Saturday, November 19, 2011

3 Generations of Butlers

About a year ago Chrissy and I had the pleasure of taking Adam and Marianne's maternity photography before they welcomed Baby B. You might remember this photo:


Well, Baby B (now Max) has been giggling his way into all our hearts for months now and thought it would be a great idea to get his parents and his grandparents together for a 3 generation photo shoot. We all agreed, how can you not agree with a baby, and took a stroll around the Court of the Carolina's on NC State campus. 

Adam and Marianne have become great parents and I think Karla and Dick are naturals at the grandparents gig. 


Max is surrounded by a lot of love. 


And he gives it right back. 



Sometimes with a head to the face...as happened shortly after this photo.


"Wasn't me, I've been sitting here, minding my own business, playing with Grandma's necklace the whole time..."


Wow look at those eyes. 

He's such a cutie-pie. He has such a great disposition too. All giggles almost the entire time. Though he did take his camera time seriously. Maybe he'll be an actor...

"I'm ready for my close up" 


Makes my heart all warm and melty. 

We had a great time walking around the Court of the Carolina's with the Butlers. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to capture your family's warmth and love! 

Before I end this I'd like to share the "after" photo of the first photo in this entry. During this photo shoot I noticed that Adam and Marianne were wearing the same exact shoes that they had been wearing during their maternity session! Unfortunately, Max has long grown out of his itty bitty shoes. But anywho, it's still cute.


Thanks for reading! We're racking up the family portrait sessions so stay tuned for more smiles and giggles and general merriment. 

Have a great weekend! 

-Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com

Saturday, November 5, 2011

We took a stroll with Sara and Joe

Last week, at the wee hours of Sunday morning (you know, 9am), while there was still a nip in the air we met our newest clients, Sara and Joe.

Sara found us through one of our previous clients (thanks, Toya!) and asked us to follow her and her fiance around Raleigh for what we like to call an urban photoshoot. These guys were champs because while it was still cold in the morning and Chrissy and I were bundled up, they were in thin sweaters, no gloves and no hat, smiling away at our cameras. Bravo. They don't look cold to me...




Or maybe the cold was making them giddy?


Or I had just cracked a joke. We have tendency of making our clients laugh during photoshoots. 

In any case, they were so friggin good together. I almost melted on several occasions. 

For this photoshoot we started at the industrial area near The Pit in downtown Raleigh. You would be amazed what you find just around the corner. First, this awesomely decrepit brick wall which worked wonders for a gorgeous ring/rough surrounding juxtaposition. 


*High five*, Joe. Nicely done. 

Then around the corner from the brick wall were the perfect set of railroad tracks. Minus the black residue that ended up on our rumps. Whoops. Again, they were good sports. I really love the light and body language in this photo. It's almost as if they're walking along the tracks towards the sun when it randomly strikes them to lean in for a smooch. 



After a wardrobe change, we rounded the corner and headed towards the Performing Arts Center. They have a line of trees that are lovely autumn shades right now. We couldn't get great light in one direction but we did happen to notice that the building created the perfect reflection!


We have several more photos from this area and I love every single one of them. The building, the trees, the adorable couple...swoon.

This next photo was a bit tricky. We had perfect lighting. Not a cloud in the sky. That's usually wonderful. But to get water to stream through a photo, you need to lengthen the time your camera takes to gather enough light to expose the image. Such a beautiful day with perfect lighting makes for incredibly over exposed pictures when trying to do this. But I think we rose to the occasion... Also, gratuitous capital building photo. Haha I had to keep yelling at them (they couldn't hear us over the fountain) to "keep kissing". Eventually we had to tell them to stop...


Chrissy and I had such a great time getting to know Sara and Joe. They are such great people, with great laughs, great smiles, great eyes and beautiful relationship. They're going to be very happy.

One last photo before I go. Around the corner from The Pit are gorgeous red doors that I've been stalking for a while now. They were a must. This photo makes my heart go pitter patter. Love the emotion.


