April 24, 2009 Crazy Friday! After an intense week of training at work, Friday evening was a little bit of downtime. I met some coworkers right down the street from our place in the Castro and we proceeded to get a whirlwind tour of the neighborhood. Loose lips sink ships, so I'll just say that I think I pulled a muscle laughing so hard. Literally, incapacitating laughter. It's good for the soul, I suppose, if not for your ruptured spleen. Oh the strange things that you see living in such a city as San Fran. Here's a rather boring shot from the evening. It was really, really chilly so I broke out my favorite wool scarf. We'd just missed sunset at the top of famous Lombard Street squigglies. After this we had a great dinner someplace nearby, down the hill.

365 self portraits. Can I actually do it? Inspired by many others, I decided to give my creativity a kick in the pants with a Daily Photo project. With life happening too fast, quite often I lose the spark that drives me to pick up the camera. Hopefully I can maintain not only this project, but the ability to develop more as a photographer. Ideally, the majority of these will be self-portraits to help me get over my image complex and to document the most important, memorable moments of each day.

My rules:
1. At least part of myself in each shot. Every 24 hours.
2. EXIF data pulls rank. I travel and can't always upload on a timely matter, but the timestamp is as the timestamp does...
3. Try to document the dominant activity/event of the day. This is a journal-type project for me, too.
4. Having help is OK. While I always set up the shot myself, occasionally the location requires having someone else hit the shutter for me.

My current 365 Project gallery is here!

Gallery pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 > >>

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schmoo > May 16, 2009

I could be looking happier but honestly I'm not feeling so hot these days. It's been a while since I've been sick but I guess I was due to meet a virus I couldn't handle, eventually. Cough cough sniff.

Anyway, my lovely Diana F+ arrived this week and one of the accessories I got with it was a ring flash. I've long wanted to get a ring flash (or a ring light) but I just couldn't justify something like that since I'm no studio photographer. (The Diana is a cooler type of lomo camera, the most popular being the Holga. But the Diana has more options.) I sprang for the ring flash because it was inexpensive and, well, I didn't realize that they made them for plastic toy cameras! And I was even more tickled when I opened the box and saw that it has a hot-shoe cord, so it works with my 5D!!!!!

It's definitely not the most sophisticated piece of equipment I own, and it certainly took a lot of trial and error to get it to give me the right look. But I'm pretty happy with this. It's awkward and doesn't have much juice to it (powered by two AA batteries) but heck yeah! I love the quality of light that these things give you, and case in point I really didn't process this photo at all.

Mmmmm.

schmoo > May 12, 2009

Tonight we had a hankering for microbrews. Both of us have a love for unique brews, though he prefers red ales and I have a space in my heart for porters/stouts. There are a few decent breweries in San Fran but I picked 21st Amendment because it got good reviews for beers. Off we went on the Muni!

I was a bit shortsighted and never looked up the game schedule. Ouch. Tons of people wearing black and orange jerseys were standing around with plastic cups and Giants baseball caps, ugh. Neither of us are baseball fans and tonight of all nights, we just wanted somplace quiet to talk. So while 21st Amendment did have good brews and decent food, they lose points for being one of the loudest restaurants I've ever patronized!

On the bright side, we had a really good laugh about the eating habits of the guy sitting at the adjacent table. I love people watching, and this guy didn't disappoint. I figure he must have been an architect or something because, apparently, he used the tines of his fork as a guide to precisely cut his quesadilla in straight lines! And then he would get exactly one pieces of lettuce to put on top of it, a dollop of sour cream and eat it.

Today's caption is getting long, but the shot is homage to Big Boyz Bail Bonds in my lost love city, Baltimore. I posted a daily about this some time back before we moved, and since then the owner of the company has found me and we've talked for a bit through email. I'm still so proud to have a box of these pens myself and I totally have followed up on my Super Secret plan of "seeding" them around restaurants in this city. San Fran, look out. You'll never know what hit you. ;)

Afterwards we were walking back to Market St. (we'd never really been to the SOMA area before) and heard piano jazz coming out of a bar. We looked in.. it looked awesome! So we had a round of bourbons at Eddie Rickenbacker's while we unwound. The place was so cool and the resident cat, Mr Higgins, wanted a sip of our drinks, too. Vintage bikes, jazz music, bourbon, what else could you want? Well, I wanted a Rosie the Riveter outfit, complete with googles and scarf and nice leather boots. Hmmm.

Our trip back home was so surreal. Making change for a five from a homeless woman, then getting questionably valid ticket transfers from a Chinese guy wearing all-denim. Living in a city sure gives you interesting life experiences.

schmoo > May 10, 2009

I remember at one of the Dgrin Shootouts, a fellow Dgrinner/Smugger said to me something to the effect of "It looks like all you do is travel and go out!" Heheh. That's so not true of course, but I rarely ever have the inclination to take a daily of myself working, yanno?

