McWay Falls…
EEEEeeeee!!!!!!!!! Its my favorite photo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! McWay Falls at the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park in Big Sur, California! So gorgeous. It seriously seemed like a dreamscape. I mean, really. A waterfall crashing onto a beach with turquoise waters and crashing waves, with glorious flora all around? PARADISE!! It is a very easy place to get to…a short walk (maybe 0.5 mile?) along a very level trail and…BAM! you are struck with this view. This is the “other side” of the trail view that I mentioned in my previous post.
And now, I will stop typing. Because sometimes a picture truly is worth a thousand words, and no matter how much I write, it just won’t say all that this photo has to tell.
Stay tuned for some upcoming close-ups of the features of McWay Falls!
rusty and resting…
So, here we have a very rusty ship resting in the San Francisco Bay. Not much to say about it, except that it had a slightly eerie quality at sunset. You can almost picture it in its hey-day, sailing on the open Pacific, sails billowing and sailors rushing about their on-deck duties…but now it just bobs in the bay, completely abandoned.
Taken with the Canon Powershot G12.
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!
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)
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?
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.
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:
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.
