Tag Archives: photography

25 Days of Christmas: Days 1-7

Posted in Challenges by

Here are my photos for Days 1-7 of the 25 Days of Christmas Challenge!

Day 1 – Lights – Looking up through a light tree at Longwood Gardens
Day 2 – Decorations – I know, more lights! But this is how we have decorated our house this year.  Icicle lights all around!
Day 3 – Gifts – We haven’t wrapped any presents yet this year so these are some gifts from two years ago.
Day 4 – Tradition – This is our advent calendar!  We stash candy and goodies behind each little door for each other.  Matt gets the odd days and I get the even!
Day 5 – Santa – Our snazzy, sparkly Santa ornament.
Day 6 – Stockings – We don’t have stockings but we do have these awesome red boots!
Day 7 – Snow – I couldn’t decide on this so I chose two.  One shows Bailey on a huge snow drift during the winter of 2010 and the other is a road that we take on our drive to work.

Craving more 25 Days of Christmas fun?  Go visit Pami at Pa-BLAM and Katie at Kitchen Notes and Other Sundries… they are doing the 25 Days of Christmas Challenge, too!

25 Day Photo Challenge

Streaking, Reflections, and Other December Challenges

Posted in Challenges by

I don’t usually take part in online challenges but I am making several exceptions this month!  Here’s a quick run down of the fun challenges that I will be participating in for December:

1.  I’m Going Streaking!!

As a part of the Runner’s World “Streak,”  I have committed to run, walk, or elliptical at least 1 mile every day between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.  I completed my mile for day 12 of the streak this morning and I feel great!

“Streaking” is a big deal for me because, although I was a runner in college, I’ve really done very, very little running since graduating in 2007.  I am usually quite content to come home from work and make dinner/watch TV/blog/do anything besides exercise.  But all of that has changed since I started my streak on Thanksgiving.  Now I actually wake up BEFORE work (something I never would have believed that I’d ever do!) and I elliptical my mile while groggily watching the morning traffic and news.  It’s an awesome feeling to come home from work and know that I have already finished my exercising for the day.  🙂

I have to give a quick shout out to Jocelyn from Running Noodle because without Jocelyn I never would have known that the Streak challenge existed.  I read Jocelyn’s “Streaking” Post last winter and decided then and there that I would try streaking myself this year.  I learned this weekend that streaking is actually a whole blog/twitter/social media “thing” with it’s own hashtag (#RWStreak) so I guess I’ll start tagging my streaking posts from now on!

weekly photo contest - "reflection"

2.  Weekly Photo Challenge: REFLECTION

I kept seeing posts with beautiful “reflection” photos featured in my WordPress reader so I did some investigating and learned that WordPress sponsors a Weekly Photo Challenge.  It’s easy to participate so I thought this would be a fun way to add to my December challenges.  I think to actually join the challenge properly I need to create a brand new post titled “Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflection” but this post will have to suffice for week 1.

I have two photos featuring reflections for this week.  The first (above) is a rare self-portrait of me taking a photo of Bailey via the car’s rear view mirror.  She loves car rides!  (Ignore my wrinkly forehead… I was thinking hard!)  The second (below) is a photo of a Delmarva DockDog named Sam.  I love how Sam and his toy are converging with their reflections!

weekly photo contest - "reflection"

3.  25 Days of Christmas Photo Challenge

Yes, another photo challenge.  (When I decide to do something I go all out!)  I learned about this photo challenge from Pami at Pa-BLAM.  There’s a nice holiday-themed topic for each day and, like Pami, I will probably do a post every 7 days or so with the photos from the previous week.  I’m going to have to rely on some holiday photo archives for a few of these though… I mean, I HOPE that I see snow on December 7th but at this point that’s not looking too likely!

25 Day Photo Challenge

OK, well that just about sums up my December challenges.  I think that #3 is going to be really fun but overall I am most excited about Streaking.  Wish me luck!   🙂

August Cheer for a Rainy Day

Posted in Adventures at Home by

As predicted, Hurricane Sandy is slowly turning into the New Jersey coast and we have already experienced 40 mph wind gusts, almost 2 inches of rain, and a short power outage.  We’ve also found a leaky spot in our roof by the chimney… eek!  Other than that everything is fine so I thought I’d share something completely unrelated to the storm: photos from my garden in August!

This pink zinnia plant was at its peak in early August but, believe it or not, it STILL has a few blooms on it today! We’ll see how they look after the storm…

These Gladioli bloomed in August and did a nice job of covering up the big propane tank that powers a little stove in our living room. That stove might come in handy if the power goes out tonight!

Vine-ripening tomatoes in early August… yum!

These “Dinnerplate” Dahlias bloomed outside of our front door for most of the summer.

I picked all of these vegetables during my lunch break one day in August. Pretty good harvest, right?

And, last but not least, an isolated Orange Cosmo. You might recognize this plant from my August post “The Bee’s Knees.” I’m definitely planting more of these flowers next year!

Thanks for stopping by my blog and good luck to everyone in the storm’s path!

