amateur photography

The woods are lovely…

/ Meg / 6 Comments

IMG_5537…Dark, and deep. But I have promises to keep…

It was about impossible to get Robert Frost’s famed poem out of my head on Saturday! Mom and I recently joined a local photography club, and our first outing was to shoot photos in the woods at on a trail at the American Chestnut Land Trust. We kept giggling about how we weren’t exactly “nature girls” — um, I’ll take the air conditioning and a nice glass of iced tea over a hike any time — but we’re trying to be adventurous, spontaneous and improve our photography.

And it was awesome! Everything was so lush and green, and we really enjoyed hanging out with the club members and learning some new techniques. I’m looking forward to attending the June meeting and getting a little better with my PowerShot G6! Yeah, I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing… but I’m having fun. And I got to spend some “pensive,” reflective time thinking about poetry! And communing with nature, sensing my place in the universe. How very existential.

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

A few of my favorite things

/ Meg / 2 Comments

My adventures in the photography class I’m taking with my mom continue — and this week’s assignments are really fun! Not that the others weren’t, but you know what I mean.

One of the four projects we have to complete over spring break (it’s funny to say I’m on “spring break” — I’ve been out of college for two years and have a full-time job, but alas, I am on spring break from my photography course!) was the indirect portrait — an image of someone’s belongings that gives an impression of the person. Since I spend the majority of my time at my desk or at home reading/writing/blogging, those were the two places I really wanted to capture. My desk is very “me,” as is my room! When I was firing off shots using a new setting on my camera, I wasn’t sure what I was getting — or if what I was getting would really be an accurate representation of me. But I think I succeeded! And I wanted to share. All of these are posted on my Flickr page, too, but here are some highlights — and that last photo is one of my “self-portraits.” Those pictures have to be completely taken by us!

Snow photos

/ Meg / 1 Comment

Despite all of the ice covering Southern Maryland, I’ve actually been enjoying the snow and slush! Since this was the first significant snow fall of the year (and caused quite the havoc locally) many folks have been taking it extra easy getting around on the roadways, and I count myself among them — though I haven’t been driving 10 miles an hour in a 45 lately. But it’s probably better if I slow down and quell my road rage, anyway! And no better day to do it than a day when black ice covers many of the driveable surfaces in town.

Here are some snapshots of my yard on Tuesday! The first was taken around 7:30 a.m., and the second was taken around 8:30 a.m. — a mere hour later! It was falling pretty hard for a while there.

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Sunday at the museums

/ Meg / 1 Comment

img_4407 Palmer and I have been talking for months (or years?) about making an excursion to D.C. together. We live in the Maryland suburbs and have countless friends and family who commute downtown day after day — including both of our mothers. I interned for a D.C. paper two summers ago and got used to hopping on the commuter bus, riding the hour or so into town and scurrying down the hot sidewalks in my heels, feeling independent and strong and a part of something. I was twenty — scared, more than a little naive — but I still had an overwhelming sense that something big was happening in the city. I know that working anywhere day in and day out will strip it of its magic, but as I’m still just a frequent visitor, Washington has plenty of magic.

img_43941We woke up early to get ready and grab the Metro by 10 a.m. Most of the sites we wanted to hit were open around 11 a.m., so we figured an hour was plenty of time to get downtown and head to the National Museum of the American Indian — our first destination (after we grabbed breakfast at Bob Evan’s). I got my hot chocolate, of course, and pumped my blood full of a little caffeine to get moving!

We got off the Metro and landed smack in the middle of the Navy Memorial downtown — a spot Palmer has always wanted to check out. I passed it many mornings on the bus myself but never got close enough to snap any photos. My favorites:

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Fall in the city is pretty gorgeous.

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Rudy takes himself a ‘dirt nap’

/ Meg

Enjoying my new weekend freedom, I tackled a project this afternoon I’ve been putting off forever: burning my digital photos to CDs. I take a ton of pictures, uploading all of them to our somewhat-ancient PC. This is definitely a recipe for disaster. So I started transferring everything I have off here, including last year’s photos and many from the spring and summer.

I came across these two of my dog, and this one is probably my favorite:

But I love the next one too! My dad was laying sod in the back yard in the early summer, so he had dirt delivered and tilled what was already there.

And Rudy decided to take himself a dirt nap — literally:

Hilarious! And needless to say, we had to get him cleaned up after that . . . but it was worth it for Dad to get this shot!