Thank you Sara and Joe for letting us capture your love for each other! You two make excellent photo subjects and we hope to work with you again!

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it. 

-Liz DiNatale

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Li & Henry at Lake Johnson

What a beautiful weekend we've had. 

It has been the perfect weekend for a bike ride, the perfect weekend for a picnic, the perfect weekend for a bonfire and the perfect weekend for a fall wedding. 

My weekend was made very special when I was fortunate enough to photograph Li and Henry's nuptials at Lake Johnson in Raleigh. I only met Li and Henry shortly before their wedding but I knew immediately that they would have a lovely, heartfelt ceremony. Their love is built on so many years of experience with each other; I knew that there would be an exorbitant amount of emotion in the air. 

It was so lovely to see how everyone, friends and family, got together to make their day joyous and special. And special it was...from the fall colored garland, to the basket of apples to the mishap of the unbroken glass (gotta stomp extra hard on red wine glasses, apparently)...everything was uniquely them and perfect because of that. 

Enough of my yammering, on with the teaser photos. 


A special moment between father and daughter only moments before Li became a wife. 


After the ceremony, we took a romp through the woods. Li has such an amazing laugh and an amazing smile when she's laughing. But most of all, I love the look of complete adoration I captured on Henry's face. 


Together finally, as husband and wife. I have no doubt in my mind that they will live happily ever after. 

I'd wish them luck...but I don't think they'll need it. 


Congratulations Li and Henry. Thank you for letting me be a part of your day! I wish you a long and fun life with lots of laughs. 

Thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com

Friday, October 7, 2011

Photo Friday: Animal

Rawr...

That's my impression of this Photo Friday challenge word. 

Good Friday morning to everyone! It's going to be a gorgeous day and even if it isn't...it's still Friday...YAY! For this challenge I had to dig deep in my collections to find a photo of some animal that isn't a canine, feline or lizard. 

What seems like forever ago, Chrissy and I attended a sheep dog training weekend with our pups. It was a cold February (it even started snowing) but it was a lot of fun to see Border Collie's doing what they were bred to do. Chase bit fluffy things. These things...


I can't remember what kind of sheep they were called. But they were cute. I mean look at em. Big, fluffy, smelly things. The training day was hosted by the lady who owned these sheep and was held by a well known herding instructor, Mr. Knox.

I wish I had participated. It looked like so much fun. They started the new dogs off in a pen with the sheep. Mostly to get them used to the animals and used to still listening when faced with them. Then the more experienced dogs got to herd the sheep in the open field (which is where this picture was taken). All the spectators (Chrissy, myself, our 5 dogs and a couple other people) watched as several dogs drove the sheep back and forth and back and forth. It looked to me like they were supposed to be doing that but apparently they were just having fun and not listening to their handlers. haha. Doggy shenanigans. Eventually it was the owner of the sheep's turn and she brought out her herding pup. Within a couple minutes he had these sheep rounded up and in their pen. It was pretty amazing.

I wonder if Rhea, Gunnar and Masi could do that? Maybe someday I'll give them a shot at it. It's got to be Border Collie nirvana. 

In other news, almost a week until Li and Henry's wedding on Lake Johnson! It's going to be a gorgeous intimate ceremony. I'm very much looking forward to capturing their special day for them! 

The leaves are starting to change...that means it's time for family portraits! Take advantage of our inexpensive family sessions. 1 hour with full print rights to at least 50 images for only $75! Pick you favorite location and give us a call today! 

Everyone have a great weekend and thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com

Friday, September 23, 2011

Photo Friday: Glowing

Good Friday morning to you all! I hope everyone has awesome plans for the weekend. I'll be heading over and up to Asheville, NC this weekend for our much anticipated 1 year anniversary trip. I can't believe it's been one year. This time last year...I was hanging 14,000 Christmas lights with friends and family. Good times, good times. 

The Photo Friday challenge word for this week was Glowing. I dug through my library of photos (which is dwindling, apparently I need to carry my camera with me more often) and found one of Steven cutting a stubborn bolt off the Rusty Bucket. I thought this was an appropriate "glowing" photo, no?



