Catch Your World

What I Did On My Summer Vacation :D

Dontcha love how people *groan* when someone says "Hey, let me show you pictures from our vacation!"

I'm not one of those people.  I looove looking at people's vacation pictures.   I'm a travel freak, so I like to see where people have been!

And of course I love to take my own vacation pictures - it's a huge part of the trip for me.  It lets me capture that place, and my family in that time and place, forever.  So many details of so many trips I would have forgotten if I didn't have pictures of it. 

I probably would have forgotten that when we took the kids to Colorado in  May 2005, we didn't even *think* to bring gloves. Don't even know if we owned any. Then we found ourselves heading out for a trip up to tundra levels in Rocky Mountain National Park where we had the real possibility of playing in snow - something my kids had never done before!  But since it was May, even the stores out there didn't have winter clothes - so we went to a hardware store and bought gardening gloves!  That detail might have been lost if I hadn't had pictures of them making snowballs, wearing bright pink and blue gloves with flowers and ivy on them :).  See, that's fun stuff to remember!  (And, um, we repeated the gardening glove trick when a trip to Yosemite last May also yielded snow opportunities.)

So you can show me your vacation pictures.  I'll enjoy it.  Just to play fair, here's a few of mine.  We went to Utah last month and visited Zion National Park.  Gloves were NOT necessary.  Heat index was over 100.

Cactus flowers along a trail.

Me, headed down a trail.

My husband, watching our kids work their way down a steep cliff.  They're great little hikers :)

One of many cool lizards we spotted.

Gorgeous sandstone cliffs.

I love seeing the different creatures when we travel.  We saw hundreds of frogs like this.

This is called 'The Subway', and was carved out by wind and water.  The whole area was very slick, and there were many pools like the one in this picture - and they were 4-6 feet deep, and about 50*.  We were very careful with our footing.

Family Getaways

Friends of mine just came back from a wonderful vacation someplace I have never heard about.  The pictures they brought back were so cool and interesting I had to go to the website take a look for myself and share it with you. This is some info on this great family location:

Location: Out'n'About Treehouse Treesort, Takilma, Oregon

Info: (541)592-2208

These are friends who have traveled all over the US and stayed and some really awesome hotels and resorts.  Their kids said over and over how much they loved this place and would rather stay there than any Disney resort they had been to (WOW!!!!). 

This incredible place has log cabins that are more than 30 feet off the ground.  They have spiral staircases and even swinging bridges you cross to get to some of the cabins.  The cabins have balconies, bunk beds, lofts, and bathrooms.  The pictures they took looked like something Disney would do for a Swiss Family Robinson experience (except with indoor plumbing and bathrooms).  There are all kinds of activities offered: craft and tree house construction classes, horseback riding, campfire s'mores, tree climbing lessons, giant Tarzan swing, and zip lines a plenty. 

I was so intrigued by their photos that I went to the website to check it out.  Very impressive and great setup.  It looks like something out of a movie.  The cost was not extreme but a cabin for four starts at $160.  Less than some of the hotels around here with a lot more fun involved. The resort suggests that if you would be interested in a summer weekend you should book it a year in advance.

The next time you get a minute just look up their website and see what you think.  Besides, who doesn't want to go to Oregon :)

Mistie :)

Bahamas Cruise slideshow/personal pics :)

Ok this is funny -- this slideshow was supposed to be posted to my PERSONAL blog, not the work one!  A little technical goof and here it is :P.  This is from a cruise I took with my mom a few weeks ago, a much needed break filled with relaxation and fun!  I received some emails and comments about it and am glad you enjoyed it, and I'll leave it up for now :).

These were all taken with my point and shoot -- the big camera stayed home this trip.  It was great to stretch myself using this little camera with much less latitude and ability than my usual 'third child'!

More updates coming soon --

Heather :) *

Sanibel in September

So, I'm a little behind on handling some of my personal images.  No big surprise there, it's busy season :).  I have 6 months worth of personal pictures that have not gotten the attention they deserve, and they'll have to wait another month until my holiday break! 

I wanted to share a few from my convention in September though.   Some people have asked what happens at a photography convention....well it depends on the convention, but this one was all about lighting.  Natural and artificial.  So we played with both and tried to stretch what we can do.  It was a very talented group and very inspiring!

Here are a few of my images from that week.  The first two are, obviously, natural light.  I've been a little obsessed with backlighting and flare lately, and these two show the flare I've been striving for.  Flare is tough to work with, because you've got to use that bright sun and yet expose the rest of the image properly.   The first one is Lori's wine glass.  The second one is Lori :).  I had to work with the light to get the beams right into the wineglass in the first image, and then go for that beautiful flare circle right around Lori's face on the second image.

The last image was taken with a very cool kind of studio lighting called a ring light.  See that catchlight in Holly's eyes?  It's circular, because I shot this image right through the middle of a huge light-filled ring.  If you pay attention to fashion magazines and makeup ads, you'll see this lighting pretty often.  Look at your portraits, and you'll see a much softer light on the face with a rectangular catchlight.  The rectangular catchlight comes from the large light I use in the studio, which is designed to light a person as if they were sitting near a large window.  And that's my photography lesson for today :).  Any questions send me an email!