Astoria Trip

OK, a little catching up to do, my patience is telling me that these are stories best told photographically, so it's a good thing I've taken a TON of pictures recently. Two weeks ago, Rachel, myself, Seaton, Joanne, Lisa and Rebecca all took a trip together down to Astoria, Oregon, just across the Columbia from where Rach and I are getting married this summer. We saw some sights, relaxed a bit, handled some wedding business, found the best place for B.M.s (bloody marys that is), tried some local breweries and ate dinner at the restaraunt we are going to have cater the wedding (It was so damn good). Click on the map below to go to the photo album:

Design Program in Rome

Tonight is probably the last time the participants of the Design Program in Rome 2008 will all have the chance to be together... The UW faculty club is hosting an exhibition of our photography and tonight is the reception for the show. On the announcement below, my photograph is the black and white "hotel" one...

A budding artist?

Lena, our four year old friend, stayed at our house the last few nights. One day she was playing with some dominoes and something about the way she had laid them out caught my eye. So i snapped a few images...

Perspective in Bologna

While we were traveling last week I did a little project of my own. I found some old paintings in what use to be the main building for the University of Bologna. They were done in the seventeenth century or so and showed various scenes from around the city and inside the buildings. I took pictures of the paintings and then set out to find the exact spots in the city that the artist had viewed these scenes from to take pictures from there. Only one turned out relatively decent, or close, but it was still a fun way to explore the city.....

Piazza Galvani satellite map

Piazza Galvani Painting

Piazza Galvani Photo

Day Fifteen

Rachel left Roma very early this morning. I miss her already. I slept in a little bit at the hotel and then took advantage of the breakfast buffet downstairs, who am i to pass up a free meal? Then I headed over to the Trevi Fountain to try and beat the crowds for some early morning picture. I got there and realized that my camera battery was dead and I had left my other one at the house. Oh well, some other morning maybe. Besides, I am sitting on top of a mountain of data right now that needs to be sorted and kind of feel like I should take care of that before adding too much more to the heap. I spent most of today in the studio cropping, editing, tweaking and deleting photos. Even after I deleted a lot of sub-standard shots, I still have a grand total of 15.26 gigabytes of photos, translating to roughly 1,350 images! WOW! The number of pictures I have actually taken is well over 2,500 at this point. I am so glad that I am doing this all digitally, can you imagine what this would have cost me with film?!?!? 

Day Two

I used jet lag to my advantage this morning. I awoke around 4:30 AM after my body restlessly continued to insist that it was day time, not night. Rather than fighting it, I decided to use this morning to go get some nice photographs of the Roman Forum at sunrise. I left the apartment just as the first merchants were beginning to set up shop in the Campo de Fiori. I walked for fifteen minutes in the early dawn light and my pace quickened as I approached my destination. I have been studying this place for about the last two months and have learned a great deal about it, but now to actually be here? In person? My heart was pounding with excitement! I spent the next hour at a vantage point near the old tabularium, from which one can see the entire forum, with the massive colosseum in the distance. It was breathtaking. I savored the moment for ten minutes or so before getting to work, just taking it all in, so as to remember it with my own senses, not just the sensors of my digital camera. Here are a couple photos of the Temple of Saturn and the great Roman Forum at sunrise!