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!
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.
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.
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.
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!!
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!!!
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 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!
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!
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!
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!
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!!
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 
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.
