bixby bridge…
The Bixby Bridge!!! I just loved the way it spans the mountains and overlooks the coastline! Have I mentioned that I love the Pacific Coast Highway (a.k.a. Highway 1)?!?!
I used the Canon Powershot G12 for this one, with a wide-angle lens attached. Enjoy! Stay tuned for more!
crusin’ california…
Goodness! Its been almost a month since I’ve posted!!!! Why does October, my favorite month, always slip by so quickly? Birthdays and residency and crisp sunny weather and residency and warm chai lattes and residency and a trip to NYC (before the storm, luckily!) and residency and much needed vacation week…and residency. Well, today is the last day of my rotation this month and I have the day off! Woohoo!!! Hence, I be postin’. I figure I should seize the opportunity before I start the ICU and a research project in November. Adios, light of day.
Anyhoo, NYC was AMAZING. Awesome Manhattan hotel, got to see the Naked Cowboy in Times Square, found the spot of the last scene (favorite scene ever) of my favorite movie ever (You’ve Got Mail), got to play out the last scene and take a pic (! dream come true!), and got to see ANNE!!!!!!!!!! BEST PART OF THE TRIP!!! Aaaand got to go to Coney Island Beach on the way home just so I could see a beach before retreating back to the ‘burgh (seriously, how did I get so lucky to have a man who not only accepts my beach obsession but wholeheartedly encourages it????). Some photos of NYC/beach will be coming but not too many of the city as the weather was just NOT good for shutterbuggin’.
On that note, NYC, you will pull through this disaster beautifully, just as you’ve conquered every obstacle in the past! You weathered the storm and will shine even brighter than before. And, Anne, so glad you’re safe and sound!
Now. On to the posted photo! Its about time, eh? Took this one from our little red Prius while driving down Highway 1. Lovely coast in the foreground (can you find the rock arch?) with the Bixby Bridge spanning the mountains in the background! :-) Yes, we came around the corner of the mountain, I squeaked about the bridge, subsequently missed the shot, so Jay promptly turned our eco-mobile around, I took the photo, and we then continued on our journey (towards great memories and hundreds of more photos). Oh, Jay. Beaches and photography. A girl should be so lucky.
And, a quick shot of one of the views out of the Prius…
colorful chinatown clothing…
Chinatown Laundry!!! So, if you go slightly off the main drag in Chinatown, you come upon the buildings that people live in…and a you get a much better feel of the essence of Chinatown. I loved all of the colorful laundry that was hanging out to dry. And so many of the pieces were very ethnic! It may be odd…I’ve taken lots of “laundry out to dry” photos in my travels…but I feel like these photos tend to capture a culture in some of the best ways. They show everyday life. Regardless of how different people and cultures may seem to be, we are all so similar at a fundamental level. We all do laundry. We all laugh when we’re happy. We all smile. We all fall in love. We all feel an astounding array of emotions and incorporate our experiences into our very being.
Alright. Enough of the waxing philosophical. I found the most amazing little restaurant in Chinatown. Hole in the wall kind of place, really, but with the best food ever. It was down a side street. I’m now convinced that the further you go away from the “touristy” places and the worse the restaurant looks from the outside, the better the food is. I had the beef with scallions and eggs. Oh. My. God. The beef was pan-fried most of the way and then coated in the egg and all tossed into a pan so that the beef was coated in egg and there were also delicious bits of scrambled egg. All of this was mixed with very fresh scallions that were just waved over the heat and piled on top of delicious brown rice. I’ve tried to replicate it and am slowly getting closer, but I just can’t wait for the day that I can return to San Francisco and eat to my heart’s content. Mmmmm. By the way, the key to well-seasoned, crispy beef is a bit of soy sauce and coat the beef in a corn starch slurry before pan-frying. Mmmmmm.
Of course, taken with the Canon Powershot G12. Contrast fixed a smidge in Photoshop CS5 because that alley had some seriously funky light going on.s
bye bye bridge…
As the sun set on our last day in San Francisco, I snapped a last shot of the Golden Gate Bridge with the Marin Headlands in the backdrop and a wave heading for the Presidio in the foreground. Oh, how I didn’t want to leave San Francisco!!! Such an amazing city with so much more to explore! I truly cannot wait to return!
Although, as we left the Presidio and the bridge behind, we returned to In-n-Out for a delicious wharf-side burger dinner! Yes, in a city with myriad dining possibilities, we had both of our dinners at In-N-Out. It was just so good!!!! Its all about the “hidden menu”. That’s where “animal style” lives. And, all that walking and hill-climbing definitely cancels out a double animal-style burger with a side of animal-style fries and a large lemonade, right? Right?!?!? :-) Oh well. Happy tummy, happy girl.
Top two San Francisco foods: In-N-Out burgers/fries and the delicious beef/scallion/egg dish from Chinatown! OMG…that was sooooo good. I keep trying to find a replica here at home, but so far have been unsuccessful :-( But, my attempt at making was probably the closest to the original that I’ve yet encountered! Huzzah!
Alright. Enough the food talk. Its making me hungry. I’m on my Trauma Surgery rotation right now so food is a precious commodity. I covered 90 patients last night. That leaves no time for grub. But it was fun!