I see this and I wanna scream "FIRE!", in the evil crazy person kind of way. Yes, those glasses are safety glasses...I swear...

Upcoming news for SOR: Nikki and Travis are back from their amazing wedding and honeymoon in Aruba and St. Maarten. You know what that means? Bridal portraits! Yay! Nikki and I will be getting together sometime in the next few weeks for some dress up and posing. I'm super excited! Can you tell?!

I hope everyone has a great weekend filled with fun and love. Steven and I will be doing a zipline tour while in Asheville and we just bought a nifty video camera to capture the experience. Hopefully I'll figure out how to post a couple snippets on here!

Thanks for reading!

Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Photo Friday: Cars

I'll admit it, this Photo Friday challenge word is from a few weeks ago. I have been preoccupied with planning vacations, pickling cucumbers, riding 175 miles in two days and baking birthday cakes that I haven't gotten to my pictures! Finally last night (after prepping some sweet pickle relish) I was able to sit down and edit a photo for this Photo Friday. I didn't want to not post a photo for this challenge because I had such a perfect occasion to gather the perfect photo. Allow me to elaborate...

At the end of July, I surprised Steven with his "Annibirthary" gift: a trackdaze event at VIR (Virginia International Raceway). Ever since I met Steven, he's talked about racing. About his uncle who races. About how he went around the track and it was the most amaz-balls thing he's done. I always had the opinion that racing was kinda dumb (I mean, really, you go round and round and round and never get anywhere), so I would just smile and nod and be secretly thinking of the next cake to bake/veggie to can/photo shoot/house project. However, I always stored it away as a great gift idea if I could ever manage to make it work. Thanks to Ryan from TurboTime, I learned about Trackdaze.com. They are a great group of guys who organize track events at local tracks. It just so happened that they were having a track event at the end of August and that a single days participation pass was within my budget for Steven's gift! It was meant to be.
Fast forward a month from when I surprised Steven, we wake up at 4:15 am and drive our groggy selves to VIR. We promptly met a fellow non-racing-car driver who was driving a VW Scirocco and buddied up in the parking area. He used some of our painters tape (for car numbers) we borrowed his toque wrench; it was a good match.

Before I knew it, it was Steven's turn. He was shaking, I was giddy, his instructor might have been nervous. The first session (each session is 30 mins, you get 4 of them a day) was kind of slow. All the newbies were getting used to driving their cars on the track. But by session 3, Steven had it down to a science. He wasn't nervous anymore, he was calculated. His instructor gave him high marks and said he had "real talent". I  may have created a monster. Also by session 3 I had found the perfect vantage point where I captured my favorite photo of the day and what would have been my submission to this Photo Friday challenge. 


The Subaru was at home on the track. Its big fat, heavy bum and all. I now have a new opinion of racing. It's epic to watch (at least on a road course). The rumble of the engines, the whine of turbos, the talent, the nerves, the smooooooooth asphalt, the way the cars would hug the turns....my MINI would be so much fun.

It was a good day; Steven wouldn't stop talking about it for days. I think I would call that a successful "annibirthday" gift. 

In resent news, remember Travis and Nikki? They got married over the weekend! Congrats to Travis and Nikki! SOR has been busy signing contracts for this year's and next year's wedding season. Looking forward to a lot of awesome parties with a lot of fantastic people! 

That is it for now. Hopefully I will have a submittable photo for this coming Photo Friday challenge: Near. Near...near what? 

Thanks for reading!

Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com

Friday, August 12, 2011

Photo Friday: Spot

I can imagine that for most people this type of challenge word would be difficult. However, for me, there was only one choice. 

