Portraits: Ning

The other day a work photo shoot led into a bit of portrait practice with the lovely Ning. It was a super fun mini-session and Ning is a natural in front of the camera. Read between the photos for a bit more about her!


Ning is from Taiwan, but is attending college here in Oregon. I asked what she liked about Oregon: My favorite things would probably be the pretty trees and scenery in general.



What's your major and what do you want to do after college? My major is psychology, and I want to be a counselor after I get my degree. I want to work with families and kids (part of the reason is I love kids so much).



Describe your personality. I am pretty easy going, friendly, positive, joyful and energetic.


Beauty! Thanks again, Ning. :)

Project 52 (41)

You may remember me saying I wanted purple tulips, in a previous post. Well, my friend Deborah took that as a challenge, and last weekend I had these waiting on my doorstep! Yes, she's very thoughtful!


:) :) Thanks, Deborah!

Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm

The other day I went to Woodburn for a work-related photo shoot. It didn't occur to me until I was arriving that I should try and stop by the tulip farm before I left town. I hadn't been in a couple of years, and going on a weekday is ideal (it's so crowded on sunny weekends). I was grateful for the opportunity that lined up so perfectly with the work assignment and the peak of tulip season.


You would think a place so picturesque would be easy to photograph, but I have found that it's really hard for me to get creative when I visit the tulip farm. I feel like all of my photos end up looking the same. The result is a lot of snapshot-quality photos that thousands of people have taken. Oh well, at least you're getting a look at the place, if you've never been!


Hey, sexy.



I'd really love to take portraits here sometime. In fact, I was on the verge of asking strangers if I could photograph their kids. :P I just didn't want to creep anyone out or make them think I was just trying to trick them into purchasing photos from me.


Cool how the focus of this photo is the ditch. Oh me and my mad skillz!


Gosh, there must be over two dozen tulips at this farm! Perhaps it's in the triple digits!



The first time I visited this tulip farm was in 2006. It was raining and miserable, but I had driven all the way out and was determined to get some photos. (This sounds like a Pop Up Video fact.)


Back then it didn't seem to be as big of a production as it is now. They've added so many tents, stands and kid attractions that it kind of annoys me, but it's still nice to be able to see so many tulips at once. I think I'll just stick with weekdays any time I visit in the future. It's cheaper that way, too.




This one's probably my fav.







Have you been to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm? What about another tulip farm? Tell us alllll about it.

This has been a very tulippy spring for me!

Green

(And a little pink.)

We're getting to that time of the year when the green reaches its peak. It makes rain and clouds more tolerable, and the clouds just made everything more vibrant. So today I took a few photos of a nearby golf course and the grounds by my place.


If I had to marry a color, of course I'd choose green.


There are so many shades! Something for everyone. Or all for me--that's fine too.




Oh look, some of my future homes! I've always thought it would be awesome to live on a golf course. Or above one, in a mansion. ;)



Now I'm home!


It was really windy today, so the blossoms were all blown off onto the water. Yesterday, I was imagining snow that's made of blossoms, but then I remembered the cleanup factor that makes it less appealing to have piles of flower petals. So then I thought, what if in heaven there is snow that is like blossoms, but they melt? And they aren't cold or made of ice. They're more like cotton candy, without a sticky residue on the ground. And that's my snow story. The end.







I also went to the tulip farm today (busy Wednesday!) and will show you a few photos later on. How are you? What's been going on? Do these photos look dark to you?

Project 52 (40) + Oregon Garden

I know that this is a poor photo, technically speaking, but it seemed like the best representation of "everyday life" that I had this week. Especially for kids this time of year. It all happened so fast that I had no time to adjust my camera's settings (and then the frog jumped out of the girl's hand), so there you go.

That was taken at the Oregon Garden yesterday, so I'll put the rest of my photos in this same post.


This is the only photo I took of flowers. It was an unusual visit. I had a weird day, and due to the weather, many animals were out that I usually wouldn't see, so I ended up just taking creature photos and not bothering with the rest.

(If you don't like snake pictures, you'll want to just skip this post.)


Another bad photo (sorry, but it's true!), but I wanted to remember this silly koi in the pond. It kept going around the edge and sucking at the rocks. I've never seen my parents' koi do this. You could even hear the sucking noises from across the water. It's a plecostomus in training, I guess.


At first I couldn't see any frogs, but there were several tadpoles/pollywogs/whatevers.


After missing a photo op of a heron catching a frog, I was feeling grouchy at myself for not being prepared and sulkily walked back behind the pond where I found not one but two garter snakes hanging out in the sun. That sort of made up for my heron miss.






Then there was this woodpecker.



Later I saw a/the heron again. This time I was determined to get a picture of it catching a fish or frog, but gave up my resolve after standing there for like ever while it basically stood motionless.


I should note that the animals at the garden must be extremely used to humans, because I've never been this close to a heron. Instead of being skittish when someone walked nearby, it was like he thrived on the attention. For that reason, these photos seem kind of cheaty and less rewarding, like I was at a zoo.


There were plenty of red-wing blackbirds out.


Finally I started noticing the frogs. It's one of those situations where once you see one of them, you better know what to look for and you see several that have been out all along.




I'm sure I'll be going back soon to take photos of the actual garden areas. By the way, did you know there is a resort at the Oregon Garden? (Too bad about their website, though. :P) I learned only a couple of months ago, though I think it's been around for at least a couple of years. It looks nice (I had to go to the front desk to get some passes). I wouldn't mind staying there, even though Silverton is only half an hour from me.

Unrelated: last night I dreamed that I saw two pink and purple hummingbirds (I'm sure they exist, but not in Oregon). I kept trying to get photos but then would notice my camera was off, or it was backwards (?), or I couldn't focus. Typical photography dream. But eventually I did get a couple of photos. I only wish I could show you!