Baile Atha Cliath....

...or just Dublin. Brandon and I spent a not-so-traditional Thanksgiving in Dublin this year and I have to say, I love the Irish. As a whole, they are some of the friendliest and most likable people I have met in my travels. And of course, I adore their accents. They could be yelling or cursing me out, but something about that Irish accent makes it seem so damn friendly.

Unfortunate for us the weather wasn't ideal, but considering we went to Ireland in November, I say we lucked out by not getting completely rained on. I took a photo tour with a fabulous photographer and guide and am still working on editing several photos...I am challenged when it comes to post processing. But I thought I would share just a couple of the photos that were easier to touch up since I am so slow at editing.

Dublin is full of statues and a couple of my favorites were "The Linesman" along the Liffey and the Oscar Wilde statue at Merrion Square.

The lighting was a little tough on this one because his face completely in the shadows and I had nothing to use as a reflector. But something about the statue intrigued me and I had to shoot it.



I love the expression on his face. From the smirk to the colored marble clothes, his personality was most definitely captured with this statue.

Christmas card photoshoot....fail.

It seems that I am never short of amazing ideas when it comes to shoots for holiday/event photo cards. However, I still have yet to do a successful studio photo shoot with my cats that I can use for photo cards. Please excuse the horrible photos. I eventually reach a point during a shoot where I simply like to capture the look of confusion on my cats' faces as they try to figure out what the hell I am doing. There is minimal editing, because there was really no point..

First I tried a "cake smash" shoot for the 1 year adoption anniversary, which was a complete disaster. My kitties were not amused with the "1" candle sticking out of their soft food and after I set it up I realized that the whole "vision" pretty much sucked. Mia decided she would enjoy the soft food regardless. Spitze is what we like to call "special", here he is still trying to figure out what is going on.
Next I had a "vision" for a Halloween shoot with a jack-o-lantern and two adorable looking kitties crawling all over it and possible even peeking through the top of it. Lets just say that never happened and leave it at that.

Then today I decided to do the famous "cookies for Santa" shot that all the Moms were doing last year for their Christmas photo shoot. I set up the seamless, had the cookies, milk and "For Santa" sign all set up....and my kitties did not want to play. I could show you photo after photo of one kitty's butt facing the camera while the other is drinking milk, or both of their butts facing the camera, or several other completely unusable shots. Needless to say I do not have a photo for my Christmas photo card. This was one of the few that kind of turned out but it is still not good enough to use. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. It is difficult to get one cat to cooperate, much less two. Oh well, I got some practice with my seamless and speedlite. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow, or maybe I'll just forget cards this year...

Castle ruins on the Weinstrasse.

One of our favorite places to visit for a quick day trip is the Deutsche Weinstrasse (German Wine Road). The road takes you through cute little German towns filled with vineyards and local wineries where you can stop for wine tastings. Beyond the vineyards, there are several castles and ruins peppered along the route that you can just drive or hike to. Not all of them are spectacular, but it is so interesting and beautiful to explore some of these cute little sites. Here is one of the castles we found as we drove along the weinstrasse.


24mm
f/4.5
1/125
ISO 1000

A weekend in Munich.

I had my half marathon on 10-10-10 in Munich, so Brandon and I decided to make a whole weekend out of it. Unfortunately, I was so paranoid about wearing myself out that I didn't bring my camera everywhere so I don't have as many shots as I would like. I guess that gives us a reason to go back next year!

I loved this statue. Mainly because she has my body type....a big butt and thighs. Sadly, she has bigger boobs then me.My favorite applebottom statue was right in Olympia Park just outside of the Event Arena where the Race Expo was held. Next to a photography expo, this is my idea of heaven.
The post-race meal started off at the famous Hofbrauhaus. Unfortunately, my stomach wasn't up for a big meal yet so I settled for some Pumpkin soup...yum!

One of my favorite parts of the Hofbrauhaus is the cages that hold the beersteins for the regular customers. This one has the HB symbol on the pewter cover.
The tower is where the Glockenspiel is, I was there when it played, but it lost my interest pretty quickly. Beautiful building though.

A trip to the blumen field!

I needed some practice with my new macro lens so I decided to go to the blumen field and see what I could find. There were so many beautiful interesting flowers, I was in heaven. As I started to take pictures, I really started to realize the difficulty with macro photography and realized I really needed a tripod. Trying to keep a steady hand, compensate for the wind and figure out settings were definitely a challenge. But I think I got a couple decent shots and some great practice. I'll definitely be heading back out there again to see what else I can find!

Well hello, Mr. Grasshopper!

Hello, Mr. One-Legged Grasshopper! Not quite sure how this little guy lost a leg, but he ended up in my kitchen, giving me an opportunity for a little macro practice.
f/4.5
Exp. 1/200
ISO 1000
52mm

Unfortunately, this house is patrolled by fierce grasshopper hunters. You can guess how this story ends....
f/4.5
Exp. 1/200
ISO 1000
127mm

European adventure.

My three sisters and Mom recently visited us and we took a whirlwind European trip. I haven't really had a lot of time to sort through pictures and process them, but here are a few of my favorites.

I guess I went a little crazy at the Eiffel Tower and took some at dusk, directly under the tower and then later at night.Inside Notre Dame during Mass. Normally I do not take pictures during mass and I still feel a little guilty about this one. It was taken off to the side and not in the pews so I'd like to think I'll be forgiven.

My garden is blooming!

I am not the best gardener and flowers are definitely not my specialty in photography, but I had to get some pictures of my first blooms in my very own garden. I have never actually grown my own garden so this is really exciting for me. I bought the bulbs in Amsterdam during our last visit and they are fall bloom flowers. Sure enough, these babies are starting to grow and bloom, I can't believe it.

I'm have no idea what kind of flower this one is, but I almost thought it was a weed until I saw the buds.

85mm
Exp. 1/200
f/4
ISO 640
I have always loved eggplant calla lilies so I thought I would give it a shot and try to grow some. I was so excited to see that one of my first flowers was a beautiful dark purple calla. My poor photography does not do this flower justice, it is gorgeous.

60mm
Exp. 1/50
f/5.6
ISO 640