Happy Halloween!

Stand out in a crowd.

Birthday Wishes

Now you might be looking at this post, Ted I certainly hope you are, and be thinking, what is this picture? Why is Ted next to a bunch of flowers? Firstly, Ted posed, so that was his choice not mine. Secondly, screw you. A man can pose next to flowers if he wants to. Don't even get me started on all that hetero-normative crap dictating what is considered manly or feminine. If Ted wants flowers, well then he is getting some pretty flowers. Ted – HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

 Hope you like the flowers.

Portrait

I have this friend named Maraja. She's pretty awesome. One of the first things you learn about her is that she likes to laugh – and when she laughs hard enough she starts to cry. It's kind of inevitable. In the picture below, she isn't crying because she's sad – that is a tear of laughter. I have long forgotten the joke. But it must have been awesome.

Harbor ripple

Navy Pier harbor at sunset. One of the perks of working on a boat is that you get to see the water in all conditions. Sometimes it will toss you around like a rag doll and sometimes it will be docile and calm. And sometimes the light will be just right and you can take the perfect picture.

Felucca

Sail from an Egyptian felucca in Aswan, Egypt.

British Museum

If you've never been to the British Museum, then you are missing out on something truly wonderful. No other museum on the planet brings together art, natural history and culture into a beautiful amalgam of human cultural heritage.

You can stroll through the Egyptian rooms, see the Rosetta Stone, two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, etchings by Albrecht Dürer, and if you're still hungry for more you can visit the most comprehensive collection of ethnographic art from Africa, Oceania AND both Americas.

Plus, most of their collection is really pretty!

Just go before I geek out any further...

Trinkets

Another picture from Thailand. Souvenirs galore!

Elephants

Elephants from the Maesa Elephant Camp.

Orange

 

Orange stucco wall in Thailand.

Ballon Magic

This is one of my oldest digital pictures. I took this in Germany at a hot air balloon festive in Magdeburg. They had a special concert at night called Ballon Magie or balloon magic in English, where all the balloons where inflated in close proximity, but stayed tethered to the ground. Then the balloons would fire up in time with the music. It is still one of the most impressive coordinated events I have ever seen.

View from below

 

Nothing like lying in a hammock to get the best view.

Fried Food

More photos from Brazil. Delicious deep-fried photos.

Vingt-trois

One of my last days in France Jess took me to an art collective in Poitiers called Vingt-Trois (or twenty-three). When you hear the word "art collective" you usually think of pot-luck dinners, unwashed hair, and communist literature. This commune definitely contained the usually suspects. An eardrum-splitting reggae band performed in the basement and the girl in the picture below had a silk-screen printing operation strapped to herself so that she could walk around and "sell" prints. I say sell, because they would give these away to anyone for the price of a hug. She had a train of helpers following her around with a clothesline of drying prints for passerbys to peruse. One of my favorite things was the wall grenouille (frog) that Jess posed in front of for me.

Fall – with a chance of showers

It is about that time of year when the air starts to change from the stickiness of summer to the first bite of fall. The leaves start to turn colors and flutter down to make a carpet of golden flakes. It's the best time of year to go walking, because you hear that reassuring crunch, crunch, crunch every time you take a step. Making piles out of the leaves is even more fun! To me this picture epitomizes everything that I love about fall.

This is one of my all time favorite pictures from my first year at Grinnell.

Footprints

Footprints on the beach in Destin, Florida. All part of the road trip to end all road trips during spring break senior year.

Île de Ré day

These are some pictures from when I went to the Île de Ré, a picturesque island off the coast of western France near La Rochelle. Jess and Ted and I jumped into our rental car and picked up some friends of mine, Lee and Laura, for a day of wandering and beach-combing.  First, we stopped by an old abbey, abbaye Notre-Dame-de-Ré, also called des Châteliers, in search of the perfect picnic spot.










This old stone abbey provided the perfect wind shelter, since the Île de Ré, while absolutely gorgeous, can tactfully be described as blustery.


We walked through Saint-Martin-de-Ré, which is one of those cute French towns full of narrow winding streets that are perfect for wandering aimlessly. At the same time, Saint Martin is too small to truly get lost, which appeases my mazeophobic side.

Jess found this awesome door knocker. The French have the most random collection of grandiose door knockers.

We also found a shop aptly named... the shop (or le magasin in French). I found it hilarious.


And of course, no trip to the Île de Ré is complete without going to the beach. Islands lend themselves to that. And the beaches did not disappoint. They were pebble beaches, which while picturesque, are a little hard on the feet.


Ouch-inducing beaches did not stop us from wading into the crystal-clear water. Chilly, but satisfying.
The beach also had these larger stones hidden in the sand. Jess constructed this rock sculpture.


What is je-ne-sais-quoi that draws people to the seaside? Is it the air? Is it the water? Is it the unparalleled splendor of the ocean? I like to think it is the splendor. What ever is it, I am missing the Île de Ré today.

