My photos of UVA

In my previous post, I showcased favorite photos that the kids took while we walked around UVA on a spring afternoon. Now, I get to share my favorites that I took, and I think the timing is great since the students are moving back in this weekend! I've enjoyed the quiet of the summer, and miss being able to walk unimpeded through Grounds, but it's also nice to see it come back to life.

I've taken to shooting in both RAW and JPEG so that I have the RAW files if I ever have time to edit/process them, but I'm also focusing on camera settings so that I don't HAVE to process them afterwards; I'm happy with how they look straight out of camera. This was a batch that I did not have the energy to edit, and didn't really feel the need to!

She's such a pretty subject. And capturing her eyes without needing to edit is hard! Thankfully I think I'm getting the hang of it.

 

The kiddos were so cute. I loved capturing them capturing their favorite images.

Henry out there did understandably give me some pause...he was a bit precarious! But Evan was nearby, just out of camera view, ready to intervene. Plus, he was so excited to shoot from that perspective, it was hard to say no.

And I love this one of N and I taking photos of each other!

I really love getting to share photography with the kids. Natalie is reaching the point where she wants to learn more about composing an image, what she can do with the camera, etc. Henry still just wants to take photos without any interference from me, which is fine! But I'm hoping I can teach him a few things down the road too.

NYC with my mom!

In June, I had an addition to my usual 1-2 night trips to New York City - my mom came with me! Since starting with B-Line, I typically take Amtrak to NYC, and my mom had mentioned how she would love to do that sometime. So, we found a trip that worked with her schedule, and with my work schedule, and she joined me!

We headed up to NYC on a Sunday evening, as I had meetings on Monday afternoon. We got to our hotel room kind of late, around 9pm - I picked a hotel on 42nd street so that we were near everything, including Times Square. We checked out the view from our room (on the top floor of the hotel!), and then I convinced Mom to go down to Times Square with me, just to check it out. I also convinced her to take a selfie - I had to get at least one photo of us together, even though she hates having her photo taken.

 

It was still VERY warm out, and Times Square was busier than I had seen it on my previous couple of trips. You'd think the heat would keep people away...but I guess it was the start of summer vacations, so I should have expected that! Fighting through crowds of people in the heat is definitely not fun, so we checked out some of the lights and billboards and then went back up to the room.

The next morning I had a few hours before my client visit, so we started walking. We headed up 5th Avenue, not really with any destination in mind, but ended up walking through Rockefeller Center. Despite having a ton of photos of RC, I had to take a few new ones, as there's always something new or a new perspective to shoot!

We continued north to the base of Central Park, at which point we grabbed a cab to take us back to the hotel so I could change and head off to Long Island for my appointment.

We walked about 2 miles that morning, which is a lot for my mom with her knee, and in the heat!

While I was out in Long Island working, Mom explored a bit along 42nd street, and only retreated to the hotel when the afternoon got too hot. That night, after I returned, we took a car over to the High Line to walk around a bit and enjoy some tasty pizza for dinner. I forgot to take too many photos, but I did like this one!

On our second and final day in NYC, I had a client appointment in the morning, and then returned to the hotel where Mom and I sat in nearby Bryant Park, had lunch, and I got some work done. We had a few hours to kill until it was time to go back to Penn Station, and this was a great place to make our home for that time. It was warm, but we were in the shade and there was a lovely breeze.

Finally, it was time to get our stuff and head over to Penn Station. I took this shot of our hotel from across 42nd St - crazy that we stayed WAY up at the top of that middle (blue) building!

It was a relatively quick trip, but Mom hadn't been to NYC in years (since we used to live up there), and I think she got a pretty good taste of the city. It was definitely fun to have some company when typically I do this alone!

Not one, but TWO Brandi concerts!

I was fortunate to be able to see Brandi TWICE on her 2018 tour for her new album By The Way, I Forgive You, and both times with friends! The first one was back in early April, when I was in work at the same time as Kathy, and we were able to make our trips coincide with seeing her! This was one of the first stops on the tour, and at a venue I'd always wanted to go to - the Beacon Theater on the Upper West Side

The interior of the Beacon is absolutely gorgeous! I was able to take a few photos in between the opening act and Brandi.

