petzval 58

Wow, it's been awhile! Life has been pretty busy ever since I started trying to simplify by getting rid of as many of our belongings as possible...so many things to sort, photograph, measure, list and send off to their new homes...it really eats up one's free time! Anyways, I got my Petzval 58 lens in the mail Friday and I couldn't be more thrilled with it! Had to share!! I had backed the project through Kickstarter and had been waiting about 7 months to receive my lens...so happy to finally have it in person!

First of all, as you can see in the photo above, the lens itself is just beautiful...solid brass! We visited our favorite botanical garden this weekend to try it out. It was easier to use than I expected and I just love the fact that I can control the level of bokeh in my photos. (If you're not familiar with what a petzval lens is or what it does, read about it here.) I didn't think I would want to use the strongest bokeh setting (level 7) very often if at all, but it turned out to be so dreamy, I love it. I'm excited to take this lens on my future adventures and try it in many different settings!  On to the photos: 

our Canadian adventure, part II: Jasper

our Canadian adventure, part I: Banff

night walks + long exposures

This weekend we took a late night walk with some friends to see fireflies and experiment with some long exposure photos. These were all taken around 11 pm with the shutter left open around 10-30 seconds on each one. I'm diggin' the ethereal effect...

Bits and Pieces

A few photos from the last week...

I gave my hula hoop a makeover by wrapping it in strips of vintage fabric, love how it turned out!

 taken at a pool party we went to last week with frineds

 I love century plant blooms!

from our family brunch outing, we saw a volkswagon show on the way

Weekend Photo Fun

This weekend we took a little trip to one of our favorite nature preserves for some walking and brought the camera and tripod along for a spontaneous photo shoot...sharing some of my favorite shots from the day: 

Artist Love

I am kind of smitten with the gorgeous and creative self-portraits of Cary Ann Wayman. I've always been intrigued by abandoned places and things, and I love photographing them myself, so her work is very inspiring to me. I also love her use of the golden hour lighting...dreamy!

Giveaway!

I am giving away a Nature Photographer Necklace to one lovely reader! This giveaway will run until February 15, 2015. Enter below :)

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a photo an hour

We had a great time picking strawberries, going to lunch and hanging out at the playground with our friends today. Here is a little peek of "a day in the life":

9:00 am

10:00 am

11:00 am

12:00 pm

1:00 pm

2:00 pm

3:00 pm

4:00 pm

5:00 pm

6:00 pm

7:00 pm

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9:00 pm

Artist Love

I am loving the dreamy, moody photos taken by Rachel Bellinsky. Her series of pets in windows, entitled fishbowl is wonderful.

♪ Carolina in the Morning ♪

We just returned from a 5 day stay in the mountains of North Carolina. We were hoping for lots of snow, but the weather didn't cooperate haha...We did manage to find some patches of snow when we drove north for a ways. It was little A's first time seeing snow and she loved it! She wanted to bring a snowball with her in the car. I absolutely love walking through the woods here and driving through the foggy mountain roads.

Maine Trip, part 2: PORTLAND

"Yes. Life's good here". That is Portland's slogan and I can see why. We enjoyed exploring this city. Lovely architecture with lots of very old brick buildings, gorgeous lighthouses, Casco Bay, tree-lined streets with plenty of unique shops, and soo much good food! I think Congress Street was my favorite downtown area, it had several eclectic/vintage stores and an amazing little co-op restaurant called Local Sprouts. Their kombucha was out of this world. The Portland Headlight was such a fun stop too, postcard beautiful. Here are a few of my favorite pics:

Maine Trip, part 1: ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

Last week we returned from our vacation in Maine. It was my first time visiting and I absolutely loved it! Beautiful scenery and amazing food :) This trip was also little A's first time on a plane, and she did pretty well overall...A few tantrums on the way back but it was naptime. I bought several little toys from the dollar tree store and brought them out one at a time as needed, and we had lollipops and plenty of snacks which helped. I am sharing here some (ok, a ton of) pictures from the first 7 days of our trip which we spent in Acadia National Park. It was so incredibly picturesque I filled up 2 memory cards, which is a bit much, even for me lol! I highly recommend visiting the park if you have the opportunity, especially in autumn. It's really difficult to pick a favorite spot in the park, but a few of my must-see places were Bass Harbor Lighthouse, Jordan Pond, Ocean Path, Dorr Mountain trail, Hunter's Beach (technically outside of the park but still on Mt. Desert Island, off of Cooksey Drive), Thunderhole, and of course Cadillac Mountain. Also, my favorite places to eat in Bar Harbor were This Way Cafe (quirky cute place with bookshelves lining the walls and some good vegetarian options) and Morning Glory Bakery (seriously good quiche and homemade chai).

Europe trip part 2: Paris

day 6 continued: we arrived in Paris, checked into our hotel and strolled around Montmartre, which was where our hotel was located. We had a gorgeous view of the city from our room. Next we headed over to Champ Élysées and window shopped, and of course picked up a crepe from a street vendor to hold us over til we made it to LaDuree for the best macarons ever! I had pretty high expectations and they did not disappoint! It was really hard to choose with all the lovely colors/flavors available, but I managed to narrow it down to: Marie Antionette (a lovely aqua blue), pistachio, orange blossom and rose. At dusk, we made our way to the Eiffel Tower and hung out there for awhile and got to see the light show, sooo pretty! 

Europe trip part I: Amsterdam

Sorry about the long absence from the blog! My husband and I took our first overseas trip together for our 8th anniversary. It was a lovely getaway and we saw so many great sights (and ohh, the food!) I will be posting a recap of the trip in two segments...

The first place we went was Amsterdam. Our journey went like this:

day one: We explored the city, went to eat at a cute little place called Pancakes!, checked out some vintage shops, and just took in the beautiful canal houses and bridges, especially as they lit up in the evening. We found a great vegetarian/vegan cafe for dinner, de bolhoed.