That said, this weekend Trav and I ran away somewhere we've never been. Which is, well, not hard to do in this state. Not only have we never really been anywhere, there's just so many places to go. We'd already done the redwoods a few weekends ago, so this time we went south to the giant sequoias. Since I still had to work we had time only for a day trip, but we still had a great time.

We stayed at a lodge in Three Rivers and was up and out the door by 4:30 AM Sunday morning to find a place to shoot the sunrise. Sequoia and Kings Canyon NP has so much to offer -- so much more than I had thought! I love that even though I miss all my Dgrinner friends very much, Trav and I can still have a mini-shootout whenever we put a little bit of thought into it. The sunrise was unimpressive and actually none of my shots from the whole weekend are worth saving, but it was a fantastic experience. We explored new beautiful territory, saw some amazing sights and have tales to tell for years to come.

Not that I don't miss my shootout and workshop friends, but if anything, my experiences with them have taught me that you don't always get the shot, or the right light. As long as you have good company and enjoy yourself, that's what it's all about.

Maybe best of all, we spent the 5 hours there and the 6 hours back listening to almost nothing but Radiolab podcasts. Jad's voice will forever be in my ears, now!

schmoo > May 7, 2009

I ordered new business cards because I always end up giving away my personal ones when I only ever talk about SmugMug. So I just did it, and overall I'm pleased. I think the printing came out a little (OK, a lot) darker than I anticipated so my hero photo on the front is super-contrasty, but not bad for a first run. The text also came out much closer to the edges than I wanted. I can tweak and order another box, since I only got 100 to start.

I think all the Heroes should get something similar (especially the rounded corners!) so we can lay 'em all out and collect 'em all. Just sayin....

schmoo > May 5, 2009

At HQ today I made a new friend. Cobi and I have met numerous times over the last year, but today he and I really bonded. He sat with me for a bit in the bunker office where I was working and even offered me a helping hand, as you can see.

He's such an awesome dog... even though his cuteness isn't really conducive to getting a lot of work done. Thanks, Baldy, for letting him sit with me!

schmoo > May 4, 2009

Simple minds, simple pleasures.

It seems like most people I know have been working long hours recently and I've been one of them. Even though Trav works just as much as I do and has an one-hour commute each way, he still offers to make dinner for us while I'm tied up at my desk at 10:30 at night. He made an awesome Samurai Broccoli Seitan Stir Fry with bulgur that was just marvelous.

Dinner made with TLC is infinitely more desirable than gold or diamonds. Thanks, boogles. So much.

schmoo > May 2, 2009

We had plans today to explore someplace out of the city, take a short day trip and explore more of the Bay Area. But as we were driving through the predominantly empty streets of the Haight in the late morning we get a text from our friend Moose: "Mint juleps and carousels at Golden Gate Park, 2 pm, rain be damned."

And so it was! I thought it was an odd combination until we met with him and a few of his friends and they explained their planning. This was the first annual soon-to-be-named derby celebration, Pixar-style (Moose and the group work across the bay at Pixar Studios), and given that none us are particularly keen on the Kentucky Derby, this was a heck of a lot more fun. The plan was to hit up three of the four carousels in San Francisco and go around in circles and seeing who wins. I guess we all won, and had a refreshing cocktail of mint-infused bourbon with a splash of simple syrup afterwards.

The Golden Gate Park carousel was pretty special, even though it wasn't the oldest one in the city. The music they play there.. was it salsa music? Wow!

So even though it rained, it was great. And it ended with Beard Papa and a sumptuous Indian dinner at Amber downtown. I couldn't get my arms far away from the horse to get a group shot, unfortunately. Maybe next year I'll plan better with a fisheye.

schmoo > May 1, 2009

There's this little restaurant a few blocks from our place called Tangerine. We stumbled on it shortly after we moved to San Francisco on a Tuesday night, walking down Market St. and not really liking the selection of food right before us. We turned a corner and walked a block, and in the middle of a residential area there was laughter and warm light pouring out onto the sidewalk from between lush curtains.

Although moving left us precious little money to splurge on things like fine cuisine, that was our celebratory "We're here, we made it!" dinner. And we had a wonderful time even though the waiter got our order a bit mixed up and the curry was too spicy. We finally went back tonight, a lot less uncertain about what we wanted. Things have been very busy at work for both Trav and myself, and it was good to reconnect with my husband for an evening.

