First Snowfall of the Season

The first fresh blanket of winter white always manages to take my breath away. But never have I seen a first snowfall come this heavy or fast. Usually the tips of the green grass are still sticking up for a week or more before there’s enough snow to cover it and not melt in a day. But today it started snowing, and didn’t stop… and it’s sticking. After about three hours, there was four inches of snow on the ground. I ran back to my apartment, grabbed my new camera (I bought the Canon Rebel T1i over Thanksgiving break), and ran back on to campus and took photos of the freshly fallen snow.

Of course, I was not alone out there, even though it was eleven at night by then. Plenty of other people were already out making snowmen, having snowball fights, and taking their own photos of the first snow of the season. Walking around in such a beautiful snowy world put a goofy grin on my face and just made my day.

In my excitement, I’ve already uploaded a few photos on my flickr tonight. Nothing like enthusiasm of fresh snow to get my motivation going.

Fall Photo Rush

So I haven’t been posting a lot, one reason being, I’ve been busy taking photos! I founded and currently run the GVSU Photography Club, so I’m always planning and participating in Photo Shoots for that, most recently being a night time photo shoot, and a walk though downtown Grand Rapids viewing Art Prize pieces on display throughout the city. The other event being a wedding I shot, as representative for the Photo Club. It was so much fun! I hope to do more weddings.

Click through the images below to see more on flickr!

Night

Art Prize

Wedding

(not available on flickr)

These are not all the photos lately. These are just the ones from the beginning of October. I’ve been so swamped with school and NaNoWriMo and other projects that I’ve been slow to get around to edit my photos. So expect fall photos round about when it starts snowing! Just kidding… I hope.

First Photography Club Photo Shoot

Well, this weekend we conducted our first Photography Club photoshoot. It was cold, in the 20’s, very windy, and we got hit by lots of snow on the last part, but it was great fun and I got a few good shots. Only four of us showed up, but I assume the weather was a big deterrant for most people planning on coming. I think it was worth if for those of us who braved the weather. Check out my best shots here.

Why I Hate Spring

Most people like spring. It’s the end of all the cold snow and the beginning to a new, warm summer in temperate regions. But when I tell people I hate spring, and it’s my least favorite season, they are shocked and appalled. But it’s a simple and logical explanation having to do with where I grew up.

For one, I can never answer the question, “What’s your favorite season?” because it’s a tie between summer and winter. I always recall once when I was in preschool I was babysat by my best friend’s mom. So when we weren’t in school, I was with my best friend all day long! And I remember, standing at the big bay window at the front of the house, complaining about the heat of summer jumping up and down singing, “We want winter! We want winter!” in that generic child sing-song voice. But then after winter rolled around, we would get sick of being wet and cold from playing in the snow. We would go to the same bay window, where the snow drifted up to our chest level against the window, and sing, “We want summer! We want summer!”

That has basically stayed the same, and now I love both summer and winter equally. Now, why do I hate spring? It’s because of where I live. My house, which I’ve lived in all my life, is next to a steep, slightly wooded ravine with a stream at the bottom. It’s beautiful and we have huge windows in our kitchen that look out over it where we can watch all the little critters run around and birds eat at the feeders. But the thing with all the trees dropping their leaves in a temperate area, is they soon get covered in snow for a whole winter. That means, come spring, when the snow melts, all the dead leaves get soaked and start rotting under the sunlight. Rotting equals disgusting smell, not to mention the worms. Also, living next to a ravine with a stream means that there’s stagnant water around which is prime breeding ground for mosquitos. We literally get clouds of mosqitos by my house and as a kid I was always covered in mosquito bites in spring. I’m still shocked I’ve never gotten West Nile or Malaria or something. Haha! (I’m kidding about the Malaria, only half kidding about West Nile….)

It’s these events that have made me come to the point where I hate spring. I hope this is more understandable now and you can excuse my disgust for the season. I make up for it with enthusiasm for summer and winter, and even fall in the right conditions! :)

See videos of my ravine in late winter when the snow first melts and in late spring when its more bearable.

Chicago in Pictures

So my art department went on its semesterly trip to Chicago last Tuesday. We went to the Art Institute of Chicago and to the Museum of Contemporary Art, and of course I brought my camera and took many photographs. So I thought I’d give a narrated tour of my trip to Chicago in pictures.

Part One – Art Institute

We took three charter buses at about 8am Eastern Time and left Grand Rapids to get to the Art Institute fifteen minutes before opening at 10:30am Central Time.

Art Institute Lobby

Now, I’ve been to the Art Institute half a dozen times in the last 18 months, I have the place memorized forwards and backwards, and since we weren’t on any sort of tour, I hit up all my favorite rooms. I oogled my favorite painting in the impressionists wing again and looked at all the Miniature Thorn Rooms that I have a fascinating book on at home. There was some spectacular photography by Yousuf Karsh in the basement as well.

Part Two – Park

Cloud Gate "The Bean"

Once I had skipped through all the exhibits I wanted, me and a small group of people walked through Millennium Park in 20ºF winter weather. It’s my policy, that any chance you have to see “the bean” in Chicago, do it. So, we went to the bean!

And as is tradition for most people with the bean, you always take fun self portraits. Here is one of mine.

Self Portrait in the Bean

After that, we made our way into the nearby Giordano’s Pizzeria for lunch. My four friends split a large deep dish pizza. But I’m a sucker for pasta so I ordered a delicious plate of cheese ravioli. I don’t regret it, though I’ve still never had deep dish pizza. Hahaha!

Part Three – Cultural Center

Fat Pigeons

So we backtrack a little bit and go to the Cultural Center which I still, to this day, don’t quite understand it’s purpose. But we saw some enormously fat pigeons and two more small art exhibits which were not that fascinating.

Cultural Center

Though one thing I love about the Cultural Center is the fact that it used to be the public library and they have amazing tiled ceilings with famous author’s names and quotes about books and reading and several glass domes inside.

Part Four – Hike

Frozen Chicago River

After that, it was a journey across the city to the Museum of Contemporary Art.  Along the way we crossed the Chicago River which I had never seen frozen. It was cool. (Haha! Get it? “Cool?”)

Me and the Silver Moose

Then we walked past on of the coolest scupltures ever. I just call it the silver moose. I got my picture taken with it because meese (yes, meese) are one of my favorite animals and it’s just full of bad assery.

Then, I made sure we stopped into the Apple store. I had to update my Twitter,  of course! Apple Stores are always fun though. And they’re a safe bet when you’re a broke college student because you know you can’t walk out with any purchases because it’s all too expensive. Yay!

Part Five – MCA

We finally made it to the Museum of Contemporary Art which had really awesome exhibits but they were dumb and didn’t allow photography. Still, there were these awesome light exhibits by Jenny Holzer that would have been awesomely fun to photograph but their security guards watched like hawks and were rude. But here are two videos of the different installations on the MCA website.

Orange Floor Installation

Purple

I also got a picture of the underside of their staircase which is really cool and sculptural, if not oddly uncomfortable to walk up.

MCA Staircase

And that was the end of the trip! Other than the bus ride back home where I got bored and started taking long exposure shots of car and street lights going by. Go here to see a map of the full route I walked and buildings I visited.