Pretty as a picture- You are what you eat

Lately I've been trying to think of ways to add more veggies into my diet. Eating fresh fruits is easy for me, but veggies have been a mental roadblock. Sure I'll throw spinach on my sandwich or whatever, but I needed to be intentional about including them as often as possible.

I've been going out to the farmer's market on Saturdays to get more inspiration. This weekend I got a seriously beautiful haul!



I noticed last week when I bought even a few items that having beautiful food makes me want to cook meals worthy of them. So yesterday I started grilling some of my goodies. I was struck by how beautiful it was! So I took a picture.



Then I thought, "At least once a day, I should have a beautiful meal that is worth photographing."

I don't actually want to be a food blogger or anything like that (the world has more than enough), but I really like the premise, even if it's just for my eyes. Is that candy bar beautiful? A handful of broken chips? A boring can of coke?

But how about bright and lovely fruits and veggies? Yes! Even if it's just a photo in my mind's eye.

Surround yourself with beauty- heck- even eat it up!

The theme for this fall is COLOR

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

Americana

I'm trying to be better at learning about photography as a hobby. It's stretching my brain. So many numbers and dealing with light and such. Whew.

That said, I'm trying to branch out into different styles of photography. If you've read long, you have been assaulted with my love of the macro flower shots, but this week The Pioneer Woman's photography contest was themed Americana, so I made myself go find some subject matter. Here is what I came up with (I'm also playing around with textures because of the Americana theme).

If you have a fave, lemmie know. I submitted the one of the cow.

PS- Happy 4th of July!

Illinois River

This weekend I went on a float trip to Talequah, Oklahoma on the Illinois River.

One of my favorite things to do when I'm with a group on overnight trips is being the first person to wake up. There are several reasons for this. One, I like getting ready without waiting in line. But in the great outdoors, I like it because the world is beautiful in the morning light!

The hours spent waking up early are rarely wasted. I couldn't believe no one else was out there to soak in what I got to see.

Growing up

And how I long to see the picture finished,
Painted as a perfect portrait
Void of all the mysteries of my life.
-Audra Lynn, "Cross"

But sometimes it's good to see how we grow, step by step. There's beauty in and of itself to be found there.

Color me bad. Or good.

It's interesting to see how different colorizations can change the mood of a photo so much.

For example, here is a photo I took tonight at OC on my way across campus going home from work.


Now here is that picture with a photoshop treatment called "Lovely and Ethereal". It's a subtle change, but I love how it makes it all melty and beautiful, really highlighting the sunset on the horizon.


Now check out this treatment, called PW's B&W. It's suddenly like the setting for a ghost story. Or maybe the beginning of a tornado.


Switch that to a Sepia tone, and now it feels very Oklahoma Western.


This is a peculiar but fun little action called Heartland that reminds me of a vintage postcard.


And last but not least, another one of my favorite actions called Colorized.


These actions, all from the Pioneer Woman and available at her website, are lots of fun if you use Photoshop.

Paris- Delightfully Europe

I remember my first day in Paris (and really every day) we'd walk around the city, and I swear with every corner I turned I'd gasp at the beautiful scenery, architecture, and all things delightfully European. Here are a few of my favorite miscellaneous pictures.


I love this picture. Such a good time.


This is outside Notre Dame. He is apparently the pidgeon man.


This happy child is feeding the birds in front of Notre Dame as well.


It's hard out here for an accordion player.


A mirrored building.


CREPES. Yum. Nutella crepes. I also had a wonderful crepe with egg, cheese, and tomatoes.


My perfect Parisian breakfast. Croissant, cafe au lait, and orange juice. Plus my journal. Perfect.


Cute little cafe in Montmarte.


This was at dinner my last night in Paris. Ross was a wonderful and gracious host and I couldn't have imagined the trip being any more perfect! I am officially one of those Europe-philes now, and I highly recommend Paris to anyone. :)

The rest of my many many Paris pictures can be found by clicking here.

Girly Stuff

I wrote the title of this post then realized that people might not initially realize it's a divergence from my recent series on gender justice. :) But it is! Oh I'll be back with more to say on that soon, but I thought I'd take a little break before I lose my entire readership. But this is a different kind of girly stuff, as in pictures of flowers and how I decorated my bedroom.

I love spring, in case I haven't mentioned it here. Each couple of weeks brings some new blooming plant, and it's such a renewable joy in my life. Here are the mystery plants that were beginning to grow in my front yard when I moved in:


My next door neighbors who apparently don't live there (I've never seen anyone actually at the house) have a beautiful backyard, wildly growing garden. There are several big rosebushes blooming right now. I felt at liberty to take pictures because it hangs into my back yard:




And for vanity's sake--
Also, I'm pretty sure my mother would be the only one who cares to see this, but here are pictures of my bedroom since I have semi decorated it.





I think it's pretty! The color scheme is tan/beige/cream and lavender. I even "made" my curtains myself!

Alright, I'll try to get back to the hermeneutics stuff soon. I hope my mom enjoyed this. :)

Brasília-- the wrap up

It was a fun trip, and I´m so so glad I went. I knew in going that I was going to put myself in a major case of self induced culture shock, because I was traveling with all Brazilians, to the capitol of Brazil, to a Brazilian wedding and to see a Brazilian national sporting event. And culture shocked I did get, for about 3 hours on Friday. But even when I was frustrated out of my mind, I knew that in a week I´d look back on it and think it was one of the funnest times ever. Now it´s been a week and I can readily say that yes, it was. :)

Here are some random favorite photos!




Ivan, Enidilson and Jorge-- manly men!



Enrique, possibly the cutest kid ever. :)



This picture kind of freak me out, but I think it´s really cool. Aníbal does really cool stuff without a flash on his camera.



Aníbal took this picture on our late night tour of Brasília with Enidilson and Enrique. From left to right it´s Ivan, Edinilson, Enrique, me, Jandira.



Another one of those non-flash photos. I like the colors in this one so much. I knew Aníbal was getting ready to take a picture, but I didn´t know when he took it. Hence the half-posed look. Very cool.



Ha, I love this! Another irreverent picture in the Congressional Palace. :)



I love this picture too! Liberdade!



A too-sweet, Janibal special. :) And I took it, thank you very much. ;)



Jandira and I



Remember the blog about being late to the airport? This is a picture from that time... look at those faces! hahahahaha... :)

That´s all folks! And as always, there are more great photos (at least I think so) in the album. Yay webshots! Yay advertising! Yay give me free stuff! ;)