photography

A few lovely things for today, when I am in Chiang Mai, probably meeting my elephant soulmate as you’re reading this.

It is cold and grey in the bay today, but this video made my heart happy. You never get sick of looking at those sunsets, and the Friday fireworks are amazing.

I’m not a very good photographer, that is just a fact. I love to take pictures, I used to go through a point-and-click camera every six months because I always had one in my purse, banging around, being stepped on, dropped, sat on, etc, because I never wanted to be without a way to take pictures.

That being said, I don’t technically know a lot about photography. After I bought myself a Nikon DSLR last January, I thought it would automatically improve my pictures exponentially, and it did, but also it just added more buttons and dials that I had no idea how to use, and I ended up taking pictures on Auto every time.

This year, I vowed that I would learn how to at least use my camera, so when I saw a Basic Photography class in Walnut Creek, I decided to sign up. The morning of the class I was so tired, and the urge to stay home and make a lazy breakfast with the boy was almost overwhelming, but I tried to remember my goal and summoned the motivation to get out of bed and go.

And I’m so glad I did. The class was with Source Photograhy, and the instructor, Gene, is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. We spent about an hour and a half talking about photography; light, ISO and aperture, and then the rest of the 3 hour class practicing and taking pictures.

He had lots of lenses that he was happy to let people borrow, and the best part is that once you attend a class, you can come back to that class as many times as you want for free, if you didn’t quite get something the first time, or just want to practice.

He lets people come in and use their studio to practice lighting and studio photography, even allowing people to bring in their own models, for free if he is in town. I learned so much in the short class, I know so much more about my camera and photography in general, and I feel confident enough to go out and practice on my own.

He also takes his student out on photography field trips, free of charge, where he’ll let you borrow his lenses and help you practice, so I’m going into the city with him this weekend to do some shooting.

I still have lots to learn, but at least I finally feel like I know what my camera can do so I feel like practicing will be a lot more fun, and less frustrating.

A beautifully shot video of the ocean, with a beautiful message. If you love what you do, even if you never get rich and famous, you’ll live a life you will enjoy remembering.

One of the things I did on my jam-packed weekend in Bend a few months ago was check out some of the cute little antique shops that are scattered around. There is something about finding an item that you love, and knowing that it has had a whole other history that you’ll never know about before you found it that’s really neat.

When I was creeping through the old hardcover books and magazines at the back of one store, I found this magazine, A Night at the Moulin Rouge, published in 1939. It has pictures and descriptions of all of the different performing acts, and lots of beautiful women.

I bought it right away, but I haven’t decided what to do with it. I wanted to frame it and hang it on the wall, but the photo spreads inside are wonderful so it would be a shame to only have the cover on display, but it’s also pretty old so I wouldn’t want to just leave it laying around without protecting it somehow.

A few lovely things for this very cold San Francisco day.

They say a picture is worth 1000 words, although in our modern society of selfies and food-stagrams, most pictures seem to be worth far less.

But every once in awhile you see an image that makes you remember that photography is an art form, and that some people have the ability to capture an amazing story with just the snap of a shutter.

Reuters released their top images of 2013, and they are awe-inspiring. You can check out more of the images here.