Toronto

Miscellaneous, Photography

Last week, some friends and I went to Toronto, Canada! One of my friends, Mindy Mejia, was going to a mystery writer’s conference, and her husband didn’t want to go with, so three of us friends tagged along. It was really fun! Toronto is like a cleaner, less smelly New York. We ate a lot of delicious food, drank a lot of delicious drinks, and saw a lot of cool things. My two favorite things to see were The Power Plant and the Toronto Islands. At The Power Plant, my favorite piece was Demonstration by Michael Landy. What a fun idea to make your art interactive and have others participate in it. And a lot of the signs were very powerful and funny.

Since I knew we would be walking around a lot, I decided to try using my phone for pictures, instead of carrying around my bulky, heavy camera bag. In some ways, I’m glad I did this, and in other ways, I’m not. It was challenging to take photos with my phone, since I couldn’t always see the display. Even though I had the option to adjust for exposure, I wasn’t sure if I was adjusting correctly. And then there’s that whole digital zoom thing…I completely forgot about it. So I was zooming in and starting to get comfortable with the camera, only to get home, download all the photos and realize that they are all horribly pixellated! So sad! But on the good side, my shoulder doesn’t hurt at all, I didn’t have to carefully maneuver around the places that were crowded, and now I know for the future! Plus, it will be fun to see how horrible these look in the future as technology gets better and better!

More Senior Photos

Photography

A few weekends ago, I met my cousin in-law and aunt at my aunt’s house for another senior portrait session for my cousin in-law’s son. The weather was a little on the chilly side, but otherwise beautiful. We started the session by my aunt’s house, which is nestled in the woods, which are surrounded by corn fields. In the woods, the light was a little darker, so I had to have my ISO up higher than I would have liked. The trees also cast some strange shadows that I’m going to need to Photoshop out.

From there, we went to a nearby river and bridge. Getting down to the river was a bit treacherous, but luckily, nobody was injured. My favorite photo comes from this part of the session. What I like best about this photo is that my cousin’s son is just standing on a sand bar and looking at my aunt (his grandma) who is standing up on the bridge. He did not seem to love getting his picture taken, so I like that he seems more comfortable than in the other photos. I also like that he really seems to stand out from the background. I did go into Photoshop and blur the background a little bit to exaggerate this, but even without blurring it, he stood out a lot. And as far as I know, that is it for the senior portrait sessions that I have going on for this year.

Senior Photos

Photography

My cousin recently asked me to take her daughter’s Senior photos. We met at Centennial Lakes in Edina, wandered around and took some photos, then shortly after she changed outfits, it started raining. So we rescheduled and met at the Peace Garden in Minneapolis. I felt bad that we had to reschedule, but I’m glad that we did. We wandered through the Peace Garden, the Rose Gardens, and Calhoun, and I think we got a lot of good shots. And since Bre (my cousin’s daughter) is so photogenic, I barely had any outtakes, and the family had a lot of photos to choose from.

One thing I struggled with during these photo shoots was shadows. I had learned in school, and from experience, that taking photos with direct sunlight overhead tends to flatten out the image and colors. So I had specifically decided to take pictures in the early or late day. For both shoots, we were out after 5pm. Some shots were great, but I really had to up my ISO, so they are grainier than what I would have liked. And for other shots, I was struggling to keep harsh shadows off her face. Or keep my shadow out of the shot! I will have to practice more to combat those shadows so I have less Photoshop work in the future. I’ve also read about using flash outdoors, which I will have to experiment with in the future.

The photo above is one of my favorites. I think I like it so much, since it’s one of the only ones she isn’t smiling in. Not that she doesn’t have a great smile, but she was such a good model and smiled so easily, that this one was a rare one.

Forest Bathing

Miscellaneous, Photography

For August’s photo outing, Kristin and I combined a Forest Bathing class and photos! (Actually, we did Forest Bathing first and photos after that.) For those of you who might not know what Forest Bathing is (I had no clue until I read the description), it’s a form of Japanese meditation. The basic theory is that we don’t spend enough time outside in nature, so it’s taking the time to connect with nature, meditate, and just notice and be in the moment. The class was great, and I would definitely recommend it. It was offered at the Arboretum, through the University of Minnesota.

It was 2.5 hours long, and we were introduced to an activity, given 15-20 minutes to partake in said activity, and then we talked about it as a group. I think we did about 5-6 different activities. The space that we were brought to for our nature connection, was really beautiful and peaceful. The instructor was great as well. Some of the activities were a little more “edgy” (his words), but he never made anyone participate or made them feel awkward for not participating. My least favorite part was going around in a circle and talking about the activities. I’m not a huge fan of talking in front of a group of people. It was reminiscent of the first day of school when you go around in a circle and tell everyone your name and something about yourself. (Does anyone really like doing that?)

After the class, I was definitely more relaxed. Honestly though, I can’t say for sure if it was because I was in nature and meditating or if it was because I blocked off a set of time for 2.5 hours and had nowhere to be and nothing to do except sit in nature. Either way, the end result was fantastic, and I’m glad I did it!

Kristin and I had a quick snack and then wandered the Arboretum taking photos. Yes, I took a lot of flower photos (I was definitely in the right place for that!), but there were a few non-flower photos that I really love. I’m not exactly sure what it is about them that draws me in, but they are so interesting, that I had to share them:

For this month’s poster, I didn’t do a poster. I wasn’t pleased with how it was turning out, and I realized that a postcard was much more interesting to me. So I did the postcard that I used as the featured image of this post, and the one below:

dead flower with text Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in lower-left corner

The featured post one is more traditional to me, so I think that’s why I like this one better, and I kept it to show you at the end. Surprise!

St. Peter, Minnesota

Design, Photography

For July’s photo outing, Kristin and I took a trip to St. Peter, Minnesota. I remembered driving through their downtown on my way to my Grandparents, and I thought it might be a cute spot to take pictures. I also distinctly remembered a cute, wooden gazebo that was in a park there, that I think my aunt and uncle were married at.

On our way into the downtown area, we spotted a coffee shop and stopped for a coffee, lemonade, and a change of clothing, since it was much hotter than we had expected it to be. On our way out of the coffee shop, we spotted a water fountain and went to explore. There was a little park with a walking trail that led into the woods. The woods looked promising, so we trudged ahead! Turns out, it was pretty disappointing. The trail was not covered at all, so we were in the hot sun on an over 80 degree day. After a short walk, we could see there was no shade in sight, so we turned back.

Since downtown was fairly busy at that time, we thought it might be fun to go explore Gustavus Adolphus College. On the way there, we passed the park that had the little, wooden gazebo. Sadly, the gazebo had been replaced by a larger, not-as-cute gazebo (or I just completely remembered it as nicer than it was…that could be the case too). The college looked very ’70s. There was one building that was architecturally interesting, but otherwise, the buildings were all brick and rectangular.

Luckily, the college had an arboretum, which is where we spent most of our time. Sadly, there wasn’t any shade here either, so we got really warm walking around. I was concerned that it might be too warm, and our lenses might get condensation on them, but they appear to be fine. I got a lot of flower pictures, so that made the sweaty walk worth it!

After hours in the sun on a hot day, we didn’t have the energy left to go back and explore downtown. Maybe on another day trip, we’ll pass by there again and stop.