We arrived during the opening act; frankly, I don't even remember the guy's name because he was so terrible. So, we got a drink, and went back inside between acts to check out the space and prepare for Brandi!

This tour started with an absolutely stunning string quartet performance. I don't know how long they played their chords for, harmonizing with one another, but I could have listened to it for another hour.

And then the band! The show was so great (as always); they performed the entirety of the new album, interspersed between older songs.

We had pretty good seats! We were in the balcony, only a couple of rows back. So I was able to zoom in between heads in front of us to get some decent shots.

At one point, I badly needed to go to the restroom (damn you, pre-show drink!), so I went during one of the new songs that's not one of my favorites. The line for the bathroom was so long that unfortunately I showed up late to the next song...which is one of my all-time favorite's of hers, off of her second album, and one that I've NEVER seen performed live. I managed to record part of it once back in my seat, with tears in my eyes. Acapella, no mics, so much emotion...loved it.

The second show was in May, and Kathy and I went with Beth and Rachel. The concert was at a new DC venue, The Anthem. It's located down at the waterfront in DC, and I'd heard of it but hadn't been there yet. Who better to see for my first concert there than my favorite singer?

The concert venue is huge, as you'll see in the video below. Here's a shot that I took during the opening act (a band who was a LOT better than the guy who opened for her in NYC!).

For this show, the strings were only a trio, not a quartet, but still sounded amazing. Here's the whole band on stage (a bit blurry - I was far enough back on this one that I was at the limit of zoom ability on my phone).

The very last song they played during the encore is off the new album, and is definitely one of the more sing-along, crowd-pleaser songs. It was a great way to end the show!

NYC April 2018

In early April I went to NYC for work for two days, although I managed to get some fun stuff done during the trip as well! On the first morning, I had to take Metro North up to my client north of the city. I walked to Grand Central Station from my hotel - it was a gorgeous morning, and I had to stop and take a few pics like a silly tourist.

First, as I walked along 42nd street - the Chrysler building.

This was taken as I was passing Bryant Park. Because so few of the trees had leaves yet, I was able to see the Empire State Building across the park.

I hadn't been to Grand Central in a very long time - I loved this shot of the outside, with the Chrysler building behind.

Of course the inside of Grand Central (the main terminal) is one of the most iconic, but I failed to capture that at all! I was in work mode at that point, I suppose.

That evening, once work was done, my friend Kathy and I (she was also there for work!) saw our favorite lady, Brandi Carlile, touring for her new album. I'd never been to the Beacon - it's a fabulous location! More on that in a later post.

After my client visit the next day, Kathy and I had some time before taking our train home. The weather wasn't great, so we headed over to the Met for a couple of hours! I hadn't been there since we lived there, oh-so-many years ago, so it was a lot of fun to revisit.  We started in my favorite wing: the Egyptian wing.

 

The kids thought it was very cool when I explained that there were mummies in these sarcophagi!
Weird side note: the guy on the left above looks like a Sesame Street character that SUPER creeped me out as a kid. Anyone else remember that guy?

I love, love, love this part of the museum - they actually transported an entire tomb over from Egypt in the '60s, and built this gorgeous room to hold it.

The British and French who found these in the 1800s were pretty jerky with the graffiti. C'mon guys!

Still, quite impressive.

We then walked through the American wing, where I really enjoyed looking at all the Tiffany glass. Absolutely stunning windows!

Another gorgeous room (more than a room, really, but I'm having trouble thinking of words tonight. Gallery? is that better?).

We made our way over to the modern art exhibits. Modern art is one of those things that's sometimes cool, sometimes WTF, and sometimes something that a 2 year old could make. But I did like this exhibit, particularly the way the shadows were created by the lighting on the hangers.

When we left the museum, the weather was a bit better (not raining anymore!), so we decided to walk across Central Park to the west side. While walking, we stumbled across these fellas playing in the Park - it was quite lovely.

