I'm not totally sure what happened to April. It seems yesterday I was complaining about the cold hanging on and taking a bajillion classes in random things and generally feeling rushed. April brought with it much more ease and peace of mind, but I'm also not exactly sure what I've been doing for a month. The cherry blossoms came and went and the whole area erupted in beautiful blossoms - one of my favorite times of year in DC. And, we did another photowalk.
I spent a fair amount of time in the city this past month, just wandering around and enjoying the warmer weather and rich variety of experience our town has to offer. Above, I was very impressed with the red red red tulips the Capitol Gardener (I assume there is such a person / committee) chose for the White House and other areas. They were so tall and big and RED.
Street is all about patience. I probably stood in front of these balloons for 15 minutes waiting for someone interesting to walk into my frame. After a while you get bored, and that's OK too.
A student work from NEXT at the Corcoran. I highly recommend the show. Students do such weird things and think in exciting new ways.
In April I accompanied a friend to a moonshine tasting. Sometimes doing the photography thing can be really fun and expose me to new shiz.
This photo was taken on my daily walk - a loop through my neighborhood. It's fascinating to see the same things change over time. These trees are blooming now, then they'll have big green leaves and eventually those leaves will turn colors and fall off. Forcing myself to take the same loop daily (or pretty close to daily) makes me take notice of little things. It's nice.
Our April photowalk was in Georgetown and I didn't even have to host it (thanks Maria!) We met in Rosslyn and photowalked over to Foggy Bottom. It's a good circuit and I might just have to do a repeat. Georgetown has a lot to offer.
Last week, I took a little trip to a place I'd never been before: Congressional Cemetery. It's set in a fantastic spot and has lots of beautiful trees and nice shady spots to rest in. They also make it a subscription-only dog park, which I've never seen done with a cemetery before! Seems like a pretty good mixed-use of land.
And finally, I got my Etsy store up and running for some of the pottery I've been working on. All of these ceramic bowls were made this year, but I've been up to this ceramics thing for a while now. I'm just at the point where I think people might actually spend money on my work. Here are a handful of things and I'll be adding stuff to the store as I produce it. It's not meant to be a money-making venture, really - it'd just be nice to offload some of these things and recoup a bit of the cost of materials and such.
That's it for April! See you in a month for more riveting personal updates!
This week, I worked on two of my goals for the year: meeting more photographers and taking more personal photos. Because I'm both impulsive and a natural leader (that is, I just like bossing people around and I'm always the one that says "well, I'll do it". Also, after doing some feminist reading recently, I feel the need to own the phrase "leader" instead of putting something more gentle and unobtrusive like "outgoing". And I just wanted a third thing in these brackets), I just threw a photo walk on one of the local photographer calendars.
We started at the Lincoln and just walked around, enjoying this fair city we live in. Afterwards, we had beers. Photowalks are always better when there are beers at the end.
The pond at Constitution Gardens is frozen solid a good 20 feet in. I'd say the ice was at least four inches deep. No one else would stand on it with me.
But they were happy to photograph me standing on it. This is what photographer meetups look like.
And this is what giant wasps' nests look like. Terrifying! I almost never say "I'm so glad it's winter" but I did when I saw this guy.
On our way to the bar, we happened across all these skaters in Freedom Plaza. It was pretty awesome to watch them jump this thing.
And that's all for this installment. Until next time.
I haven't done a personal post in ages. I get behind. It happens. Actually, I've just yesterday evening come back from a trip to Madrid and I leave next week for The Netherlands and England! I thought to myself: self, put up those Madrid photos before you get slammed with the next batch of travel photos. Except, I have three months' worth of other crap from various travels and adventures that I haven't posted. So instead of "hey, I just got back from Madrid!", you get a bunch of random stuff. Enjoy!
In chronological order, just cuz:
George was gone for a big chunk of time at the end of March, so I decided I would take a little trip somewhere. Kayak (with its very helpful Explore engine) told me Grand Cayman had a decent flight. I did a tiny amount of Googling and decided - what the heck - I'd spend a few days on Grand Cayman. Several weeks later, I picked up the tiny Frommer's guide to the island, and when I started reading more, I realized that people basically only go to Grand Cayman to scuba dive. So, again - what the heck - I decided I'd get certified. I crash-coursed the online tutorial (this was supposed to happen in New Orleans but the system wouldn't work on my iPad). I did my confined dives (in a swimming pool) the weekend before I set out for the island.
