Adopt-a-Street

Oh Engineers Without Borders, you are so close to my heart. We had a clean up this morning for the street we adopted. About 6 times a year volunteers head out early in the morning to pick up the variety of scum left behind on our road, NE 9th Street.

Among the cigarette butts, empty dime bags and rice krispy treat wrappers we found a few treasures: a rhinestone baby sandal, spray paint, a pocket knife and some barely used underwear. ;)

Walking along our street on this gorgeous day we started talking about sustainable energy. Calli and Nick are both interested in working with solar and nuclear energy when they graduate. As the only non-engineer present I always have a ton of questions...

For example...

Me: Fusion, fission, that's like what Doc Oc was working on in Spiderman II right?

Nick explains that fusion would be like building a sun (Exactly like Doc. Oc, btw! WIN!) and that by fusing atoms, in theory, there would be an unlimited power supply at our fingertips.

My next question of course was why build a sun when we already have one?
Why not put all of our resources into utilizing solar energy?

I recently attended a talk by Ray Kurzweil, who said we're not so far off. He explained a lot about the exponentially increasing advancements in technology. In the same way the first computer was guarded by the government and filled an entire room, and gradually expanded out toward the public (MIT had ONE in 1951), they have become so small and economical that every man, woman and teenybobber/adolencent/baby has one on their cell phone.

Ray theorizes that solar energy is going to explode in the same way... exponentially increasing so that in the next 20 or 30 years we will have solar panels so small and efficient we could fuel the worlds growing energy needs with a small floating island of plates in the ocean. Engineers. Are. So. COOL!

In the chance that we're farther away from solar energy than planned I did learn that nuclear power sources aren't so bad for the environment as I had once thought. I always imagined Chernobel type damage to the landscape after the power plant had been used up. Salted earth. Radio-active, glowing squirrels. No nuts. :(

Turns out most nuclear plants are fortified with lead and it's workers have less health risks than those who mine fossil fuels. France uses nuclear for almost all their energy needs; AND they've found a way to recycle the uranium a number of times so it's getting closer to being a sustainable source. That process is still illegal in America, but a girl can dream.
Anyways, had a great morning with Ashley, Christine, Calli and Nick in our sexy orange vests! Rock on EWB, rock on!

Julia and Quinton

I'm approaching my maternity sessions a little differently these days. Mainly, *let's have more fun* and incorporate the whole pregnancy experience; cravings, weird experiences, the gamut. Julia and Quinton are my kind of people. They like sports, Julia likes potatoes, and they are having a baby. AWESOME!

Julia painted and glazed these sweet shoes for when her baby is born in the next few months. I love the idea of giving something that shows just how loved and excited the parents are for their baby to arrive!

The playoffs were today, Packers v.s. da Bears. Julia's from Chi-town so yawlreddyknow we planned our shoot for the morning so we wouldn't miss the game. Or, my personal favorites, a warm couch and snacks.

Julia: you. are. beautiful.

So Julia had a thing for potatoes, and it's made me start wondering. Where the HECK is my stomach going to take me when I'm pregnant? I already have a love affair with a sandwich that makes most people cringe: tuna, mayo (sweetened with a hint of honey), mustard, pickles, onion, and cheese pressed in between some toasted whole wheat. My boyfriend knows to keep yogurt, chips and chocolate in his fridge when "girl time" comes around. Salty, savory and sweet... cold and crunchy.. nom nom nom! I know you may be questioning my palette but have I mentioned I have a food blog? It's awesome! (And sorely in need of an update but you can see it here .)

Do you have any strange cravings?

Dumb joke or laughing about chips? :)

Ok so slightly ridiculous but I *love* these pictures^!

Advice from this sweet couple? JUST BE HAPPY!
I couldn't have said it better myself...


Julia and Quinton, thank you for sharing your morning and your story with me.

High-five,
Shannon

Linhof

Well hello! Would you just take a look at the gorgeous camera? I was stoked out of my mind to take it for a spin. The Linhof Technika 4x5... le sigh. According to my professor these were originally old press cameras, although after my experience with it today I have a hard time believing anyone could take photo-journalistic (by-the-seat-of-your-pants-quick) snaps. My assignment this weekend was to use a tilt-shift to compensate and fix the converging lines in architecture. I was halfway to a beard when I finished.

For all you non-photo types, converging lines happen when you take a snap of something and have to look up, this causes an "A" shape to form at the top of your...whatever, in my case "building". As such, it's necessary to use large format camera's or tilt-shift lenses when photographing any kind of architecture or advertising work because it will correct any distortion. The photograph above was taken with my digital camera and you can kind of see the A shape on the building to the right.

St. Pete was super fickle today. I left to shoot around noon when the sun was out. As soon as I had the Linhof set and ready to go, the wind picked up, the temperature dropped drastically and I had cloud cover for two hours straight. Discouraged I took a lunch break to thaw out my fingers. After chompin down on some leftovers, and borrowing an extra jacket I was ready to try again. This time I had company! Reuben and my Lion came out to keep my spirits up!!!

Check me out in action with a wind-fro!^

Reuben is so welcoming :)

Linhof in all it's glory^

The natural wind blown look! ^

Feeling pretty lucky I finished today, I'll scan in the film or some prints once I have it developed on Monday. Happy Saturday!