pink” series!

Pretty in Pink #2

These beautiful magnolias were captured on a lovely spring day using and Olympus Stylus 820 digital camera.  Believe it or not, the white background for the flowers is indeed the sky…just the right combination of sunlight and angling the camera up at the magnolia tree, while using the sky as a background!  One of those serendipitous right-place-right-time deals.  The image was then processed using HDR software.  Keep checking back for a small “Pretty in Pink” series that I am currently posting!

Pretty in Pink #1

This image was taken of a lovely pink flower in a bouquet that I bought to help chase the gray winter days away.  A Canon Powershot G7 (new camera!  yay!) on the macro setting.  I would just like to comment on this camera:  AMAZING!!  Its nearly a full-fledged dSLR, but in a wonderfully compact size and with the ability to attach extra lenses.  Its newer cousin, the G9 is currently available (this shoots in the RAW format), but I’m currently enjoying my little affair the G7 and don’t have eyes for any other camera

la playa bella…

Esta fotografia fue sacada en Playa del Carmen este verano pasado con un Olympus Stylus 820 camera digital (no me gusta escribir sin los simbolos del acento!!).

   Just trying to keep with the theme of the photo a little bit.  This picture was taken  this past summer while I was in Playa del Carmen, Mexico for one blissful week.  I used an Olympus Stylus 820 digital camera.  This church was in the town square (as is traditional in Mexico…and Latin American in general) and with the palms framing it and the bird on the cross, it was just begging to have its photo taken!  I also absolutely love the color of the glass in the church…its remarkably similar to the hue of the Caribbean that was just a few feet away on the other side of the plaza.

And, for those interested in visiting Playa del Carmen (highly recommended…absolutely fantastic!), you must try the fruit from the “fruit ladies” in this plaza.  It is some of the tastiest and freshest fruit you’ll find, and it provides a much-needed reprieve from the hot sun and humidity.  My favorite is the mango.  You get about 2 mangoes worth of deliciousness jammed into a plastic cup for the unbeatable price of 15 pesos (~$1.50).

So, since I’ve already wandered from the description of this photo, I’d like to make one more suggestion to anyone who plans to visit Playa.  If you know Spanish, speak it.  I ended up being my family’s translator for the duration of the trip.  Not only is it terrific fun to be immersed more completely in another culture, but you are certain to get better deals if you can bargain in the native tongue.  If you talk the talk, you’re less likely to pay too much for something.  And the vendors live to bargain with you.  The sheer quantity of bargaining I did was incredible and so much fun…and as a result I was able to purchase an obscene amount of goods on a very limited budget.  If the extent of your Spanish is “si” “gracias” or just “Spanglish”, use what you know.  A tiny “gracias” is much appreciated and will usually draw warm smiles from the kind folks of Playa.

I’ll be posting many more images from Playa del Carmen, so stay tuned.  And if you are inspired to venture there on your own, feel free to post any questions you may have!

Its Always Sunny in…Milton…

This photo was taken near Milton, PA on the way to a wonderful surprise from my boyfriend…a horseback ride in the foothills of the mountains.  I was shocked this picture even came out, considering I took it from the window of a car moving at approximately 45mph.  Pure luck, I suppose!

Anyhow, the photo was taken with an Olympus Stylus 820 digital camera.  Take a moment from your cold, dreary winter day to enjoy the sunny sky, green grass, and other lovely things that are non-existent right now!

Crystal that just won’t hold any bubbly…

So, 2009 has arrived…and so have I!  Its been months (literally) since I’ve posted to my photoblog.  But, this is not for lack of good reasons:  I had the opportunity  to visit Mexico once more (stay tuned for photos) and I’ve started medical school (which, not surprisingly keeps me ridiculously busy…ALL THE TIME).  But, I’m back now, and it is my New Year’s resolution to keep up with the blog a bit more faithfully!

So, with that said, on to today’s New Year’s image.  Inspired by the champagne that flowed into crystal fluted glasses at midnight, I’ve decided to post a picture of…CRYSTAL!  This is a 10x microscopic image taken with an Olympus BX51 light microscope at the Center for Biologic Imaging, with a blue filter applied.  The subject matter is crystallized PBS (phosphate buffered saline, a buffer used in the laboratory to, for lack of a better term, keep cells happy).  Enjoy, and let’s make 2009  the best yet!

