Heavenly is heavenly

First day of skiing – incredible!

First of all the Gondola ride is amazing. Our condo actually connects to the Heavenly Mountain Gondola so we literally walk out of our door and there we are! The gondola ascends 2.4 miles up the mountain in 12 minutes while we got to enjoy views of Lake Tahoe!

Hope and Ryan took a lesson as this was a reintroduction of skis to their feetJ

Graham and I met up with another Roanoke Alum (Alex) and his friend Frank for a fun morning of exploring the mountain and breathtaking vistas. We had a great time wandering around and scouting out runs and such. I have started to venture timidly into the trees but they are still scary and I don’t spend too much time in there;)  I did however have a really fun tumble today on Ridge Bowl – just picture a turtle on its back flying down a shoot…that was me sliding down a section of this run on my back! I was caught off guard by another downed skier half way down the hill and tried to avoid him and just bit it! It was hilarious!

Graham and I adjourned early in favor of the hot tub and beers.  Apparently we choose the un-bubbly hot tub but it still relaxed our weary muscles and created two worthless people for the rest of the evening!

Hope and Ryan had a much more entertaining day in the “training ground” where they were corralled for their lesson all day. They had the enjoyment of witnessing at complete wipeout where in the individual careened down the training ground only to rack himself on a directional sign in front of everyone…there are some instances where you have to laugh.

They arrived at the room raving about their day and headed to the hot rub where they were run out by the family of 6 invading the hot tub including kids with water wings, POOR FORM! Stick to the pool people when inflatables are required.

Apparently Ryan is now hooked on skiing and Hope was too advanced for their group.  Tomorrow, she skis with us and Ryan is hitting up another lesson to solidify his mad skillz. The new snow is supposed to start tonight and continue into tomorrow! Woo Hoo!

Superbowl at Harrah’s

Given we are still partially on East Coast time we woke up at 5 and refused to get up – forcing ourselves to sleep in at least until 6am.

Hope and Ryan ventured out to get their rentals and I of course hit the gym! We woke up to another round of snow and it’s just absolutely beautiful.We made our reservations for the Chart House Wednesday night and got the scoop on the best sushi places in town. Next steps, grocery store and Superbowl!

We ended up at Harrah’s for the Superbowl which was a blast! $12.50 buckets of beer and prime seats at the bar! Graham and I won back our wagers and Hope and Ryan came out way aheadJ A casino is definitely good locale for people watching! A quick summary – some of waitresses were wearing sparkly brown mini dresses appropriate for middle school dances (there was one in particular that kept scratching her hind parts that was quite amusing), other wait staff were decked out in ref outfits, there were a host of various NFL jersey’s and ski outfits! It all provided for good laughs but we are also SO EAST COAST! Our pants were not tight enough, faces not plastic enough, and overall we are pretty boring but perfectly ok with that.

Afterwards, Hope and Ryan went to meet up with an old friend of Hope’s from high school at Lakeside Casino. Where dollar beers are served for happy hour (11pm -4am) and Hope had a giant case of mistaken gender identification:) She tried to tell this individual he was in the wrong restroom.  He turned out to be a she and informed Hope she was born with a vagina thank you. They later headed to a house party where we understand there were shots going round and BB gun shooting;)

Graham and I had a less eventful evening after bolting for some grub and settling in for some TV and snoozing!

TOMORROW WE SKI!

The Start of the Tahoe trip!

As the alarm went off at 3am Saturday morning I questioned what on earth we were thinking, then I remembered

TAHOE!!!

A scrub of the teeth, a quick shower for Graham, a cup of coffee for everyone and we were headed to Norfolk by 3:45ish…Our flight was scheduled for 6:50am and the roads weren’t bad at all fortunately. We made good time and were checked in and waiting in the Security line by 5:30. I will say there were far more people at Norfolk int’l airport at this hour than I had imagined! There were zombie like walks and waits everywhere!

