Category: photography

Korea trip post on Lee & Low blog

- Stacy

Buddha's birthday

I completely forgot to post here that I wrote all about my trip to Korea (which happened in May) over at the Lee & Low blog a few weeks ago. I keep meaning to post pictures from it—which will end up going on my Tumblr, I think—but if you missed the link a few weeks back on other social media, check out the post here. Basically, I went to visit a friend in Seoul and then traveled around the country from there. It was a blast. If you want to see more pictures as i post them from time to time on Tumblr, follow my blog over there (which I post at more often, because it’s easier to quickly share interesting things as I find them online and throw them into a queue).

New York, New York

- Stacy 1 Comment

I’ve been meaning to post pictures to Facebook of all the things I’ve been up to lately (including pictures of my CUTE nephews from my visit as I drove through on my way to New York), but I can’t seem to find my sync cord for my camera to my home computer. I was able to upload the pictures to my work computer via a borrowed card reader, which means I can now put them on my jump drive and take them home, but I keep forgetting to.

So, while I kill an hour before meeting a friend for dinner—not enough time to go all the way home to Harlem—I thought I’d post a few pictures that I’ve taken around the city and on my way here. It’s been too long since I shared my photography (too long since I took pictures on a regular basis!). I found pictures from LTUE in February that I’ve been meaning to post for about a month or so, as well. But I’ll do those in a separate post, because I have enough from New York to fill one post.

Some pictures of a recent trip to New York before I moved. Apparently I forgot to get the camera out except for at the top of the Empire State Building—my first time up there despite many trips to NYC by that time.

View of the Chrystler Building and the Queensboro Bridge (I think)
View of the Chrystler Building and the Queensboro Bridge (I think)

View of southern Manhattan, with the Statue of Liberty just barely seen silhoutted in the distance.
View of southern Manhattan, with the Statue of Liberty just barely seen silhoutted in the distance.
The Flatiron Building and just a little bit of Madison Square Park. I work about 3 or 4 blocks north of here, and on nice days it's nice to go down to the park at lunchtime.
The Flatiron Building and just a little bit of Madison Square Park. I work about 3 or 4 blocks north of here, and on nice days it's nice to go down to the park at lunchtime.
Me, at the top of the Empire State Building
Me, at the top of the Empire State Building

A dizzying view of the streets of NYC from the top of the Empire State Bldg.
A dizzying view of the streets of NYC from the top of the Empire State Bldg.

Videos

- Stacy 3 Comments

Twitter seems to be down, which is a disappointment for the random thoughts I generally send into the ether that way instead of blogging them. I Twitter because I care about you, my blog readers, didn’t you know?

(Though if you’re getting this on Facebook, I suppose that means that you’d see it either way. But anyway…)

I’m working on making a video. I’d say that it’s the first video I’ve ever made, but I actually did help direct the Hallowmere book trailer, so I suppose this would be the second video I’ve ever made that doesn’t involve filming my cats (often the only interesting subject around my house!). But for the Hallowmere trailer, I had the help of several great people at Wizards of the Coast–the books marketing person, Shelly, and the AdCom guy, Adam, and his whole team. We didn’t spend any money on the video, but we had the time and resources of some very talented people.

This time, it’s just me and my little Sony digital camera, so it’ll be an adventure. The raw footage I can get, no problem. It’s the editing that I’m not sure about. I’d like to interview a couple of different people for it, as well as adding text to the video with the people’s names. I have a PC, which came with Windows Movie Maker. Yes, I know, it’s not Final Cut or anything, but here’s a question for those of you who might know: will it be enough to do the simple things I want to do with my video?

I don’t think I’ll even put music on it, because I don’t want to get into trying to figure out royalty-free music. I just want to be able to edit out parts (like the beginning and ends of when I’m recording myself!), splice together a few different pieces of video, and add text. Is that possible with what I have? Or is there a freeware/shareware program out there that might be able to do this?

Ramblings when I should be off reading the Maze Runner ARC or sleeping

- Stacy

Not really much to post about. I had a great time at Conduit seeing friends and talking books. Very nice Schlock Mercenary launch party, for which I dropped in and took some pictures. I’ll be downloading those straight to Sandra, who will probably post them on her LJ or Howard’s blog or both. I’m not terribly satisfied with the pictures–it was pretty dark in that room and I had to use flash, which always flattens the subject–but hopefully the Taylers and Schlock fans will enjoy them.

Went on my first bike ride of the year and it was nice, but I probably should have started with a jaunt closer to home, because while the outbound trip was awesome, I realized just why that was on the way home when the wind hit me squarely in the face. Between the wind (it was pretty blustery), my sore behind from not being in the saddle for six months, and being tired from the ride out, I ended up getting off and walking at least twice. I’m thinking I’ll take a rest day tomorrow and try again on Wednesday, but not try a total of about 7-8 miles round trip. Perhaps 2-3 total for a few days, to get back in the swing of things!

