Keri & Eric's Blog

Our Christmas Card!

Eric — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 00:12:33 +0000

Full Of Love Christmas Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Filed under: Christmas

Walt Disney World in under 2 minutes!

Eric — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:34:54 +0000

Keri and I went to Disney World (Orlando) for our honeymoon in April of this year. It was a blast, and as is typical, I took 8 gigs of photos while we were there just to let them sit on a memory card until a couple days ago! It was great to finally look at the pictures again, but then came the realization that I took a LOT of pictures. I tend to get snap happy looking for that perfect shot, so I had a lot of photos of the same type of scene in sequences. Good thing for digital, I would be broke if I shot actual film. Or maybe I’d be a better photographer with less mistakes!

I wanted to go though and select the good ones to post here, and I will eventually, but with holidays and work, I just don’t see it happening anytime soon. So I did the next best thing, I imported all the untouched-up photos into iMovie and made a high-speed slide-show! Because I neurotically snapped multiple photos of similar scenes (especially fireworks), the slide show ended up looking very much like an old 8mm movie in many places. The effect is pretty cool, so I decided to run with it.

Before you watch the movie, keep in mind my iMovie and general film skills are non-existant. I wish I could have pulled off the old movie effect with a little more clarity, but c’est la vie. Also YouTube’s compression doesn’t help the clarity either.

You can watch the movie below or click here for a higher quality version.

Posted in Animals, Fireworks, Photography, Video, Wedding Tagged: Animals, Disney World, Fireworks, Honeymoon, Photography, Video, Wedding

Some More Rhode Island Goodness

Eric — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:20:01 +0000

Still digging through old photos, here are some more photos from Rhode Island.

This photo is from a wall of inspirational tiles dealing with 9/11.

Somewhere in Newport, I do not remember exactly where. This is really why I should label my pictures.

The Newport bridge shot from the navel base.

The Vanderbilt’s summer home in Newport.

Also the Vanderbilt’s summer home, shot from off the balcony. They did not allow to takes photos inside, although looking back I wish I had sneaked a few.

Two posts in one day for such a small state

Posted in Architecture, Photography, Rhode Island Tagged: Architecture, Photography, Rhode Island

Rhode Island Waterfire

Eric — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:35:53 +0000

Waterfire (click for a larger image)

Waterfire is a live art installation in Providence, Rhode Island. It is burned multiple times a year for different occasions and is a spectacular sight, especially after dark.

I took the photos below on Independence Day in 2004. It was a great time, with crowds of people, great weather (very cool for the 4th of July, I’m used to hot beach weather that time of year), good food, and other sights to see. Typically I disdain crowds, but since the installation was so large and spread out it was easy to move through.

These photos were taken with my Powershot G3, a great little camera that I still use a little today. I have since moved up to a Digital SLR and would love to get back up there to photograph the event again.

A close up of one of the fires

Posted in Art, Photography, Rhode Island Tagged: Art, Photography, Rhode Island, Waterfire

Holga (the camera)

Eric — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:34:42 +0000

If you have never heard of a Holga, the Holga is a cheap medium format camera with a cult following for its unique “properties.” Originally designed in Hong Kong in the 80′s, the camera was originally destined for the Chinese market where medium format film was cheap, common and easy to develop (like 35mm film in the U.S.) The camera became famous for its quirks. Constructed completely of plastic, even the lens, and with little quality control, every camera is different. The lens is not sharp, vignetting is very prevalent, and light leaks are common. Why would anyone want this camera in this day of high-end digital cameras and camera phones? Today the Holga can be relatively expensive to operate (despite being so cheap to buy) and the image quality is decidedly sub-par, but the thrill of framing a shot, pulling the trigger, and waiting in anticipation to see what is actually on the film is back in style. This “thrill” is what fostered my interest in cameras as a kid. Even though I switched to digital in high school and never really looked back, reliving that wonderment from childhood was a pleasure with this camera.

With all the praise I have given the Holga, you may be wondering why I have only ever shot one roll of film. It’s because I’m cheap and lazy, but that’s another story! Perhaps with this blog I’ll be inspired to shoot another roll.

If you would like to learn more about Holga, click here.

I received the Holga for Christmas last year, and over New Years Keri and I took a trip to the Stoneridge B&B in Lexington. All of the photos below were taken during this trip.

This is the B&B where we stayed. This wasn't the room we were in or anything (I hope it wasn't anybody's room actually), just a little building on the property.

Inside our room. It was a little dark in there... Actually I learned the hard way the Holga should really only be used outdoors. This was one of two indoor shots that came out at all.

Keri wanted to track down some yarn shop that was just a little further away than BFE. We found the shop, but not after driving on some gloriously curvy roads and coming across a frozen water mill.

Need some ice? The water was flowing over some nasty looking icicles. It's hard to tell, but most of what is in this picture is actually frozen.

