As much as I love summer, I definitely love fall. The only trouble is that in Portland, fall comes and goes so quickly. It practically goes from summer sunshine to rainy, which then lasts until the following June. One of the things I enjoy about fall is the mushrooms. Since my freshman year of college, I have fallen in love with mushrooms and get excited whenever I see one. It is so fun to hike around searching for mushrooms because once you get an eye for finding them, you realize they are everywhere! And there are so many different kinds that will live in the same vicinity. These little guys I spied outside Zach's house, so of course I got out my camera. They have already grown much larger than when these photos were shot. Hopefully I'll get the chance to see some more mushrooms before the rains come.
Last night, Sigur Ros played at the Arlene Schnizter Concert Hall in Portland. I bought Zach tickets for his birthday. Let's get out the bad stuff first:
1. I had no idea there was an opening band.
2. I had no idea the opening band was named "Parachutes."
3. I figured "Parachutes" was a Sigur Ros album? I didn't really even question it.
4. I bought a Parachutes poster. Turns out.... they suck.
Good stuff:
1. Sigur Ros was amazing and captured my attention for the entire set.
2. Playing electric guitar = cool. Playing electric guitar with a bow = extremely cool. Playing electric guitar with a bow, while wearing a French Regent Jacket = AMAZING. This really put the show over the top for me. I am very biased toward French Regency fashions. Especially a punked out militia jacket. It just would not have looked as cool if he was in normal clothes.
3. The lighting and visual effects. They fit with the songs so well and was just spectacular to watch.
4. Confetti - I know I'm a nerd, but it almost had a Gladiator-esque feel when they shot confetti into the entire hall on their last song.
5. Acoustics - Seeing a show like this in a hall where the Oregon Symphony plays is not only visually appealing, but the sound was amazing and made the show ten times better.
So I have taken up a new residence with a couple very good friends. I'm still settling in, and have a few more things to transport, but I'm here! Zach is 2 houses away, work is MUCH closer, and we pretty much hang out with our friends over here all the time anyways, so it works out super well! Here are a few pics of my new room. It's a really old house and has very cool "nooks" and "crannies."
I'm moving this weekend, so I began my preparations by making a Costco trip for some easy meals. Luckily I didn't get too carried away there, and I think I'm pretty well covered. I'm really hoping I'll start cooking more. I've dusted off the old books and recipe cards in the packing process and found some old favorites. At the moment I want to make some soups and chicken dishes - I think it has something to do with all the rain today. I have 2 quiches in the oven right now... that will be interesting. I've never made quiche before and I kind of just made up my own recipe based on several I found online, plus my own ingredients. We'll see. I know the crust will be good because it's my great grandma's recipe! I was drawn to quiche because I thought, I can freeze it and have it as a meal later. Maybe I'm going into hibernation mode or something, I don't know... It's fun though; it's been a long time since I cooked anything. I'm also excited about a Pumpkin Spice Bread Mix I got at Costco. You just add the water, oil, and egg, but still - it sounded good, and it's a fun seasonal thing. So I've just been hangin out in the kitchen, watching Stand By Me with my dog and cat, waiting to see how the quiche turns out.
(This really isn't the best written blog... every paragraph begins with "I" or "I'm"... my english teachers would dock me for that...)
This weekend I got out of the city for a bit to shoot my cousin and his girl on their horses. Jeff and Rachel love being outdoors, and Sunday was the perfect day for it! Jeff was getting the feel for his new horse, Barbie - who has been used for breeding and not much riding. My other cousin Lisa and I tromped about the field trying to get the shots and not be ran over by Jeff at the same time. Boys just think they're so funny sometimes.... :)
I recently found my Halloween costume at Red Light, and today I began making the proper adjustments. This required me to dye my main garment yellow. Any guesses on what I'm going to be? I'll post more photos as the costume comes along.
While I was in Astoria this weekend, I visited a wonderful little shop/gallery called Lunar Boy. They had lots of cool art and just fun funky stuff. I found an amazing necklace that I just had to have. I am not one to buy necklaces or even jewelry much at all, especially at boutique prices - but I thought I'd make an exception for this one. I think it's one of those things only people in the design industry can REALLY appreciate; I know I deal with these little color swatches every day!
This post's title comes from the Goonies. It's appropriate because I'm in Astoria right now! I was needing some time for myself this weekend, so I decided to pack up the pooch and get out of Portland for a bit. It's a beautiful day down here and hey, I even found an internet cafe! It's pretty cool and looks like it would fit right in with the Portland scene. Wendy and I have been trooping around together finding parks to play fetch in, walking along the piers, and hearing alot of "Awww... puppy!" Wendy has been making lots of friends today. More than anything she wants to get in the water though. I won't let her because I saw a cautionary sign about pollution in the river, so maybe I'll take her to Ft. Stevens later and let her get swim in the ocean.
