But, it wasn’t just the big camera, in fact it was mostly the little iPhone that got the biggest workout – because…yep, it’s the camera with me…

Actually, I made a point not to take the bigger camera with me for most of my vacation – it was a birthday break, turning 40 in the tropics – a time to relax, take in the rays, drinks some tropical beverages, just to relax. Relalxing means, not obsessing over getting all the spectaular shots… Perhaps this sounds counter intuitive – but I can be, a bit obsessive with my clickage. I want to capture all the pretty.

I actually thought about this for a bit – the images that would or would not be captured whilst I was in the tropics. I wanted both, not to be obsessed, but to be able to get some image trophies to bring home…

So, I scheduled a tour – specifically a photography tour. Alex Wilson runs Oahu Photography tours – and has earned the top spot on the activity list on Trip Advisor – I concur(ponders – Alex, do you need to franchise out – the Big Island perhaps?! – only partially kidding, lol).

Given the schedule I had of family and friends meeting me on the island – I felt like I could only spare a half day – so I chose the Sunrise tour – and it was spectacular – I got my photo on, fed the beast as it were, and my trusty iPhone was able to satisfy me for most of the rest of the 9 days. I only cracked out the big cam again on the 2 trips up to North Shore (the wild seas warranted it), and a few shots out at Haunama… I also chose to shoot primarily with my 15mm fisheye – which I think worked out well. I have really fallen in love with it. Playing with the bend, the flare, the wide angle – a great creative lens and creative image partner.

First – with my iphone, instagram was my friend…posting friend & family pics easily to facebook, and pretty seascapey phone pix to my tumblr. Several of the fun phone pix – here –

And, of course, solar flare most often in sharp focus…big cam shots – about eighty percent from the photo tour – thanks again, Alex!

~full gallery archive slideshow~
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Aloha & Mahalo, Hawaii – until next time…

But it was a gorgeous weekend in Seattle – so if you were here – it was a great time to get out and enjoy something local – ergo, I did. I was supposed to find a friend that was playing there – but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out where…the place was teaming – bunches of Seattlites were there – running around the fountain, consuming the fair food, lazing in the sun, taking in the music on the stages, and street performers of all types (music and otherwise) along all the walkways…It was fabulous – a perfect seattle day (and weekend) to be out at Seattle Center taking in the bliss.

And so I did…camera in hand. I decided to focus on the life over the stages – if that makes sense. From the kids running around, folks lazing under the sun, street performers doing whatever they do, playing for tips, etc…it was perfection, this day.

Take a look –

Full set gallery archive from the day

Northwest Folklife Festival 2012 5-26-2012 – Images by Elisa Sherman

While there are already many images of – we all see things differently, tell a different story. As well, part of the point of the movement that is happening, is duration – the only way to tell that, via images, is to keep taking them. So, this is the beginning of my series of recording the occupation here in Seattle – at Westlake Park. For more on the local occupation – occupyseattle.org. For more on what I think about it – and other things political – see my new poli-blog – politicsbyelisa.com – my first post is here.

Now, the images – these were captured October 6th and 8th.

The full set to date –

Occupy Seattle – Images by Elisa Sherman

The ongoing collection will be here – http://photosbyelisa.photoshelter.com/package-show/Occupy-Seattle/P0000B8AGpLhZ5k4

Occupy Seattle at Westlake Park 10-6-2011 – Images by Elisa Sherman

I love using my iPhone to shoot self portraits… Maybe it’s vain? I don’t know – but if I look good, or if I am in a mood – I like to capture it – it’s my own warped sense of reality, since none of the pix I ever share of myself, shot with my iPhone ever show a double chin or a bad angle (IMO lol)…well the angle may leave something to be desired – shot so close with an iphone, makes my nose look larger than it is – but I sacrifice it for the art(not really)…really though – they show off how I see myself – what I see in the mirror. Perhaps I have an inflated sense of myself, but I don’t think so – I just like seeing the best – just like in the images of others I publish. I hate when I see the real candid (or not so candid shots) that people take of me, where my face looks too round, and I look like I need to lose 100 lbs – which, yeah, I know I do (ok, maybe not 100, but 50 would be fabulous!)… As well, I never show that my eyes are crossed! bwah – my right is lazy, and so am I(generally) – but in my fantasy reality, they’re just dramatically not looking straight! Also, noone sees us through their eyes like we see ourselves. Self portraits can be both revealing, and veiled, for that reason I think… I don’t even know if I’d say, my iPhone pix are proper self portraits or simply self inflicted snapshots of boredom? lol – and perhaps that ambiguity is ok.

Anywho – I just jumped on the band wagon to one of the popular iPhone photo apps called Instagram… It’s not my first photo app – but now I get why people love it. It is so easy to use to share images (even of things other than my face – ha!)…It’s the perfect “snapshot” share mechanism with all the cool “film” filters, and easy to share via social networking. The downside – the oh so popular over reaching terms of service. So – I think I will use them for their filters more often – and delete the posted pix (leaving 4 pix there – lol I guess they can do with those what they like;). Unless I want to share them – I can do so via flickr which doesn’t over reach – just something to think about. I suppose all the photo share sites – that have these – well, it’s all about what you get for free – if you want free hosting, you give up something in exchange – I pay for flickr – so, it makes sense that they don’t require as much…And my updated flickr app lets me share links on FB, twitter – so I think I will make an effort to go that way, in the future…Beyond that – I have ceded enough images to facebook – no need to spread the wealth any further…

Anywho(sorry I digressed!) – on the self portrait filter front – here is myself shot through the phone – over the past 1-2 years…Not too many people pose for portraits for me properly – so, eh, you get me – hope I don’t crack your screen! (ha!). It also should be noted – that even my profile picture for this website – is, just another iPhone pic…And most of the profile pics on my facebook are all iPhone photos – I just can’t stop;)

Mirror Mirror – am I the fairest of them all?!!??!

More music stuff – soonish!

It took 2ish hours to get to just the one garden once we left the freeway…so alas, we made it a good one…

Some may remember images from my last trip in 2008 – I was taking my then new Rebel XTiand lenses for a tour, to figure out how to use them…the difference this time, less time, less fields, more sun, less clouds, no droplets, more sun(yeah, it was bright!), and oh yeah, I actually now know how to use a camera, lol…I took my 5d, my 15mm fish, 70-200 2.8 and my 50 1.4 to see what we could see this time. I tried to stick with the extremes at 200, and 15mm wide open at 2.8 – figured noone wants to see just another flower portrait – but eh, they are pretty flowers, so…Anyway, because it was so bright, I figured, extreme perspective would be able to capture some drama in what would otherwise be, just more flower pictures – though, that is what they are! And that’s all ok:)

When I say I know how to use (now) – it sounds silly – and I was really happy with my 2008 images – you might even like some of them better than this years! (and that’s ok:)  But I barely knew how to use the focusing system, didn’t quite understand what I would get through the various lenses (10-22, 50, 100 w/my 2008 rebel)…I like to think I had an eye and a bit of style – which has always been a little like my cooking – by feel and senses…These days, new gear, and I at least in my head a bit more of a sense of – hey I know what I’m after – how to shoot it, and well, never forget to just enjoy it.

So with all of that said – here are some of the colors admist the brightest sun – gotta love the pretty!

Archive (alternative view – non flash)

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival 2011 – Images by Elisa Sherman

Some of the images – not bad for a little point & shoot:)

Archive slideshow (click here for non flash version)

Freeway Park Seattle 4-9-2011 – Images by Elisa Sherman

Every year presents a bit of a different twist along with several familiar faces…See the last few years here – 2008 – Seattle comes out & 2009 – Seattle Says I Do!, parade blogs…

This year – along with nods to our Gay “Emerald City” we so fabulously are, we got loads of corporate and political promotion… Not the least to mention the obvious push for recognizing that Love is Love…gay marriage is a right, and some of the most gorgeous kids look really cool in rainbow boas… And well, of course, that a gay man clearly wins the make-up award – I mean seriously, why do they do it better?!!??! It’s all garish and gorgeous. I mean I put on something slightly more than neutral and I look like a whore, and they look like miss america – sigh…

So, with out further ado, here’s to glowing white skin(because we had no sun in June) and spray tans galore(because – well the same reasons!) – the gloriousness that was Seattle’s Pride Parade 2010…

Maybe I’ll hire an assistant next year, to hold my cameras so I don’t get so tired and can go take pix of the madness at the Seattle Center next year?!?!

The full set –
[flickr-gallery mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157624252634167″]

Slideshow – http://www.flickr.com/photos/emswazzu/sets/72157624252634167/show/

On top of that, she brought out a local music ensemble group as the lead off set – Sintonía, followed by her billed opener, Geese, and then one of her accompanying musicians, gave the final lead in set to hers, Ben Christophers…and of course then it was Imogen herself, in all of her lanky, prancing, crazy haired madness…incuding in much of her set, supporting instrumentation, etc from the openers on stage again. All this to a packed theatre at the Paramount…loved this show…

Photos of Imogen on SoundSpike.com – http://soundspike.com/photos/?p=Imogen

Some of my faves of the night…

A few from the openers…
Ben Christophers –

Geese –

Sintonía –

The rest of the set here –
[miniflickr photoset_id=”72157624286146098″]

As I as volunteering as a photographer this year for NFTN – one of my photo responsiblities was to take photos of the crowd…not always the easiest in some of the darker venues, particularly when not using a flash…but now and then something interesting occurs, the light is just right, or someone makes an interesting pose…

My favorite image from shows, is this one, all bathed in a bit of a green/cyan wash, w/the NFTN signage prominently in the background…if this isn’t representative of the event, I don’t know what is – though, given that I have no idea who the green dude is, it will never officially be, other than from this observatory editorial viewpoint…and hey, it’s not just the hulk that looks good in green;)

And I loved this one of the gal from Teen Feed – it definitely captures the spirit of the entire gig…

And my favorite music image of the event – definitely this one at the piano of the keyboard player for The Album Leaf –

And a few of the other images…

You can see all of my shots from the 2 gigs featured here –
http://www.flickr.com/photos/noisefortheneedy/tags/nftn2010byelisa/show/

Until next year!