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Thirsty Thursday: Portland Wandering

Rambler: Beth

Drink at Hand: Tablas Creek 2011 Mourvedre 

Thirsty Thursday here again, time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans! And if you are thirsty and you like Rhone varietals, I highly recommend anything from Tablas Creek. Great winery outside Paso Robles. Now, back to the photos...

I had my final Portland State MBA residency weekend last weekend. Yay for a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel (I'll finish in December), but boo for no more required trips to Portland. I've had fun exploring the city and enjoying its quirkiness. Its an urban wilderness for me...a place I can wander and be in my own head without anyone bothering me, much like being out in an actual wilderness. 

I had a flight to catch at 10, but when I woke up and peeked outside, I wanted to go wander with camera in hand. It wasn't raining too much and the soft light was calling me. 

The view from my hotel room that coaxed me outside. 

I had about an hour, so I quickly grabbed the camera and headed out. I just wandered, slightly rushed with only an hour so I didn't have time to immerse myself in many scenes, but I found a few interesting sites. I only had the 40mm f/2.8 with me, and the fixed focal length forced me to work for the compositions I wanted. 

So, after finding food carts, a bubbler, Voodoo doughnuts, and people on bikes all in an hour (and not knowing that I'd find any of those things), I think I had a pretty successful Portland morning photo walk. Someday I'll get back to do a few more photo walkabouts in Portland. 

Thirsty Thursday: Bike Stalking in Italy

Rambler: Beth

Drink at Hand: 2009 Puma Road Chardonnay 

Thirsty Thursday here again...time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. Apparently we here at Welliver Photography have bicycles on the brain, given Terry's Two Word Tuesday post this week. I actually have bikes on my brain pretty much every day now given where I work, which is a pretty sweet topic to have to talk about and think about all day. 

Its funny, when we were in Europe last summer, I wasn't working for a bicycle company. Far from it. It fact, I wasn't even regularly riding a bike last summer. I bet I only put 50 miles total in all of 2013, which is a far cry from the obscene pile of miles I pedaled just a few years before. But there was two things I was drawn to take photos of while we wandered the narrow, cobbled streets of Italy--bikes and doors. Sometimes at the same time. Terry made fun of me for the bike obsession (but he has a bunch of Euro door photos too). There's something so cool to me about these city bikes. Obviously designed for comfort and function, but at the same time stylish and classy. Practical. Timeless. Sexy. Beautiful. Most of them anyway. 

I will definitely be on my bike this weekend. Get out there and find some pedal time of your own this weekend! 

Thirsty Thursday: Analog

Rambler: Terry
Drink in Hand: 2009 Paraiso Zinfandel Irie

It's been a long week since last Thursday. In fact, the days have blended together and I find myself wondering how it can be another Thursday already. Last weekend I had hoped to go through some of my Germany / Italy pictures, but it's amazing how fast plans change. These are the shots that I was able to edit throughout blur of last week. Unlike most of my edits (which are almost completely done in Apple Aperture), I discovered that my Nik Software Aperture plugins were automatically updated by Google. I'm still not thrilled that Google felt that it could update software on my computer without my knowledge (not even a notification). However, I have fallen in love with Nik Analog Efex Pro. I'm actually quite surprised that I enjoy these type of finishes so much. Many moons ago when I started to get serious about photography, I found myself waiting for the digital era. I didn't want a film camera. I didn't want a Holga. I suppose I was just naïve. I just wanted a DSLR. I didn't want to deal with developing film. I wanted sharp and crisp images with vivid colors. I wasn't a big fan of black and white photography. I didn't like the imperfect artifacts of film. But that's something's changed lately. I simply love it. There's something about the imperfections and the textures that I love. In fact, some of the images weren't perfect to start with. . . a bit blurry or maybe a poor composition. All of these images were taken with my Canon 5DMKII and processed through the Nik Analog Efex Pro plugin for Aperture. This set is a mixture of images from both Germany and Italy. I hope you enjoy them and all their imperfections. They seem a bit more real to me.