You see, we have this lizard. He's a leopard gecko. His name is Spot. Spot is an old, old lizard. Easily 16 years old (I think). And he's still going strong. So when I saw this Photo Friday challenge word, I had no choice but to photograph the lizard. I thought this would be a struggle. As lizards are usually not too keen about being out of their environment. Least of all when surrounded by dogs and a cat. Who would have thought that Spot was one of the best photo subjects I've ever had (as animals go). I swear, he moved less than most dogs. Trained dogs. AND he stared right into the lens! It was only with his patience that I was able to snag this little piece of awesome:


Behold, I give you, Spot! I think I can hear Kate Nothnagel Stone screeching from Trinidad (she's not a fan of lizards). How can you not love that face?! Look at him! He's poised! He's ready! He's going to kick some chess ASS! Aha...I die. Good, Spot.

While I was at it, taking photos of Spot, I figured I'd snap a few new ones of the fury type. And since I'm already here, writing this post, I might as well share them, right? Right. 




Last but not least, the queen of the house:


Now you know why the first thing we bought as a couple was a Dyson (after the house...of course). If only we could teach the dogs how to vacuum.

I hope you all enjoyed my little fur-kid (and lizard-kid?!) photo session. This next week's challenge word is Gold. I'm at a loss, any suggestions?

Thanks for reading!

Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Nate, Veronica and Baby P

This past weekend Chrissy and I went to Marbles Kid's Museum with Nate and Veronica and had a blast! It was really yucky outside so we were glad to have chosen an indoor location. We got to play in a pirate ship, play a little soccer, shoot some balls in a big hoop to fill up the pig, bob and sway on the big bridge and play chess with HUGE chess pieces. Yes...I enjoyed myself. More importantly, Nate and Veronica (and even Baby P...he was kicking and moving all over the place) enjoyed themselves.


I love how sincere Nate and Veronica are grinning in this photo. They both look so happy and so excited to become parents.

It wasn't all fun and games though. If there's one thing Nate and Veronica share, it's their competitive spirit. Do you remember those fitness tests you did in middle school? In particular, the stretch test? Well, they had one at Marbles and although it was an unfair match, I think Nate won. 


At least no one held a grudge. 


There is so much to do in Marbles that we got a little distracted. I think we even lost Nate at one point. At about the end of our photo shoot the museum was becoming crowded. We were lucky enough to find an unoccupied reading room to snap a couple of the more serious photos.


We really enjoyed spending the morning with Nate and Veronica and having a blast in Marbles. We are looking forward to meeting Baby P and maybe if our track record holds true, that might happen sooner than later! I'll leave you with one last photo: the gratuitous itty bitty baby shoe photo. 


**swoon** Little things are so cute. 

Thanks for reading! This Photo Friday challenge word is "Spot" so I'm going to try and convince our Leopard Gecko, named Spot, to do a photo shoot for me. Stay tuned for the results!

Liz DiNatale

Friday, July 29, 2011

Photo Friday: Vertical

Good Friday morning to you all. It's going to be another hot one. *insert pathetic whimper* Can we skip the rest of summer and go straight into fall? I'd be ok with that. 

My garden enjoyed the random rain we had a couple days ago. I mean, besides the one corn plant that got rained to death, literally, and slumped over in demise. Everything else is going NUTS! So I felt that the most appropriate photo for a Photo Friday challenge of "vertical" would be my plants that are literally trying to reach the sky. 

"I think I can, I think I can"


Fully story...I hope...anywho...last year was my first year planting a garden. I thought I knew what I was doing. In fact, I was certain. The seed packets read "plant 5 feet apart" I thought "But I want more than 1 squash!!!" Yeah...I should have listened. I also should have done some research. You see, for some reason, I thought cucumbers and squash and cantaloupe were ground plants. That bushed more than climbed. So I planted a ton of cucumbers and a ton of squash and a ton of cantaloupe and before I knew it my garden was a big viney mess with everything trying desperately to climb the corn. I did eventually get it under control with a couple trellises, tears and curses. But this year I had a plan. I was going to plant my cucumbers on the perimeter of my garden and let them scurry up the fence. Perfect! I wouldn't need to buy any trellises. That worked great for a while...until that rain. That cucumber you see there in the photo above. Yeah it is well over 6 inches above the top of the fence now and it's still trying to grab onto something. I am not building a taller fence, cucumber, start vining DOWN.

