I see a red door and I want to paint it black

I grew up watching old black and white movies. When I was 10 years old the scariest movie I ever saw were, The Birds, by Alfred Hitchcock and in middle school one of my favorite movies was Rebecca, also Hitchcock. I used to envy Ginger Rogers' grace, wanted to look like Audery Hepburn, and fell in love with Cary Grant. As I became a little bit better at photography I started liking to make them black and white, it just gives me a sense of comfort and gives it a classic touch. It can also be mysterious and make a, not a pretty, place look a lot better AHAHA! So I took a few photos while coming home from the dentist and I wasn't exactly thrilled with how they looked, but once I set it to black and white, I finally saw the beauty in it :)

I've got a lovely bunch of... Fruits and Veggies!

I was so excited when I discovered our Farmer's Market! We are a very small town and there's one guy who sells fresh fruits and veggies along with various other things. I was surprised when I saw he had Chai Tea, Flax seed, jellies, honey, even whole wheat flour! I almost grabbed another box of Chai Tea, but then realized I had like two other kinds of it at home! HAHA! Chai is my comfort tea :)  It was pouring rain and windy and I covered my camera as well as I could, wondering if i should have even brought it, but then I got there and saw all the beautiful colors! I was so excited that I just started snapping away and I grabbed some avocado before I left :)

Road trip on the Interstate 5

I found these photos I took during the visit to see my Grandpa a few weeks ago. My mom and I had to go down to Southern California to take care of him for about a week and on a 14 hour drive, you tend to get bored of mix CDs and audio books. I got my camera (Frank) out and thought I'd just take a few shot, I didn't think any of them would be very good, but I underestimated my amazing camera! HAHA! I was so happy when I was going through my pictures I decided to share a few of them! After a few adjustments I think they turned out to be very fun shots.

I want to live in a bookstore

"When I step into this library, I cannot understand why I ever step out of it." 
-Marie de Sevigne


Books, take me away in a world of whatever I want. When I'm in my room reading I find myself in a world of wizards and lost in Shakespeare's words, there are so many places I can go and it helps my imagination to never leave me :) I didn't get into reading until I was out of high school, I really had a hard time sitting in one place, HAHA! I remember the first book I read all the way through was, The Princess Bride. That book, is still to this day one of the best I've ever read! It's a large book and I was surprised on how much of it wasn't dull, but from the first to the last page it was completely addicting! I'm currently reading the second Harry Potter book, and completely just wrapped up in it. I've absolutely fallen in love with these kids :) It was another rather cold day here so the theme today is books! Enjoy :)

Memories of new love :)

Today the sun came out, so I decided to get out of the house! Haha! I drove around town with my camera and couldn't decide what I wanted to take pictures of. Our little town is beautiful and it's as easy as just walking a few feet and having something amazing to photograph. As I started to drive back home I turned down a street that looked familiar and found one of our cemeteries. I love cemeteries, I can't really explain why, I think I did explain it a little in a post of mine about a month ago. This one holds a special memory for me :) My husband and I were only dating and one day we decided to go on a walk, we walked all the way to this cemetery and fell in love with it! We had our little cameras with us and took pictures of each other and the old headstones, the place is gated now, so I wasn't able to go inside. Now that he is over seas, any place that holds a good memory of us being together is important to me. So this is for you William :) 

Weather says, Freezing Rain... I'm staying inside lol

Today I stayed indoors, due to the freezing rain and my southern California blood is just not used to this kind of weather yet lol! I'm finally reading the Harry Potter series and I can definitely see why people get so crazy over it! HAHA! I'm only on the second book and I just love that I'm able to leave the world I'm in and enter a new one with each page :) So while I was joining Harry and Ron in a flying car I kept looking at this lamp in the livingroom. It's a tiffany style lamp and the colors are just beautiful. I took these a while ago and thought they were cozy :) Very much how I was feeling most of the day. 

Some more that I took around the house to give that good warm feeling 

Final portrait post, for now

It's been a lot of fun getting out of my comfort zone of taking landscape shots and going into portraits. I was so scared of them but it ended up being something easy and natural and it was all about catching them at the right moment. My cousin, Katie is 2 and a half years old and she was very hard to photograph HAHA! She loves to talk and run around so I had my camera on the whole time and just watched her through it until I got a good shot. I ended up getting quite a few, but this one was my favorite :) 

While sitting outside my grandpa's house, she wasn't sure if his pet turtle was her friend or enemy, and I caught her right as she looked up at me :D

Portraits! Part 2

It's been a few days sense I've posted and I'm very upset with myself over it! I just love being able to escape into this addicting blog site and sending my photos out there to whoever is willing and wanting to see them! It's am exciting thing and it gives me a confidence in myself that I've never really had before :) I've spent the last week at my grandpa's house, he's been in and out of the hospital so it's been hard to come on here everyday to post. But he is doing a lot better now and so we're on our way back home! We stopped off for the night in a little comfort in and I was super excited to see they had free wifi! So while I was there I decided to work on my portraits a little more and my grandpa was nice enough to let me snap some shots of him :) So I hope you enjoy them!