I got sidetracked today while driving. It was an estate sale sign. The estate sale was a bust; I didn't even stop for it. On my way out to the main road, however, I ran across a vacant lot (I've got a thing for vacant lots, by the way) with a torched old VW in it! When I got home I texted my cousin Lisa about going back for an impromptu photoshoot.
Unfortunately the shoot was cut short by the bitchy neighbor lady who came out and yelled at us to get off the property and that she was going to call the owner, etc., etc. Like we were doing damage or something..... pffft. Anyways, we thought of many lovely come-backs and things to say to her as we drove home with our handful of photos. We'll be back, Bitchy. We'll be back.
With the help of a seamstress, I have been working on creating prototypes for an Alice in Wonderland inspired prom collection. Tonight I worked on a very exciting part - the large bubble skirt! It was really cool to see it come all together finally. My dress form is not quite the proportions of a normal human body, but it does the job. I'll be trying it on my fit model soon and hopefully we'll be able to move to the final fabrics!
We had some beautiful weather while back east. Zach and I took some great walks around the bay and got to see many houses from the 1600-1800s! We also had some incredible thunderstorms which were quite exciting - thunder that shook the house! Plus, being right on the water, we had front row seats to all the action.
We also spent alot of time with Zach's Grandma Minnie! She lives in an assisted living home in New Castle, not far from the cafe. She's going to be 94 this year, and is feeling her age (though she sure can race around on her walker!). However, over the week as we took her out each day for ice cream (her favorite is chocolate) she progressively became perkier. She's super adorable and sweet; we had alot of fun with her and her other friends at the home.
So this week I am staying in New Castle, New Hampshire with Zach and his family. Zach's dad grew up over here, so we are meeting many of their friends and family! Zach's parents are actually moving over to Botswana, Africa in the next week or so, so we are spending some time with them before they leave. We are staying at the Piscataqua Cafe, which Zach's relatives own! It's no longer a cafe, but a bed and breakfast type of house. It's right over the water so we can look out and see all the boats. It was built in 1899 and in many aspects is in the original condition - so cool! Below are a few photos taken from the Cafe.
I have taken upon myself to create an autobiography of sorts from my entire family. I'm so intrigued to know about their past and about where we came from. The information is slow in coming, but I have gotten both of my grandma's stories. From my paternal grandma, I got a whole bunch of photos from her childhood - which was very exciting! I'm looking forward to getting old photos from my other grandparents and family members as well.
Erma Helzer/DeVries
This photo was taken of my grandpa in a photo booth. She had quite a few of these little wallet photos that you would pay a few cents for. This is one of my favorite photos from the collection I got from her. She was born in Portland, and grew up camping alot and vacationing at many places we still go today. A major summer tradition for her family was going to Rockaway Beach for a week. Below is another photo I love because it's such a classic road trip type of photo from that time, and also because it was taken at the lookout point over Manzanita - one of my favorite lookout points on the Oregon Coast. (My grandma is the girl on the very left)
Here's another shot from the Salton Sea. All the non-summer-like weather we've been having has been making me want to go back... I thought I'd post a "Then and Now" kind of juxtaposition to show the Sea in it's glory day. The bottom photo is a postcard I found online of The North Shore Yacht Club, and above is a photo that I took a few months ago of the same building. I wish I could have found a good front photo, or had taken a good photo of the lake side of the building. But you get the idea. When I was shooting here, my grandma told me that she waterskied on the Salton Sea back when she was pregnant with my mom! I found that kind of funny, and cool. How awesome that she was actually there when the Salton Sea was the happenin' place? I finally broke down and bought a photography book of Palm Springs featuring the art of Julius Schulman. They had an entire exhibition of his photographs at the Palm Springs Art Museum. It was so awesome seeing all his amazing work. He even had photographed the Yacht Club - though I couldn't find the image online to post. Here are a couple of his beautiful shots:
My cousin Lisa and I had a little fun with make-up and hair product today. We wanted to try out some wild and crazy looks just for fun. I've posted a few of the pics from our hastily-put-together photo shoot in front of the closet doors. Not the best quality, but you get the idea. We had fun, that's all that matters.
Really, it was only a matter of time before I posted a blog on Ninja Warrior. If you haven't seen it, it's like the Japanese kick-ass version of American Gladiators. It makes American Gladiators look even more cheesy and weak than it already is. Ninja Warrior is aired on G4 pretty much every day of the week - there has rarely been a day where we haven't found it to be on. Why is this show so awesome? Well, just let me tell you....
1) Ninjas - this could be a given, but it's a legit ninja show that makes it so good. It's not an American game show playing on the Ninja fad.
2) Unbeatable - There are 4 stages at Mt. Midoriyama, and there is very few that even make it past the first stage. I'm not sure how many people have beat the whole thing over the course of the whole series, but I know of 2 for sure. Basically, not many people ever complete all 4 courses. AND they're always finding ways to make the course harder and adding in new obstacles!