That said, postings might be few and far between for the month of August. I have 14 hour days and average 1 day off for every 7. But, I promise to post when I get a chance!!!
One final note: GO TEAM USA!!!!!!!!!!!! OLYMPICS 2012! I think it is amazing that even with the amount of international turmoil these days, the entire world can come together and play nicely for 2 weeks. And it is an honor to watch it and the level of sportsmanship displayed every day. I love the Olympics and everything they respresent. USA! USA! USA!!
((Yes, it was taken with the G12. And yes, I promised that a previous post contained the last Golden Gate Bridge shot. I lied. Sorry. But this is the last! I think! ))
scenic san francisco…
So, here we have a shot of the building-clad hills of San Francisco with a tiny glimpse of the Bay Bridge in the background! This photo was taken from a street that Lombard Street intersects with. Those are some seriously exact directions, eh? And, have I mentioned that it was an absolute hoot to drive down the curvy portion of Lombard Street??? So much fun!!!! What’s not so fun: attempting to ascend Lombard Street in a Prius. When a street is so steep that steps need to be cut into the sidewalk, it should serve as a warning sign that someone driving a Prius may not wish to attempt the hill. Ah, yes, many fun adventures that truly tested the limits of our little red Prius were had on this California trip. And you know its always good when a bus coming at your stop-sign-intersection that technically has the right-of-way waves you frantically to just go through the stop sign without stopping. Kinda sad, really, that it looked like the little automobile was having such obvious difficulties. Note to anyone attempting a big hill in a Prius: TAKE IT OUT OF ECO MODE…PUT IT INTO POWER MODE. You don’t have a prayer if you’re still driving in the hybrid mode!!!!! Good times.
So, anyhoo, Lombard Street was great fun. And exploring it led us to some great vantage points of the city. Sadly, upon returning to our little red Prius after taking this photo, we found that someone had stolen our GPS (which we needed for our drive down the coast!) in the whole 8-minute span that we were away from the car. Oh well. S**t happens. Turns out we didn’t need the GPS and got many great photos down the coast to prove it! So, thief, if you are reading this post: you may have taken our GPS, but you didn’t steal our fun!! :)
Of course, this shot was taken with the Canon Powershot G12. Stay tuned for more California photos and eventually shots of the scenic Virgin Islands!!!!!!!!!
Adios, y’all. I’m getting back to my lovely day off from the ER! :)
wonderful windows of alamo square…
Aaaaand….I’m back! I’m going to apologize now for the delays that may happen between posts in the future. I have officially started my emergency medicine residency now and free time (to be used for things other than sleeping and eating) will be a bit more difficult to come by. :-)
So, today we have another photo taken from Alamo Square in San Francisco! 42 windows in all, categorized into three distinct groupings. I thought the black and white tones brought out the visual interest in the photo waaaaaay better than in color (which was basically gray). I hope you think so too!
Of course, taken with the Canon Powershot G12.
Stay tuned for yet more California photos…and soon some photos from the US Virgin Islands!
the wonderful women of alamo square…
I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!! :-) Hello again, world! Now that I’m back, I can tell everyone where I was: PARADISE!, also known as St. John, USVI. Didn’t exactly want to previously announce to world that I was leaving on vacation, but I’m happy to say I’m back with a camera full of photos! But, everyone will have to wait for those since we’ve still got a lot of California to see! Oh, maybe I’ll throw everyone a bone and stick one St. John photo in at some point, but I promise Paradise Pics will my next series.
Now, on to this photo! Its the lovely Painted Ladies of San Francisco. Alamo Square is surrounded by lots of beautifully painted Victorian houses, but this stretch is obviously the most famous. Alamo Square is also a wonderful little park set up on a hill to relax in for a spell and provides a great view of the houses of San Fran and the city buildings below.
Taken with the Canon G12. And, I have to admit, a teeny bit of Photoshop CS5 happened here. Some dude was seriously sleeping in the grass between me and my subject and despite my best efforts at waiting for him to wake up and move his tushie, he never did wake up (hopefully he woke up at some point!). Thus, I removed him from my photo. That’ll show him what happens when you get in the way of my photography…I erase you! Mwahahahahaha! :-)
On another note, I’d like to announce that after 6 years, Jay is no longer my boyfriend…HE’S MY FIANCE NOW!!! WOOHOO! Now we’re gonna be super-nerd MARRIED couple. :-) The proposal took place on top of the Castle on St. John at sunset with the Virgin Islands in the background! :-)
And, now for the artsy-fartsy ring photo, complete with shallow depth-of-field:
Yippee! Love you Jay! Now you’re stuck with the Shutterbug FOREVER! :-)
the rock…
Alcatraz, in Black and White. Captures the haunting aspect of the island prison.
Alcatraz, in color. With a seagull!
Alrighty, folks. If you don’t like this post, I’m going to be forced to send you to Alcatraz and throw away the key! Just kidding, just kidding. These photos are pretty self-explanatory. I unfortunately did not get a chance to visit the prison in my 2-day stay (although I did manage to visit In-n-Out Burger twice…priorities, my friends. ”Animal Style” burger and fries is seriously like crack. Crack that you can’t get on the East Coast). But, hey! I have to leave something to do on my return trip (hmmm…lunch at In-n-Out on the way to Alcatraz? The burger joint is close to from where the tours leave!)