So we make our way through the security check, Hope and Ryan sail through with ease. I stroll myself up, apparently looked iffy, required a pat down in the little glass box, was then pulled aside since I had forgotten my Gatorade in my backpack, thus requiring re-scans and several dubious looks from the security scanner. Once that ordeal was over, I put my boots back on and waited for Graham.  He made it through without requiring a pat down however apparently he too tried to smuggle contraband into the airport in the form of his 3 inch pocket knife! The sheepish look and the comment of:  “I have been looking for that” summed it all up. Bummer about losing the knife but luckily we weren’t delayed too long!

 

We high tailed it out of Norfolk and hit Atlanta around 9am starving and happy to have one leg of our trip complete! After a brief stint at a recharge station for our electronics (between the 4 of us we have every cool gadget you can think of)  we cruised on over to the Stylin Heinekin Bar (which by the way still has a smoking session – Yowzers that was smoky.)  We ordered up traditional “start of vaca” beers and had a bite to eat while watching the goings on of the tarmac below – very exciting.

Pre-flight beers!

 The SLT leg was uneventful and we landed in Reno tired but excited to finally be done with the flight portion of our journey. Mind you we had been traveling since 3:30am EST time and it was now 4:30 Reno time (6:30 our time.)

After 17 hours of travel - we are almost there!

Now Reno is about an hour and a half away from Tahoe and we had booked seats on the South Tahoe Express to take us the rest of the way! The driver advised it was snowing on the mountain and we would have to stop ½ way to put chains on the bus to make it up! Craziness;)

We finally got here around 7pm to gorgeous snow and fantastic rooms. After a round of Grilled Cheese and Tomato soup and a glass of wine – we hit the sack in hopes to acclimating to the time and making up for lost sleepJ

Tomorrow is the SUPER BOWL & exploring;)

Film, Film, and more Film

It’s such a great feeling to be back. I will start there.

I arrived at Cheryl’s abode last night with my new filter pack, my negatives semi organized and my heart full of joy. I haven’t been that excited to get back in the darkroom in a while. Why is that?

I haven’t had a focus or a direction in that space for a long time. I actually sat down yesterday and thought about what I wanted to accomplish during DR last night, thus walking in with an intention – wow what a difference.

I knocked out bulk prints on my “good stuff” so I am able to sell in limited editions. I have laid out my plan for the next several weeks in terms of printing and am pretty darn excited about it!

Also, working alongside Cheryl, her current project has inspired me to finally break down and start one of my own. I woke up this morning and grabbed my Holga for my morning run! Hopefully my concept pics will drive the direction of my next project. SO many ideas, so little time.

The start of our journey home

The Isle of Palms

How quickly a week goes by. Just when you think you have the hang of the whole relaxation thing, reality slaps you in the face and reminds you that bills must be paid and normalcy must be reinstated within our lives.

I love traveling but have to admit I love oftentimes heading home just as much.  During the past 10 days we have journeyed down VA, across NC and then back down and across to SC. Tomorrow we are headed back up to VA. We have been gone 10 days and have to admit I am ready to head home and see what type of images I captured.

I think I have 5-6 rolls of 120 film to drop off at Richmond Camera when I get home and am excited for Contact sheet printing to begin on Tuesday when I head back to the darkroom!

It’s always fun to start a new darkroom night with new toys (filter pack for my enlarger) and new images!

I have also considered the suggestions of several of my closest friends and have come to a decision on my next project. All I will say now is it will have a more industrial feel versus nature.

Can’t wait!

The travels

So oddly enough people are wondering why I am not blogging on vacation…Honestly I find this really odd. As I have stated before, in my day job I spend most of my day in front of a computer. This is also a requirement of my side job as I spend most of my evenings editing pictures. I have repeatedly stated the thing I hate most about digital film is the requirement of a computer.

So during my vacation I try not to log on. I admit I have been updating Facebook through my blackberry but that is the extent of my “connections” to my true life. That and the occasional e-mail check and work response that I just can’t pass up. It’s an addiction, I know.

Back to my travels though:) This week has allowed me to relax and take a step back from the sometimes overwhelming reality of life.  NOT to say I have an unhappy life…on the contrary, I have a wonderful life; however, an escape from it all is needed to re-center and focus.

I have stuck to my guns though… While in Asheville I hardly pulled out the 50D and solely relied on my Holga! That also may be due to the fact I forgot my point and shoot which is an easy out for shooting candid shoots.

During my time here is SC I have walked every morning and shot at least one roll of 120 film! As you can tell, I am very proud of myself.

Hopefully my trusty new Holga will treat me well! Fingers crossed. For now, I will drift easily into my vino induced slumber with the lingering excitement of tomorrow’s morning adventure on the horizon.

Traveling with cameras

Oh the decisions to be made when packing for vacation!

So I am getting ready to embark on my annual trip to Charleston with a small stint in Asheville and it always leads to the question..which cameras should I take.

Do I take all of them and then challenge myself to use a different one every day? Do I choose one and curse myself for choosing the wrong one when I am confronted with that perfect shot for “the other camera”?  As you know, I have vowed to shoot B&W, so do I dust off my A2E?  Do also bring the Holga? (That is a no brainer when mountain streams and beaches are concerned).

That of course leads to the dreaded question….which digital? 

Do I take a digital at all? Have we become so accustomed to the ease of the digital that photography is an “everyday” activity?  I know I shoot more with my digital but am I shooting better? Am I composing better shots? Am I becoming a better photographer by taking more pictures? I think not. I think I have slipped into the automatic mode when it comes to my work…time to step it up a notch I guess.

  

So have I made my decision? No.  still working on it.

The artistic pursuit – or something like that.

The simplicity found walking along the James

Last week marked the return to the darkroom and it was fantastic…although there were no whistled renditions of Pour Some Sugar on Me…probably a good thing. The darkroom is a special place of creation, realization and discussion and I have missed it. I did realize last week that I need to start shooting B&W film again.

So I recently purchased a 50D and love it. It’s easy, takes beautiful pictures, feel good in my hand, etc. However I HATE editing pics at a computer. I put it off and put if off some more and then I have this tremendous backlog that is so overwhelming I just shelve the pics away for one of those “motivated” days where I clean out my folders. That’s no good.

Thus I am putting my intentions out there. I am going to actually go back to film for a bit. Possibly even dust off my 35mm! The Holga is still in use but I need to use it more.

There I have said it, thus it is so.  I did upload some of my former B&W work to my website last night. There are only a few as I need a few more hours/days  to work on this.

Innsbrook was fun, now to Keswick next weekend!

So Friday was part  2 of Innsbrook’s Art Show! I had a great turn out of people that I actually knew which was fantastic! My entire team from my day job showed up to support me – it was great.

Give the number of people that come through, the sales were good – no complaints since the event was free and I didn’t have any start up costs since I already had the inventory.

Next weekend I will be the featured artist at Keswick Winery’s Open Art Sunday! I am looking forward to branching out of the Richmond scene for a bit and enjoying a day of wine tasting and hopefully sales! After that I have the month of July fairly free on the art front. I may have a show at one of Capital One’s galleries but I am still trying to iron out the details on that one.

In August I will be at the Whole Foods Farmers Market in Short Pump every Wednesday from 4-7!

So much to do in so little time. Today however is reserved for my Dad. Happy Fathers Day to all the Dad’s out there.

Innsbrook Spring Show 2 is today

Good morning all. Today is the Innsbrook Spring Show, take 2. The Last time we attempted this we had 30 mph winds and the constant threat of rain all day. The highlight of the day was around 2pm when one lady lost her tent during a rather large gust, which of course took out her jewelry display and everything else underneath it! It wasn’t pretty. I fortunately had bungee corded mine to the fence behind mine so it was only rising 6 inches off the ground rather than taking flight. Whew.

I am hoping for a good turn out today since it’s going to be a lovely 93 degrees here in the RVA and little chance of rain. I have lots of newly framed items to sell and am working through my cards and card sets at a steady rate!

For all of you out there that have a boat loving Dad – I have some nice Nautical themed shots framed and ready to go for you! Stop by, I am on the Dairy Queen side of the Shoppes at Innsbrook.

Fingers crossed for good turn out and spending shoppers!