Silhouettes and reflections in Portland. 

     I love all of the different elements here. The standard laying brick interrupted by the circular brick framing the black metal figure of the vaguely Greco/Roman woman. And to top it all off, the graffiti scribbled across her forehead. For some reason I can't look away.

     Street scenes and reflections in Portland.

     And I'm back! Sorry for the half year long hiatus! Since then I have completely organized, keyworded, and rated all of my pictures. That's right, all 44,000 or so. I have also done a fair bit of traveling and can't wait to get back to posting.
     This week's Black and White is of my lovely friend Andrea in the Japanese Gardens in Portland, Oregon. More to come!

     While I was in San Fransisco we took a little day trip north to Sonoma County for some wine tastings. On the way we stopped at Muir Woods, a national park 12 miles north of the city. It is a small redwood forest, and is utterly breathtaking. 
     We arrived mid morning after the early morning rain had stopped. The air was still damp and clean and drops fell occasionally from the leaves. It was the smell though that most impacted me, it was so beautiful. An almost floral, fresh evergreen type sent. I wanted to bottle it and take it with me. As we walked among the trees and mist rose, the sun streamed through the branches. It was timeless and magical.

     I've been awol for weeks but now I'm back! Luckily, it was mostly for fun reasons. For a couple weeks I was visiting friends in LA and San Fransisco, and soaking up lots of good times. There will be some posts on those adventures in the weeks to come. For this week's black and white I've picked a photo of my lovely friend Alexis, whom I stayed with while I was in LA. This was our first morning, out at a delicious little coffee shop called Cantina. 

     The weekend before last I volunteered as a photographer for Art All Night here in DC. It's an art festival that takes place all over the city, all night long. I saw paintings and drawings, sculptures, dancers, musicians, performers and everything in between. I took a lot a fun pictures. One of my favorite black and whites from the night is today's black and white of the week. Here is a fire dancer performing well past midnight at North Capitol Street.

     I went to shoot the supermoon on Sunday at the Kennedy Center. I brought my longest lens and my tripod, just not my tripod plate. That was sitting on my desk at home. Whoops! I was still able to capture the full moon, but not the full eclipse. It was really an amazing sight though, and I'm glad I saw it with my own eyes.

     My Aunt Mary has run Juilleret's restaurant in Charlevoix, Michigan for 28 years. At the end of this season she will be retiring. Before the restaurant closed I was able to shadow her on a typical day, starting at 4:30 am. This week's black and white is from that series, and it is one of my very favorites. Stay tuned this weekend for the whole series!

     I recently acquired a macro lens and have been having fun with it. As my sister will tell anyone, when I first opened the box I mounted it on my camera and looked for any small objects in sight. The closest happened to be little figurines on my sister's desk, so I immediately got as close to them with my lens as possible. This meant however, that I was essentially laying on top of Kristine who at the time was seated at her desk. She was not too pleased with the set up. Anyway, the point is I have been taking lots of super up close photos, though now with a little more regard for my surroundings. 
     This week's black & white is with that wonderful lens, and of my sister's engagement ring. It is super lovely and I hope I was able to catch a little bit of the sparkle it gives off in person.