pictures week 1

Day 3 & 4.

Day 3: A Hand. Hand eating street vendor Churro's from WinterFest Weekend 2012

Day 4: A Stranger...Fail. I actually know this kid but must have been so tired and out of it to recognize him with a new haircut. oops.

Day 4: Bavarian Nut Roasters. These guys really were strangers, I promise.  However, they loved being photographed and I took 3094809834 pictures of them but found this one quite suiting for the stranger-esque side of the image since it seems to be sniped from afar.

Day 2: Words

Let's be cliche. Words are powerful.  Well, so is the way you photograph them. Take a newspaper headline for example.  I can read, "Happily Ever After" making one think of disney movies with beautiful princesses and princes or their significant other or something of the like.  Or, you can find a way to skew those words...A way to make them have a greater significance if you will.

 Day 2 of the photo challenge seemed to be more of a challenge than I had originally intended.  I learned that capturing words is definitely more difficult than it seems but not bad overall.  I apologize for lack of creativity.

Check back tomorrow for Day 3!

Day 1: Your View Today

So today would be February 1st if you haven't checked your calendars yet which means this whole photo a day (for 29 days) has officially started.  Day 1 (TODAY) I was told to photograph "my view today" and here is what I was able to come up with:

The new view of course would be from accepting a bid to Alpha Phi last night! How ridiculously cheesy you might ask, but oh well. I'm satisfied with it and promise that I will try to take more images with actual photographic skill than setting some lighting on my invitation.  

However, this is such a turning point in life and my experience at Rochester.  First I never thought I would ever participate in greek life, then I somehow decided to sign up for recruitment and by the end of the first day knew where I belonged (again way too cheesy). 

In any case, Happy Wednesday and happy february :)

February Photo A Day

I think the blog needs some revamping or energy back in it.  Originally I created this thing to share with you my travels of Europe, exercise, photography, baking & cooking with a sprinkle of my daily life.  It has come to my attention that the sprinkle of daily life is now more like a DASH or 1/4 cup. So, to switch things up a bit I am going to present a challenge.  You may join me if you like:

I was perusing Pinterest yesterday when I came across this little image created by Fat Mum Slim and thought it'd be a great way to become more involved in photography and expression.    What that means for you is less checking my blog for what I'm wearing or who I'm hanging out with or what I was able to throw together for dinner.  Instead you can stop by and see what type of image I was able to take to complete this challenge.  29 days with my camera attached to me like some crazed tourist scouring Rochester for the best image I can find and possibly work my magic with photoshop!

Happy Thursday!

Through a New Lens.

Remember back to my birthday? Well it sure seems like forever ago to me.  I've been 21 years old for almost a full two months. It really is hard to believe.  Well, let me remind you that I received a new telephoto camera lens from Brendan.  This baby is huge.  Not your typical kit lens though it is made from the same material and has a similar resemblance.  However, this baby can see up close from far away, I guess that is explained in its description as a telephoto lens though.

Last week or so we took it out for its debut shoot and went up and down the lake.  Sadly the whole sunny day business was lacking but we were able to find a few glimpses of sun to capture some great shots of a a vineyard.  Here is a sample of some of the images I took:

Thanksgiving Post Pt.2

The fun post! If you are just tuning in, please refer to the previous post for the recipes of my contributions for Thanksgiving.

I figured I would keep this short and sweet and post a few pictures from my Thanksgiving day adventures. Sound okay? Good.

I absolutely love my babe, without a doubt, addicted to this ball of fluff.

I started using my tripod for my camera and it has made a HUGE difference.  If you have an SLR, get one. It makes all the difference. 

My mom has thing obsessive problem with thanksgiving day leftovers so she roasted a turkey of her own.  Thank god since the turkey for our thanksgiving really didn't taste up to par this year. It was actually quite dry.

Check this out. My Mom over zapped the jelly for my tart and created some hardened sugary sweet nasty mess.  Not funny Mom!

Bellis Family 2011

Brendan and Me!

Great Thanksgiving with my cousin Rachel, her boyfriend Charlie, Brendan and me.

We really tried to keep our portions small so we had room for two thanksgivings but it was way more difficult than we ever anticipated. Fullest day of my life.

The Market.

Okay so as usual I am a bit behind on my posts and for once I have no excuse whatsoever.  What have I been doing?  Next to nothing since classes haven't started yet.  Today I woke up and went for a 2.25m run since Hal Higdon (bow down to this guy) told me and everyone else following his 5k running plan to do so.  Then I met my 6th grade advisor for lunch, but I should probably mention that she is so much more than that.  She is a friend, mentor, employer and all around amazing person to have in my life.  After finishing a great southwestern salad I proceeded to come "home" to the South Wedge and began watching Grey's Anatomy from the very beginning...Yes, the first episode ever aired (thank you Netflix!)  I will most likely purchase the series at some point in my existence but like many things that fall to the wayside (oh I love corny lines like that), money and sheer forgetfulness will put me back a few months or years.