On a cooler note: look I have a cucumber!! 


WEEEEE!!!

Ok, back to the purpose of this blog post. The Photo Friday challenge was Vertical. I had thought of using the climbing cucumber picture but I felt this photo was much better. 


"What kind of tree is that?", you ask. This is not tree, this is my towering tomato plant! By towering, I mean 3 feet tall. Don't laugh, they're still growing! I start from seeds people! They take a while. I believe this one is a Roma style tomato. AND they have their first blossom! I'm looking forward to some yummy garden fresh veggies. 

Ok, that's all the photos I have for you today. However, I am very tempted to kidnap my husband and the dogs, throw the tent in the car and escape to higher altitudes and cooler temps this weekend. If I do, I'll take pictures of my antics. 

Everyone have a great weekend. Stay cool. Don't die of heat exhaustion. Until next time, thanks for reading!

Liz DiNatale

Friday, July 15, 2011

Photo Friday: Gloomy

I knew my jinx from last week would work! However, I think it worked too well. I could have done without the 100 degree days with 1,000% humidity. I might be exaggerating on the humidity.
Seeing as how I wasn't going to get my cloudy, weather inspired gloomy picture, I searched my photo library to find something suitable. 


That's sorta gloomy, right? It was the best I could do! I apparently don't take depressing photography. I consider that a good thing.

This was in the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Co. The rock formations there are just so cool. I loved how they just shot up out of no where and were so orange against the very blue sky.

This week's Photo Friday challenge word is seashore. I have no current plans to go to the beach so...yeah, I don't think this challenge is getting excepted. No worries, I'll still post a picture. I wouldn't want to disappoint anyone. 

Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend. 

-Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Photo Friday: Sharp Focus

This Photo Friday blog posts is brought to you by the phrase, Sharp Focus. Lets just pretend I wrote and published this on Friday. 

I love challenge words like this because you can use so many different photos. My photo of choice is one I took during Adrianne and Ricky's engagement photo session. 


Hellllooooooo, beautiful. I love Adrianne's ring. It was very unique and super sparkly. And we all love the sparkly bits. 

Next week's Photo Friday challenge is "Gloomy". With all this rain we've been having I think I should be able to manage a gloomy shot. I say that in order to jinx myself and bring the sun back out. Not that we don't need the rain...drought anyone? Ok, enough about the weather. 

Coming up next weekend are Veronica's maternity photos! Chrissy and I are excited about this photo shoot. It's always a blast to take a first time mum's maternity photos. Keep an eye out for a teaser blog post!

In the meantime, everyone have a splendid weekend! 

Thanks for reading.

Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com

Monday, July 4, 2011

Travis & Nikki - Making it official

This weekend, Chrissy and I had the privilege of taking the official engagement photos for Travis and Nikki. Travis and Nikki have been engaged for about two years but are making it officially official this September in Aruba! I could think of worse places to spend a weekend with friends and family all while getting married. 

We had so much fun being goofy with these guys while capturing some beautiful photos of them. They are such a great couple together that everything just came naturally to them. I loved it best when they were both laughing, you could tell how much fun they have together. 



We visited three very unique places for their photo shoot. Carter Finley, as pictured above, Yates Mill (first picture) and the North Carolina Art Museum. Each location was so different from the other! It made things difficult when trying to pick or favorites for teasers. I know, it's such a crime. 

For the North Carolina Art Museum, Nikki loved the big rings and very much wanted to feature them in her engagement photos. So we obliged. 


And then obliged again. 



I love this photo. I love everything about it. Nikki's laugh, Travis's air, the big rings. The humor, the colors...swoon. 

For each couple we photograph, we ask that they bring along some props that have meaning to them. The ones Nikki and Travis brought were very unique and sweet. I think this prop wins for sentimental value. Thanks to a camera-happy friend they have a photograph of them on their first date. First ever. Who here has a photo of them and their fiance/e/husband/wife on their first date?! Not me. I don't even remember the date of our first date. 


