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Blast from the Past Friday! 12.04.09

Friday, December 4, 2009 posted in Blast from the Past

Welcome back for another installment of Blast from the Past Friday! As you may have noticed, last week there was no blog entry, so let’s get on with an extra long post this week to make up for last week’s missing post due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

First up, my faves of this week:

SCARVES! I am loving wearing my scarves again now that the weather has turned a bit cooler around here. Though I tend to go for the more “natural” colors (read: brown, and any variation on that theme) I think I might need to venture into bringing some pizazz into my wardrobe with some other colors. Yes, I did just say “pizazz.” In other news: I am now craving pizza.

ASTRONOMICAL HIGH TIDES! During really high tides, especially around a full moon, the marsh behind our house floods with about a foot of water, and before long, there are white and blue herons fishing the waters right past our property line. The best part? I can see this all from my home office window. Yay for nature, and yay for working from home!

Nay for having the backyard flood at least once a year: (photo taken with my iPhone December 1, so please pardon the quality.)

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CHRISTMAS MUSIC! Much as I like to deny it, there is a place in my heart for Christmas music. In particular, I really love my Christmas albums by Sarah McLachlan (Wintersong), Diana Krall (Christmas Songs), Straight No Chaser (Holiday Spirits), Josh Groban (Noel), Dave Brubeck (A Dave Brubeck Christmas), Gloria Estefan (Christmas Through Your Eyes) and, what list would be complete without the Charlie Brown Christmas album? I’m just noticing my iTunes Christmas playlist has 346 songs in it…if I start playing it now, I might get through all songs by Christmas.

And speaking of Christmas, this brings us right into our Blast from the Past! (See how I segued right into our next topic? That journalism degree didn’t go to waste after all.)

Growing up in Holland we celebrated Christmas, but, for kids the REAL deal was “Sinterklaas,” who delivered presents on December 5th. Unlike Santa Claus, who comes from the North Pole in his sleigh pulled by reindeer, our Sinterklaas arrives on a boat from Spain, and rides his horse from rooftop to rooftop, dropping the presents down the chimney with help from his “Zwarte Pieten.” (His black helpers, which today causes some politically correct fall-out, but is generally accepted as tradition; growing up, I always believed the “zwarte pieten” were only black because they slid down the chimneys to deliver the presents; this was constantly reinforced in my mind by the obviously white people in black makeup who made up the “zwarte pieten” seen on tv.)

In the week leading up to December 5th, we put our carrot-filled (for the horse!) shoes in front of the fireplace (or probably by the front door, since most homes in Holland don’t have fireplaces) in the hopes of finding some chocolate coins, marzipan animals, or “potatoes” (marzipan balls rolled in cacao) in our shoes.

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These are my wooden shoes from when I was little, filled to the brim with goodies we bought at World Market earlier this week.

Someone was a bit perturbed by the fact that a) the goodies in the shoes weren’t for him, and, b) my camera was focused on something other than his mug:

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And, in case you think “nobody actually wears wooden shoes!”, here’s me at age 3 or 4, showing off these very same well-worn wooden shoes (along with that lovely pleather dress that appears to be about 3 inches too short):

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If you’ve made it this far in the post, thanks for reading, and have a great weekend! I’m planning on polishing off all those yummy goodies in my shoes and eating some other Dutch goodies to celebrate Sinterklaas!

tags: Holland, Marzipan, Sinterklaas, Wooden Shoes

by els

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Blast from the Past Friday! 11.20.09

Friday, November 20, 2009 posted in Blast from the Past, beach

Happy Friday!, and welcome to a new regular feature on my blog, “Blast from the Past Fridays,” in which I upload some old dorky/funny/glamorous (well, that probably won’t happen) photo of myself, accompanied by a short story that hopefully has some relevance to the photo, and maybe also to what’s happening in the current week.

I read a lot of blogs. A lot, of blogs. Mostly photography blogs, but also quite a few others. What I’ve realized, though, is that while I really enjoy reading and looking at the work of blog authors, I really get a kick out of getting to know the authors a little better when they choose to reveal a personal detail or story about themselves. I just feel I develop a better sense of a business by knowing a bit more about the person behind it.