3) Courses - Ninjas are assassins and have to be very stealthy and get into buildings and such by some way other than the front door. This course makes you do spider walks, where you're holding yourself between two walls and crawling forward; the Curtain Cling where you have to swing your way across a curtain, grabbing onto nothing but the spread fabric; the Salmon Ladder forces you to hang from a bar and pull yourself and the bar up to higher and higher rungs.
4) Makoto Nagano: the second man to complete all 4 stages. This humble fisherman knows how to kick ass.
5) Filmed in Japan - This show has subtitles. I love it. It just would not be the same if the Japanese broadcaster wasn't yelling out the continuous play-by-play all too excitedly in a language I don't know. What's even better though are the subtitles because the things he yells are hilarious! For example - a bookbinder was competing, and one of the things said when he fell in the water on the first stage was "It's the end of the chapter for (insert japanese name here)!" So horrible corny and they use every pun in the book, but it's so hilarious. I think it must be a rule that he has to talk the entire time because I don't know why else he would say some of the things he says. It makes the show that much more entertaining.
And I don't know if it's an Asian thing, but they all dress up in their work uniforms or something for the competition - at least the less serious/first stage contestants do. Some of the things they wear are so ridiculous and obviously are hindering to completing the course. Even one of the all-stars wears his gas station uniform to compete in! I don't understand it, but it's entertaining.
Well, if that hasn't convinced you to watch Ninja Warrior then.... maybe you're just not as cool as I thought. Just kidding.
Thanks for reading - I know this has nothing to do with photography or art.
I recently had the opportunity to shoot senior photos for a girl named Kat - one of my mom's students. We had fun bumming around Portland shooting and then got to experiment with some location lighting up at Powell Butte. It was one of the nicest days we'd had around here in a while, so we got really lucky. It was a bit windy, but made for some great shots. I played with the colors in these photos alot - I love the combination of the teal sky and yellow grass. These three photos are a few of my favorites from the shoot.
I spotted this bottle in a liquor store a couple months ago and fell in love with its design. I love looking at the artwork and packaging at liquor stores - well, really I love looking at the design and packaging of anything. There was something high end but fun about this label. The bottle is also a very unique shape with a soft geometric feel. I also just found out it's a Portland vodka (hence the "Lovejoy") which makes me like it even more. I'm not one for vodka, but I'd love to buy this just for the bottle!
Yesterday I had the privilege of shooting for a very good friend whom I've known since birth. Lyndsay is pregnant with her second child - her first daughter. The baby's name is Kali and she is expected to come at anytime now! It was my first time shooting "belly" pictures, but I got some good ones I think. It always helps practicing on someone you're comfortable with. :)
When my mom and I went to Palm Springs, we stayed with my grandparents in a cool old RV park. Here's a few shots from around there: One evening we drove up into the hills to the Pioneer Town, which was the set for alot of old western films. I got some cool shots there of alot of old buildings and such, but these below are my favorites:
Over the past couple of years, we've had a little white bunny that comes to visit our yard! He was obviously a domesticated one who got loose or was released, because he's not afraid of people. He doesn't like to be pet, but he'll eat out of your hand. He's so cute and it's always kind of fun to see him come around. He just started showing up again; I went out and fed him today. The photo is one I took of him last summer. He was just chilling with his little legs all stretched out and he let me get some pictures of him. Hopefully we'll see more of him this summer.
This spring I visited the Salton Sea, which has been kind of a photography dream destination. It was a beautiful but eerie place. I was with my mom and grandparents, and I don't think they appreciated the beauty that I saw. I tried getting my mom to explore the inside of some of the buildings, but she was afraid that someone was going to "jump out and get us." Whatever that means... :) I tried to re-assure her that if we DID see anyone, they'd probably be o.d.ed passed out on the floor or something. There were also pigeons living in the buildings, which was added kind of a creepy element to the experience. We'd be walking through a completely deserted building and when we'd pass through into a new room, you could hear all this fluttering. I was afraid of getting pooped on. My mom was afraid of getting bird flu. I would love to go back to the Salton Sea for a crazy fashion photo-shoot someday.
So here I am - trying to blog! I guess I should give a little insight to who I am and what I intend to do with this blog. I am currently doing design and graphics work for a snowboard clothing company, and a little photography on the side. I'd like to use this blog to post photos and other artwork, along with other random things that I may happen to feel like writing about. So here it goes - thanks for checking it out!
As much as I love summer, I definitely love fall. The only trouble is that in Portland, fall comes and goes so quickly. It practically goes from summer sunshine to rainy, which then lasts until the following June. One of the things I enjoy about fall is the mushrooms. Since my freshman year of college, I have fallen in love with mushrooms and get excited whenever I see one. It is so fun to hike around searching for mushrooms because once you get an eye for finding them, you realize they are everywhere! And there are so many different kinds that will live in the same vicinity. These little guys I spied outside Zach's house, so of course I got out my camera. They have already grown much larger than when these photos were shot. Hopefully I'll get the chance to see some more mushrooms before the rains come.
