In the lab.

I know, I'm the only one really interested in molecular genetics, but here's something you can all hopefully enjoy about it.



How pretty! This is showing Matt Arnegard writing himself notes about microinjection into fish embryos. I love the light coming in through the windows here. If only my lab had floor-length windows, I'm very jealous of the Kingsley Lab. This is where I spent a week this summer learning various molecular techniques (like microinjection into fish embryos!), and honestly it was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. I also in general love lab-setting photographs because it seems like such a different world than the one that most of the planet usually occupies. Giant microscopes everywhere, bottles filled with random solutions scattered on desktops, everyone is wearing latex gloves... I find it strangely beautiful. But maybe that's because I'm just a huge nerd who loves science.

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!

Moose!

I was very upset when I missed seeing my first moose because I was singing along to "Like A Prayer" too loudly to hear the grad student in our lab tell me from the backseat when we drove past one. Luckily a few days later I was in the car when these three burst out of the woods and ran right past the car, and I finally saw my first moose. And three at once! I couldn't be mad at Madonna for long anyway. In this one you can see the trees in the background are still all burned from the huge forest fire they had there a few years ago. There were actually several forest fires when we were there, too, but they weren't as bad.

Kashwitna Lake

This is Kashwitna Lake, which we stopped at on the way back from Talkeetna. This is just about the darkest I ever saw it get in Alaska, it was about 12:30am when I took this. Plus I was underexposing to get more cloud detail, so it was lighter out than it looks in these images, especially the first one. It was just such a striking lighting condition! I can't wait to print out the panoramic image really huge when I get back to the printer that can handle doing it for me. It was my first time trying to stitch images together, and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be, although it did take a little bit of fixing afterwards. Hopefully the trouble areas aren't too apparent!

Talkeetna

This is in Talkeetna, a small town we drove to for a day trip, stopping off at a bunch of lakes on the way there and back to make collections and do a little observation. There was almost nothing there except a few shops, a few restaurants, and a place where you could take horseback rides. None of us rode the horses, but being fresh out of other things to do we spent some time with these two. They were the only ones free in their little paddock, and not saddled up. Maybe they were particularly temperamental? In any case, Jana had had very little contact with horses before and clearly had no idea what to do when this one reached out and blew in her face!