Random Snapshots

fireworks

We got to watch the fireworks last night from the rooftop of a friend's apartment building.  She lives in the S. Lake Union area.  It was very cool and ended up being the best Seattle-fireworks-viewing-spot we've found so far. 

The sunsets around here are really amazing!

I brought my tripod with me to set up some long exposures and I got a few good shots.

 

 

 

 

 

I have a billion more photos to go through from the daytime fun we had as well.  It was such a gorgeous (and hot) day to be outside exploring. 

Hope you all had a great weekend!!

so far...

My brother arrived on Saturday afternoon after a catastrophe of a flying experience and we started in on activities that night. 

Here's what we've done so far:

On Saturday night we went to the Seattle Sounders FC game.  The Sounders have been in Seattle for a few years, but this is their first year as a Major League Soccer team.  That's a pretty big deal for soccer fans and my brother and I are big soccer fans.  The game was a great time.  The stadium was packed and the crowd was pretty cool.  Seattle lost their starting goalie within the first 20 minutes of the game to a red card ejection and lost the game in the last 10 minutes 1-0.  Such is life with soccer games!  We had a good time either way though and I'm considering buying season tickets next year. 

 

 

 

The major downer of the game was that bottled Budweiser was $7.75 each!  I've never paid so much for shitty beer.  Needless to say we only had 1 each at the game.  I couldn't believe it when the guy told us the price!

 

After the game we met up with a few friends who were in a different section and headed over to Pyramid Ale House for more beer and food.  I had my favorite Apricot ale.  We had a lot of laughs and enjoyed catching up with a friend that we don't see nearly enough.

Sunday was Easter and we didn't do much besides eat and relax.  It was much needed!

Yesterday I worked during the day and the boys went to the gun range.  

 

After work we grabbed some dinner and headed into Seattle for a concert.  We saw Franz Ferdinand at the Moore Theatre.  The Moore is one of my favorite places to see a concert in Seattle.  It's an old theatre that is being preserved.  It's very small inside which makes for an intimate show and the architecture is gorgeous -- here a few shots I took on my phone:

 

 

 

The concert was good - the opening band sucked in my opinion, but I think that had almost everything to do with their lack of a good sound person.  FF was awesome and I'd definitely see them again.  They were better in concert than they are recorded in my opinion.  

We're not sure what the rest of the week will bring, but hopefully the weather will clear up for us.  I'm taking Wednesday through Friday off and my brother doesn't leave until Sunday so we have a lot of time to explore.  

 

mount rainier

We finally got some sun on Saturday!  While A and I were running some errands we decided to stop back home and grab the camera gear.  We headed over to our favorite place to shoot Mount Rainier -- the top floor of the parking structure at the Auburn Rail Station.  Unfortunately we got up there and realized I forgot the clip for my tripod - d'oh!  It's easier to shoot the mountain with a tripod so you can bracket the shots.  It's hard to expose it properly when the sky is so light like it was on Saturday. 

Either way I came home with a couple of cool shots that I liked:

 

  

  

As a bonus Adam let me take a few shots of him:

  

  

  

Felt good to bring my camera out and get some practice.   

upgrade

I upgraded my camera on Friday.

 

Fuji S5 Pro with a battery grip. 

This is a pretty big upgrade to my Nikon D70.  I've had that camera for almost 4 years now and pretty much used the hell out of it!  I took it everywhere and shot everything with it.  It was a great learning camera and a workhorse.  I got my money's worth for sure and it is still clicking away.  I'm sure Adam will continue to use it until it dies!

This new one though is really something.  The color straight out of the camera is amazing.  So much different than my Nikon.  That is definitely an advantage that Fuji has and one of the main reasons that I went with the this one instead of a Nikon.  In case you're wondering Fuji only makes bodies and they make them with Nikon mounts so all my Nikon gear works with this one - lenses, flash and batteries. 

Here's an example of the nice color - no processing here, just resized it for the web:

 

Nice blues and green, huh?

I played with the camera very briefly today.  Adam and I went to a few parks and nature trails to enjoy the sun today.  The sun was pretty bright - not the best conditions for shooting, but great for spending time outside. 

Here are a few more shots that I got while we were out:

 

  

  

I'm off to enjoy the rest of Sunday.  Hope you all had a great weekend!

Weekend wrap up

It's been a long and trying week.  Between work and school I was really spent on Friday night.  After work I lounged around the house and ended up in bed pretty early.  I slept in on Saturday morning.  I even skipped Pilates which I felt guilty about, but I needed the sleep. 

I spent most of Saturday with Jessica.  We ate a couple of good meals, shopped, sat around and talked, ate ice cream and just hung out.  It was a good day for sure. 

Freshened up my wardrobe with some basics from the GAP and spent way too much time in Half Price Books browsing and buying.  Jess and I share a serious love of reading.  I don't have that much time to read with school right now, but I still fit it in where I can and dream of the day when I have free time again! 

Today Adam and I made our annual trek to SeaFair to see the Blue Angels fly.  I didn't get as many photos this year as I did last year.  I also had my settings all screwed up for about half of the show which is always great to realize!  I still have to go through the ones I got, but here are a few that stood out.

