I’m sadly ending my Smallburst blog. This is where it all started, where I found inspiration and where I found myself. Unfortunately or fortunately, my photography business has now taken off and I’ve transferred all blogging to my Gena Roma website. Please visit me there and say hello every now and then.
Thanks for all the comments and encouragement these past few years. As I stated before this is where it all started but it’s not quite an end but a transformation.
Living a hop, skip and jump away from Washington DC sure has it’s perks. One that we take full advantage of is visiting the Smithsonian National museums-all of them. The kids seem to enjoy them all and I love that all Smithsonian Museums are free. Yes, these museums are for everyone to enjoy. One of my favorite museums is the National American Museum of Art and I heart it for a few reasons. Aside from the fact that they house such beautiful and inclusive American Art, there’s also the gorgeous, enclosed Kogod Courtyard where you can either lunch at the Cafe or bring your own pic-nic. I brought my parents here during one of their visits and there was a full-on Salsa dancing show and class afterwards. My Dad happily partook in the lessons while the kids played in the water scrims. I didn’t think to take any photos of the courtyard during our recent visit, but please visit this page to see photos of it. What I did take photos of were our favorite sculptures. As with most of my photos, I did not use a flash. You can capture beautiful, bright, museum photos without the use of flash if your camera is capable and if you know how to use your manual settings.
This is actually pretty amazing. All the monitors within each state was showing a program associated with that state. California was showing a documentary on California and for Hawaii, Elvis Presley’s Blue Hawaii.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. We got into the Christmas sprit early this year and chopped down our Christmas tree during Thanksgiving weekend. I’m so glad we did. The weather couldn’t have been nicer – it was 60 degrees and we could have walked around in our t-shirts. I thought that getting a head start on the tree would give me a leg up on shopping but I’m far from completing my list. I also still need to prepare for our Christmas dinner.I’m tackling prime rib. Anyone have any suggestions on sides? I’m staying away from green bean casserole and want to try something different.
It’s been a crazy summer and although it’s not officially over, I’m already missing the long, carefree, days. I’m also missing the sun. It’s been raining non-stop for four straight days and it’s feeling a bit like Seattle, Washington rather than Washington, DC around here. I don’t mean to complain, but with all the crazy weather and earthquakes in my neck of the woods, I’m just in need of a much needed pick me up. One thing that’s helping is looking at the wedding I recently shot in NYC’s Prospect Park. This intimate wedding was so bright, so fun and filled with so much love. There. Cheeriness regained. Sometimes all you have to do is look at pictures to change your mood.
For my American readers, I hope you all had a fun yet relaxing 4th of July celebration. For those of you elsewhere, I hope your weekend was grand. We spent ours on the beach. The weather was perfect and location even better. We ate, collected shells, pretty rocks and we even found some fossilized shark teeth. What did you do?
I was fortunate enough to partake in a celebrity chef/wine tasting event and tried my darnedest to capture culinary cuisine at its best. Yep, we’re talking food porn. I wish I could tell you what each item is but there was such a whirlwind of activity there wasn’t much time for chit chat and I was also there as a photographer, not as a lucky guest. Oh, I really wish I could have sampled these.
If you’re an avid Small Burst reader you know I love plants and gardening, especially vegetable gardening. However, with such a busy work and home life, I haven’t done much of any gardening the past few years. I’ve been yearning to get my hands dirty and to finally get that veggie garden going. I didn’t think I can pull it off this year since life seems to be busier than ever, but, thanks to my wonderful, garden guru parents we now have a beautiful garden. They’ve included my faves; black krim heirloom tomatoes, early girl tomatoes, ichiban eggplants, string beans-just to name a few. My little lovies helped plant their favorites too. Can’t wait to see what else “crops” up in my back yard while my parents are here. My 4 year old daughter expressed how It would be a terrible shame to wake up one morning to find that critters had feasted on her watermelon seedlings. Her solution was to make a sign to ward off squirrels. I told her the next morning the signs must’ve worked-all seedlings were safe and sound. Her response: ” I don’t think squirrels can read.”
Have you started on your vegetable garden? What did you plant? I’m sure you’re all way ahead of me.
I’m still here blogland. Just busy with some projects. I just completed shooting an event for Sugar and Spice Fitness For Women with Martin Lourd Philippe. I had so much fun at this shoot because everyone was so nice and it was jam packed with some great vendors and speakers. I know, I know, I was supposed to be taking photos but I was taking mental notes of everything while I worked away. I also made my rounds to say hello to every vendor. Here’s a slideshow I put together of the event.
Sorry all. Just corrected Martin’s website address. His link above is now up and running! Check it out!
These photos are from my latest shoot. I think I gravitate towards softness and light against the grit, grime and harshness of the industrial. This is true for my home and apparently in my photography. There’s something interesting about mixing these two elements to create something appealing. I also like the challenge of finding a balance between the two. I’m always on a look-out for these overlooked grungy scenes for a fantastic photography setting. When you’re driving around town today keep your eyes peeled for these spots. Take your favorite photography subject there and click away.