Megan and Nick’s Wedding!

Posted in Uncategorized by

Last weekend Matt and I got to be a part of the wonderful marriage of Matt’s sister, Megan, and her husband Nick.  Congratulations Megan and Nick!!  🙂

The official wedding festivities began with an amazingly delicious rehearsal dinner at Le Virtu in South Philadelphia and ended with a fantastic wedding celebration at the historic Powel House in old Philadelphia.  Megan and Nick had a professional photographer documenting the official wedding but I had fun taking some photos during the rehearsal dinner and the “getting ready” portion of their wedding day.  Here are a few of my favorite shots!

Nick and Megan at their rehearsal dinner on Friday night.

We had an amazing 4 1/2 hour meal at Le Virtu in South Philadelphia. Click on the photo to zoom in and read the menu! My favorite course was the Palott cac’ e ove Braised egg and cheese croquettes in tomato sauce.

Megan and Matt’s cousin Denise has the cutest daughter ever! This is 13 month old Frankie.

Megan’s beautiful wedding dress!

Megan gave each of her bridesmaids a pair of these lovely custom-made earrings along with a cute robe to wear while getting ready. Thanks, Megan!

Welcome to Philadelphia!

Megan walked down the aisle in these snazzy pink peep-toe pumps.

Matt and I made a DIY photobooth for Megan and Nick. Here we are hamming it up for the camera. 🙂

Megan and Nick’s wedding bands in a custom bowl.  The inscription reads:
“I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart) September 8, 2012”

Best of luck to Megan and Nick and hope you’re having a blast on your honeymoon in Hawaii!!

(i)Phoneography: Using the camera you never leave home without

Posted in Uncategorized by

I love my Nikon D90 camera. Since getting it in 2009 I’ve taken more than 39,000 photos and it’s the camera behind 99.9% of the flying dogs, colorful flowers, and tasty foods you’ll see on this blog. That being said, my Nikon is HUGE and screams “photographer” (or, worse yet, “steal me!”) so it just isn’t practical to bring it with me everywhere I go.

Enter the iPhone camera: tiny, lightweight, unobtrusive, and – most importantly – already with me at all times! The iPhone obviously won’t yield the same results as the Nikon D90 but it is a fantastic substitute when the perfect photo opp presents itself and I don’t happen to have the big camera with me. Here are some photos that I took with my iPhone:

Sunset - edited with Instagram

Bailey keeps her eyes on the road in the car

Go Phillies! edited with Instagram

Paperwhites in my kitchen

The Venetian, Las Vegas - edited with Instagram

These are some tips that I try to keep in mind while taking photos with my phone:

  • It’s all about the light. Avoid grainy, blurry phone photos by choosing shots where your camera will excel. Look for people or objects facing into the sun (or a sunny window) or choose a well lit indoor location.
  • Use another phone as an “off camera flash.” If you do need to take a photo in a dark room, borrow a friend’s phone set to “flashlight” mode to light up your subject. This will give you much better results than your own phone’s on board flash.
  • Make your point with a clear subject. Minimize clutter by removing unnecessary items from the frame or getting closer to your subject so it’s clear what the focus of the photo is. This will help later if your photo is going to be viewed on a tiny phone screen or shared in thumbnail size on social media sites like Facebook.
  • Post-processing is OK! My iPhone photos are often fairly flat and uninspiring but I have had a lot of fun using Apps like Instagram and BeFunky to jazz them up a bit. Don’t be afraid to play around… they’re just photos, after all! 🙂

I’d love to see YOUR favorite camera phone shots! Please feel free to post links to them and/or leave your own ‘phoneography’ tips in the comments.

The Bee’s Knees

Posted in Adventures at Home by

First of all, congratulations to Pami from Pa-BLAM and Om Nomalicious for winning the Digital Kitchen Scale in the Slimkicker Giveaway!  Pami, please e-mail team (at) slimkicker (dot) com to claim your prize!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Matt is at a lacrosse tournament this weekend so Bailey and I enjoyed a lazy Saturday.  She spent hours lounging in the shade watching for groundhogs, birds, and squirrels (her favorite summer pastime) and I browsed the aisles of Pier 1 (I love looking at all of the plates, trays, and glasses… is that weird?) and spent some time enjoying my garden.

There are several flowers blooming in the garden now including gladiolus, superbells, canna lilies and cosmos.  We planted the cosmos in May and recently they have really taken off.  There are dozens of perfect orange blooms and several bees happily buzzing around from flower to flower.  Here are a few photos of them, enjoy!

The Fair That Never Was

Posted in Bailey, Trips by

Or, why I drove down the NJ Turnpike last night with my high beams and hazard lights on!

On Friday I eagerly reported that Bailey and I would be returning to the Monmouth County Fair for a weekend of DockDogs fun. Well, mother nature had a different plan. The fair was plagued by severe thunderstorms that resulted in a 4 hour “rain delay” opening on Saturday and the complete cancellation of all festivities on Sunday (today). It’s a good thing we got some jumps in on Wednesday when the weather was still nice!