Beauty and the Beach

This shot was taken on a beach of Lake Erie in Presque Isle State Park, Erie, Pennsylvania. Can you find the sailboat (hint: look at the horizon and zoom in)? It was taken using an Olympus Stylus 820 digital camera. The digital image was then processed in Photoshop to adjust color and contrast levels, apply a slight “glow” to the edges, and finally processed with Dynamic HDR software into an HDR image. Isn’t Erie simply gorgeous?

Tulum, HDR style!

This is the HDR version of a previously posted picture (yay alliteration!). For more information regarding HDR, please read the immediately previous post. For the original image of the Tulum cliff-scape, just scroll down the page. It is important to note that this is pseudo-HDR, produced from the original 8-bit image. This is what causes the slight graininess that is most noticeable in the sky. However, it is an excellent example of how HDRi enhances colors and detail while suppressing shadows. Enjoy!

Photographer’s note: I will be visiting Mexico once more this summer, so stay tuned for more great Tulum and Playa del Carmen shots in mid-July!

Pitt is HDR-rific!!!!

Being that I am a brand new alumna of Pitt, I felt it necessary to post a picture of two the campus’s splendors. This is a shot of the University of Pittsburgh‘s Heinz Chapel (foreground) and Cathedral of Learning (background), as seen from Bellefield Avenue. The image was taken using an Olympus Stylus 820 digital camera. Using DynamicHDR software to generate a “pseudo-HDR” image from the single 8-bit picture, this final image was created. For those of you not yet familiar with the wonderful world of HDRi (High Dynamic Range Imaging), I highly recommend Wikipedia’s article on the subject (HDR). It is essentially a method of digitally merging images taken at varying exposures so as to enhance detail, make colors more vibrant, and reduce shadows.

Hail to Pitt!!! Congrats Class of 2008!!!! And particular congratulations to my fellow Molecular Biologists!!

Pittsburgh!!

This is a cityscape shot of downtown Pittsburgh. It was taken from one of the overlooks on the famous Mt. Washington. Indeed, the view of the city from Mt. Washington (particularly at the Duquesne Incline) has been rated one of the top ten views in the country! The image was taken on a beautiful summer night with an Olympus D595Z digital camera.

It’s an alien, it’s a microbe, it’s….CHICORY!

This image is a scanning electron microscope (SEM) image. The chicory pollen was mounted on an aluminum stub, sputter coated with gold, and imaged at 2000x magnification at the Center for Biologic Imaging (CBI). As SEM images are naturally black and white, the blue hue was added in using Adobe Photoshop.

Tulum, Mexico

This image was taken while “misbehaving” in Tulum, Mexico. There is a rope near the edge of the cliff so that happy-go-lucky tourists don’t accidentally walk off the edge, because dead tourists don’t bring in much revenue. Crawling under the rope and dangling a leg over the edge of the cliff so as to support myself (think tripod) on a rock below, I took this shot with a plain ol’ 35mm camera and 400ISO film. The negative was then digitally scanned and the colors balanced using Adobe Photoshop.

*Photographer’s note: Tulum is an absolutely amazingly beautiful place! I highly recommend that anyone visiting Mexico venture out to the site to view the ruins and breathtaking vistas.

Orchid

Some of you are probably wondering what the heck the image under my blog title is. Well, for those inquisitive souls, here you go. This is a close-up of an orchid. Taken with an Olympus Zoom D595Z digital camera and posted for your viewing pleasure.

Butterfly

This photograph was taken with an Olympus Zoom D595Z digital camera. The butterfly was perched atop some leaves in the Phipps Conservatory annual butterfly garden.

Iris

This is a macro shot of an iris in my backyard spring garden. Taken with an Olympus Zoom D595Z digital camera.

Under the Boardwalk, Myrtle Beach, SC

This image was taken with standard 35mm camera and 400ISO film. Developed film was digitally scanned and image was enhanced for blue hues to bring out the water and horizon (Adobe Photoshop).

Hello world!

UNDER CONSTRUCTION…MORE TO COME SOON!