And so, for you, my lovely blog readers (and yes, I am talking to all 3 of you here), I will blathely reveal actual personal details about my life, each and every Friday, until I run out of stories, or, until my readership falls below the “0″ threshold, at which point I will have to resort to hunting down all of your email addresses and spamming the heck out of you. Just kidding. Sort of.

Anyway…to get us started on our very first trip down memory lane together, I will begin with the intro portion of “Blast from the Past Fridays,” which is called “What’s Happening Today.” Well, it’s not really called that. It doesn’t really have a name. It will just be a little review of what I’ve found remarkable about the current week, whether that be music, photography, people, books, current events…whatever.

So let’s get started, shall we?

This week:

I’ve been listening to John Mayer’s “Battle Studies” non-stop since I bought it Tuesday. Non-stop. It’s great music to work to, ride the stationary bike to, to have playing in the background while making dinner. Just. Really. Great.

Seth Godin’s gift set of 5 books (no longer available…sorry!) arrived this week, and though I’ve just gotten started in Purple Cow, I’m already sensing a shift in how I am thinking about my branding. (Gosh, is this why I’ve suddenly come up with this new feature on my blog?!?!?) Follow him on Twitter (@ThisIsSethsBlog), on his blog, read his books!

Two photography books came out this week that I cannot wait to dig into: David DuChemin’s “Vision Mongers” and Chris Orwig’s “Visual Poetry.” Love both these guys, the way they write, and, in Chris’ case, his awesome video tutorial on Lightroom (I think he has more, but this is the only one I’ve actually seen.) I’m really hoping to find both of these books beneath the tree next month (or heck, I’d REALLY love to have them this week!)

Which brings me to the Blast of the Past portion of the blog today:

I attended the webinar given by Chris Orwig this week for his new book, Visual Poetry. He showed a lot of his own photos (many of which I’d also seen used in his Lightroom tutorial,) and seeing all his California surf (and surfer) photos really made me nostalgic for a past life (more than 15 years ago) in which I made the waters of Southern California unsafe on my bodyboard.

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Bodyboarding was a daily passion of mine; early dawn sessions before my college classes, late evening sessions until well past sunset, winter sessions in cold water, summer sessions (in not much warmer water). I have some really great memories of surfing the beaches of San Diego for years, but I guess my quintessential bodyboarding memory is paddling out at (well, actually, within 25 yards of) the infamous North Shore Pipeline, on an epic 15- to 20-foot day (also known as a knee-slapper day to local Hawaiian surfers.) Let’s just say I’m happy to have gotten back to shore alive that day after bobbing out there on my bodyboard for what seemed like hours, just waiting for a small enough wave (turned out to be about a 15-foot face, no exaggeration) to catch back into shore. I will never forget what it felt like to ride that wave…a perfect right towards the Pipeline. Pure magic.

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I still own all my bodyboarding gear (minus one fin that was ripped off my foot by a wave in 2001) and I am absolutely convinced I will be back in California one day to resume my bodyboarding life once again; I’ll be the one out in the water with the gray hair and the huge smile on my face.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

tags: Blast from the Past, bodyboarding, Hawaii, San Diego, surfing

by els

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Client Sneak Peek: Jackson, the miniature beagle!

Monday, November 9, 2009 posted in Charleston, Client Sneak Peek

This past Sunday I had the pleasure of photographing my first miniature beagle, Jackson. Jackson’s mom, Casey, entered Jackson’s photo in a contest supporting Toys for Tots, and they won my donated photo mini-session! I’m still not sure Jackson enjoyed the whole “getting photographed” bit, but he sure was loving all the bribes of Pupperoni treats!

I was greeted with nothing but wags and kisses upon meeting Jackson, but, before you know it he was hiding beneath the table.

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I think he felt more comfortable up on the loveseat with mom and dad…

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…where he was able to sneak in some kisses…

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The gaze toward the Pupperoni treats was unbreakable…

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I love how intently Jackson is following the action outside…

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…and from the looks of it in this close-up of Jackson’s eye (from the image above) Casey is going all-out to keep Jackson’s attention:

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The advantage of being a little guy is that you get to be held by your humans!

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Thank you Casey, Hunt, and Jackson for a fun mini-shoot inside your beautiful home!

tags: Jackson, miniature beagle

by els

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