Travis had a funny idea of taking a photo of them holding the above photo in about 10 years. I'm not sure that's a great idea...the universe might implode. 

Needless to say, we had a great time getting to know Travis and Nikki behind the camera lens. They are great photo subjects and great people. We're looking forward to doing Nikki's bridal portraits in the coming weeks. 

I'll leave you with one last photo from Yates Mill. This location has so much to offer, I really enjoyed it. Thank you, Travis and Nikki for spending the morning with us. You were fantastic to work with!


Thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com

Friday, July 1, 2011

My favorite Trini get's married & Photo Friday: Wilderness

Last week to weekend, Steven and I visited Trinidad. This was quite the adventure. Please allow me to recant our trip. 

Let me start off by saying, Steven and I are cursed travelers. Or at least we thought so on Wednesday of last week. (Background : the last time we traveled for a friends wedding was in January of this year. We were stuck in the Atlanta airport for 3 days because of the weather. Let me tell you: that was fun.We swore off Delta that trip.) We arrived at RDU on time, parked our cheerful selves at the gate with plenty of time to spare, only to be loaded on the plane and then stalled on the tarmac because apparently: Charlotte Airport was inundated and the pilot was told to give them a breather. Ok, we don't care, we have plenty of layover in Charlotte as well as Miami.

We get to the Charlotte airport, get some coffee and find our next gate. Then we start noticing the delays showing up on the "departure" screen. Finally we're told that the plane we were scheduled to be on is stuck where it last landed for a 3 hour repair. BUT, not to worry, they had a new plane and it was landing shortly. Awesome, no skin off our back, we had a nice long layover to burn. Our 2nd plane lands, disembarks and yet we sit there. It turns out (as the nice person over the intercom tells us) that plane also had a mechanical issue and it would take 3 hours to fix. Our nice long layover is dwindling at this point. Frantically, Steven and I attempt to find another way to Miami (we're having flashbacks of January). I'm on the phone waiting on a customer service person who I likely won't be able to understand and Steven is in line at the counter waiting to talk to the nice intercom person. Right as it was Steven turn and I get off hold, the nice intercom person announces that they have indeed found us a new plane (hurray!) that is now taxing to the gate right next to us. 

Recap, this is plane 3 now and our layover is now cutting it very close. We get on that plane, sit, and wait only to discover it also needs a repair. They (the intercom people) thought that it was already finished by the time they loaded us but no...it would take another 45 mins. Layover, what layover? Immediately, I'm on the phone with Caribbean Airlines, our connecting flight in Miami. It was then that I find out they have a minimum checkin time of 3-36 hours before the flight. This was not mentioned on their website, nor on my itinerary and this was the first time Steven or I had ever flown international. Essentially, we were new...we didn't know what to do. We frantically tried to check in online through our phones or the wireless in the airport but both services sucked and we couldn't get passed the 1st page. Thankfully the nice intercom people were kind enough to book us on a backup flight with American Airlines that would put us in Trinidad at 11:30pm. A solid 5 hours later than we were supposed to arrive and a total travel day of 16 hours.

Finally exactly 2 hours before our Caribbean Airlines flight was to take off in Miami we left Charlotte (it's a 2 hour flight). Yes at this point, we still had hope. Somewhere in the air I said, "If we get there in time just to see our plane leave, I might lose it". When we land in Charlotte and taxi to our gate, I spy a Caribbean Airlines plan 3 gates down from us. We disembark faster than I have ever before and run to the gate. We get there just as they close the jetway; it is indeed our flight. We commence the begging. Pleading, "PLEASE put us on that flight!". To no avail. They had already submitted their manifest to the government and could not resubmit it now. So we watched our flight taxi off to the runway. 

I might have cried a little.We promptly got a beer. 

Fast forward 5 hours and we're sitting on the American Airlines flight to Trinidad. And we're sitting and we're waiting. We sat, loaded on the plane for an hour. You may notice at this point that every single one of the flights we were on was delayed. Luckily, that was as exciting as it got for that flight. We took off and made up the hour in the air. We landed in Trinidad with a nice big thump and got our first passport stamp! Ah, success.

