Sunday, September 28, 2008

reprieve

video of one of my favorite photographers at work in south africa, set to the music of one of my favorite musicians.

nice. (c:


Cape Town, South Africa from Jeremy Cowart on Vimeo.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

oh shirley...

last weekend marked the 3rd annual chick retreat and it seriously could not have come at a better time. last week my mom was out of town for work and my grandpa and uncle were in town, which meant that my dad didn't get the rest he most assuredly needs...therefore, i had a tired, cranky, difficult dad to manage on my own.

vacation was totally necessary.

anna, whit, chels and i made our way up to the ymca at estes on friday night...complete with laughing, craziness, random songs and loud singing. (seriously, we're good enough to take the show on the road) (c;

once we got up there, the cabin was amazing and i was excited to see the stars. there is nothing like a night sky uninhibited by city lights...after we got settled in a bit, chelsea shared the new songs she finished. so awesome. then she took song requests and we sang until poor chelsea couldn't sing or play anymore.

saturday whitney made an awesome breakfast of a tasty egg casserole and sausage. we had planned on going out for a hike before lunch, but we all (well...except whitney) were just worn out, tired, lazy, whatever, and didn't actually get any hiking in. sorry whit. )c:

we ended up playing consequences most of the morning into the afternoon, which was crazy fun! among the consequences...chelsea had to wear a banana on her head for a round, i had to wear a lampshade for a round, anna couldn't talk for a round (unless the total was 99, then she would honk like a goose), chelsea had to play a round standing on the table, i had to balance beam the porch railing...and much more craziness. (c:

after all the games, chelsea made an amazing salad for lunch. then a quiet afternoon until the amazing thunder/lightning storm...so cool. anna did nachos for dinner and after a quick trip to the store for eggs and s'more supplies (and an elk sighting thrown in) we had fun laughing and just enjoying each others company for the rest of the evening. i made french toast sunday morning (all while enjoying the amazing view out the kitchen window) and only burned myself once. go me.

all in all it was an awesome weekend and i want to thank the girls for making it the best one yet! you're all quite amazing, i hope you know. (c:


Wednesday, September 24, 2008

progress

the weekend after whit's birthday shindig, she and i went hiking again. this time to fern valley.

but the day before, i finally broke down and got a decent pair of shoes. they are the first real pair of tennis shoes that i've owned (technically, they're trailrunners, but that's neither here nor there). they are amazing. i tell you, after never having owned a good pair of shoes in my life, it's quite amazing to put on a decent pair.

they are bright green. and they are awesome.

anyway. as we made our way up the trail to the valley of ferns, i was doing my typical picture taking thing, but we started talking about her trip to alaska. see, she was talking about the pictures that she took while there and while she was okay with them, she just kept saying she wished i was there to do the picture taking for her. in her case, i truly believe that her lack of amazing pictures is her camera and i keep telling her that every time she says that she wishes my "eye" was with her when she saw something cool.

so to prove it to her, i just handed her my camera and said "here...you be the photographer this trip". she was a bit hesitant at first and i think she kept thinking about what i would take pictures of instead of just shooting what she wanted, but after a minor accident involving a prickly thingy and a little time, she got into it.

here are a few of the pics i took before handing the reigns over...

this is the view at the trail head.


from a cool building near the trail head.


view of the mountains


selective focus makes me smile.


inappropriate bugs. (c:


going up.


angry rock...doesn't it look like it'd bite your hand right off?


there were water droplets collected on a lot of these plants...note to self: if lost in the woods, look for this plant. (c:


cactus. cacti. prickly pear.


after giving the camera to whitney, she had taken no more than 2 pictures before she knelt down to frame a shot and knelt in a patch of these prickly pod like things...the spikes were kind of barbed and she had a hard time getting the one out of her finger. ouch.




we had to get a shot of my new shoes. here's me enjoying the lovely view. (c:


and here are some of my favorites from the shots that whitney took. (c:







all in all, it was a really fun hike. we, unfortunately didn't make it all the way to the valley of ferns because i had to be back in town at a certain time and we just weren't able to do it in the time allotted. i'm sure we'll go again sometime tho.

i will say that it was a bit strange not having a camera while hiking. i felt completely naked at the beginning, but once i got used to not stopping every 2 minutes to take a picture i started enjoying myself and i took hundreds of mental pictures.

and those are the best kind, no? (c:

Sunday, September 21, 2008

catching up

wow. so, i hope you'll forgive the incredible lack of updates as of late. life has continued to be a bit strange and i'm still learning how to live it. (c:

since i've not been updating, i've got a lot of stories and a lot of pictures...and some of my lack of writing has just been not knowing where to start, but the longer i put it off the more that happens and the more i need to write about and the cycle continues. so i'll just start.

whitney's birthday was on 8/30 (happy birthday, bowie!) but since she was leaving for alaska on her birthday with her sister, she planned a little birthday dinner for the night before. we went to chopstix asian grill (her favorite restaurant) and found out that whitney + jill + anna + alicia + steph + crazy chinese waiter = crazy times. i think a large part of what whitney loves about chopstix (besides the yummy food) is the crazy waiter, maurice. he is one loco dude (or whatever crazy is in chinese) (c: here are a few pics from that night.

whit and her desert made special by maurice.


a close up of the incredible dessert...it was all fruit with some green tea ice cream drizzled with chocolate


whit and her gift from jill...foam finger!!


all the girls. jill, anna, alicia, whit and me


the next day i got a surprise from jill. she was down at my end of town and just wanted to get me to stop being anti-social. (c: she pulled out her bubble maker from camp (she was working as a counselor for 3 months) and made bubbles on my street.

she's quite entertaining.




then we decided to go to sloans just to hang out and talk and she decided that would be the perfect opportunity to show me how to skateboard. yes. me.

i actually did better than i thought i would...or could. i started a bit wobbly, but once i got used to the feeling, i started getting the hang of it. it was only when i got too sure of myself that i crashed. and crash i did.

before we got started...jill gave me a lesson. this would be an example of the wrong way.


and the right way...do you see the slight difference? it's all in the position of the feet.


shadow. yeah.


the master at work.


uh huh. she knows what she's doing, folks.


this is just after i flipped backwards...jill didn't know how to use my camera so it's totally blown out, but you get the idea.


this is the cute old guy that came "rushing" to my rescue. he was a total sweetheart. (jill took the shot as he was walking away...so it too was blown out)


alright. thats it for now...more later. (c:

Friday, September 12, 2008

giving is good.

so...it may be a little early to be thinking about Christmas and the advent season, but it's never to early to think about giving.



www.adventconspiracy.org

Sunday, September 7, 2008

laugher is the best medicine, and your face is curing the world.

these past two weeks have been exceptionally strange. wonderfully good things mixed with incredibly bad things and realizations thrown in all over the place. it's been a bit exhausting.

hence, my incredible lack of blogging and pod's.

i have lots of things, stories and pictures, but just not the energy to write about them. hopefully later this week i get back into the swing...just not today. but since i'm updating, i'll throw in a picture (or 2). (c:

this is from a shoot that i did with chelsea. we went downtown and shot for a little bit, but i didn't like a whole lot of what i got so we may make the trip again soon. but this is one of the few shots that i did like.



the sky was also quite amazing that evening and the capital building looked lovely...so here is a shot of that as well. (c: