A day in Fayetteville

Yesterday I drove into Fayetteville with Leif to stay with him a couple of days and see the town. He made a superb dinner of spaghetti & salad (a nice, spicy sauce) and his friends John & Jasper came over for a few hours to hang out.

Today was my first full day in Fayetteville, and it was quite the adventure! I walked to the town square to see the farmers market this morning, and then met up with Leif for lunch at Loafin Joe's (a yummy sandwich place). He was working all day, so I explored the town in foot.

I ended up spending hours at the Blair Library, reading in their comfortable chairs (and air conditioning)!

Across the street from that was this fantastic little arts/jewelry store that I ended up getting some beautiful rings from. The outside was all painted like a watermelon! The posts were red with seeds and they had colorful chairs and decorations everywhere.

I also got to check out this fun, used book store that totally rivals Strand and Powells (not as big, but pretty fantastic anyway).

So tonight we're just hanging out with Leif's friend, Anna, and maybe John & Jasper will come over again in a bit.

More of the same planned for tomorrow - see more of the city and relax!

Hello from Arkansas!

Well I've been here in Arkansas since Friday, and it has been a jam
packed vacation already. We've gone swimming in Bluff Creek, which
runs behind my Aunt Beth's house, and canoeing down Buffalo River
yesterday.

I also got to see the house my cousin, Edana, is building with her
husband, David. And I checked out the cows & chickens my aunt keeps.

I'll add pictures as soon as I'm home!

Photo Field Trip #3

For our last photo field trip we actually stayed within the building and just outside of it. We were practicing both composition & flash. I have to say, that building was very, very boring. I'm sure a great photographer could have found something great in there, but ugh it was a long hour to shot!


A fountain drain I got up close & personal with.


A mop bucket that one of the janitors left out.


An abstract view of the stairs & ceiling.

The second part of our lesson, using flash, took us both outside & inside. We mostly just shot each other, but the guard on duty was totally willing to help us out with this project!

CityWalks #3 - UWS

This past Monday I explore the Upper West Side, between 67th & 91st Streets. I was joined by Miriam, a recent retiree who found my ad on Craigslist & thought it sounded fun. It was nice to have someone to walk with.

We started on Broadway and 72nd, and I quickly realized that the main sights on this trip were grocery stores! Granted, they've been around for quite some time - Zabar's has been around since 1934. But still, it's odd to think that this is what people should see in NYC. But the walk was interesting and buildings are much, much shorter up there. It's nice to see sky!


We made our way over to Riverside Park - and wow! It's got this fantastic community garden up near 91st Street, and it runs all the way down the river to 72nd. It was absolutely wonderful - quiet, on the water and just nice. It's very much like Battery City Park (my fav place in the city) so that's probably why I was so excited about it.



When it ends and you curve back into the city there's a statue of Eleanor Roosevelt in a ring of trees - very cool.


The final section of this walk was up Central Park West. I've seen most of that before - the Historical Society, Dakota, Museum of Natural History. But there are some cool buildings. A very nice vendor in the park told us about all the celebrities living the buildings right at 73rd & Central Park West (I, of course, don't remember any of the names he said, but they were very famous).

I was tempted to go into the Natural History Museum for the "Extreme Mammals" exhibit. I have no idea what it's about, but I figured it would be a nice way to end the day. Little did I know special exhibits there cost $24! I couldn't do it. So hopefully I didn't miss too much :)

Downtown

We had our second photo class outing last Saturday, and we spent it wandering downtown between Barclay Street & Cedar Street. We were working on getting good pics in the shade, and let me tell you, I do not enjoy it! The colors just always seem a bit off. Plus, we were going between shade & sun, so it was even harder. But I think it will help me when trying to take pictures up at grandpa's.



We also played with motion, and learned how to make a car seem like it's really moving. It's kind of fun to get different people/cars while everything around them is blurred.


Our professor also showed us how to do this thing with the zoom (he said it was popular in the 70s, but I may have to bring it back). It makes it look like a vortex sucking everything else in! I love it ;)


Seeing how reflections come out.

We had about an hour to walk around and take pics, and these construction workers were right on the corner.


We stumbled across a tourist group of Amish girls on our way back to the classroom.

Brooklyn Bridge

Last weekend I went out for a 3 hour field trip with my photo class, instead of my weekly city walk (those will be continued this coming Monday). It was a gorgeous day, and we headed to the Brooklyn Bridge to learn about spot metering, using our aperture priority setting and figuring out what works, and what doesn't. Sadly, I realized (once I was home & had downloaded the pics) that my lens needed cleaning *sigh*