Snapshots of New York

I confess that, except for my brief photo field trip in d.c., I haven't been using my camera.  As I mentioned before, it's just too cold and bleak to want to be out there snapping away.  Spring is *finally* around the corner, but not quite.  As soon as the weather turns nice, I have a photo date with Katy of Sugarlaws.  I also have a photo field trip planned with my friend Laura to wander around and take photos of whatever we stumble upon.  But until then, I've been staying creative with my iphone, surreptitiously taking photos on the subway and on the streets.  

But I'm constantly amazed at the great shots I can capture with my little iphone camera, like these.

(New York City, photographed Winter 2011)

Falling for New York

Today was a beautiful day in New York.  Although it is (gasp) already mid-November, it was unseasonably warm, with temperatures reaching the mid-sixties.  My friend from high school was visiting for the weekend (hi Meghan!), so we took full advantage of the great weather and strolled through the streets of Brooklyn.

And I, of course, took my camera with me.  But I didn't want to be a pain and make my dear friend wait while I switched lens and played around with my camera.  Nor did I feel like lugging my big camera bag around during our stroll.  So instead I took just my camera, upon which I mounted my new 85mm prime lens.  I have been so busy lately (maybe you could tell by the lack of recent posts) that I haven't really had a chance to break it in.  Needless to say, I'm pretty happy with it.

(NYC, photographed November 2010)

iPhotography

I have a new toy.  

I finally took the plunge and traded in my very, very old flip phone and bought an iPhone4.  And I am obsessed, beyond obsessed, with it.  I thought I had some good reasons for holding off on this upgrade.  My primary reason was that I have a blackberry through work, which - although it is a very, very old model - handled my on-the-go internet needs.  I figured it was silly to spend the money on another smart phone and on a big data plan and all the other costs that would go along with it.  Why bother?    

Now I can't believe I waited so long to get one.  

What finally got me to give in was that my sister (who lives on the far other side of the country from me) got an iPhone4.  I'm a sucker for the Apple and iPhone commercials, especially the "face time" video chatting they show as possible with the iPhone4, and I wanted my sister and I to have our own special moments via this iPhone video chat. 

That, and I've been admiring photos taken with the hipstamatic camera app.  Some friends had previously posted these really cool looking, vintage-feeling shots on facebook, and with some digging, I learned they were taken with hipstamatic.  I knew I had to have it.

And so I quickly went out to the store, upgraded, and it's now been about a week and half with my new toy.  Not only did I get the hipstamatic camera app, I got several other photography apps, like vintage shift, vintage green and vintage red.  I plan on acquiring more, too.  My phone has suddenly become the most convenient but fabulously creative camera in my bag.  

And, in case you are wondering, I still haven't video chatted with my sister, as she's now in Japan on vacation.  But with all the other things my iPhone does, I really haven't minded much.  

(nyc, photographed August 2010)

Portugal Potpourri II

Okay, I know I have done this before.  But work remains busy, and it's either skip posting again or just share an odd assortment of photos from my recent journeys through Portugal.  I went with the latter.  I think you'll be happy with this choice.

Enjoy these photos, and I'll hopefully have more time to write in a few days.  Fingers crossed.

(Portugal, photographed June 2010)

Pousada of My Heart

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent one night at a pousada while in Portugal.  A pousada is basically a state-owned hotel operating out of a renovated historic landmark, like a monastery, castle, palace, or other architecturally and culturally rich building.  There's about forty-some pousadas across the country, but the one that Laura and I stayed at was located in the hills of the Douro River valley, overlooking the water below. 

It was gorgeous, of course - essentially a nobleman's bed and breakfast.  Our pousada had a parlor, a game room, a beautiful dining area, manicured rose gardens, several elegant fountains and so forth.  It even came with its very own wedding party. 

(Portugal, photographed June 2010)

Portugal Potpourri

Well, I'm back.  Sorry for the long absence from posting.  I was on my long anticipated vacation, driving around Portugal with my friend Laura, eating good food and drinking (many) bottles of vinho verde.  Don't worry, though, I have lots of new photos to make up for the time spent away. 

But, alas, I'm jet-lagged.  Barely too tired to transfer photos from my camera and definitely too tired to sort through the two memory cards worth of pictures to put together a cohesive themed post about any one of the towns Laura and I visited or things that we did.  So instead, you will just get this, a potpourri of pictures from the trip.  Hopefully they will get you excited to see some more. 

That is, once I've recovered from the jet-lag... (yawn).

(Portugal, photographed June 2010)

Look What the Stork Brought...

I'm a proud new mama.  

But not of a real baby (and certainly won't be for a while) and not of another kitten (even though last post still really makes me want one).  Nope, I got a lensbaby.  I'm such a sucker.  I love that name.  Lensbaby.  Adorable.  If you know me, it should come as no surprise that I first read up on this lens system because I thought the name was cute.  Too. Darn. Cute.  And I'm a sucker for its packaging, too.  When I opened the box with my new lensbaby in it, on the top was a green pamphlet with "mama?" written on the front, like it was a baby bird hatching and asking if it belonged to me.  Yes, such a sucker for those things...

But cute gimmicky names and packaging aside, I think it's going to be a great addition to my camera bag.  Mind you, it will never be my primary lens.  But it's a type of camera lens that allows for some really creative effects.  It tilts and spins around to allow for selective aperture affects and comes with four different optic pieces that can be swapped out (kind of like swatches back in the day - they even come with bright neon colors to distinguish between them). 

I bought my lensbaby on Friday, and by Friday night I was snapping photos.

 These are just some slightly random shots taken around new york as I played with my new baby. The first four photos were taken with the double glass optic (for those of you who have now looked up the lensbaby).  These last two photos, my subway shots, were taken using the single glass optic, which is supposed to create a vintage or dreamy feel to the photos.  I think it works.

Now to the nay-sayers that say "who needs this lens when photoshop can achieve a lot of the same effects?", I must answer that I really don't like using photoshop.  For me the fun is getting what I want using my camera, not my computer.  Besides, lensbaby requires me to work in manual mode, which will finally force me to really get to know how my camera works. I often (read: usually) shoot in automatic mode.  Not with my lensbaby though.

(nyc, photographed with lensbaby May 2010)