Thursday, July 29, 2010

Tropical Storm Bonnie?

Dan and I heard a tropical storm was headed our way, so to prepare for impact we... grabbed our cameras and went to the beach. However, we were sorely disappointed when we received barely any rain and only slight gusts of wind.



Of course I still took some shots of Palm Beach. You can see the "storm" in one of them. As much as I wished there was a bit more of a show, I am happy to say that South Florida was kept safe and sound.

Meet Ziva...

She's our new puppy. Well dog, she's a year old. Dan and I adopted her about a month ago. I thought it might be too soon but it was a good decision and I couldn't be happier with her. She completes our little family.



These are just a few of the thousand pictures I've taken of her. Isn't she the cutest?

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

iheartfaces Week 30 Challenge: Purple




Another new challenge website I wanted to try my hand at is iheartfaces. This site, among many awesome things, has a portraiture related weekly challenge. Portraiture is not my strong area in photography so I thought it would be different. This week's challenge theme is purple, my favorite color. So what better week to start than this?

                                Model: Dan Gershman  Shot with: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS
                                Focal Length: 48mm        ISO: 200
                                Aperture: f/9.0               Exposure Time: 1/125

Monday, July 26, 2010

Photo Friday Challenge: Sky-High



I decided to start entering some weekly challenges. I googled and found a few different sites that host the challenges, this one being Photo Friday . Their challenge this week is "sky-high".

Taken 01/19/09 with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS
F/7.1       Exposure: 1/1250
ISO:200      Focal Length: 55mm

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Happy Birthday To Me!!

 Today is my 23rd birthday and I figured I would celebrate myself by posting a few of my favorite pictures up.


This is my turtle Apollo a picture I took last October.


Here is a great blue heron taken at Wakodahatchee awhile back. Not the best picture, but i like it.


This is my mom. She is beautiful. 03/06/2009

Fireworks from 4th of July 2009.

Sandhill Crane taken at Halpatiokee Regional Park. 05/16/2009

The next two are probably my two favorite landscape shots I've ever taken.

Taken at Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. 06/17/2009

Taken at Royal Pines, right by where I live. 09/22/2008


Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Let's open up a restaurant in Sante Fe

I just came across this photo of Dan from a trip to Miami we took way back in January. We had one of the little metro movers to ourselves. This picture just makes me think of Rent. If you haven't seen it there is a scene when they are on the subway and they sing about just leaving it all behind and starting over somewhere new. I think about that all the time. Just packing up and going. Nowhere in particular, just see where life takes me.

"Let's open up a restaurant in Santa Fe. Oh, sunny Santa Fe would be nice. Let's open up a restaurant in Santa Fe and leave this to the roaches and the mice."

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Turtle Power!

Gena came over with her turtles the other day for a "Turtles Having Fun" photoshoot. Apparently, the turtles were not having fun. But we did manage to get some good shots. (When I get a link to where she has her pictures posted I'll post it here.)

This is my three-legged turtle Apollo on one of her turtles backs, looking mighty proud.



This is one of Gena's turtles, but I don't remember if this is Slink or Change. (sorry turtle friend!)
 


This is probably my favorite picture I've ever taken of Apollo. I can't seem to get the words across for how I interpret this photo, but I guess sometimes that's why you make a picture of it in the first place.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Butterfly Haven

(a continuance of yesterday's excursions from the previous post.)

Courtney, Dan and I were driving to find an abandoned roller rink and somehow ended up at Arnold's Wildlife Rehabilitation Center . Which was a beautifully run place with wonderful people. As well as being a wildlife rehab they also have a butterfly garden!!! I'm apt to "squee" everytime I see a butterfly so randomly running into this beautiful place was so amazing to me.


There were two lovely volunteers who also helped point out many different species of caterpillar and butterfly amongst everything else they taught us.



                  



                               







 Here are two of my better shots. I fell in love with the blur on the one above and I like the curve of the flowers stem on the one to the right. It gives it an almost 3D look.









There were a lot of orange flowers and I loved the way they were so bright and contrasty so I had a lot of fun shooting those as well.