Ok, I know you only read this blog to see pics so I'll skip to the good bits. We (the foreigners) were marooned on Kate's husband's family's island house for 2.5 days. It was torture. Nothing but the water, the fresh air, as much food as we could possible eat, tons of beer and liquor. I don't know how I made it out alive (or sober for that matter).

Now the good part...Saturday, June 25th. Kate, one of the nicest girls I have ever met married Rob, one of the nicest guys I have ever met. Kate made a beautiful bride.


Their ceremony was short and sweet. Filled with love and lots of talk about wine and stone vessels and it ended with Mr and Mrs. Stone!


The reception was everything I could ever picture a Trini reception to be. It was a huge party. It started off with heartfelt speeches (put my "best-person" speech to shame) and the special dances. I don't recall the name of Kate and Rob's first dance. I was too preoccupied with how great they looked together all dressed and everything. However, I clearly recall the name of the Father/Daughter dance.


"Wagon Wheel". Why do I know this song so well? My brother played it no less than 100 times during his bachelor party. 

It was a heart wrenching goodbye. There's no next trip to look forward to. No idea when we'll see our favorite Trinis again (yeah, plural now. You guys are just cool).

Our flights back to Raleigh were thankfully less eventful. We made our Caribbean Airlines flight (checked in early online this time) and nothing was delayed, broken down or otherwise crappy. We arrived in Raleigh around 7pm on Sunday, collected our dogs from our friends, that Dardens (thanks agian!) and returned to an empty home (no more roommate). Thus concluded our trip to Trinidad. 

The Photo Friday challenge for today is Wilderness. There was plenty of wilderness on the island where we stayed for 2.5 days. But I thought this picture was the most appropriate. 


That is nature at its finest. That is a plant growing inside a drainage pipe of an abandoned retaining wall. I thought this was most appropriate for its message. When we're gone, the wilderness will take back what was originally its own. Kinda makes you feel tiny in the scheme of things. As if your footprints on this earth can be washed away like footprints on the sand. Thus concludes my deep thought for the morning. 
I hope you all are planning an epic weekend for the 4th of July. I am sure to be hung over. Stay tuned for Nikki and Travis's photo teasers, their engagement photo shoot in this weekend!

Thanks for reading (especially this one since it was so long)!

-Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com

Friday, June 17, 2011

Photo Friday: Shadows

I had a couple ideas in my head for this photo challenge. Neither were truly shadows but what I could consider a play on shadows. A silhouette, that's a shadow, sorta...right?

This past weekend we unearthed the thundering heart of the Rusty Bucket (still need a new name). The hood and fenders came off  and are now resting perilously on the rear-end.  Finally, charged with a 6 volt battery from one neighbor, jumper cables from another, a Patron shooter bottle full of gas in the carburetor "bowl" (I know a lot about this truck, don't I....) and the Subaru's laboring engine, I watched from a distance as cautiously, Steven connected the battery lead. Luckily: no boom. The ancient engine, left for dead 10 years ago, thundered. It was amazing to see the crank pulley spinning freely! Unfortunately, there was no spark to be had. We'll probably need to replace the distributor cap before we can truly bring her back to life.

This latest development has left us with an impressive and rather naked engine sitting in our garage. I thought a very interesting photo would be a silhouette of Steven working away on his big-boy-toy. I loved the idea of symbolizing the years and years that this truck sat forgotten in the shadows of that home's woods. It was left there to rust into the ground, but we're bringing it back out of the shadows, bringing it back to life.

Eventually, when the Rusty Bucket is running, and legal to drive, I'll use it as an epic photography prop. I seriously can't wait. Until then, it still proves useful; I've already used it in my photo friday submissions.

I did run into a problem with this submission though. I couldn't decide which photo I liked better. So here's both. Thanks to my husband for being my model!



  I might still get around to taking the other photo I had in mind for this challenge. If I do, I might just have to post it here. We shall see.

Everyone have a great weekend and thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale