Black & White

...The road is long

the memory slides

to the whole of my undoing

put aside

I put away

I push it back to get through each day

and all I feel is black and white

and I'm wound up small and tight

and I don't know who I am ...

~Sarah McLachlan, Black & White

It's a black & white kind of day. Not sure why, but it is.

We took this photo this summer on a camping trip. You can hardly tell from the photo what time of year it is. Maybe that's one reason why I like black and white photos so much -- there is a real timeless quality to them. One that you don't always get with color.

Lightning Speeds Ahead

This photo is an oldie from back in the days when we used to live in Southern Florida. I'd say, oh those were the days, but they really weren't. This isn't to say living in Florida wasn't fun while it lasted, but we were happy to move somewhere that actually has seasons. (Okay, so pm wasn't as excited as I was. :P).

What I do miss though are the walks on the beach, afternoon rain storms and sunshine. Oh and mojitos at DaDa's in Delray Beach. The best part about living in Florida was always having some place to go when we got bored --- for a walk on the beach. I miss being able to do that now. Say what you will, but the ocean isn't the same as Lake Michigan. They may look the same, but the air isn't. And, obviously neither is the water.

This photo was taken on my first digital camera - no flash, no tripod. I took a photography class and surprisingly was able to knock out some very decent pictures on my Olympus Stylus; a now retired model. Almost everyone else in my class had much fancier photo equipment. Goes to show that you need more than just good (aka expensive) equipment. I talk about equipment because I remember when I was showing this photo to the class my teacher kept saying it could not have been taken with my small digital camera. Well, yes it can.

It's now been three years since we left Florida. Time sure does goes by lightning fast, just like this train.

30 Days of Creativity - Day 28: Beach Time

Today we're feeling a little melancholic. We just spent an amazing weekend on the northwestern coast of Michigan camping at Orchard Lake State Park with some of our nearest and dearest Michigander pals. The park was much nicer than we had expected; and although the sites were very close together and weren't especially private, it worked out just fine.

The weather cooperated. We got to yell at kids that weren't ours to get out of our campsite. We ate what I swear to be the world's largest marshmallows. We spent an entire day on the sandy beach. And, we had fun. All in all, it was a wonderful trip. I've got to say though, it sure was hard to make the trek back on Sunday. I needed at least one more day of complete relaxation. (An easy task when no cell phone carrier has service.)

This photo was shot during our day at the beach with our fisheye lens. Just looking at it makes me want another day at beach with good company.

30 Days of Creativity - Day 2: Through the viewfinder

We're not going to let the rain slow us down!

We can already tell that this is going to be a fun month. We are looking forward to keeping you updated on our projects and progresses, but are also excited to see what others are doing as well. You can check out the roster of participants here and the Flickr group of some of those taking part in 30Days.

Now on to Day 2: Viewfinder Views.

As we've slowly watched our camera collection grow throughout the years, so has our collection of cameras that have a waist-level viewfinder. These finders are great for focusing and can be a lot of fun when you use other cameras to capture the image through the finder. Our example today is an image shot from our Olympus E-510 through the Kiev 6C finder. Neat result, right? Yeah, we thought so too. [You'll have to visit again sometime soon to see the actual images shot from the Kiev. We can't turn around medium format film as fast as digital files. :))]

Say "ahhh"

Nope, we are not sick; we are just recovering. We are recovering from packed, in fact over-packed, schedules these last few months. Looking forward for the warm breeze and the chance to relax (perhaps with a homebrew) outside by the lake.

We took a leisurely walk down by the lake this evening. It was wonderful and so nice to see so many other people doing the same thing. I sometimes forget that we live in a big city after being surrounded by our very quaint neighborhood away from the hustle and bustle. It sure is nice to have a balance of both worlds. At some point this summer we are going to get some shots of the sunrise over the Chicago skyline.

Well, back to unwinding and relaxing.

+ I love the above photo from Festifools. I think I love it so much because I so often stick my tongue out in photos. This helps remind me how ridiculous it looks sometimes. It also makes me laugh. :)