Family Reunion!

This is one of the few photos I took at the family reunion I went to in early August. There were more than fifty people there, and I only really knew three of them - my aunt, uncle and cousin who we always see at Christmas. I was told I had met some of the others previously, at a wedding, but I was eight at the time and all I remember about it is hiding under a table to avoid my picture being taken, and what they remembered about me was probably mostly related to how much wedding cake frosting I had smeared on my face at the time. This time however I got to meet them properly, and they were all a lot of fun, though quirky as families are required to be. (This side of the family has a particular affinity for crazy nicknames. For example, I have a lovely cousin named Elizabeth but always called Buff, a second cousin called "Scrip," and another cousin told me my dad's nickname till he was about five was "Chimmie." His given name was Alexander!)

So I took this image during the bus tour that we all took through Pittsburgh, PA which is the city that the family is historically from, and also where I was born. My Great-Aunt Libby is the woman standing at the front of the bus, she narrated the tour of significant family locations with stories from her childhood which were really priceless. Standing next to her is her son, and they are both wearing their Garland-McLain Reunion teeshirts, which have the clan tartans on them. Mine is in the laundry right now, but I feel so Scottish when I wear it. Och, aye!


This is kind of a weird shot, mostly because of the inside of the greyhound bus we were riding on. I don't know who is in charge of choosing upholstery for these vehicles, but they definitely have questionable taste.

An example of how far behind I am!

Here are three pictures of the 4th of July this summer. I actually did get these edited a while ago, I just didn't post them, mostly because I left for California the 7th and then was busy doing molecular genetics. Infinitely fascinating, I know. Sadly... it was to me. But! The images:

We walked from my friend's apartment to the Ford St. Bridge to watch the fireworks.



These are (from left to right) my friends Beth, Kate and Max standing with me on the other side of the bridge. About two minutes prior I was probably telling them off for destroying lung tissue.



And here is everyone leaving after the fireworks are done. The only woman who'd climbed up to sit on top of the bridge (she's standing here) turned out, upon closer inspection, to actually be a man in impeccable drag. Rochester is a great city.


This was my first time trying night photography, digital or film, so I just put my camera on Tv mode at 1/15 of a second (which seems to be the longest shutter speed I can handhold pretty consistently, although I think the last one has a little camera shake), and hoped the images would turn out. It worked out pretty well, I think - I really like it when some of my subjects are moving and others aren't, particularly in the middle image.

More siblings!

At Frank's request. Or rather, Frank had to remind me to update at all because I'm a horrible, horrible blogger. For serious. Hopefully come August 27th, when I begin seeing Frank at least 3 times a week, I'll remember more - or at least he'll have more opportunities to remind me! I'm looking forward to actually taking a CLASS in digital photography (especially with Frank!), so that hopefully I can learn better and faster ways to make my stuff look good. I think I have a tendency to underexpose every picture when I shoot in an attempt to get detail in the highlights... Which I never did with film, strangely. Or maybe it's just the way the screen makes them look to me, but I always think the ones that I shoot on Av or Tv mode look overexposed, so then I manually underexpose. I should try looking at some blown up and out of the camera, though.

But on to the images! These are not of Alaska, instead they are much closer to home. These are Children No.s 4 and 5 at a friend's pool. Child No. 5 discovered that when he wears goggles he loves to swim underwater, so he wore them constantly. Child No. 4 on the other hand was more afraid of water getting in her ears, so the goggles didn't help her very much. This worked out pretty well since we only had one pair, and they didn't fight over them!