#FriFotos - Steps

In January, I got to photograph the UCI Cyclo-Cross World Championships. It was my first cyclo-cross event, and the first time I got to shoot something like this. I spent the day running around the course at Eva Bandman Park, trying to find the designated photographers' areas. I figured out early on how to get to the various areas around these steps. 

I was so impressed by these athletes. I can walk up stairs. And I can bike. And I can carry my bike up and down the eight steps from our basement -- but to ride miles on an insane course in snow, sand, mud, then run your bike up and down steps requires a special kind of madness. 

Islands of Spring

We're still stuck in winter here, but the last three Saturdays have been islands of spring. This last Saturday marked the return of the Douglass Loop farmers market, one I've never visited. I did a quick tour -- just long enough to hear this band play the Magnetic Fields' "The Book of Love," wave at my food truck friends, and buy some cheese. 

​I'm looking forward to farmers markets with more than meat, eggs, and cheese.

Is Spring Here?

It's coming. It's March, and it may still be 32 degrees out, but I can see tiny red leaf-buds on a tree through my living room window. So you know this blog is about to turn into a bunch of this:  

I can't wait. ​

#FriFotos - Views

I spent too long going through photos today looking for the perfect photo of sweeping views for today's #FriFotos theme. I finally settled on something less grand. 

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View out the window of a bathroom at Mammy's hostel in Lome, Togo

This is the view out of a window in the bathroom of the hostel where the Peace Corps lodged us for our first few days of training. My first morning in Togo, I woke up under a mosquito net to unfamiliar sounds -- a rooster, a street vendor's cries. My shower was cold (but cold running water, better than bucket baths in my future). I stopped back in the bathroom to take this photo before heading to my first Togolese breakfast, excited about all my "firsts" after days of "lasts" in the States (last hot shower in the States, last margarita, last sleep). 

Favorite Photos of 2012

Happy New Year!

I posted the last of my Photo a Day Project from 2012 on Flickr today. I did better this time, missing only six days of photos, compared to eight on my first attempt. But I saw a post on Karen Walrond's blog where she shared her favorite photos from the year. I really like that idea, so here are mine. 

January - March

April-June

July-September

October-December

If you got all the way down here, thank you for your perseverance. 

#FriFotos: Peaks

I went out with a #FriFotos post, so it feels appropriate to return with one.  

As a Swiss-American lucky enough to spend a week in the mountains every few summers, "peaks" means the Swiss Alps, specifically the Bernese Oberland. But while I know the names of a few famous peaks ( Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau) I still can't identify them. Multiple searches finally confirmed that this is the Wetterhorn with the Rosenlaui Glacier to the left.  

I took this picture on a hike with my mother. We started in Meiringen, a town in the valley and hiked up to Grosse Scheidegg, past the Reichenbach Falls, where Sherlock Holmes fought Professor Moriarty to the death. My mom has difficulty hiking uphill, and I have problems going downhill. I feel slightly guilty for dragging a 60-something woman 10 miles uphill, but I bought her an ice cream at the top.

Ok, I know. I'm the worst. I wanted the ice cream more than she did. 

#FriFotos: Close-Up

My mother loves gardening and dragged her children to botanical gardens and arboretums, which we proclaimed “boring”. I used to tease her about all the pictures she took of flowers, and now… just look at my Flickr stream. It is full of flowers. The lenses I have don’t let me get as close up as I want, but that doesn’t stop me. In this sense, I am my mother’s daughter, making photographs of the same flowers each year (tulip trees in the spring, hydrangeas in the summer, and those passion fruit flowers by Carmichael’s Books whenever they’re in bloom).

On my first trip to the High Line in New York this April, I spotted these little guys blooming and got down on my knees to get closer. Sadly, I’m not nearly as good as Mom (a Master Gardener now) with plant names. So I learn by asking — anyone  know the name of these flowers?

Stranger 34: "Peter Beer Slayer"

Remember the Stranger A Day project, when I was trying to take a picture of a stranger each day for a month?

I’m not bringing it back, at least not on a daily basis, but I’ve been thinking about it lately. The photographs I’ve been making for my 365 project are boring me (I literally took a picture of a stick last week. It was a large, out-of-place branch, lying in the middle of the sidewalk, but nonetheless. Picture of a stick).

When I saw “Peter Beer Slayer” at Holy Grale on Friday, I knew I would regret not approaching him for a photograph. Obviously, he agreed: 

​You can find out more about Mr. Beer Slayer at The Traveling Revelers. You can’t see it, but the pipe he’s smoking was worthy of a close-up.