NYC in February

I went to NYC in both January and February for work. The January trip was VERY busy - 5 visits over two days, throughout Manhattan, the Bronx, and Long Island. Because of that, and I since I was traveling with colleagues, I really didn't get a chance to take any photos while there (except of my client sites, and no one here will find that interesting!).

However, when I went in February, I stayed in Manhattan, did a lot of walking to my appointments, and was alone, which led to a lot of photos!

I stayed in a hotel I hadn't stayed in before, and unfortunately by the time I checked in they didn't have the room type I had reserved. So in exchange, they gave me a room with a view of the Empire State Building - absolutely gorgeous at night! I was literally lying in bed looking at this.

 As I was walking around mid town the next day, heading to my appointment, it was a stunning clear (if very cold!) morning. And I still had beautiful views of the Empire State Building.

 

I passed this church on the walk; I loved the mix of older church architecture with the barely-in-leaf tree and the brand new architecture going up behind it.

 Later, I walked through Madison Square Park, which was surrounded by very tall new buildings, lit from behind by the sun.

And of course, the Flat Iron building! I hadn't seen this one since we lived in NYC, as I don't often head to this part of the city while there for work.

My appointment the next day was at NYU, where I walked with my client around Washington Square Park. I would have loved to have gotten a photo of the famous arch there, but since I was talking to the client (as we walked and drank hot tea), I didn't think I should stop to do that. Hopefully another time! I am heading back to NYC twice in April (first next week, and then on a second date, TBD), so we'll have to see where my visits take me.

A wet and icy, but beautiful, Montreal

In January, I headed to Montreal for the first time ever. Of course, that's not the ideal time of year to travel to our neighbor to the north, but it's when my clients needed me to visit, so I packed heavy and flew up...into a right messy storm! The snow was blowing, it was late at night, and the weather for the next day two days was...not great.

I stayed at a hotel where I could walk to my first two client sites, which was fortunate because the roads were in bad shape. My first two appointments were in the morning; my afternoon appointment was cancelled due to the bad weather. So, I trudged through the slush in my boots (more on those later), met my clients, and then headed back to the hotel to work for the afternoon.

By about 4pm, I was going a bit stir crazy and had gotten all of my work done. The freezing rain/snow had stopped (or at least greatly slowed down), and I wanted to go see at least part of Montreal, since so many people had told me how pretty it was. I wasn't too far from the old town area, so I bundled up and headed out.

Despite the gray, slush, and snow, old town Montreal was very picturesque!

I walked down to Notre Dame; I thought about going inside but it turned out there was some sort of light display inside that was about $30 to go see, so I decided that wasn't worth it and didn't go in.

And here was the view across the street from Notre Dame. I think this was some government building? I'm not sure, but the square was very pretty.

It still wasn't snowing, so I ducked into a nearby Starbucks to grab a warm drink and check email. While there, thawing out, the freezing rain started back up. I'm a Lyft girl, so I didn't have Uber downloaded to my phone, and unfortunately Lyft doesn't exist in Montreal yet. This meant no way to get a ride back to the hotel (there weren't any cabs where I was that I saw either). So, I bravely headed out in the rain for my 1.5-ish mile walk back to the hotel.

Despite the rain (and rain it did - I got soaked!), it was beautiful.

 

The lights shining on the ice during my walk was too pretty, so when I could take my phone out to photograph it (without ruining my phone), I just had to. And oh, was it raining. I tried to take a "sad face" selfie to show just how wet I was. Honestly, I wasn't totally miserable - by that point, it was an adventure, right?

 

My jacket was soaked through in the shoulders (it's not waterproof!), and even worse were my boots. I had brought my tall black boots on the trip, and despite their being leather, they are also NOT waterproof. They've gotten wet before, but never like this. They were truly soaked through after this multiple mile walk through slush, rain, and ice. I dried them out as best as I could, including using the blow dryer on the inner lining, but they were still slightly wet the next day. I had to wear them to my clients and home on the plane, but once I got home they sadly had to be thrown out. A sacrifice to the travel gods! Of course just a week or so later I bought what would have been the perfect black winter boots (for $20 on clearance!), so at least that won't happen again.