Belay pins

Belay pins from the Flagship Niagara.

Fish

Fences

One thing I noticed in Brazil is that everything is surrounded by fences. It's a little off-putting when compared to American style come-hinder-children-and-play-on-my-delightful-greenery! Americans secure their doors and windows, while Brazilians shelter their little piece of yard. Differences everywhere.

Send in the cows

Cows make themselves so easy to photograph. They all turn as one.

Dancing water

From the fountain next to the Art Institute of Chicago. Looks like it's dancing to me.

Parents, Profs & Police: Proceed at your own risk.

It's that time of year again, when 10/10 is upon us. The shots have all been poured with care.
A toast to all you Grinnellians out there: I hope you're having a great evening – wherever you are!

Horses

I know that I've put this second picture up before, but I feel like it makes more sense when you see it in context with the picture above. First of all, baby horses are so cuuuuute! I was a little obsessed with all the baby animals on our trip to Ireland. I mean, who can look at a baby sheep and not want to pet it? Baby haters – that's who. Second of all, I love this picture of Jess. Missing from this picture is the apple that she had just been biting into pieces that the horse is now happily devouring. The expression on Jess's face is priceless – even more priceless, because I know there is a picture out there of 3 year old Jess making the exact same face.

Chevre chaud

I have a confession to make. It is quite shocking – so prepare yourself.

France has turned me into a foodie!

I know – you never would have guessed. (You can just feel the sarcasm oozing out of me now, right?) Well, for those of you who are not surprised, feast your eyes on this scrumptious looking plate. It contains a walnut-sprinkled spring mix salad. Over in the corner you spy a dribble of homemade balsamic vinegar reduction. Please feel free to roll your eyes at such pretentious food, and you would be right – except for the saving grace that is chevre chaud.

Imagine if you will warm, creamy rounds of frightfully expensive French goat cheese from the heart of Poitou drizzled with honey and placed lovingly on hand-sliced rounds of French bread. Perfection has been achieved! Jess and I experienced this amazing appetizer for the first time at Les Bons Enfants, which (gasp!) I don't have a picture of. This place is a tiny hole in the wall with only 7 cramped tables and food so good that you have to make reservations just for lunch. In any case, we were so blown away by this simple yet melt-in-your-mouth appetizer that we set out to recreate it – with delicious results.

Seeing double: Gazpacho time!

Melon gazpacho is a dish best served cold – like revenge. Or so I am told. These pictures have nothing at all to do with revenge and have everything to do with me playing around with different filters on Photoshop. The posterizing filter used here lends a choppy quality that helps tone down the blurriness of the original photo. Plus that gazpacho was really tasty! I like the effect even more on the picture below. It almost looks like a comic book.

Snow and Ice

I took this picture while flying over Iceland. Now I really want to go back and see more of that mysterious island. Who wants to go with me?

Furniture

Wrapping up furniture entirely in bubble wrap takes more energy than you would think. We definitely deserved some sweet tea and contemplative thoughts after that adventure. What say you?

Mackinac Island

I can see why Mackinac Island is such a tourist attraction. Simply put – the place is absolutely gorgeous! – which is not an adjective normally associated with Michigan in my mind. Mackinac Island – called "mak-in-aw" by locals, just to be contrary in my opinion, considering that Mackinaw City is just on the other side of the Mackinac Bridge. So much "mac", and so little time! This little island squished between the upper and lower peninsula claims to have no cars on the island, so all island transport is on bicycles or horses. Yes – you heard me right – horses.

 Here's a picture of aforementioned horses making their daily rounds. Pretty much everything that would normally get delivered by truck has to be delivered by horse, because there really is a limit to how much stuff you can carry on a bicycle. Now the drawback to having so many horses plodding around the island is – you guessed it – horse manure!

There is so much horse manure on the island that there are official horse poo scoopers whose job it is to go around and collect all the "fudge" lying around on the streets. Clearly some very clever person has been sampling too many of the local confections. Which brings me to other idiosyncrasy of Mackinac Island – fudge shops. There are entirely too many fudge shops than any one place could possibly ever need! The effect of  all these horses and fudge shops is a very Disney-like Main Street, U.S.A. feel to the island. If that floats your boat, then sail on down to Mackinac Island! If not, I would say it is still worth the visit just to see the spectacular scenery. (Just scroll up the first picture if you need a reminder.)

Rocks

Some more reprints from Ireland. The only explanation I can give this time is that I absolutely love these photos and Photoshop does a much better job of cleaning them up than iPhoto. Hope you enjoy!

Jellyfish

So – it's surprisingly difficult to take pictures in the dark. Especially without a tripod – or much shutter speed control  – thanks to my old point-and-shoot. I took this at the Shedd Aquarium and the pictures were mostly eerie, out of focus swirls of blue. But this one turned out quite nice.