I have had internet woes for the past few days. I made sure that wherever we were going to lay our heads for the evening we would have wi-fi. Let me make this clear, these places did technically have wi-fi but the signal was so weak that I might as well have no wi-fi, it was like a tease, a little taste of the world at large but no dice. We are in Portland now and I must admit so far I enjoyed the ride up a little more than the city. Nothing wrong with Portland, we are going to look at houses in a couple hours, but the sheer beauty of the ride into Portland just may eclipse anything we see here. I loved all the trees, the fog, the wide expanse of land, the snow topped mountains, the air so clean and crisp. Pretty hard to compete.

I will be editing a photo a day for the remainder of 2012::Project MMXII, this is my ‘after’, you can view the ‘before’ here.

I am out of town and out of my mind (this place is paradise).  I have spotty internet, so a little crazy making.  I am doing my edits though, this is from a moving car with my IPhone.  The whole rolling countryside is everywhere before you come to the beach, which seemingly comes out of nowhere. This place is magical and I promise to post more photos and give you details (it’s for rent! and I highly recommend you get a group of friends or family and do it). I am sitting here looking out at a beach view (my dream) with a cup of extra strong coffee and you (well my laptop).  I have to leave  you for now, I am going to throw on some jeans and go explore the turn of the century fishing village. Sigh.

I will be editing a photo a day for the remainder of 2012::Project MMXII, this is my ‘after’, you can view the ‘before’ here.

I am finding it hard to concentrate because I am equal parts excited and equal parts irritated. I am excited to be leaving for a weekend at a beach house in Northern California to meet some blog friends in real life and dole out bear hugs to, although maybe bear hugs aren’t cool. I want to be a little cool. I am so not cool. I am also irritated, literally, well my eyeballs are. When I get super stressed out, which is what I was today packing, laundering, meeting clients and packing some more (I am going to Portland right after Nor Cal so two sets of packing), rushing to shoot for class, edit my edit (sounds like a repeat of the other day.) When I get stressed my eyes start to get really itchy and swell and so do my cheeks. It’s so attractive if you think Quasimodo is attractive. So, not only am I going to meet people I admire for the first time with my square hair, now I have this weird swollen face to contend with. Words can not describe my feelings right now, really, I am at a loss.  I can’t believe I get to be around people, not only that people around my same age and that know what a blog is! Try explaining a blog to most people you’ll get, ‘A blob? You write a blob? A bloog? brog? bog?’ It’s futile. This is exciting, now let’s hope that there won’t be much photographing of the swollen girl, I certainly don’t want photos of my twisted eyeballs floating around the internet.

I will be editing a photo a day for the remainder of 2012::Project MMXII, this is my ‘after’, you can view the ‘before’ here.

P.S. I am almost finished reading through all the comments on the Luxe Correspondence Giveaway, as soon as I sit down tomorrow while I am at the beach house watching the tides roll in, with my frozen toes in the sand (it’s going to be 30 degrees) I will announce the winner! Read more…

I recently received a coupon from Photojojo for a discount off an Iphone macro lens. I had seen this lens before but hadn’t paid it no never mind until one of our students used it for her entire series. I was hooked by the interesting perspective she was able to capture and when I received the coupon I knew I was going to be buying one. I have been experimenting with it every second I get. I am after all a master procrastinator and this is the perfect opportunity to focus on everything but the task at hand. These images above are macros of a Yucca plant, these plants are all over the City of Angels and to the naked eye are a drab olive green, to the macro lens they are colors that take your breath away, they could rival any peacock! I have always wanted to try macro photography but couldn’t justify the expense of a macro lens, at $15 the Iphone macro lens is a happy compromise. I highly recommend it, especially when you are feeling in a photo funk. A macro shot can ignite a new desire to see the world in a totally different light.

P.S. My Photojojo lens took two days to arrive, so it was a super fast shipment and I didn’t research to se eif you could get them anywhere else, but if you are on a budget last night I found them for less that $7 on Amazon!

My edit No. 52 yesterday blew me away.  I thought it was super creative for me and all I got was crickets. So today I figured I’d just do something pretty, no deep thinking, planning just a little texturing here and there, who doesn’t like a shot of the Pacific? I did something similar last year, maybe even better, but I didn’t save a large copy so I decided to do a do-over. I will be packing Thursday for my trip to Nor Cal and to Portland. I am really excited about both, but wish I hadn’t planned them so close together, I need more time to do things like laundry. I have lot’s of laundry to do, but still absolutely no clothes to wear. I wish I could just forget about laundry and buy a new wardrobe. Wouldn’t that be aces? Speaking of aces below are some of the places we plan on visiting whilst in Portlandia, any other suggestions?

These restaurants were recommended by Souvenir Foto School student Jen, they look pretty darn good:

TastynSons, Toro Bravo, Nostrana, Laurelhurst Market, Castagna.

We are going there to look for potential homes, so it’s not a vacation (although I plan on pretending it is), so I am also open to neighborhood suggestions. Thanks!

I will be editing a photo a day for the remainder of 2012::Project MMXII, this is my ‘after’, you can view the ‘before’ here.