Scooter Love in the Pacific NW - and GIVEAWAY!!

Who would have thought it! I went to Portland (1.5 hours north) on Saturday with a friend to see the traveling production of Mamma Mia. After the show we headed to the Northwest section of the city and what did we run across? Vespa scooters. Not one, not two... Seven in all. Seven!! I was in scooter heaven! Especially this one, parked in an empty garage against a textured wall in some moody light. It was calling my name. Luckily, I had my little Canon PowerShot with me to answer the call.

Someday, I will have a red Vespa scooter. And I will park it in front of every texture-y wall I can find to take pictures. Until then, I will take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way to live vicariously through taking photos of someone else's red Vespa.  And I can do this in Portland. Who knew?

What a weekend though! Not only was there fabulous scooter love to be found, but we received our container from Italy. Yay! Early Saturday morning, the truck pulled up and there was the container waiting to be unloaded. All sealed and packed, just as it was as it left from our apartment on Via Matteotti. That means, however, that our lives are in disarray again. The semblance of order and routine we had been able to create for a few weeks is once again dismantled as we unpack boxes and try to figure out how to fit everything in to our house. Our house in the US and our apartment in Italy were the same size in square feet/meters, but there was so much more storage in the Italian apartment. Add the belongings that were in storage in the US to the items we collected over two years in Italy, and you have the makings of one gigantic garage sale in a few weeks. First priority is to get to the point I can walk through the house without tripping over anything though!

On top of that, the Liberate Your Art postcard swap blog hop was going on. So fun! I had such a great time hopping around, seeing where the art ended up. It provided a much needed break from the unpacking. The swap turned out better than I imagined, and the blog hop was a blast. I can't wait to do the swap again in 2012!!

Until then, I have tons going on around here...

• Find Your Eye registration is open for the September-October class series! I'll be running Starting the Journey and the all-new Journey of Inspiration. Right now the August class, Journey of Recognition, is going on and has it been fantastic. I couldn't ask for a better group of participants. I love doing this!
• We are exploring Night Photography in Exploring with a Camera. I had forgotten how much I love taking photos at night! I hope you will join us and link in before Wednesday. You can still get the Night Photography Camera Companion if you sign up for the newsletter too. I'm sending a "catch up" newsletter to all new subscribers this week so that new subscribers don't miss out.
• You still have a few more days to catch Superhero Summer Camp too. Sign up for this fun and free six-week class closes on August 31. 
• And finally - in honor of the seven Vespas of Portland - how about a GIVEAWAY!! My first one on US soil. I am going to give away a set of my new "Classic Italian Transport" postcards to one lucky reader, and a Vespa mousepad to another.

I will draw for the postcards on Wednesday morning when I write my blog post, from the comments left on this post. Let's make it fun, you can have more than one entry. How about a whole bunch of entries!! Leave a separate comment for each of the following:

1. Just to say hi!

2. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook

3. If you are a newsletter subscriber

4. If you have registered for a Find Your Eye course (past or present) 

5. If you link in to Exploring with a Camera: Night Photography

Good Luck!

Linking in to Creative Every Day and Creative Exchange, as always. Happy Monday! 

Portland Photowalk: The Report

Our photowalk in Portland on October 10 was presented with two major obstacles: The Portland Marathon, and rain. Now, you would think in a place that is known for it's rain, that would not deter anyone. This was before my Exploring with a Camera: Rain post though! Life, traffic and rain got in the way and we had quite a few cancellations.

So it was down to three of us: me, my sister Laurie (in town visiting me for the weekend), and Jenny of Sugarsnap who had helped me plan the walk. We met at a Starbucks in NW Portland and then, juggling umbrellas and cameras, we went to see what we could see. It was a beautiful neighborhood, with fall just starting to show it's colors. I enjoyed capturing the beauty found in the rain, and chatting with Jenny and Laurie as we walked around. And falling in love with Jenny's lens - a 50mm compact macro.

Here are a few of my photos from our little walk around the neighborhood. You've also seen some of the photos from this outing in the Exploring with a Camera: Rain, Curly Fence and Share Your View: Rain posts. Stop by Jenny's blog to see her photos too!

Laurie (left) and Jenny (right)



Beautiful trees, just starting to change.

Flowers were still blooming! (Happy Purple Tuesday!)

A bit of color for the season to come...

This poor little tree seemed confused about the season.

My only pumpkin shot of 2010!



Time to head home...

It was great to meet Jenny, and to find another person who loves photography as much as I do! It is fantastic to have been able to bring another online friendship into real life. A big thank you goes out to Jenny, for planning the details and braving the rain! I look forward to seeing more of her, when we move back to Oregon next year. And hopefully a few more people, if we plan a photowalk sometime when the weather is nicer. Until then... ciao!

Jenny (left) and me (right) - Fast Photo Friends!

Share Your View: Rain

I love how the rain fills up these paw prints, and provides the contrast of light and dark on the concrete sidewalk. Can you just imagine the chagrin of the dog owner as the dog traipsed through the wet concrete? Who knows when it happened, but the perfect prints left behind made me smile when we came upon them during our rainy Photowalk in Portland. (Post on that coming soon!)

It's been a week since the Exploring with a Camera post on Rain. Have you been lucky enough to get some rain in your area in the last week? Did you get out in it and shoot? I hope, if life graced you with rain, you had the opportunity to take photographs. We had tons of rain here on Monday, and I was able to capture some beautiful images myself.

But today, it's time to share your view of the rain. Recent or archive shots are welcome, link to them with the widget below (viewable on the blog). I can't wait to hop around and share some blog love with all of the participants - you guys always inspire me and make me see things in a new way!

Note: Please use a permalink to a specific blog post or Flickr photos, so that we can find the image you intended to share later. Thanks!

Curly Fence

Yesterday I started to look through my photos from the Portland Photowalk, and here is one of my early favorites, of a beautifully curly fence. I still need to finish reviewing photos and write up a post on the Photowalk, it was so much fun!

I am feeling so behind this week... even though I got back home a week ago, we went to Venice for the weekend and had house guests here for most of the week. There are piles everywhere in my life - on my desk, on my bedroom floor (suitcase is still not unpacked!), on my "to do" list, in my email inbox, in my google reader... everywhere. I don't like this feeling, to be honest. This weekend I hope to get things under control. Anyone have suggestions for me?

Portland Bound

Time to head to Portland! I'll be spending the weekend in this beautiful city with my sister and apparently everyone who is coming for the Portland marathon - it should be busy. I look forward to time hanging with my sis and, of course, visiting Powell's books. Best bookstore in the world! (And yes, I expect the invariable comparison to the Tattered Cover from the Colorado contingent of blog readers...)

I'm also looking forward to the Photowalk on Sunday! Yes, this Sunday, October 10th. Everyone is welcome, bring your cameras - any kind - and meet up with some other photographers to explore part of the city. We'll be meeting at 10am, at the Starbucks at NW 23rd and NW Overton in the Northwest District of Portland, two blocks from the 23rd and Marshall streetcar stop. Look for a bunch of people with cameras!  (Plan your travel route such that you avoid the Portland Marathon route.)

The Best Bookstore

Let's take a little poll: Is Powell's Books in Portland the best bookstore in the entire world? Post your comment below. If it's not, it's got to be up there near the very top. A whole city block of books on multiple floors. New, used, all topics. You could probably find almost anything you are looking for. Oh, and for the techie types, there is Powell's technical books.

And here is a special section to me, the creativity section I discovered last spring at Powell's. I walked around a corner and felt a jolt, it's like the section just grabbed me and said "hello, here I am, you've been waiting for me." I purchased and read several books from this section last year before the move and I've got several more after a visit on Saturday. Can't wait to get reading! I just hope my suitcase is not overweight...