A couple of the pilots are in that Vette.

Fat Albert is the star of this show in my opinion. He's my favorite member of the Blue Angels. (If you didn't know - Fat Albert is flown by a Marine.)

The smoke before they take off is pretty cool.

That's all I've got for tonight.  I'm off to enjoy the last few hours of Sunday...

Monday makeover. The hair edition.

Before:

After:

I mentioned on Friday that I was getting my hair cut this weekend.  Finally.  Prior to Saturday I hadn't had a cut since mid-May.  When I got it cut in May I was keeping it long-ish because Jules' wedding was right around the corner.  The wedding passed, the entire month of June and most of July passed as well and I kept meaning to make an appointment, but my weeks and months move quickly these days.

I went into the salon wanting something shorter, but didn't really have a style in mind.  I love and trust my stylist so I told him to make the decision for me.  My only rule was that I wanted him to "make it hot!"  And he did.  He's amazing and so good at his trade.  

I haven't had full bangs since I don't know when.  It's been a long time though and I think I was probably a kid.  Maybe I can dig up a photo.  My Mom might remember how long it's been...we'll see what she says!

Here's a photo in the car just before leaving the salon (taken with my iPhone).

And one I snapped this morning at my desk.

Here's some info on my stylist, Nihad, and his newly opened salo: Virtu Salon.

If you're in the Seattle area you should give him a call.  He's in North Seattle (Greenwood area) - it's quite a drive for me, but totally worth it. 

Have a great Monday!

hello.i've waited here for you.everlong

We're going to see the Foo Fighters tonight at Key Arena.

I.CANNOT.WAIT!!!!!!

This is will be our first Foo concert, but I already know it's going to be amazing.  I'm officially in concert-mode.  Dave Grohl, here I come.  :)

Happy Hump Day.

Fourth of July Fun

We had a nice, low-key Fourth of July yesterday.  Originally we were going to go to a party, but ended up changing our plans last minute.  I burned my arm pretty badly in the late morning (on my griddle) and just wasn't feeling 100% (still battling an infection from my wisdom teeth extractions) so I really wanted to stay close to home. 

The Giffs invited us to hang out at their lawn bowling club for the night.  There was an ice cream social and they could bring friends to this event.  They taught Adam and I how to lawn bowl.  Growing up we always played bocce in my family so I was familiar with the idea, but lawn bowling is a bit different.

Adam caught on to the rules and hand signals really quickly.  He bowls way too fast though - you should see him whip the bowls down.  It's hilarious.  He has amazing hand/eye coordination though so I have no doubt that with practice he'd be really good.

Their LBC is at Jefferson Park on Beacon Hill in Seattle - this park has amazing views of downtown Seattle which made it the perfect spot to watch multiple fireworks shows. 

I got some great shots of the city skyline and ran some actions.  I had my point & shoot with me, not my D70 so the photos are a little blurry.  I like this one though after running some actions - I might get this printed and frame it for the house.

Here's a blurry fireworks photo - I didn't have a tripod with me.  The fireworks were really cool - we saw several different shows and tons of private fireworks displays from the lake.

Here's a "myspace" photo of me and the big guy.  (How greasy is my face? Yikes!)

And here's a photo of the Giffs - they are celebrating their 5 year wedding anniversary today.  Happy Anniversary friends.  :)

There are a few more photos on my Flick page - here's the link to the set.

Rainy Day Thursday

After all the nice weather we've had lately...

the rain is back. 

Figures, since tomorrow is the 4th of July and all.  :)  There was a pretty big thunderstorm last night.  Complete with lighting too.  We don't get many thunderstorms around here.  Apparently it is supposed to rain on the 4th too.  I hope they are wrong.   

Do you have big plans for the 4th?

I haven't had much to blog about this week.  I've been busy with school and haven't had much excitement.  I'm happy for the 3 day weekend coming up though.  I'm hoping to be able to catch up on some things that need to be done around the house. 

See you tomorrow for Friday Favorites.  :)

I'm melting

It's been really hot here this weekend.  And by hot I mean hot for this area and too hot not to have air conditioning.  I know I have some Arizona readers and I'm definitely not comparing to their heat.  :)

I hate to even complain because I love the sun.  We barely get sun in Western Washington.  In fact, we typically only get about 75 days of sun in one whole year.  That's definitely on my "cons of living in Seattle" list. 

I also happen to be on an antibiotic right now.  For the second time in 2 months.  And I shouldn't be out in the sun for very long while I'm on it. 

Our two story condo occupies the second and third floor of the building.  Our second story is where the bedrooms are and it's brutal up here.  It's like a sauna...I think we might have to break down and buy an air conditioner today. 

Anyways, there is really no point to this post.  Except complaining I guess.  :) 

I'm taking a break from the mountain of homework I have to finish today and thought I'd write a quick post.  I'm playing around with some new Photoshop actions that I downloaded here.  I snapped a few fresh photos of my desk to play with and I like how this one turned out with the actions.

A diet Coke with lime and some blackberries are my homework-doing-snacks today.

Hope your all staying cool!  Adam just asked me if I wanted to go drive around in our truck with the air conditioning on.  It's not a bad idea - even if gas is over $4/gallon.  :)