Long story short, I woke up yesterday with severe pain in my stomach. I was rushed to the emergency room and had to get emergency surgery.
I’m resting now but still wanted to explain why the blog posts may be lacking this week. Sorry about that!
Here are some pretty palm trees with a bird flying through them <3
This image has been shared more than 3.6 million times.
Probably much more than that but with so many people showing it to their friends and family, I know my name has been lost and I can’t keep track. To say it’s been an honor is an understatement. The number of conversations, emails and private messages I’ve received about this one image has been overwhelming but so humbling. Even to this day, 7 years later, I will still get messages in my email box specifically about the emotions people have felt about it.
This post isn’t to brag or to show off. It comes from the bottom of my heart. The deepest gratitude I can offer to the beautiful city I call home, all those who have taken the time to tell me how much this image has meant to them, and especially all the veterans and families who have been impacted by the Vietnam War.
So I wanted to take a moment and talk about the story behind the image, Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Sunrise:
I woke up for sunrise with every intention to photograph the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I had visited the memorial one time before but did not come out with images I was super excited about. After a conversation with a friend, I decided I needed to go back.
Little did I know, the sunrise that morning was going to be EPIC!
Flashback Friday to one of the most memorable hikes I’ve been on in my life. I loved this hike in Åndalsnes and it was definietly a test in endurance. Pretty much 6.5 straight uphill and downhill but totally worth it for a view like this. If you’re ever in the area, I’d highly recommend this hike – Rampestreken. I also recommend getting your hiking partner to carry your backpack of photo equipment during the hike. It makes life so much easier. LOL.
I was going back through some of my older images for fun. But I distinctly remember going through these images and not be totally satisfied with them when I first returned from our trip. There was something about it that I couldn’t get right. After playing around for a bit, I love the way this one turned out in particular. The difference between this image and others was that I used a gradient filter to bring out the clouds so much more. I feel like that completed the whole image and framed it very nicely.
Another reason why I am sharing this is because we’re planning on going hiking this weekend. Not in Norway (I wish) but in the Shenandoah mountains and I’m really looking forward to escaping to the outdoors for a couple hours. What are your memorial day plans?
Hope everyone has a happy and safe Memorial day weekend!
My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1/640th sec and ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.
On the same photo walk that I captured this image, I also captured this image of my friend, Andy. It’s fun to go out shooting with friends. You can place them in scenes where I would usually have to wait for someone to pass by and hope for the shot. When I’m with friends, I know I’ll get exactly what I was looking for.
If it weren’t for Andy, I would have never been able to capture this. I basically asked him to smoosh into a corner so that I can take a picture of his shoes. There would have been no amount of time that I could have waited for that to organically to happen. LOL.
But it was perfect because Andy is known for his red shoes. I’m pretty sure he purchased them just so he can take pictures of them. I don’t think there has been a time where I haven’t seen him wear those shoes. So after I told him that I wanted to concentrate on just his shoes, he told me he was wearing his valentine’s day socks that his girlfriend gave him. PERFECT! I asked him to pull up the legs of his pants and smoosh into the corner.
Just a fun photo for your Thursday.
My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1/1600 and ISO 400 with my Sony A7II with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm.
Out of all the beautiful buildings in Washington DC, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building is one of my favorites. It’s located right next to the White House so it is not difficult to find but I always find myself trying to capture it whenever I’m close by.
This image was taken around 7:30a on a Friday morning. Right around the time people are commuting to work. I met up with my friend, Birch with intentions of capturing stride bys but wanted to get a lower perspective of the scene. So we sat down on the curb across from the building and just waited for people to walk by.
Right in front of the White House, Eisenhower Executive Building and Treasury Department, along Pennsylvania Ave, the section of the road is closed. It’s only for pedestrians so it is a great open space to just people watch. I found this man to be particularly interesting just because hit fit the mold. The busy business man or government official on his phone with so many things to finish up before the work week ended. He had no idea Birch and I were across the street, just observing and talking about different skin care routines. LOL.
I also really like how the only colors in this image are from the trees that are framing the building and this man. I think the little pops of green really help to complete this image.
My camera settings for this image is F13 at 1/80th sec and ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom.
Out of all the days we were in Chicago, this was definietly the coldest. It’s crazy how cold that city can get and I wasn’t even there during winter and I was freezing my buns off. Honestly, I don’t know how Chicagoans do it.
It was Saturday morning and the first opportunity we had to capture sunrise. I decided that North Avenue Beach would be best for the early morning based on what I’ve read from travel forums and blogs. HOLY COW I did not account for how windy it was going to be. I remember looking at the weather before we left the hotel and thinking “Ok, low 40s. Not too bad” But it felt like low 20s. So thankful I had gloves and a beanie packed in my backpack just in case.
It was so windy that as soon as we got out of our Lyft, Andrew went straight to the lifeguard building to block himself from the wind. He waited until I was done taking pictures for him to finally emerge and check out the skyline right before we left for breakfast.
I’m sure it was a lot colder since we were by Lake Michigan but man, looking at this image definietly brings me back to the cold air. And let’s talk about these waves! Yes, it has been brought to my attention that I’m starting to get a bad reputation with my camera and large bodies of water… but this was a body of water that I did not want to mess with. I was so nervous taking this picture because I had no idea how big the waves were actually going to get and I was trying my very best not to get splashed. I think I would have had to cancel the rest of the trip had I gotten splashed.
My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1/800th sec and ISO 320 with my Sony A7II and 16035mm wide angle lens.
