Happy Halloween

This is an oldie but goodie.  I took this picture last year during one of my photo classes.

I changed a few things, but I thought it fit the trick-or-treat theme.  I haven't done a Mr. Winks wednesday in a while, so I am going to try to get back to weekly puppy updates!!!!  Hope you enjoy.

Love Always,

Meg

The calm before the storm

My submission for tones on tuesday and sweet shot tuesday .

I took this picture on Saturday, before the weather started getting bad.  This was a raw photo so I changed the contrast, exposure, and color corected it in camera raw.  Then using photo shop elements I boosted the colors to get the bright orange to pop in the trees.

I hope everyone is staying safe during this horrible storm.  Luckily I live on a hill, so my neighborhood has been pretty safe.

Love Always,

Meg

Retrospect Monday

And so we start a new chapter of Retrospect Monday.  In May of 2010 I traveled to China with my father, and we had an amazing time.  We started our trip in Beijing and ended our trip in Hong Kong.

This is a garden in beihai park, in Beijing.  The parks in china are free to the elderly, so you will see dancing, tai chi, and plenty of activity.  These women were doing a fan dance.

This is the entrance to one of the temples on the path.  This was our first day and we had a great time wandering around the park.

The colors are gorgeous and I love the ornate roof.

This is the interior of the temple and I loved the vivid colors, so I took a ton of pictures.

Hurricane Sandy

So my work never closes....ever....ever....ever...

But I still diligently called the bad weather phone number last night, and multiple times this morning, then at 7:30 I decided to make my way towards work.

So Mr. Hip Hop and I drove 45 miles per hour on 695, and did my best not to get into an accident.  We stopped by dunkin donuts and got a coffee and bagel, and of course by the time I got back in my car, work had been closed.  I had to giggle, it had been maybe five minutes since I had last called the bad weather number.

After a quick stop at the super market for some necessities (i.e. queso dip) Mr. Hip Hop and I made our way back home.  These photos are deceiving, the weather was much worse on my way home and there were tractor trailers speeding, I can only assume they were racing to get home, and I was praying the whole way home.  Well, I was both praying and singing *Nsync's "Its Tearing up my Heart."

I am now home and going through a few instagram pictures I had on my phone...

The beautiful sunflowers from Fallston.

My lazy dog who barely acknowledged me when I came home safe and sound.

A bit of weather.

This picture actually needs an explanation.  My mother is moving and while I was cleaning out my room at her house (i.e. throwing away a lot of junk), and I found my *Nsync bobble heads.  Yes I too a picture, and yes I most definitely kept them.  Amazing.

Be Safe.

Love Always,

Meg

Christ Evengelical Lutheran Church

On my drive yesterday, I saw this amazing church.

It's hard for me to drive past a church without stopping to take a picture.

I love the COntrast between the dark brown wood, and the white wash on the rest of the church.

And the steeple has the cutest little bell.  It was well worth the drive.

Love Always,

Meg

It's Fall

The weather is beautiful today, you would have no idea that we are about to get the storm of the century in a few days.  I love the autumn colors.

I decided to drive up and down falls rd, and had to get out of my car here to take a quick photo.

I drive past this field every day on my way to work, but I never have time to stop during the week.

Thank fully there were still quite a few leaves on these lil trees on saturday morning.

Theres no doubt that after the storm this week, they will all be gone.

Love Always,

Meg

Rosewood

I drive past Rosewood on my way home from work most days, and I was dying to stop back there and take some pictures while the foliage was changing colors.

I don't know why I am soo drawn to these broken down buildings.  I love these worn down buildings.

It almost looks like plants and over growth are swallowing up the buildings.

When I left the house this morning it was overcast, but thankfully the sky opened up for a few minutes.

The bright trees are such a great contrast here.

Love Always,

Meg

Post Jet Lag

It is hard to believe that it has been three weeks from my trip.  I really felt the jet lag as I assimilated back into daily life.  I can happily say that this week I finally started to feel like myself again.

I am going to continue to edit my Africa pictures, to be honest I edited all the pictures in the day of series in one day, I was really just rushing to document the days.  Hopefully as time passes I will be able to slowly edit each one, I'll be sure to post them as I work.

I am going to try to get out and take some more pictures this week-end.  Not quite sure where I am going yet, but hopefully I will capture some more of Maryland's amazing character.  In the next few months I will be moving to an earlier shift at work.  I hope that with the shift change I will be able to take more pictures during the course of the week.  My dream for this blog was to post daily...hopefully over time I will get there.  As always, this blog is a work in progress...as is my life  :  )

Love Always,

Meg

Sepia Lion

I took this picture with a nikon D-300, with an 80-400 nikorr lens.  f 8.0, 1/400, iso 400.

I converted this photo to black and white manually using photoshop elements, then I used pioneer woman's sepia tool to convert the black and white version to sepia.  This is one of my favorite pictures.

Tones on Tuesday

Leopard

I've been messing around with the leopard pictures all night.  The problem is that it was getting dark, and the leopard was far away...so it really isn't the best picture to begin with.  This edit is a little bit brighter then I normally like my edits, but I think I like it.

This is another black and white edit, I like how the fur stands out next to the background.

Love Always,

Meg

Africa: Day 13

October 2nd was my last day of safari, this was the last day before the epic journey home.  We spent the entire day waiting by the water, hoping that we would see a crossing of wildebeests and zebra.

Our day began with some baby giraffes, this was the smallest giraffe we saw.

Our guide said that it was no older then a few months.  Again, no mother present. Hahahah.

Here is a little family of elephants, these baby elephants are sooooo cute.  It was one of the few times during the trip where I was like, can't we just take him home with us?  

I love how you can see the inside of the little trunk here.  These little elephants don't really know what to do with their trunks so they just swing them around and play with them like they're toys.  

This picture reminds me of jungle book, like he is singing, "Elephants on parade."  

The alligators were everywhere during the crossing, they would watch and wait...hoping to catch something to eat.  I was really fascinated when I learned that the alligators have to eat so infrequently that during the time of the great migration, they continue to kill the wildebeest and zebra for the fun of it.  They kill, just to kill, they can't even eat the carcass. Now the vultures were definitely eating though.

Here are the wildebeest and zebra taking a little drink and thinking about crossing.  They would walk up to the water, then walk away.  Then they would come back, then they would walk to another crossing area.  We would drive there, then the pack would go back to where they were originally.

It was a frustrating day, you would be positive that the animals were just about to cross...and then they just wouldn't...no real reason...maybe just due to a strong breeze.

Here is one of their famous mass exodus.  It was still an amazing day.  I typically find by the end of my trips that I start taking less and less pictures.  This last day was no exception, I took half as many pictures this day, as I did the last day.  

I had an amazing trip, one example would be this day.  We were out in the Massai Mara eating lunch and enjoying a little bit of wine thinking....wow...does life get any better?

October 3rd-4th were travel days.  We left our camp at about 9am on October 3rd, and then arrived home at 9pm on October the 4th.  Including the seven hours we gained by traveling back to the states we traveled about 29 hours.  Wow.  I am happy to be home, and amazed every time I look back at these pictures and remember what I got to see.  Life is good.

Love Always,

Meg

Africa: Day 12

Today we went on a hot air balloon ride.  I was really excited to go on a hot air balloon ride, not once did I think about how I would return to the ground.  Not once.

We began out ascent, and saw an amazing sunrise, and were sooo excited to see the vast countryside.

The ride lasted for 40 minutes.  Then Gunther, our Austrian hot air balloon pilot, told us to assume the landing position, which was a seated position.  A second before we landed Gunther said, "there will be a slight bump, not too bad."  Then it felt as if we were in a car accident, we collided with the earth, and then we bumped into multiple termite mounds before we slid to a stop.  It was a jarring experience.  Amazing, but jarring.

Hugging zebras!!!!

About twenty minutes form our camp, the driver stopped and said..."I see a cat." We spent the next hour staring at a leopard, who was stalking it's prey.  It was the most amazing experience.  People go to Africa and don't even see a leopard, I saw four different leopards, and one was stalking prey.

This was the most amazing trip I have ever been on.  Amazing!!!

Love Always,

Meg