Real simple

I was at the grocery store standing in line the other day when I succumbed to the temptation of the abundant magazines. Real Simple was the magazine that I just had to have. Turns out it was a good buy and I enjoyed it quite a bit. But, the most enjoyable part of the magazine was all the photos. They had done many set up shots to accompany their articles. The photos were fun, colorful and engaging. Real Simple inspired me to set up a shot of my own. After a trip to Crate & Barrel for a green placemat, digging around for my old tea cups, and some tree flowers from outside I was on my way to a magazine-style photo. I find this one calming and it's been promoted to my desktop background.

One for the cookbooks

There are two kinds of people in this world (don't you love that phrase). Those who can cook and those who can't. My brother is one of those who can. We had dinner last night and he cooked the most amazing dish. I had wanted to photograph the meal so he suggested making this dish because it has such good color. And, indeed it did. Let me talk you through it. Top the salmon with almonds. Bake the salmon and flat puff pastries in the oven for 10 minutes. Top the puff with pesto sauce, sliced tomatoes then the salmon. Kyle said your first bite needs to have all layers in it because that's the best flavor. He was right, all of that together is an awesome combination. We added a little au gratin to the side and a sauvignon blanc and had our feast.

Well done, bud. I'm way impressed.

Love you some Earth

Today is Earth Day. Everybody is lovin' them some Earth today. I wonder, what is one supposed to do on Earth Day though? Plant a tree? Talk about one's new Prius? Share websites via Twitter about how to be more green? I'm not really sure.

In my case, my small celebration of Earth Day consisted of looking back at my favorite photos from around the world. On this blog I share with you all my favorite photos, quite often they are outdoor photography of some sort. These outdoor - or Earth photos I suppose - tend to be my absolute favorites. Well here's another one I love. This one hails from Costa Rica, in the rain forest. Looks a bit Japanese doesn't it? It's not, I swear to you it's Costa Rica, I've never been to Japan. But, in my quest to see the Earth I just might visit one day. I'll let you know.

So if I could I would frame this photo, wrap it up, and give it to Earth with a note that says, "thanks for being awesome. -ash"

For the children

I enjoy this photograph for many reasons. One is, when I look at it I am reminded of how lucky I am to be doing what I am doing. So, you are probably wondering, what are we looking at? This is a photograph of the mocked-up ICU patient room for the children's hospital I am on at work. The three folks in this photograph are the heads of pediatric ICU, the cardiovascular ICU, and respiratory therapy. They were discussing, as is the point of the mock up, the best location for various elements of the rooms; i.e. the location of medical gases, brackets, monitors, etc. Somewhere in the discussion someone would always say, and I don't think they realized how often they said it, but someone would go, "but these kids, they are really sick." Every debate and decision they had about how things should be in the room or their units was always about the kids.

So, when I look at this photo I'm reminded of what a great thing I am getting the chance to be a part of, even if it is only in an indirect way.

One year later

Well I missed it. About a week or so ago was my one-year blog anniversary. Not that we needed to share a cake or anything, but I should have posted some celebratory photo marking the occasion. So instead I'm posting a photo from Uptown Dallas. Dallas is my photography home base these days, whereas a year ago it was College Station. Oh how they are so different, but in good ways. Cheers to the jems I've discovered in Dallas, and those I've yet to find.

In the presence of greatness

You are lucky when you get to see the world like this. This photo, very similar in some ways to the face of God post, is very special. I vividly remember taking this photo. We were driving back from the hot springs in Big Bend. The drive is a good 30 minutes to the Chisos Basin campground. We had the music up and the windows down. The sun was starting to retire for the day and you could hear the wind flapping on the windows as we sailed through the park. No one was talking. We were just one with the moment. Eventually I couldn't help but take a photo of what were seeing. It was amazing. If you don't believe when you see the world in this way, you may never believe.

Cutting edge

I feel the need to offer my favorite jewelry designer some free advertisement. This is my treasured necklace from KONZUK. Mom and Dad gave me this piece for Christmas last year. I had been in love with this necklace, and for that matter most of KONZUK's designs, for quite some time. It's cetainly not traditional, and I hadn't seen anything like it before, which might be why I liked it so much. Every time I wear this necklace I get loads of wows. Looks like I may be a trendsetter after all. Hardly, but every now and then I just might be at the cutting edge. Speaking of cutting edge, I'd love to see how they craft these pieces.

And, just so you know, they have more than stainless steel designs. They have pieces made of concrete and PVD coating as well. Sounds a bit ruggid, but it's not, they are very elegant, in a Manhatten sort of way.

Piñata days

Remember taking a swing at the piñata when you were little? How it made you smile, hoping you'd be the one who exploded the goods. Wouldn't it be great if we adults could take a whack at a piñata from time to time? Just for the sake of it. In fact, Wednesdays should be piñata day around the world. There's casual Friday, how about piñata Wednesday. For kids candy and toys spill out, for us maybe twenty dollar bills and free vacation days. That very well might get me crawling around on the floor. Check out the girl on the right. She's using her party hat as a bucket. Such youthful innovation.

Just for comparison

This photo was from a slightly slower shutter speed, and is probably a more accurate depiction of what it feels like out there. That's Junior again about to take off after a caution. The car on his left is the pace car. Re-starts after a caution are almost as fun as the beginning of the race.

Baseball, apple pies, and NASCAR

There are few things more American than going to a NASCAR race, which I did on Saturday. It was a completely unique experience and overwhelming too. The cars almost make you dizzy as they bolt by, you can smell the gas, you can most certainly hear the zing as the pack makes its way past the grandstands, and you feel the rumble. And if that's not enough to keep you entertained, you can bring your own beer.

The race we went to was the Oreilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. 200 laps equals 300 miles. Our seats were directly over the start finish line, about 30 rows up, just high enough to see the cars around the entire track. This is Dale Earnhardt Jr. in car 88. Everybody loves him. I saw more "Dale Jr." jerseys than I could count at the speedway. I took this photo with a my fastest shutter speed, because if I didn't they were only a blur.

I think everyone should go to NASCAR once, but bring your ear protection, you'll need it.

Drink of choice

It's Friday which means Happy Hour. What's your drink of choice? For me, it varies depending on where we're going and what we may be eating. If its sushi it's a vodka tonic, if it's burgers or crawfish I'll order a beer, and if we head to a swankier joint wine might be the choice. Variety is nice. Happy Friday all!

One cool kiddo

One more from the party. It amazes me how used to the camera kids are, and how naturally they act with a lens in their face. This little girl inparticular is very natural, and cool at that. She's not at all phased by my camera nor impressed by it. There were so many different personalities at the party. One little boy sat at the kids table all party eating the jello oranges. Other kids quietly explored trying to satisfy their curiousity. Some were energetic to put it politely (my photos of them are usually blurred because I didn't have time to focus on them.) Every time I venture into a new arena of photography I quickly realize the challenges specific to it. If you aren't careful, all of your kiddo photos will have adult's legs or arms in them; the parents seem to always be near to catch or grab or coax-along their kid. I lucked out in this one, no parent's legs, only a cool kid with a birthday hat.

A warm embrace

I was asked to shoot at a first birthday party on Sunday afternoon. I had a blast photographing all the little kiddos. They have so much energy and trying to keep up with them with a camera is no easy task that is for certain. This was one of my favorites from the whole party. As the tutu probably suggests, Miss Pink is the birthday girl. And, the little fellow was most likely her favorite guest. These two immediately hugged when they saw each other. Then they hugged some more. It was terribly cute.