While Tangerine does not have the best food I've ever eaten, it's very very good. And the charm of this place combined with two warm, cozy atmosphere makes it a win-win situation. The smoked salmon and potato curry cakes are phenomenal, and the saketini was good as well. Our absolute favorite part of this place is the waiter. Neither of us know his name (although we play guessing games about what it would be, and we both settled on Daniel, though I think he could also be a Luis) but he's such a queen in the best possible way. He's fantastic and adorable and the whole place just makes me smile.

schmoo > April 26, 2009

We were up at 5 AM to attempt to shoot the sunrise, though we were just a smidge late. I seemed to have used up all of my mojo last weekend at the workshop down in Santa Barbara, because as sleepy as I look in this photo, this is probably the best catch of the weekend. It's ok, though, at least I posted a couple of Dailies!

schmoo > April 24, 2009

Crazy Friday! After an intense week of training at work, Friday evening was a little bit of downtime. I met some coworkers right down the street from our place in the Castro and we proceeded to get a whirlwind tour of the neighborhood. Loose lips sink ships, so I'll just say that I think I pulled a muscle laughing so hard. Literally, incapacitating laughter. It's good for the soul, I suppose, if not for your ruptured spleen.

Oh the strange things that you see living in such a city as San Fran. Here's a rather boring shot from the evening. It was really, really chilly so I broke out my favorite wool scarf. We'd just missed sunset at the top of famous Lombard Street squigglies. After this we had a great dinner someplace nearby, down the hill.

schmoo > April 25, 2009

The crazy weekend with Smuggies continues! We drove up the coast a bit, then back down, then inland, then back out. It was a little haphazard but at one point we ended up at Viansa Winery in Sonoma and we shared a glass of their very good red wine. It was like we were sitting in Italy, on the patio overlooking the expanses of vineyards and mountains.

schmoo > April 22, 2009

This week I'm training for a very different and very challenging change of direction at work. On top of being a lot of information to absorb, it's incredibly exciting, too, and I am so eager about this. Part of these changes means that I'll be spending more time at headquarters, though, which is OK esp as I think that Zach will probably be working with me (from under the desk) most of this time. And SmugMug is such an environment that I never feel like it's actual work, which is all the better.

After a hectic day today, Andy took us out to dinner. Fuki Sushi is legendary, especially when you get some of the best coworkers in the universe to share the private room and eat enough dragon rolls and fire salmon to render yourself completely incapacitated.

I love my job, my coworkers, and everything they have ever done for me.

schmoo > April 19, 2009

I don't know why but this photo amuses me so much. Our entire group crawled up a steep mountainside in oppressive heat and beating sun to photograph a bunch of teeny little Californian poppies. (I keep typing that "poopies," which isn't helping!) Because the goal here was to take a telephoto and zoom in on one at eye level, I was reminded of a pasture full of placid cows softly chewing the grass and lowing at the wind. Hunched-over, silent-in-concentration photographers buried in the grass and contorting in strange shapes. Hippie yoga, maybe.

Midday sun is draining, but there are much worse places to sit and enjoy the fresh air than on a field full of poppies, high on a mountain where you can just see the ocean in the distance. The sound of the breeze blowing through the treetops is one I've never heard quite like before and one I won't forget.

schmoo > April 18, 2009

Santa Barbara here we come! After a grueling wake time of 3:36 AM, we were shooting and shooting and shooting until after sunset. One of our many stops was Santa Barbara Mission. While shooting midday is tough, I think we all came away with some good stuff. This is not one of them. This is me walking through the doorway of the Mission while Ian follows behind.

I'm consistently surprised at the unique history and variety of flora and fauna CA has. Tourists are the same, though, all over the world.

For the first time in seemingly months, I'm really excited about getting a few moments to sit down and actually process my workshop photos.

schmoo > April 17, 2009

I admit I haven't quite made up my mind if I am going to be able to continue my Daily Photo project after my year was over. First I was, then I wasn't. Then sometimes I'll take photos and put 'em up because I have them. But that's kind of half-hearted, isn't it?

Fridays are not usually any different for me since I work an off-beat schedule, but this one was! A weekend in Santa Barbara with friends and photographers. It was certainly an occasion to look a little less homely. It was a great drive (it didn't feel like 5.5 hours!) and Marc Muench took the 5 of us down to a great restaurant on the beach for dinner. A nice way to kick things off, for sure.

April 24, 2009

Crazy Friday! After an intense week of training at work, Friday evening was a little bit of downtime. I met some coworkers right down the street from our place in the Castro and we proceeded to get a whirlwind tour of the neighborhood. Loose lips sink ships, so I'll just say that I think I pulled a muscle laughing so hard. Literally, incapacitating laughter. It's good for the soul, I suppose, if not for your ruptured spleen.

Oh the strange things that you see living in such a city as San Fran. Here's a rather boring shot from the evening. It was really, really chilly so I broke out my favorite wool scarf. We'd just missed sunset at the top of famous Lombard Street squigglies. After this we had a great dinner someplace nearby, down the hill.