Only... womp womp, I injured my ear during the confined dives and it was still messed up when I got to the island. So I couldn't dive! But it was OK. We were still in the middle of the godawful can't-take-any-more-snow winter (remember?) and I was so so so happy to be in the sun, walking on the beach, drinking pina coladas. I didn't take many photos. I was just chilling the hell out. It was really nice. And the snorkeling was exquisite. In fact, even if you don't dive, I highly recommend Grand Cayman. It's a heck of a place.
These are some random images from when George and I took a little hike/walk around Great Falls. Turns out my x100 had flipped over to manual focus and I didn't notice... for like, a month. I am a brilliant photographer. And an even more brilliant blogger, because I'm posting these terrifically out-of-focus images.
More walks with George - random things around DC.
This is my very best friend David. He's a big shot doing IT and when the remote wouldn't work in his conference room (over massive amounts of Lebanese food), he tried hacking it - with pieces of a server. He's a handy guy to have around.
I get excited about thunderstorms.
A buddy of mine, John, and I went down to the Mall when a bunch of cosplayers were attempting to break the Guinness Record (of having the most cosplayers in one place). They didn't make it (by a loooooong shot) but it was fun anyway.
This is my husband, doing his physics thing. We went to San Antonio in April - him for a conference, me to check out the city. I really liked San Antonio - lots of stuff going on. They do a lot better than many other Texan cities by actually embracing their Mexican heritage, rather than trying to shove it under a rug. A rug made out of Walmarts and Applebees.
Then we crossed the state to visit our favorite miniature person.
And we spent one day in Austin. They have a great turtle pond and there were scads of baby turtles. This is a baby turtle resting on another turtle!
Later in May, we went to Savor - a ridiculous, enormous, expensive craft beer festival held in the National Building Museum. It was cool, but it was way too much beer to try to choke down (more than 100 different kinds!) and it was pricey as shit. It was a fun experience for one night, but I can't imagine we'll be back. This picture of a bunch of plants has absolutely nothing to do with Savor, except that I took it at the event.
More hiking. Following Greece, I've been trying to get out and walk about amongst trees more often.
I don't remember why we were way the hell out in Herndon on this particular day, but we stopped by the Frying Pan Farm and there were tons of baby animals!
At World of Beer. I don't remember why, but there was good light on George.
A photography meetup with some buds. This is staged, but the others are not.
And that's it! For now. I'll get those Madrid and in-between photos up... eventually. You know how it goes. And for friends and relatives and people who enjoy posts like this, I've been doing snapshotty, don't-care-what-it-looks-like, document-my-life type stuff over on Instagram. If you care what I'm up to on a daily basis, that's a much better medium. I obviously can't be trusted to post anything here regularly about my actual life.
I spent a fair amount of time in the city this past month, just wandering around and enjoying the warmer weather and rich variety of experience our town has to offer. Above, I was very impressed with the red red red tulips the Capitol Gardener (I assume there is such a person / committee) chose for the White House and other areas. They were so tall and big and RED.
Street is all about patience. I probably stood in front of these balloons for 15 minutes waiting for someone interesting to walk into my frame. After a while you get bored, and that's OK too.
A student work from NEXT at the Corcoran. I highly recommend the show. Students do such weird things and think in exciting new ways.
In April I accompanied a friend to a moonshine tasting. Sometimes doing the photography thing can be really fun and expose me to new shiz.
This photo was taken on my daily walk - a loop through my neighborhood. It's fascinating to see the same things change over time. These trees are blooming now, then they'll have big green leaves and eventually those leaves will turn colors and fall off. Forcing myself to take the same loop daily (or pretty close to daily) makes me take notice of little things. It's nice.
Our April photowalk was in Georgetown and I didn't even have to host it (thanks Maria!) We met in Rosslyn and photowalked over to Foggy Bottom. It's a good circuit and I might just have to do a repeat. Georgetown has a lot to offer.