Had my own personal Bones marathon today, watching all the episodes from this season that I’d missed and had been recording on the DVR. Maybe if I clear out the DVR I won’t feel so bad about dropping the cable, which I’m really going to have to do. Also went to a barbecue at a friend’s, and thought about all my family members and others who have served in the military. I come from a long line of farmers, salt of the earth kind of people, and as you can imagine those are the type that tend to get drafted. (I also descend from one draft-dodger, and I’m grateful he did, or I wouldn’t have been born a Whitman, I suppose–he stowed away on a cattle boat to avoid the draft of William the First and Bismarck, the Second Reich that killed off a great number of Prussian peasants, and came to the US, to Illinois, and became my great-great-grandfather.) I have ancestors who served on both sides of the Civil War, including one who was on Sherman’s March to the sea, several vets of the War of 1812 (another reason I’m an Illinoisan–western Illinois was veteran pension land-grant land for War of 1812 vets), vets of several minor skirmishs, two grandfathers and a great-uncle who served in the army and air force, respectively, during WWII, and an uncle who fought in Vietnam.

More recently, I have an uncle who served in the Marines during peacetime (during the 70s) and an uncle who just retired from the Air Force as a navigator a few years ago. That same Uncle Kevin served two or three tours post-September 11th as a translator. My brother and several cousins have served in the reserves wherever needed. I have several friends who have done tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and several friends whose husbands are currently or who have been deployed.

I wouldn’t consider my family a “military” family. Far from it. We’re just average working Americans, and each of these people served when they were called to do so, or even just to find a better life through the GI Bill. But it makes me proud of them to know that they served when they were needed, even if they occasionally did so a bit cantankerously. The cantankerousness–that’s just a Whitman family trait. 🙂

Back to real life tomorrow, catching up again on those short pieces I didn’t get to yet last week, and two manuscripts that I have waiting in the queue as well. I’ve got a few other things going on this week that I’m excited about but can’t talk about yet, so when I can, well, I guess I’ll drop the mystery and post it. 🙂 Off to sleep!

FINALLY!

- Stacy

My newly minted Nikon D300 arrived today. I decided to go ahead and order the camera body and use my old lenses for now–the kit lens from my N55, the nice but not exactly versatile 50mm lens, and the zoom lens, which all survived the flood. Only the good zoom lens perished in the flood, along with the camera body. What this means is that my flexibility on natural lighting is seriously curtailed until I can replace the good lens. They’re okay lenses–and the 50mm is a NICE lens, but like I said, not versatile–but they don’t do well in low light.

I’ve snapped a few shots of the cats today but I want to really take it out and play with it later. It’s a very souped-up, very professional camera, and I want to be sure I know what I’m doing! But first I have critiques to finish and get back to people.

I’m working on putting together my photography site so that my portfolio can be easily accessed and that people can see the portrait services that I offer. I think I should also look into advertising at wedding fairs locally, too. Just another part of the business that’s finally shaping up.

The fashion report, New York, and cameras

- Stacy

I’m sitting in my friend’s New York apartment having just finished a rousing discussion on each of our personal existential crises. There’s always something that makes you think, "What do I *really* want to do when I grow up?" isn’t there? As things change, you have to adjust, and there’s always some negotiation as you figure out how you fit in the bigger plan.

Also, I’m making chocolate chip cookies.

And finishing a critique (you know who you are! almost done!).

I was going to spend the afternoon at a museum or something, but it’s rainy and slushy out, and I decided it was time to just sit and not be running around. Plus, the heel part of the sole came separated from the leather one of my shoes as I was taking it off last night. Random. But I th
ink it’s fixable. I just need to find a good shoe repair place at home. They’re much less common in Orem than they are in bigger cities.

So as I was heading back to my friend’s house from a quick visit to Alvina’s office this morning, I stopped by at a Payless and found a cute pair of boots on sale, which makes me happy because I’ve been looking for boots. The shoes that broke are Mary Janes–cute, but impractical even if you’re just running through the snow from the car to the house and vice versa, and even more so while running around New York in the slush.

But obviously they’re new boots, and they have a little bit of a heel, so they need some breaking in to be comfortable for everyday wear. It was either them or a pair of flat white suede boots with really weird leather fringe trim, and that was just not happening.

But I’m happy to have some cute boots before I head up to Vermont, even if it’s not the most practical thing to have un-worn-in boots, because they’re calling for snow and I think I want to go out on the snowy trails. I wonder if there’s snowshoe rentals up there? I had a great time earlier this month going snowshoeing with my friend in Utah. I don’t believe I ever shared anything about it on this blog at the time, because I was still trying to figure out how to get the pictures off my phone. Well, here you go:

Yes, that is me falling over. It happened several times. Have you ever tried standing up again from snowshoes in five feet of snow? That tree behind me? It’s the top limbs of the tree I fell in. It’s normally at least 10 feet tall.

But that won’t stop me from going again. It was a great workout–very invigorating. When I wasn’t feeling how impossible it was to get back up from falling.

Also, while I’m at it, a fun shot I took with my cell phone at the Salt Lake Library. Boy, do I miss my good SLR! But it’s fun to get some nice shots out of a little 2 MP camera.



If you ever get a chance to see the Salt Lake Library (the downtown branch), definitely check it out, by the way–it’s gorgeous.

I just found a great point-and-shoot camera (Sony Cybershot, 8.1 MP), so at least I’ll be able to get my snapshot fix while I work on replacing the good camera (and actually, the shoe and cookie shots are made with that camera). But I’m still sad and going through photography withdrawal.

This just in: rubber chicken JUGGLING!

- Stacy

I’m just now going through my photos from Memorial Day weekend, including my Monday morning stroll through Folk Life, a festival they have here in Seattle every Mem. Day weekend.

And what do I find? I knew I got shots of juggling, but little did I know that the chickens had invaded the juggling world, too!

E

They’re taking over the world, I tell ya.