So, which of these photos do you prefer? I think I’m leaning towards the black and white version…kind of a throwback to when the prison was in use and accentuates the eeriness of the place. And if you’re thinking that the photo was taken with the tilt-shift technique…it wasn’t! I know, it looks like it was, but its just a plain ol’ shot from Pier 39 across the bay. Guess I lucked out for the bonus effect. As for the color image, c’mon…that seagull could not have been in a better spot if I could have glued him to the sky! :)
So, please vote in my little poll:
Oh! I almost forgot to state the obvious: all photos taken with the Canon Powershot G12. Forget that newfangled G1X that just came out…I love my G12 (and my lenses/underwater housing won’t fit the new version…a very expensive reason to stick with the G12!). Stay tuned for more of California!
And yes, I mentioned an underwater housing for the G12. A gracious Christmas present from my family for use in my upcoming trip to St. John, USVI!!! Eeeeeek!!!! SO EXCITED!!!! Can’t wait to share those photos…but first, I need to get there 
glowing golden…
Ok, ok. I promise. This is the last shot of the Golden Gate Bridge that I’ll post. However, I’m not going to make any solid promises as I certainly hope to get some more shots in the future since I absolutely loved California and am dying to go back! Not to mention, I am still utterly flabbergasted at how the beach bum in me did not know that on the other side of the Presidio lies a beautiful beach where the bay meets the Pacific with a gorgeous view of the bridge. HOW DID I MISS THIS???????? GAAAHHHH!!!!! Oh well. Live and learn, as they say. To salvage my beach bum rep, I’ll have you know that I mapped out all of the best beaches to stop at on our drive towards Long Beach from San Francisco :-)
So enough of the I-can’t-believe-I-missed-this-beach ranting and back to the photo. This one was fun to take. Jay and I hiked up the hill by the bridge and I used one of the wooden poles along the footpath as a makeshift tripod so that I could get a true HDR shot of the bridge. I set up the exposure bracketing in my G12 and let ‘er rip (or snap, as the case may be). It took a couple of tries since the wind kept rocking the camera, but this one turned out pretty darn clear. I love how the “Golden” in the bridge is really accentuated and there is even a golden cast thrown down onto the bay below. :-)
Stay tuned for more San Francisco shots and photos from my journey down the coast!
And, a little teaser for everyone: I have an upcoming trip to St. John, USVI, so keep your eyes peeled for what I expect to be fabulous shots! I mean, how can one take a bad photo in such an idyllic location? Woohoo!!!!!! BEACH!!!!!
chillin’ at crissy…
Well, here’s another Golden Gate Bridge photo! This time, we are pulling back a bit from the bridge to capture the full bridge span, some of the Marin headlands, San Francisco Bay, and the beach flora at Crissy Field/Park. Wow! That’s a lot of stuff! I love how the beach flora unexpectedly takes center stage in a Bridge shot. :-) Why be ordinary? ;-) Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy the rich beach colors and brilliant blue sky as much as I did in person!
Of course, taken with the Canon Powershot G12 with a wide-angle lens attached (it seriously was the only way to get that whole darn bridge in a picture!). Contrast touched-up in Photoshop CS5.
Stay tuned for more of California through my eyes and lens!
sailin’ off the dock of the bay…
Ok, folks! It is Match Day, the day in a medical student’s life where the big magic computer in the sky matches us with a residency program and we find out where we will spend the next 3+ years of our lives honing our skills as “real” doctors! And….I MATCHED AT MY TOP CHOICE PROGRAM!!!!!!!!!!!! I will be one of the newest Emergency Medicine residents at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center! I am beyond excited right now and so thrilled to start on this next leg of my journey. :-) WOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! And congratulations to all my med school buddies on their respective matches…we’ve all worked so hard for this and we rocked it! Special shout-out to Dr. Dan and Dr. Heather…your programs are lucky to have you guys and the world is lucky that it is going to have such an amazing ER doc and pediatrician!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok, with that said, on to the photo. Golden Gate Bridge (mostly silhouetted) at sunset with a sailboat on the Bay (presumably headed out to sea, if I’m judging correctly from the direction of its sail). And that’s about it for the photo! Today is all about Match Day joy (the culmination of 8 years of hard work) with a nifty photo thrown in.
Of course, taken with the Canon Powershot G12. Enjoy and stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!!!
bridge bolsters…
So, in keeping with the Golden Gate Bridge theme, here’s another (and I’m sure there’ll be a couple more as well…)! Pretty self-explanatory. This is a shot of the infrastructure of the Bridge, specifically the beginning of the bridge over the Presidio. It was nicely silhouetted against the sky, so of course I couldn’t resist some taking a few snapshots :-)
Taken with the Canon Powershot G7 and cropped to give a neat square feel. C’mon…I gotta change up the shapes every now and then! Enjoy and stay tuned!
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!!!!
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.
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!!!
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: 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!)
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!