Last week, I took a little trip to a place I'd never been before: Congressional Cemetery. It's set in a fantastic spot and has lots of beautiful trees and nice shady spots to rest in. They also make it a subscription-only dog park, which I've never seen done with a cemetery before! Seems like a pretty good mixed-use of land.
And finally, I got my Etsy store up and running for some of the pottery I've been working on. All of these ceramic bowls were made this year, but I've been up to this ceramics thing for a while now. I'm just at the point where I think people might actually spend money on my work. Here are a handful of things and I'll be adding stuff to the store as I produce it. It's not meant to be a money-making venture, really - it'd just be nice to offload some of these things and recoup a bit of the cost of materials and such.
That's it for April! See you in a month for more riveting personal updates!
We started at the Lincoln and just walked around, enjoying this fair city we live in. Afterwards, we had beers. Photowalks are always better when there are beers at the end.
The pond at Constitution Gardens is frozen solid a good 20 feet in. I'd say the ice was at least four inches deep. No one else would stand on it with me.
But they were happy to photograph me standing on it. This is what photographer meetups look like.
And this is what giant wasps' nests look like. Terrifying! I almost never say "I'm so glad it's winter" but I did when I saw this guy.
On our way to the bar, we happened across all these skaters in Freedom Plaza. It was pretty awesome to watch them jump this thing.
And that's all for this installment. Until next time.
George was gone for a big chunk of time at the end of March, so I decided I would take a little trip somewhere. Kayak (with its very helpful 
Only... womp womp, I injured my ear during the confined dives and it was still messed up when I got to the island. So I couldn't dive! But it was OK. We were still in the middle of the godawful can't-take-any-more-snow winter (remember?) and I was so so so happy to be in the sun, walking on the beach, drinking pina coladas. I didn't take many photos. I was just chilling the hell out. It was really nice. And the snorkeling was exquisite. In fact, even if you don't dive, I highly recommend Grand Cayman. It's a heck of a place.
These are some random images from when George and I took a little hike/walk around Great Falls. Turns out my x100 had flipped over to manual focus and I didn't notice... for like, a month. I am a brilliant photographer. And an even more brilliant blogger, because I'm posting these terrifically out-of-focus images.
More walks with George - random things around DC.
This is my very best friend David. He's a big shot doing IT and when the remote wouldn't work in his conference room (over massive amounts of Lebanese food), he tried hacking it - with pieces of a server. He's a handy guy to have around.
I get excited about thunderstorms.
A buddy of mine, John, and I went down to the Mall when a bunch of cosplayers were attempting to break the Guinness Record (of having the most cosplayers in one place). They didn't make it (by a loooooong shot) but it was fun anyway.
This is my husband, doing his physics thing. We went to San Antonio in April - him for a conference, me to check out the city. I really liked San Antonio - lots of stuff going on. They do a lot better than many other Texan cities by actually embracing their Mexican heritage, rather than trying to shove it under a rug. A rug made out of Walmarts and Applebees.
Then we crossed the state to visit our favorite miniature person.
And we spent one day in Austin. They have a great turtle pond and there were scads of baby turtles. This is a baby turtle resting on another turtle!
Later in May, we went to Savor - a ridiculous, enormous, expensive craft beer festival held in the National Building Museum. It was cool, but it was way too much beer to try to choke down (more than 100 different kinds!) and it was pricey as shit. It was a fun experience for one night, but I can't imagine we'll be back. This picture of a bunch of plants has absolutely nothing to do with Savor, except that I took it at the event.
More hiking. Following 
I don't remember why we were way the hell out in Herndon on this particular day, but we stopped by the Frying Pan Farm and there were tons of baby animals!
At World of Beer. I don't remember why, but there was good light on George.
A photography meetup with some buds. This is staged, but the others are not.
And that's it! For now. I'll get those Madrid and in-between photos up... eventually. You know how it goes. And for friends and relatives and people who enjoy posts like this, I've been doing snapshotty, don't-care-what-it-looks-like, document-my-life type stuff over on