Travel

Northeast Roamings: Snowy Rhode Island

Posted by Ivy

Last week, New England and New York got shellacked by a blizzard (this week, we again got ten inches of snow, with another few expected tomorrow. Hello, winter!). Normally this would not be a serious problem, and I would just hole up inside and read books and do nothing (and, indeed, I actually did do that)….but two of my friends from Texas were planning to come up and visit right about when all of the snow came, and they had to delay their flights by two days because of it. Argh. C’est la vie.

However, the blizzard did make for some good photo ops!

My cousin Lucy shoveling off her front porch in Pawtucket, R.I.

Aftermath the next morning.

Mainescapes

Posted by Ivy

I meant to post this first one when I took it just before Thanksgiving. The others were taken when I went back up to Maine a couple weeks ago for Christmas at my grandmother’s house.

Taken through the window at 6:20 a.m….when I had to wake up to take the dog outside. The blue light was great, though.

Science Is Super

Posted by Ivy

After attending Megan’s wedding in Florida, I flew to San Francisco to spend the rest of Thanksgiving week with my parents and my brother’s family. We stopped at my uncle’s for a few days, during which my mom and I visited the California Academy of Sciences.

The Academy (the name is a little misleading, since its focus is definitely more on the life sciences than anything other areas) underwent a huge series of renovations a few years ago, and it’s definitely worth a visit if you’re ever in the Bay Area. They’d just started their winter programs, which included bringing in a couple of reindeer, installing a snow machine in the main pavilion, and putting up a Geodome for watching the Borealis. I was surprised by how crowded it was—the line to get into the rainforest exhibit was ten minutes long—Bill Nye would have been proud.

Now. Here is a question for other photogs out there. There is a photo in here (guess which it is!) that I like now and liked when I took it…but I didn’t get any names because I didn’t know what the best way to approach it is. I’m not on assignment. I’m not in a class. I don’t want to be creepy and say “I am a stranger and took your photo and might like to put it on a website some day,” despite the fact that…that’s what I’m doing, basically. Has this ever happened to you? How did you phrase the request?

Anyway, these were all shot with the 7D and my 20mm (which, as I’ve mentioned before, is my favorite lens in the arsenal). Enjoy!

You can just barely see the anaconda’s head in this one.

This picture has probably never, ever been taken before. 😉

And, because they’re just so cute (and a lot smaller than I thought they’d be!)…here are the holiday reindeer!

My Favorite Holiday

Posted by Ivy

We spent Thanksgiving in Napa with my sister-in-law’s family. For Molly and Liza, my nieces, this meant Thanksgiving with four grandparents, one auntie, and Mommy and Daddy. I hope they’ll remember the day as just as wonderful as I thought it was. If nothing else, they’ll at least remember the key lime pie!

Here’s what I’m thankful for:

Megan Got Married!

Posted by Ivy

Last weekend I flew down to Pensacola to go to the wedding of one my oldest friends. Megan and I have known each other since seventh grade, and it was a real honor to be invited to the ceremony. I wish I’d had a little more time to check out Pensacola—it seems like a neat place to be—but just being around friends was good enough for me!

I took photos during the preparations, ceremony and reception, and later converted them to black and white because the whole event took place in three very different lighting situations (and, because I wasn’t the official photographer, I didn’t bother bringing my flash along).

All of these were shot using either my 20mm f/2.8 or my 50mm f/1.8. The 50 is no match for the f/1.4, but it IS very portable, so I just tucked it into my purse. Awesome!

Some selects:

Waiting…

En Route

Posted by Ivy

Hm, haven’t updated in a while. Here’s what happened since the last post:

*Defended thesis.

*Graduated from Mizzou with my Master of Arts degree.

*Got a freelance photo job with the Martha’s Vineyard Gazette for the summer. I’ll have to find some sort of other work as well to supplement it, but I’m pretty excited (and nervous)!

So now I’m back at home in Connecticut for a week decompressing before the summer jobs start. I made one last MoEx trip from Columbia to the St. Louis airport two days ago, and took this photo out the window of the shuttle bus. I think it pretty accurately sums up I-70 in Missouri.

(30) Island Life

Posted by Ivy

This is my last 30-Day post! I had to extend the project due to a couple days of not taking photos, and truly belated postings of images I did take on the scheduled days…so the overall series ends ten days after it was supposed to. Oh well. I’m actually glad it ends this way, because I get to include some of my spring break photos. It’s also a plus because next week I’ll be in the Missourian offices all day editing photos and working on my thesis (of course), so I probably wouldn’t have a chance to make as many pictures.

I’d definitely do one of these projects again- especially now that I have my very own 50mm 1.4 lens! I love it so much; before I bought it last week the only two lenses I had were the kit lens that came with my Rebel XT, and a 70-300mm 4.5. I’m still getting used to the upgrade.

Anyway, here are a couple of South Padre photos to send everybody at Mizzou off on their own spring breaks!

(29) Beach Samurai

Posted by Ivy

I’m spending the rest of my week off on South Padre Island with some friends from college, which has thus far been pretty awesome. Our rental condo is right on the beach, so we’ve been spending a lot of time down by the water. I took this photo a couple days ago (March 21), but hadn’t gone back over the memory card until now, so I forgot it was even on there.

We think this should be on the poster of a Tarantino movie.

(28b) Beer Bike: Can't Rain On Our Parade

Posted by Ivy

Photos taken March 20.

The rest will be up on Facebook or Flickr sometime tomorrow (I hope).

******************

Puppies playing while their owners watch the water balloon parade from the safety of the sidelines.

Dudes in capes running to catch up with their college’s trucks

Rice students: balancing work and play since 1912

Alums watching the parade/staying out of the rain

Jones College as viewed from the steps of Keck Hall

FIGHT. (That’s not rain splashing in the background)

It’s important to come prepared to these kinds of things

Ammunition, please!

Enjoying a brief calm in the (literal and figurative) storm

Right after the parade had finished and everybody had run out of water balloons, it started raining again. Ugh.

On days when it’s not cold and rainy, the main event of Beer Bike are (surprise!) bike relay races around our outdoor cycling track. The teams have twenty members–ten bikers and ten chuggers. A chugger has to drink 12 (for girls) or 24 (for guys) ounces of water as fast as they can; after they finish, a biker immediately starts on a set number of laps. Once the laps are completed, the next chugger goes, and so on and so forth. Some colleges train for months for Beer Bike, and it’s pretty disappointing when the races get postponed.

They did hold the alumni race this year, because alums tend to come back to Rice specifically for Beer Bike and it would be hard to postpone this particular event. The alumni had to do a Beer Run instead of biking, which, sadly, I didn’t get any pictures of because I was busy being freezing and wet in the alumni tent (also, I didn’t want to get my camera gear soaked…). I did take this one after they had finished the Beer Run and just before I left the track area.

At least we got the water balloon fight in!

RICE FIGHT NEVER DIE.