A Day at the Beach (B&W)

This Labor Day weekend was exactly what I needed.  Time out of the city with my friend Susie.  We went to Cape May, New Jersey, and had a perfectly splendid mini-vacation: scrabble, bike rides, brunch, good wine and dinner and, of course, the beach.

Oh, the beach.  How I love thee.

Hurricane Earl had threatened to ruin the weekend, but he proved no match for the Jersey Shore (must be all that fist-pumping that scared him away).  And I could tell you how beautiful the weekend was, but it's much easier to just show you.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, after all.  And these pictures should amply explain why I came back from the shore with renewed spirit.

Earlier I mentioned that I am in love with my new iPhone.  And my day at the beach underscored that love.  All of these photos were taken with it (vintage b&w free app and the hipstamatic camera app).  I love how it allows me to take some pretty amazing photos without risking getting sand all over my nice canon camera baby.  It also helps me take my photos of strangers on the sly.  My friend Susie didn't even know I was snapping away, even though I was sitting a mere foot away from her.

Because it's Wednesday, I posted my black and white photographs (but trust me, the sky was a beautiful shade of blue).  I love how black&white Wednesdays, hosted by The Long Road to China, keeps me exploring the art of the black and white photograph (if even just on the iPhone).  Go check it out!

 (Cape May, New Jersey, photographed September 2010)

Carnival Colors Continued

I received a lot of positive feedback on my prior Carnival photographs (thanks, guys!).  People raved about the colors, the costumes, and the creative cell phone positioning employed by the parade participants (look again at my post if you don't know what I'm talking about).  Well, it was one long parade, so lucky for you guys, I have plenty of more Carnival photos to share.  I'm probably going to overdo it here (carnival ad nauseam), but I hope not...

As way of background to the next few photos, I was in St. Lucia with two friends who are also avid photographers.  We all lined up at the edge of the parade route, big cameras in hand, ready to snap photos.  I loved taking photos that day.  But what I enjoyed almost as much was comparing the photos with my other two friends.  It's amazing the vastly different images we captured even though we were standing right next to each other during the parade. 

My one friend focused on action shots.  He was drawn to dancing, the stomping, the lively and wild shaking.  It was as if he was trying to record the soca music on print film.  His photos screamed movement.

My other friend focused on portraits.  He was drawn to the faces, the energy of each parade participant as they marched and danced about in the hot weather, and the spectators with their big eyes as the party passed by.  His photos were about individuals.

Me, I focused on the bodies . . .

A little scandalous? Maybe. But it's what really captured the carnival spirit for me.  A mass of bodies in glitter and shiny or day-glo (and often tiny-barely-there) outfits.

But just so you don't think I only took racy photos, here's some more PG-rated shots of Carnival to round it out, including one of a really adorable spectator (see, I didn't just focus on the bodies)...

(St. Lucia, photographed July 2007)

Lensbaby-baby

This is Lensbaby-baby, or as I like to call it, lensbaby-squared (yes, I am a nerd).

As you might recall from this post, I recently bought a new lens system for my camera called a lensbaby.  I'm still learning how it works and trying out the various optics that can be swapped in and out of the lens body.  Like swatches back in the day, you can easily switch the parts depending on your mood.  So when my friend Nicole asked me to take photos of her baby girl Greta, I thought it would be a good opportunity to play around some more with the lensbaby.

Although it may not be everyone's favorite (I know a certain friend of mine calls lensbaby photos all a blurry mess), I like how these photos turned out.  Real dreamy and with soft focus.  Yes, soft focus - not blurry.  And if you look at the bottom photo closely or enlarge it, you can see some stars in Greta's eyes (seriously, I have a creative aperture disc that is star shaped that creates that effect.  Neat, huh?).  I can't wait to play around with my lensbaby more.

(Greta, photographed May 2010)

Greta-the-cutest-little-babygirl!

Baby!

(Not mine, of course.) 

Having liked the photos I've taken and posted here on my cute little blog, my friend Nicole asked me if I would be willing to schlep up to her neck of the woods (aka Morningside Heights) and take photos of her baby girl Greta.  She wasn't quite sure what my reaction would be to such a request.  Would I say no?  Would I say that it was too far away to travel?  Would I have better things to do?

Little did she know that it was an honor to this budding photographer.  To be asked to take photos for someone else means I must be good at this, or at least good enough.  Besides, having an afternoon to hang out with Nicole -- even without the joy of taking photos of such a cute baby -- would be fun enough.  (Hi, Nicole, miss you!)

So on Saturday I trekked up to see my friend Nicole and her baby Greta.  And what a beautiful baby!  This was my first time taking portraits of a baby (I'm usually confined to taking photos of my own cat, Bella, which is not quite the same), but Greta was a perfect subject.  Adorable, with big beautiful eyes and a lovely smile.  Maybe a bit of spit-up, too, but that was for mommy, not photographer, to have to deal with.

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I think this is probably the most photos I've included in one post, and I hope I don't bore you with them.  But it was even hard picking just these nine to post.  Lucky Nicole is going to get a few dozen more great shots for her album.  And, who knows, I might do another Greta-centric post.  Who doesn't love baby photos?

p.s.  if you want me to take photos for you of someone or something - just ask!  seriously!

(Greta, photographed May 2010)

And Round We Go

My friend Heather said she likes my blog but she's detecting a theme so far.  Lest you think that I'm a crazy cat lady who takes only photos of flowers, I present to you these photos from when I first met Heather, which so happened to be on a ferris wheel for Munich's 850th birthday celebration.  Don't you meet all your friends that way? I'll leave it to her to tell you the story about how she invited herself to Salzburg the next day (she tells it much better than me as I learned last night).

(Munich Ferris Wheel, photographed July 2008)