Weekend Recap

I have a problem - my camera battery lasts too long and my SD card holds too many photos.  Ha - this, I know, is not a bad thing.  The problem is that I occasionally go to use my camera and can't because it is dead.  Since it hardly ever needs charged, I never think to check the battery before I go out.  Lately, I've been trying to force myself to just always plug it in when I know there is something coming up (it would be really embarresing to have to tell a client I have to cut their session short because my camera battery died!

I almost thought I was going to have to do that yesterday, but not because I forgot.  I took over 1000 pictures over this weekend!  While Saturday morning I had a fully charged battery, towards the end of my second portrait session Sunday it was getting really low.  Luckily, the little guy got tired so we wrapped up before it was completely gone.

This weekend was really busy - my pictures will tell you so!!

This weekend I . . .
     . . . went rock-crawling with Tristan.  I KNOW that I have mentioned his RC trucks before, but he really loves them and I will occasionally go with.  A fellow RC-er recently built a bunch of trails on his property so we drove out Saturday morning to check it out.  It was pretty fun.

This weekend I . . .
     . . . had my first experience at the race track!  Well, technically I had been there a couple times before - but not for races, for the annual Christmas light display!  Friday and Saturday nights Portland International Raceway hosts drag races where pretty much anyone can race, after an inspection of their vehicle.  I was a little nervous about going, because not only was it my first time watching the races, but Tristan had decided that he was going to race for the first time.  *First time on the track anyways*

     Him and a friend went 7 rounds and it actually was a lot of fun.  Each time I was a little less nervous for him and they did really good.  I could not believe how fast and loud some of the other cars on the track were!

This weekend I . . .
     . . . explored the Astoria Sunday Market.  I don't know why, but I just love going to local markets.  All of the fresh produce and craft vendors are just fun.  And - a great photo opportunity!

This weekend I . . .
     . . . of course, had a couple of photo shoots.  They were both a lot of fun.  I was opening the clouds would burn off a bit more - but it is the coast, so I didn't expect too much.

This weekend I . . .
     . . . explored the Astoria waterfront a little bit in between sessions.

There will be much more to come on all of this later in the week.  But there is a little recap for now!

Time to conquer Monday - yuck.

Races

I realized this morning that I am way behind.  The pictures below are probably from 3 weeks ago now...I was planning on getting them up over the weekend (finally), as well as participating in this week's Scavenger Hunt Sunday, but life had other plans for me.

After rear-ending another vehicle on Sunday afternoon, I didn't feel much like accomplishing my list of to-dos for the day (which was pretty long by the way).  Then yesterday, while my husband stayed home to try to help deal with my car and get it to a shop, I absent-mindedly took the keys with me to work - somewhat defeating the purpose.  I had to leave work in the middle of the afternoon to go take him my keys and pick up the rental car . . . and then go back to work for the whole evening to make up for the time I was gone, not to mention that I already had too much that was supposed to get done yesterday.

Long story short - I need some sunshine, and not just the one that was out yesterday  Anyway, a few weeks ago I went to the Portland Meadows Raceway to check out the horse races.

I really had no idea what to expect . . . I guess I thought it would be something like what you see in the movies?  Plus I probably showed up too early, as the place was nearly empty when I got there.  But shortly before the races began, it started to fill up quick.

It was kind of neat that they let you watch them saddle the horses before the race.  I guess if you are betting, it gives you a chance to see what you are betting your money on up close.

When I was leaving the track after a few races, I was a little disappointed with the pictures I had gotten.  Once I got home and looked through them, though, I realized there were some fun ones.  Here are some of my favorites:

I know nothing about horse racing - so I neither won nor loss any money.  I tried listening in to people talking about how it works, but I just got confused :)

Maybe next time I go I will try to figure out the betting situation - but this time was just for fun...

On a quick sidenote - I am always looking for new venues/subjects to photograph.  If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them!  I am in the NW so anything in that vicinity would be great!

Have a great day - I'm going to try to make mine go better than the last couple!

Mechanics

Trains, planes and automobiles . . . . . as I recently stated, boys will always have their toys - they just get bigger as they get older.  Tristan has spent the last couple of weeks working on his Integra after the clutch went out.  I decided to take advantage of his misfortune and try to get some good shots while he was hard at work with his buddies.

 Although it took them a lot longer than expected and they hit a couple of snags along the way - I was pretty impressed that they took it all apart and *eventually* got it put back together again.

While out at the garage, I also got under the hood a bit and changed the oil in my baby.  I may have cut open my finger in the process, but I managed to get it done start to finish without spilling a drop of oil!!

You may have noticed my updated page heading.  Stay tuned for some more small changes to come, as well as a project I am really excited to share about!!