The joy of wine

It's holiday season and the wine is abound. My family loves wine. But, we don't have to wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas to enjoy it. For us there can be an occasion or no occasion at all. Everything about the wine experience is wonderful. Uncorking the bottle with the fun pop, pouring it into beautiful glasses, swirling it around, smelling the first of its aroma, and simply drinking it.

Between everyone in my family we know quite a bit about vino, and in completely different ways. My brother sells wine so he's learned about the sales and distribution aspect of wine. He knows what people are buying. My parents they know about the quality of wine. They are like a walking wine database. They can tell you where they first had that Cab, and if it's worth having again. They like all varietals and are always trying new bottles yet stay loyal to their favorites as well. I, on the other hand, learned about the wine making process from my horticulture class in college. I know a bit about things such as the different grapevines, harvesting methods, fermentation, and so on.

While all this wine knowledge is fun and we share it with each other. What really matters is that we enjoy our glass. Salud to the holidays!

I can hear John Denver

This photo goes way back to, I think, the summer before my freshman year of college. I went on a mission trip called Appalachia Service Project with my church. We went to up to the smokies to repair homes for deserving families. The Appalachia area we visited (where Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky all come together) is a beautiful part of the country, despite its run down nature.

One morning our team had to stop for gas en route to our site. I jumped out to take photos. These were my early photo days, with my original Canon. I found this suspension bridge that just barely skimmed over a rocky stream. I can't imagine having to walk across it. A few of us gave it a shot for a couple steps, but couldn't make ourselves go too far. Plus it was probably some mountain mama's personal bridge that wasn't made for a bunch of city kids to be playing on.

Kid at heart

This is my friend, Andrea Moon. Andrea falls under the adult-kiddo category, as I think comes through in the photograph. We went to Lake Chelan, Washington one weekend last summer to get away from the hussle and bussle of Seattle proper. It was fantastic out there. Earlier in the week Andrea had seeked out tire tubes for us to float in the lake with. And in true Andrea-form she found a new use for them. I looked over while enjoying my Saturday morning cup of joe and there was Andrea hidden in three tubes, her head barely poking out. And with the fish eye lens we had rented for the weekend I had found the perfect moment to capture Andrea as herself. May we all find the kid in us.

Finger clouds

I am walking home from work the other day and I look up and this is what I see. Four small clouds stroking across the sky. It was as if someone had run their fingertips through the sky, like you would in the sand. I instantly stopped to get my camera out. Luckily I had it with me that day. I took my photo and then moved along. Then I looked back from where I had just been and several other people were taking photos with their camera phones. Guess I wasn't the only that thought it was beautiful.

Open spaces

We took a tour last week to the new Booker T. Washington High School for the Visual and Performing Arts. It was a fairly cool building. What was most interesting about it was throughout there were open volumes from first to third floor. This is a photo of one of open spaces, although you probably can't tell. The left of the photo is the stairs, and the right of the photo is the railing on the upper level where the stairs lead to.

I enjoyed visiting the building, not really for the building itself, but because there were all these little art kids running around in their skinny jeans with messy hair playing in the metal shop or studio. They were like little baby hippies, modern hippies, but hippies still. It was cute. Hopefully this school will teach them to develop their craft early so when in college they can find a great ways to apply it.

Inner oxymoron

A couple of Saturdays ago I decided to take a self portrait. I was wearing my favorite thift store black tee that day and it just felt right. I was in a hipster mood that afternoon running around town taking photos, while also craving a starbucks. Wait, you say, hipster meets corporate coffee? You bet. In many ways that is me, a contradiction. I'll wear chacos and go rock climbing one day, then wake up the next and put on my skirt and heals and head to work. And I'd classify both as "me". This personal photoshoot prompted me to want to start a portrait series of my friends, exposing their inner oxymoron. Because really, who wants to fit a mold anyway?

Against store policy

So this is a good one. I go to Borders the other night (the same night I went to the MADI museum). I got a cup of holilday-joe then I wandered around the store. Naturally I decided to take photos. I snap away for about five minutes then the store manager asks me to stop taking pictures because it is against store policy. I was surprised because I didn't seem to be bothering anyone. I'm reminded of my snow cone post. We crazy photographers, we are so mysterious.