Hokay so this past weekend I was beyond bored with my life since I currently know only a few people in Rochester and the majority of them were busy this entire weekend so instead of sitting around eating a pint of Ben and Jerry's I ventured over to the Rochester Public Market. While the market is rather big I find that most vendors sell similar or the same thing minus those few flower shops and whatnot.  Don't even get me started on the folks that sell bulk canned goods and fake gucci purses, yuck!  Anyways, I tried to stay a while and snap some photos but the place was so busy I kept getting bumped into.  So enough rambling and here is what I was able to get:

Let's start with some B&W of the Mennonite folk, please don't confuse these men with the Amish since they are very different.

I've been playing around a bit with Iphoto since my Adobe Photoshop Elements slows my computer to molasses and I can't even work with the simple quick select or magic wand tool.

I thought of trying out the Sunflowers in both color and Black and White but can't decide which one is best.  For color I enhanced the saturation and contrast level and then decreased the highlights so that more of the background petals would pop through.  The black and white still has an upped contrast level and all that other fancy stuff.  They're the same exact photograph but so different, ah someone help me decide!

Summer BBQ.

There are a few things that I look forward to each and every summer...I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, your favorite popsicle or ice cream, lazy rainy days (which were lacking this summer until the past week), tan lines and of course chicken bbq.

I typically prefer a classic chicken bar-b-que that is located on the side of the road usually in a parking lot of your local American Legion.  These BBQ's usually donate proceeds to some cancer research center or a local kid who is down on his luck.  However, luck is never lacking in such a bbq since the sauce is always perfect along with the sides of salt potatoes and either mac salad or cole slaw. Ah Summer!

This summer has been rather ridiculous when it comes to BBQ's since the first one i came across ALL summer happened to be yesterday.  Really? It is mid august and I just passed my first road-side stand.  The best part? I have eaten out almost every day this week (at least once) and all I could bare to each for lunch yesterday was an apple.

Lets get on to the actual story: A homemade bbq put on by the best mother.  My mom uses the old classic NYS fair recipe for BBQ sauce and to be honest I have no idea where she keeps it but man is it amazing!  While the day was rainy and muggy, a nice chicken BBQ really made the sun come out.  Try your own chicken BBQ with some salt potatoes or even corn?  My new favorite combination is actually Heirloom tomatoes with some balsamic vinegar drizzled on top.

 We used free-range half chickens from the local farmers market.  Going organic is not only helpful to your body but also local community!

 Try grilling corn instead of boiling.  By boiling corn and other vegetables nutrients are lost.  Grilling gives great flavor also.

 My dad, Big Jer excited for the meal

 Salt potatoes, a staple of summer.

Two photographs that are a big more artistic than "food blogger":

 "Fresh Squeezed"

"Don't Forget Me"

Bubbles.

Getting back into blogging is more difficult that I thought, though I do tend to over think things a bit too much.  Should I update on my summer and the few adventures I went on or start with the right now?  Either way I wanted to share a bit of my photography that I worked on the past few months.

These hippie bubble photographs were taken at the Park Ave Festival this summer.  I went with my three friends Cara, Mo (Maureen) and Mandy.  While they trolled ahead of me I tended to casually stop and snap a few pictures along the way.

The man with the bubble contraption intrigues me in the strangest way.  I swear he must have been a hippie back in the Woodstock days or something and just never grew out of the "phase" which evidently turned into a lifestyle.  Look at those red sunglasses, beard and tie-die t-shirt!

The image on top is by far my favorite out of the two because the bubble dynamics are what really catch your eye.  They're translucent but also dimensional and a bit carefree if I say so myself.  I would have loved to work with these in Photoshop, which I did actually purchase, but my computer does not have a big enough hard drive to actually work smoothly with it.  Bummer!

Random Outdoor-sy Photography.

Okay okay I understand that my posts have been lacking in both numbers and creativity.  You would think that a girl with 1 job which takes up not even 20 hours a week could come up with something better than photography and a pasta salad.  I will try to improve, really.  But for now, you're stuck with this.  However, it is the weekend and an exciting one at that so look forward to some new and exciting posts about Kabobs, Abbott's, Festivals and maybe even a BBQ (if I can convince Brendan the non-planner or the relationship!)

For now we can focus on a few photos I took at both the George Eastman House and Onanda Park respectfully located in Rochester and Canandaigua New York.

The George Eastman House (outside the Gardens):

Onanda Park, Canandaigua Lake (Hike to the waterfalls):

A few of my babygirl frolicking in the yard: