Trees

Red

Looking Through Glass

Recently I had some time to kill and decided to take an evening stroll down Sherman Avenue. It was freezing out, but I was hopeful that I would find something interesting to shoot so I stuck it out. There are so many fun stores along Sherman, such a variety! The first store I came to was an old antique store (one of many on Sherman). Alas, it was closed, but just looking through the window was enough for me. Beautiful ornate objects were placed ever so nicely into gleaming crystal-like rocks to show off to the passerby's. A friendly clown occupied the next window down. I'm usually not partial to clowns, however there was something about this one that had charm. The next antique store had a Christmas sort of theme going on inside their window. Looking at the stuffed bear inside, I wondered who it belonged to and where it had been. As I went along, I came to a very unique toy store called Fuzziwigs. This window was the most intriguing of all and I found that I just couldn't get myself away from it. Intricate mechanical toys were arranged to perfection inside. As I stood there watching the toys going around and around, it instantly made me feel like a kid again and brought me so much joy. This store was a very interesting subject to photograph indeed!

Highpoint View Panoramas-A learning experience

I had the bright idea of going into Farragut Park one morning at the crack of dawn to climb up a mountain I know of to get some shots of the sun rising. When I finally got up there (about an hour later)I realized, "huh, the sun doesn't even rise on this side of the mountain". That's why its important to know your cardinal points. I was a bit of an early bird getting there, too early in fact. I had to wait about 30 min for the light to look how I wanted it. That's why you should know the time of sunrise instead of just guessing. I took a few shots and wanted to find the sun so I moved to the other side of the mountain. It was GREAT over there and the sun was just shining across lake Pend Oreille. I got out my camera, took two shots and my battery went dead. That's why its important to keep your battery warm!

Coeur d'Alene Resort Christmas

At this time of year the Coeur d'Alene Resort is the brightest and busiest spot on the lake. My boyfriend and I were on a boredom binge and decided it would be fun to walk the boardwalk and take in all the pretty Christmas lights. We started at Java on Sherman to warm up with some coffee and proceeded on to the resort, getting a little sidetracked on the way to stop for a picture on santa's sleigh. The resort lights were beautiful as always, epecially their yearly wreath that adorns the parking garage tower. We decided we weren't tough enough to bare the cold any longer so we began our trek back to the car. As we were leaving the boardwalk one of the cruise boats was coming back from visiting santa across the lake and was letting off all of the passengers. I found a bird's eye view of them as they went through a pretty tunnel of lights.

Gettin' Hitched

Coeur d'Alene's popular little, charming chapel, the "Hitching Post", is a great place for a quick and simple wedding. The small chapel rooms and soft lighting makes it feel warm and cozy. Unfortunately, the small chapel rooms and soft lighting created a challenge for shooting some good photos. It seemed like no matter where I was standing, I was blocking somebody's view of the ceremony. I wanted to make sure to get some good shots, but I also had to remember to be respectful to the ceremony. I may have surprised the bride a little with this close up, but at least a big bright flash didn't go off in her face. When the ceremony was over I was happy to get outside into some open space and good light. But alas, it only lasted for a moment, for onto the reception we went!

Engaging for Everyone

A very good friend of mine asked me to take her engagement pictures last weekend. We had a lot of fun doing them and there were a LOT of laughs. One thing she had a hard time doing was being serious, so it was a bit of a challenge to get any serious or softer pictures of them. I had to be quick because I knew at any minute she would start cracking up. It was a fun shoot. We went all over downtown Coeur d'Alene to a few different parks. At nearly every park there were a few onlookers. One of them was a mom taking pictures of her little kids. She saw a pose she liked that we were doing and she commented to me that she was going to steal it. It was a kind of awkward, funny moment.