My Best Pal

Mission - First attempt portraits - Completed

I have been very nervous about taking portrait shots. i don't know why I'm just afraid that they wont be good and the person I'm taking pictures of wont like them, so I told my brother he's going to be my experimental shots lol! Eric, is very photogenic and so I knew the job would be easy for me. He was a good sport and listened to my directions well, until the end haha! As you can see, toward the end he started being goofy and they ended up being way more fun :)  

My childhood friend, Domo

It was in the 1950's when my grandma and grandpa were celebrating their 1st wedding anniversary. My grandma wanted a Persian cat, so my grandpa went to every pet store in their town and he couldn't find any. When he got home, he handed her a box with holes in it and she knew what it was! As she looked inside she started laughing, there was a 50 year old desert turtle staring up at her. I have memories of following him around and being scared he was going to bite my toes! We all love and have grown up with Domo, and now being over 100 years old he's still healthy and a close friend :) ENJOY!

I need a remote switch

Ok, so the other night we had a great moon out. In Oregon, being able to have the sky clear enough to see the moon during the winter is a big deal! HAHA! So I rushed my camera and tripod out there, tried to take a few pictures, and it was freezing! They didn't come out the greatest, in order for the night shots to look better I need a remote switch, but I still think it turned out pretty cool :) ENJOY!

Another crazy cat lady post

So as I've mentioned in a past post, that I'm absolutely crazy about my cats. My husbands cat Stevie thinks he's a puppy at times and loves following me around. He's like my little sidekick, anytime I'm in my room taking pictures out my window or in my room experimenting with different settings on my camera he's right there watching me. I was even practicing my portrait shots with my brother on our front porch and Stevie was staring at me through the window! While my husband is miles and miles away from me, Stevie is sometimes the only thing that keeps me smiling. I know its silly, he's just a cat, but he's much more than that to me :) So while he's following me around I tend to take a few shots of him, now keep in mind, these are photos from like a month ago when I wasn't doing well on where I needed to focus and he kept moving lol, so they are a little blurry but I think they are really sweet :) 

This one just made me laugh lol! Thanks for checking out my site! 

A Winery, the happiest place on earth

As soon as I walked into the barrel room, I knew this is where I was suppose to be. Haha! It was a beautiful place, large wooden doors that went up about 20 feet above our heads and it led us into each room. Now every time I see a bottle of their wine I can't help but think of the tour and all that we learned. My husband and I have recently started getting into wines, trying to figure out what makes this one different from the other, it's all very interesting. If any of you have not tried wine, I dare you to go out and try one this week! GO DO IT! I hate most wines, lol! But the ones I like are usually the sweet ones that taste like grape juice. I suggest going out and getting like a White Zinfandel Strawberry. It's really good and bubbly and it makes me happy :) Thank you for reading and enjoy!

I tried to come up with something catchy, but all I can come up with is “Waterfalls”

I had to hike a total of 4 miles to get these pictures, so you all better enjoy them haha! I’ve only seen a few waterfalls in my lifetime and everytime I’m around one I’m just at peace. It’s such a beautiful place to be. I love (like snow) looking at any kind of beds of water and just listening to it and the green plants around it, it’s like a completely different world.

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I enjoy snow, as long as I'm inside, looking at it.

So, this post was harder for me. I've been putting off posting these pictures mainly because, I'm not fond of snow, at all. I woke up and was especially cold (due to the old house, lack of insulation, and the broken window in my room that you've recently seen in my past post) that morning. I can almost predict when it snows outside by the chill in the air. I've been hearing on the news, as they threatened, "Yes, it's going to possibly snow." I slowly looked out my window, and there they were, white puffs of ice stared at me, almost laughing, "You thought you wouldn't see us again! Yes it's almost March, but that doesn't matter!" I sighed and my husband encouraged me to see the beauty in it and to go out and take a few pictures. It was a wet slushy snow, my favorite, so it was already starting to melt. I know this sounds silly, but when I look at pictures I see myself in them, even if they are close up pictures I think of myself as small as Alice in Wonderland, walking around the flowers or through the long forest of grass. I see myself in it and that's how I see the beauty, that's how I see the purpose in every photograph I look at. That's when I start to understand all photographers. So, these are the ones that made me feel a little bit better about standing in cold, wet snow :)


These were taken with just a B&W Digital MCR UV-HAZE filter to fit my 67mm. 

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Covered bridges remind me of Sleepy Hollow

So my town is supposedly famous for its covered bridges. In 1925 this Bridge was built to, I believe, transport logs to and from the mill close by and was in operation until 1951. The bridge was also used in the movie, The General, staring Buster Keaton in 1926. Last year, in 2010, the bridge had to be destroyed due to how dangerous it was with it's age, and the wear and tear a storm had done to it. It was very sad to see something so old and beautiful filled with so much history be torn down. I still wish to this day I had taken pictures of it, but they built a new bridge to represent the old one in 2011. Even though it's still very hard not to see the old bridge there, this one is a nice replacement with a small park and memorial billboards next to it. I went walking there on a beautiful sunny day so I was able to see a lot more color in my photos than usual. 


While I was taking these pictures, I couldn't help but thinking of my favorite horror story, Sleepy Hollow. I grew up watching the cartoon and I became completely obsessed with it at one point and wanted to learn all about it. Every time I look through them I get this haunting and exciting feeling that I can't help but smile about. Enjoy :)


These were taken with just a B&W Digital MCR UV-HAZE filter to fit my 67mm. 

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