When we finally found the yarn store, it was on a little farm in the middle of nowhere. The GPS just laughed at us as we tried to find it. So did the guy who lived next door.

Inside the shop. Aw, their dog looks so nice. No... no... it wasn't.

Keri takes the Holga, and has no idea if the thing even worked. It did.

Back in downtown Lexington, we met a dog that wasn’t trying to maul me.

I've been plotting a way to steal this dog ever since...

And finally… the highlight of the trip…for me anyway…

FOAMHENGE!

Is it religious? Is it art? Is it really made out of foam? More on this in a later post.

Now for some double exposure fun…

You can't do this with a digital. Unless you use Photoshop, but that's cheating!

And finally, the best for last, the other indoor shot that kinda sorta come out…

???

Posted in Photography Tagged: Camera, Holga, Photography

Callie (the cat)

Eric — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:54:52 +0000

If you’ve been reading this blog for the whole one day it’s been up, you may have read we have a cat. Well it’s actually up for debate whose cat it is depending on what it’s up to. Her name is Callie, and I rescued her from an animal shelter about three years ago. She was the shyest cat in the kennel, not bidding for my attention like the others, but cowering in the back of the cage. I couldn’t resist. She’s has beautiful calico coloring, and I don’t know how she had been in the shelter for as long as she had.

By the way, I don’t intend to fill this blog with a bunch of cat posts, but.. uh.. my wife made me I wanted to do just one.

She settled in quickly as queen of her castle

psst...what's the password?

None of presents are for me? Your holiday bores me...

Patriotic kitteh

Posted in Animals, Pets, Photography Tagged: Animals, Pets, Photography

Winter is coming

Eric — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:21:44 +0000

I kind of thought when I moved to Roanoke, I would get to see a lot of snow. I remember large snowfalls as a kid, but throughout high school and college I rarely got to see any. So far, that trend has continued, with about one paltry snowfall a year. This year is supposed to be different, but we’ll see. Last year, during the paltry snowfall, I was able to get out and take some pictures around the train tracks downtown. Perhaps if I post them they will please to snow gods and we can actually have some snow this year?

View the gallery on SmugMug
View the gallery in a slide show

People walking over railroad bridge

I never did figure out what these guys were doing. I love this shot though.

Panoramic view from just outside of the "trespassing" line of the tracks

This reminds me of an old western

Posted in Photography, Roanoke, Snow, Trains Tagged: Photography, Roanoke, Snow, Trains, Virginia

Georgia Aquarium

Eric — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:27:39 +0000

A couple years ago we went to Georgia for Keri’s cousins’ Bat Mitzvah held in the Georgia Aquarium. Her aunt and uncle actually reserved the building (yes, the whole thing, well mostly, but I’m pretty sure we were the only group there) before it was even built! Before the party, we had the opportunity to tour the entire aquarium after hours. Without have to deal with people jumping in front of the camera, I had the opportunity to take some great shots! I didn’t take any pictures of the actual event because A) I wanted to eat, drink, and be social and B) they had hired photographers, one of which was apparently threatened by my camera and kept making snide comments to me about it…

Click here to see the entire gallery as a slide show

The only photo I took of the event, this is the girls getting ready and the aforementioned photographer

You got my money?

What up?

I like to stand out from the crowd

The Swarm

Jellyfish

da dum - da dum - da dum da dum da dum

Looks like he's going for an upper periodontal incision

This is how I float...

Beluga whale

Click here to see the entire gallery on SmugMug

Posted in Aquarium, Georgia, Photography Tagged: Aquarium, Georgia, Photography

Welcome

Eric — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:12:33 +0000

We’ve decided to become a bloggers now!

Downtown Roanoke

Yea, that sounds lame. And it is, but we’re not really doing this because we think anyone cares that much about what we have to say. We just want a creative outlet to post photos, knitting, cooking, or anything else. If anyone does actually like what we have to say, then great.

We’re located in the Roanoke area of Virginia, right alongside the Blueridge Parkway. We were married in April of 2009, and have been trying to figure out how to live together with the cat in this tiny apartment. We’re both Computer Science majors from the College of William and Mary. I currently work as a programmer for R&K Engineering, focusing on GIS solutions for facility management. My wife is a former Qimonda employee until her site closed amidst the recession (perfectly timed for out wedding however). The cat… well… she doesn’t do much, although I think she senses I’m writing about her because she’s staring at me.

Below are a few photos from downtown Roanoke I took back in 2005. Excuse the ugly watermark, it is something I used to do when I first started posting photos online. Part of this blog is to revisit some of these old photos, reprocess them and give them a new home.

Hotel Roanoke

Grand Furniture Outlet Sign

Fire Escape

Posted in Photography, Roanoke Tagged: Photography, Roanoke, Virginia