... simply my life

I have taken many trains between cities in Europe and actually really love that mode of travel. Watching the landscape go by is wonderful.

Here I sit in Chicago's Union Station, no bags and nowhere to go. Maybe one day I will actually pack a bag and hop on one of those trains...

Loved this little sign at the French Market... Happy Valentine's Day to all.

After a day of fun with the girls in the loop, I strapped on my snow pants and headed for the lakefront for some icy Chicago photos along Fullerton beach. As the sun went down and the lights started to pop, I went out of focus ... Chicago. She's so pretty.

I finally found a way to process these photos! They were horribly flat because it was a horrible gray day. I am trying to find new ways and work flows to better my processing. I used to hear that if you shoot RAW you can bring back even the worst of photos... slowly but surely I'm learning.

More photos from Amsterdam... we had the most beautiful day for an open air museum and that produced photos with really amazing color. Super pleased with how these turned out!

I spent the whole day on Saturday in front of the computer, determined to get through editing all of my photos from Amsterdam. I managed to finish and am pretty happy with the results. I'll be posting more in the coming weeks. I don't want to overload anyone on windmills. :)

I decided to flip the camera upside down to see how I'd like the blue on the bottom and I think it came out pretty good. This is the more traditional view of sky and clouds.

I took advantage of a rare window seating during my flights to and from NY (I'm usually and aisle girl) - the winter sky provided the most vivid blue and the clouds were simply dreamy. I did an iPhone series, but managed to dig out my point and shoot for a couple higher res snaps.

After Thursday's big snow I wanted to snap a few pics - it was too late for any color to still be in the sky, but I thought I'd drive around the neighborhood and see if anything caught my eye. There was this huge house, sits on a corner, with every tree lit with twinkle lights - it was beautiful. I wish I had my 10mm lens to get the whole scene. Loved these trees!

Two years ago I decided I was sick of the perma ponytail and cut off 10” of hair. It was long enough that I could donate it to one of the organizations that makes real hair wigs for women with cancer. I was pretty happy I did that and hope it made one woman even a little bit more comfortable with her battle.

So, after two years with a sassy little bob, I’ve decided to go long once again.

Since I’m doing 52 week portraits over on Flickr, I've decided I will take one photo per month that highlights my hair so I can see how long it will grow in one year. Haven't you always wondered how long your hair would grow in a single year? I feel like mine grows fast, but we will see. : )