Bailey rockin’ the dock on Wednesday evening.

As I was driving to the event on Saturday a friend called to let me know that the fair had closed at 12:45PM due to storms and at that point they didn’t know if/when the event would reopen. I was already 1 1/2 hrs. into my drive so Bailey and I hung out in the car at a rest stop for 3 hours (!) before receiving word that the fair was reopening at 5.

Bailey patiently waits out the storm at the Woodrow Wilson Rest Stop on the NJ Turnpike.

After a relaxing afternoon in the car Bailey and I headed up to the deserted, water-saturated fairgrounds. The DockDogs event staff were able to fit in the Extreme Vertical competition and two Big Air waves before the Fair closed again at 9:30 due to advancing storms. It wasn’t all bad, though… Bailey won Extreme Vertical! That’s our first EV win at a National Event and although there weren’t many competitors and her jump wasn’t actually that high for her (only 5’10”) I’m still thrilled to have brought home a blue ribbon!

(That’s the muddy bottom of Bailey’s crate in the background… all of our DockDogs gear is currently spread out on the driveway to dry!)

My trip home Saturday night was one of the worst driving experiences of my life. As soon as I got on the Turnpike I could see the cars ahead of me start to brake. This usually means one of two things — either a state trooper with a radar gun is sitting on the shoulder OR (much worse!) the highway has just been overtaken by an onslaught of torrential wind-driven rain. Sadly it was the latter so I spent 40+ miles of my trip home in the right lane with my high beams and hazard lights on. I know, I know, I was that car last night but hey, I’d rather slow down traffic than bring it to a dead halt by triggering a multi-car accident.

I somehow managed to hit all of those intense storm cells on my drive home. They were moving east and coming across the turnpike in waves.

While on the topic of slowing down traffic, have you ever wondering how the heck those drivers who fly by you at 50 mph in a downpour can actually see the road?? I was crawling along at maybe 20 mph (I quite frankly couldn’t take my eyes off the road to check) and I couldn’t even see the lines on the highway. Maybe I just have bad eyesight but I believe that my speed was much safer for the road conditions last night.

The severe pockets of rain didn’t end until I was about 15 miles into Pennsylvania and by that time I was violently shivering and my teeth were chattering uncontrollably – a combination of the scary driving and also the fact that I had apparently been blasting the A/C throughout the whole storm! (I didn’t realize this until the rain stopped.) What a drive!

Storm aftermath: this huge, well-staked, professionally installed tent at the fair was no match for mother nature. (Photo from Monmouth County Fair)

I woke up this morning to a message from the Fair saying that they will not be reopening today due to damage caused by those storms. That means I don’t have to make that drive again, thank goodness!!! I don’t know how DockDogs will handle the event placement but if they just use the existing scores this would mean that Bailey wins Big Air with her 22’6″ jump from Wednesday and she also wins the “Iron Dog” competition with her combined scores from Big Air and Extreme Vertical. (The third leg of Iron Dog, “Speed Retrieve,” was supposed to occur today.) We’ll see how things play out but for now I’m just glad that I don’t have to face the NJ Turnpike again anytime soon.

Another one of Bailey’s crowd-pleasing jumps from Wednesday. They loved it when she caught her toy!

Headed to the Fair!

Posted in Bailey by

Bailey and I will be competing at the Monmouth County Fair in East Freehold, New Jersey this weekend.  We drove up for the Fair’s opening night Wednesday and Bailey jumped 22’6″… not a bad way to kick things off!  I’ll post the event recap next week.

This photo of a lab named Blazer from the 2010 Big Butler Fair in Butler, PA gives you an idea of what a Dockdogs event at a fair looks like.  Pretty cool, right?

Please remember to comment on my Tomato Salad post.  One commenter will win a digital kitchen scale next week!

Pink Zinnia!

Posted in Adventures at Home by

We grew this lovely pink zinnia from seed and it now resides outside our front door amidst a volunteer squash patch.  Isn’t it pretty?

Also… don’t forget to leave a comment in my Slimkicker Giveaway post to be eligible to win a digital kitchen scale!  🙂

Victory! Vine-Ripened Red Tomatoes

Posted in Adventures at Home by

Last week I wrote about how I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of Red Tomatoes in my garden.  Well, the waiting has come to an end and I am proud to say that my hanging and containerized tomato plants now have a few dozen perfect little red tomatoes on their vines.  Here are some photos… enjoy!  🙂

Tomatoes after the rain this morning (the first rain we’ve had in weeks!)

Tomatoes ripening from the top down.

OK… not a tomato, of course, but also red! Our green jalapeño peppers are ripening to this beautiful red color.

These green tomatoes will be red soon!

Future tomatoes

Perfect!

These tomatoes will be making an appearance in our dinner on Monday.  We’re having Spicy Steak and Potatoes with Roasted Chile Salsa and Tomato Salad with Guajillo Chile Dressing.  Look for a post sometime later in the week!