reacclimating to sunshine [trip part six]

This is the trip entry and then I am all caught up. I know I've been a kind of lax blogger as of late but I promise I'll have something nice to show you soon. In case you need a refresher course, the other trip entries can be found here, here, here, here, and here.

New Year's Eve and Day went wonderfully but unfortunately, I promised I wouldn't post incriminating photos of my future family on the blog. (Before anyone freaks out, there is no announcement attached to that statement.) The drive home was long and not too photogenic. But once we were back in Florida, Doug and I decided to take a few days and have a tropical winter vacation before we had to spend another day in the car.

He took me to Okaloosa Island to show why the emerald coast is so special but apparently, the water isn't emerald in winter.



Doug also indulged me by taking me to both Tijuana Flats and Pizzeria Uno's. Both restaurants are traditions I have with my mother so I just had to pose with the signs like postcards.


dear home, I'm back. I missed you a whole lot so I went and visited out favorite places.

a life lived out windows [trip part five]

Earlier Ohio escapades can be found here, here, here, and here.

I love watching the world go by, capturing my surroundings as I pass. I have a love affair with the world around me and I spent much of the Ohio trip in my own world, just my camera and I. Or better yet, I went exploring with Doug and captured every moment for nights like tonight.






I spent much of my time obsessing over old barns. There's just something about decaying wood and snow and flaking paint that makes my heart sing.




I also have a weak spot for red brick churches.


I don't really have a lot of stories to tell about many of these photos. I spent a few days just shooting out windows and watching the world go by.

experiments and adventure

In the interest of full disclosure, my absolute favorite moon shot(s) of the year were taken the day before yesterday and my 'wolf moon' shots were disappointing due to an odd circle of clouds.


I just love watching the moon rise.

I've been wandering around, shooting a little bit more since I no longer have to edit Ohio pictures. Wait, don't I owe you more snow pictures from the trip? uh... um... yeah, I'll get right on that. In the mean time, I went to the pier yesterday twice: once at lunchtime and once for sunset. I absolutely love the Juno Beach pier and would probably spend more time there if it didn't offend my "must keep salt and sand off my camera" sensibilities. But while I was there, I decided to take a few pictures for a specific Photoshop experiment: high-dynamic range imaging. Yes, I know a lot of people think it's kitschy or overdone and downright tacky but I wanted to try it. So I did.


Whether you think they're garish, amazing, or just more photos from my adventures, I can cross it off my list of things I want to try. Since I was being silly anyway, I also decided to play with the tilt-shift action I made a while back.


The vintage coloring shows up again too. But this is what happens when I'm shooting for myself: I have fun and do whatever I feel like and then sort of haphazardly throw together words and photos to tell you what I did.

And then there were the jellyfish... I cannot speak for anyone else in my life but I find Portuguese man-o-war jellies to be beautiful and squishy and generally photogenic.

I think it helps that they look like purple and blue balloons, since I like those too.


I'm kicking myself at the moment for somehow leaving the I[heart]faces button off my contest entry post because I'd like to think I would have been featured if I had it. Time to facepalm and move on. I'll never get any adventuring done otherwise.

I was dreaming of a white Christmas... [trip part four]

...but it didn't snow those days.

Previous installments of snowy Ohio adventures can be found here, here, and here.

On December 23rd, the night before the night before Christmas, the entire extended family piled into a limo to see the amazing display in Wheeling, West Virginia. (It was a pretty surreal experience.)

This panorama is made from 4 shots, all taken from the moving vehicle. It wasn't easy, but I had a ton of fun doing it.





We're not going to mention how I uh... was walking around in just a long-sleeve shirt and jeans, in the cold, to get the previous shot and the next two. Those tulip lights were so beautiful that I almost forgot that I was cold. Almost. By the end, I had Grandpa Butch's hat and was hugging him and Grandma Linda for the body heat.



Christmas Eve, everyone is allowed to open one present. Cassie opened the hat I knit her and immediately decided to imitate a kitty. Maybe putting jingle bells in the pompoms is the equivalent of giving her catnip.


Christmas morning was hysterical. Being a nice Jewish girl, I've never really done the wake-up-early-and-wake-the-entire-house-so-I-can-open-presents thing. But this year, I had a stocking and presents under a tree.

The only things missing were mistletoe and snow.

adventure is always worth writing home about [trip part three]

For those of you just tuning in, especially the visitors from I [heart] faces, this is part three of my trip to Ohio. The last two posts can be found here and here, respectively. I feel the need to remind you that these photos are being linked from Facebook and therefore may not be quite as awesome quality as the ones from flickr, but I really has no desire to host them twice. Moving on...

In the last post, I covered my introduction to snow. The day after the hike through the woods on the farm, I went exploring via van with Grandpa Butch and Mr. Andy. But first, we needed to pick out a Christmas tree.

Once Cassie picked out the perfect tree, we dropped off everyone else and went exploring.

Our first stop was a neighboring farm because they had sheep. In case my previous post with my plush sleep didn't give it away, I kind of like them. Of course, these sheep had to be all aloof and 'baaaah' at me from a distance.

Luckily, their guard donkey was slightly more friendly.


From there, we went to the cemetery for a history lesson. I love the old tombstones in the snow.




We just drove around, talking about history and letting me take pictures for an hour or so...



...until the cows decided to block the road.


Moo-ve it! (What, not punny?)

The next day, we drove into New Philadelphia for coffee and internet access at the Daily Grind. This is what Grandma Linda and Grandpa Butch do to relax, even when they don't have a house full of people. However, I was much more interested in exploring the street that the cafe was on.



The best part of adventuring in Ohio might just be the icicles.


I know this post doesn't really convey the storytelling and the history and the laughter associated with these photos, but it's difficult to explain to someone who was not there what it was like to have these experiences. But hey, you're getting pretty pictures, right?