Thirsty Thursday: San Francisco Wanderings

Drink in Hand: 2010 Ventana Rubystone
Rambler: Terry

Besides being unemployed this week, Beth and I headed up to San Francisco to attend the 2013 Atlassian Summit. The Summit was awesome! Look up #summit13 on Twitter and see what you can find. The first day, Beth signed up for Atlassian training and I had part of the day free...so I wandered the streets from our hotel to the Summit. For some reason I fancy street photography. I think it's because I'm always surprised what I capture and I'm always inspired.

By the way, the Atlassian Summit rocked again this year! 

Thirsty Thursday: It Rains in Portland

Rambler: BethDrink at Hand: Ventana Pinot Noir

Thirsty Thursday is here again! Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. Tonight I'll share some photos from a recent trip to Portland.

This fall I decided to be ambitious and get myself one of those MBA thingies. I signed up for the Portland State online MBA program. This program requires the online MBA'ers to participate in an on-campus residency weekend each quarter, so once a quarter I have to go to Portland. When we were here in August for orientation I fell in love with Portland...it was warm and sunny and green and just plain beautiful.

Then I came back at the end of October. It rained. A lot. The whole time. I finally squeezed a little bit of free time out of the busy weekend on the final day of the residency weekend and wanted to go wander with camera...but it was pouring down rain. I went anyway. I got soaked. Luckily my camera has a rain cover.

Here's what I came away with. I can tell I've been busy with school. My skills are rusty. But its always nice to have the opportunity to go wander around without any distractions, just me and my camera.

All in all, it wasn't so bad. I didn't melt. Portland is still a cool city, even in the rain.

Get out there and wander in the rain (or sunshine if you're lucky) this weekend!

Thirsty Thursday: Beauty is all around us

Rambler: Terry Drink in Hand: 2007 Le Mistral (quite possible one of the best red wines around)

What can I say this week. . . it's been a rough week. We both seem a bit overly busy and can make progress on the little things that are supposed to be easy and quick but it seems like the bigger (maybe more important) things seem to elude us (me). Perhaps both of us have stretched ourselves a bit too thin, or maybe we need to manage time better. Most of these issues are at work, but keeping them separate from everything else is always tough. A delicate balance of work and real life. To complicate things, we also have a dear friend fighting perhaps her final battle with cancer. Through all the noise this week, our hearts and hopes are with her and her family. Sometimes it feels like you want to lock yourself away from the world and wait for it (whatever it is) to pass. Thinking about these things makes me appreciate the little things a little bit more. The music you listen to while driving to work, the feeling you get from a good run or workout, the good food and drink you share with friends (the tomatoes, the wine, the fish, the ice cream...), the dog that always makes you smile, the falling asleep next to that one person you always fall asleep next to. I think I could probably keep going, but for this short post, it's the walking around a city (Portland, OR) with a camera finding the things that most people just pass by. So, instead of locking yourself away from it all, go find those average things and take them in. Take it all in. Time is against all of us. Go enjoy.

Thirsty Thursday: Ahhh, Lucerne

Rambler: Terry
Drink in Hand: 2011 Ancient Peaks Sauvignon Blanc

Just a few images tonight from our Switzerland trip. Unfortunately, we were only in Lucerne for a night. All that really needs to be said about Lucerne is, "Ahhh, Lucerne." There's something about the atmosphere of the city that just puts you in a relaxed mood. Perhaps it is the architecture of the place or maybe it's the chocolate shops filled with yummy Swiss goodies. I tend to think it's related to the relaxed cafes near the water and the people. Life seemed slower here than elsewhere. I suppose it could be that places you visit seem more relaxed than the places you've lived, but I hope that's not true of Lucerne. I wish we could have spent more time here, sitting next to the river, people watching, chatting, and sipping cappuccino goodness.