Another trip to the Weinstrasse!

Since the Weinstrasse is so close to our house, it is the perfect day trip on a lazy weekend. So we headed out for another trip with some friends and came back with another 3 cases of wine and some pictures from our trip.

I can already see that I definitely need to work on my white balance, and probably should get my computer/monitor calibrated.

Exp. 1/800
f/5.6
24mm
ISO 320

Exp. 1/50
f/3.2
24mm
ISO 2500

Avoiding housework!

Since I am trying to avoid doing housework on this lazy Sunday, I have decided to update my neglected photo blog. It's not that we haven't traveled to some great places or that I haven't taken any photos, but basically, I've been lazy.

During one gorgeous weekend, we headed to the Deutsche Weinstrasse (German Wine Road), which is not far from our house. We took a wrong turn and accidentally headed up to the Hambacher Castle, so we stopped for some photos.

In the town of St. Martin, we stopped for a weinprobe (wine tasting) at one of the little shops. I got this shot of their stacks of wine bottles and crates that they had in the shop.

Over Memorial Day weekend, we headed to Brussels and Amsterdam for some sightseeing with friends. This was my second trip to both and Brandon's first. It rained the entire time in Amsterdam so I have almost no pictures from our time there, but here are a couple from Brussels.

Chi-Chi's is extinct in the United States and one of my favorite restaurants, so when we saw a Chi-Chi's in Brussels, we had to stop. After years of living in Europe, I don't feel bad when we stop and eat at "American" restaurants. And trust me, we most definitely enjoyed the local food and drinks in Brussels...yummy chocolate and chips! Apparently I was too busy eating to get some good shots of chocolate and chips/frites. But here is a photo of the wonderful Chi-Chi's margarita.


Brussels is famous for their beer, and there was definitely no shortage of fabulous beers in this city. There are literally hundreds of beers to choose from in this city.


There was some great graffiti near one of the pubs we ate at, so I had my friend pose for a shot in front of it. She did her best "Tyra" pose for me!

Pretty Girl!

Exp 1/125
F/4
66mm
ISO 500
It is a cold and rainy Saturday so I have zero motivation to go outside. Instead, I am staying in with my husband and kitties. I really wish that I hadn't chopped off the top of Mia's ear, but it is still a cute shot of her. I really think that she is a bit of a camera whore, she seems to love when I get out my camera and take pictures of her.

Big Yawn.

66mm

ISO 400

f/4

Exp 1/160

I caught Spitz in a big yawn, and that pretty much sums up this week. Nothing really exciting happened. With Brandon gone for three weeks and with me winding down from the race, it was a pretty uneventful. I could have posted pictures of me lounging on the couch, but instead I'll post another picture of my cute kitties!

38mm
ISO 400
f/3.5
Exp 1/160

The Race.

I ran the Vienna Half Marathon this past weekend. Sadly, we were only there for a short time so I really don't have any good pictures of the city. We arrived late and on the day of the race I was definitely not going to haul my camera around as I ran the 13.1 miles! So there are no pictures of beautiful Vienna, just memories as I huffed around the city trying to get to the finish line.

Oh, but here is a picture of my beautiful medal! Our hotel room had a random wooden beam in it, which made for a perfect place to hang my medal.

Catching up and a bit of a change.

Because I am horrible at keeping up with the 365 project and uploading photos to the blog, I have decided to turn this into just a photoblog and not a 365 project. The goal is the same, the plan to get there is just a little different. I will continue to take photos and post them a couple times a week. Hopefully over time I will see improvement and will learn more and more about photography along the way.

So here are some photos from while I was away:

I'm not sure how I feel about the tilt on this one, but I liked the lighting, even if it is overexposed. I took the shot and forgot to change my ISO setting. oops.

35mm

Exp 1/25

f/2.8

ISO 1000

Mia was fascinated with the raindrops on the window in our loft. I definitely need to work on my exposure and lighting on this one, but I still love the moment.

24mm

Exp 1/400

f/3.2

ISO 200

Playing with my new lens...the rain on our patio table.

62mm

Exp. 1/100

f/4

ISO 200

My new Epiphanie camera bag arrived! In between studying for my exams and playing with my cats, I snapped a quick picture of my beatiful new bag.


Here is my new lens - Nikon 24-85mm. I am still playing with it and I'm not sure exactly how I feel about it, but so far it's not too bad. This picture is horribly out of focus but you get the point.

I used this lens at a conference this week and had some pretty good results with low light. Any problems with focus and exposure were purely the fault of the photographer ;)

Day Sixteen: 22 March 2010

Mia loves doing photoshoots on a gorgeous spring day.

35mm

f/5

Exp 1/400

ISO 200

Day Fifteen: 21 March 2010

Lazy day.

35mm

f/2

1/200