And I'll leave you with my favorite shot of the day...

Saturday, July 10, 2010

(Sort of) Urban Exploring

Today I went with my two favorite shooting companions to explore some broken down building in Okeechobee, Fl. We saw an old bank attached to the (office?) of an oil company. The old bank is supposedly haunted. The Gilbert's Oil Company had a modern a/c window unit so I don't know when it was abandoned. The building was in serious disrepair though.


Along the way there were some random shots. Traffic lights and old payphones being amongst those


.


We also found what seemed to be an old apartment building. There were several front doors, some with masterlocks and others being held closed by cinder block/lack of doorknob, nothing too difficult to breach if one wanted to squat. There were still curtains in the windows and it was up for sale, but it would be a fixer-upper for sure. The building was in such a dilapidated state. The back door to the house seemed to be more out of the way of the public view. We supposed that if their were squatters this is how they entered, but that was pure assumption. There was smaller green shed around back and the three of us heard something definitely human from that general area. So we decided it was time to get out of there.







Of course, we found beauty amid destruction.





We headed off in Courtney's LANmobile to destinations unknown and most certainly awesome. But that will be the next post...


P.S. This post was kind of image heavy so I posted the pictures smaller. Click on any one to enlarge it!!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Downtown Adventure Part Three: A Man and his Mangos

While Courtney, Dan and I were out downtown a man was riding his bicycle with a box. He fell over and we helped him pick up the spilled contents of his box, which were mangoes and various other fruit.



I had my camera with me and he asked me to take a few pictures of him. I took some pictures of him and his fruit, which he seemed to be proud of. He then wrote his address in my journal so I could mail him copies of the prints. It made me feel good that he wanted his photo taken by me and I was very thankful to have him as a subject.



Thank you Jerome! Hope you enjoy your pictures! =D

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Downtown Adventure Part Two: The Wall

Continued, as promised, from the excursions Courtney, Dan and myself had downtown a few weeks back...

There is this building by the train tracks that is painted really awesomely. It's a wonderful cliche spot for anyone in or around West Palm to take pictures.


Well, the three of us decided to venture to this wall and play around for a bit. It proved quite fun, despite the sulky looks on Courtney and Dan's faces in the following few.









I love, love, love the use of negative space in this one.*


We played around for awhile, and had a lot of fun. I came home to a corrupted memory card. It took me four days to recover and I was still missing a few favorites. All in all though I am satisfied with the photos from that day and the wall ones weren't even my favorites. So look for another entry or two from this day.

My words just don't seem to be flowing properly right now. So I will leave you with quite possibly my favorite triptych of all time.


(The credit goes to Dan for the jump shot of me.)





* and the boy too, of course.

Friday, July 2, 2010

I don't come bearing an extensive blog... firstly, despite the time stamp that says July 1st on my previous post, I was still awake from June 30th, it was just past midnight, so I did manage all six blogs I wanted to do by the end of June. Go me!

Secondly, I am entering into the Palm Beach Post "Focus on Nature" photo contest. Eeeep! I don't expect to win but I do want to give myself the shot, see where I wind up. I can submit five pictures and choosing those five is going to be torture!

Thirdly, this is what I shot with today.



Which makes me squee! I haven't used film in forever. The pictures came back alright, nothing to write home about. However, I had the most fun day in a really long time and when it comes down to it, that's what matters.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Gloria Juliette

Dan and I currently live with my ten year old god-daughter, Gloria. She is a precocious, energetic, funny young lady. Not to mention extremely photogenic.



As much as you think a couple of newlyweds in their twenties would dislike having a a ten year old around, in this case, you'd be wrong. Yes, we encounter the temper tantrums, but that's not really for me to deal with anyhow. She loves playing with our puppy and she is very willing to jump in front of my camera. The one below is my favorite.



I hope I'm doing my job right, setting a good example and all. Giving her someone halfway decent to look up to. I think I'm doing okay. She's growing up so fast, so I have to try and capture as many portraits as I can!