2011, european heaven (pt 1)

Contrary to what the title suggests, I (unfortunately) did not spend all of 2011 in a European heaven. But I'm limited by rhyming options this year, so I'm going with that. It's hard to believe that this year is over...a part of me still feels like the Olympics (in February 2010) were just yesterday. They were not. Anyway, I am at least a little more organized than I was a this time last year, due to missing Challenge, so I figured that I would start my year-in-review posts. Considering that I posted all three of them in February last year, this is a huge improvement.

January:

I kicked off the New Year sitting on an Amtrak train in Jackson, Michigan, craning my neck to see fireworks from the window. A last-minute gap in my work schedule allowed me to join Christina and Jules in Michigan after all, but by the time I knew my schedule and could buy a train ticket, the one that would have allowed me to ring in the New Year with them was out of my budget. So I arrived in Royal Oak after 1am, and they picked me up on their way home from the New Year's party that they had attended. We had a stellar couple of days together for our belated Christmas.

I also went to a Charlotte Martin concert in January!

CharMar is one of my absolute favourite musicians, and I had not seen her perform before. The show was incredible. She débuted many of the new songs from her album Dancing on Needles, and I fell in love with "Warrior," which I am still patiently waiting for her to release as a B-side...

Of course, the main event in January was, once again, the Canadian Figure Skating Championships. They were in Victoria, BC, this year, so the trip was looking like it would be quite expensive, at first. I managed to save money by flying into Seattle and when one of the skating families found out that I planned to stay in a hostel, they found space for me in their rooms. Skating families are fantastic! Flying into Seattle also meant that I had a great excuse to fly in a couple of days early, so that I could spend some time in Vancouver with Lori! Of course, it rained the whole time, but she had tons of Road to Avonlea episodes available on PVR, so all was not lost. After 2 days with L$, it was off to Victoria! I was busier at Canadians than I have ever been, since I doubled up on coverage and was working for both Ice-Dance.com and GoldenSkate. It was exhausting, but exhilarating, and I'm still so relieved that the pieces fell into place for the trip to be a possibility.

Day 1: Grueling 15-hour day at the rink for novice short programs, the junior ladies short, where I snagged this amazing Ina Bauer shot of Julianna Sagaria, and junior dance practice.

Day 2: Another 15-hour day for novice free skates, junior pairs short, and the novice medal ceremony, which was way after bedtime for some of the kids on the podium. The novice dance event was my favourite to shoot all last year, because the top 6 or 7 teams were so talented and had such wonderful free dances. I hated that it was the first event to end this week! So one of the standout moments of the day was Madeline Edwards & Zhao Kai Pang's championship-winning novice free dance. They also set a new Canadian record. I love this shot, snapped a couple of seconds after they hit their end pose, because it's so easy to tell how thrilled they are with their skate.

Day 3: Three junior programs, but I was able to sneak out after the junior free dance to head back to the hotel early, eat an actual meal (and not just a bagel slathered in Nutella), and catch up on photo organization and submissions. Photo of the day is Nicole Orford & Thomas Williams in their first-place short dance. They also won the title the next day, which meant that their coaches & my friends went 3-for-3 on the national dance titles below the senior level. Awesome! Anyway, I had the privilege of shooting Nicole & Thomas quite a few times in their début season, but this shot might be my favourite.

Day 4: Finally, the schedule worked in my favour! I shot senior dance practice in the morning, and then I had time to get out of the rink and breathe. I met some of the novice dancers & parents at Roger's for sundaes, and embarked on an amusing turbo-shopping adventure to find a black skirt for Maddie, before heading back to the rink for the junior free dance, men's free, and medals. Photo of the day is Kelly Oliveira & Jordan Hockley, a team I loved watching for several years. I didn't have any idea then that this was my last time to photograph them as a team. I sure miss those smiles! At IDC, we called them our prozac team, since they always gave such a bubbly performance.

Day 5: First day of senior competition! However, the POTD is from practice, since I knew that I wanted this shot of Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Poje, and I knew that I needed an angle that I wouldn't be able to get from the media seats during the competition. The first time that I saw their short dance, via a tiny feed on my computer, I knew that I wanted to get this shot at Canadians. I had missed it a couple of times in practice the day before, so this was my last chance, and it was one of those moments where I knew that it was perfect the instant that I clicked the shutter. Love those moments!

Day 6: Two of the senior frees, ladies and pairs. POTD is, without a doubt, Meagan Duhamel & Eric Radford's reaction at the end of the free skate that would propel them onto the podium and send them to Worlds. I think that even people who don't know the backstory can understand what this moment meant to them, but for those of us who have watched Meagan's career unfold over the past decade, well, it probably means a bit more.

Day 7: Canadians comes to a close with two incredible events, the free dance and the men's free skate. In the free dance, Vanessa Crone & Paul Poirier and Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Poje were so fantastic and so close that I almost forgot that the headliners had withdrawn earlier in the week. In the men's free skate, Shawn Sawyer and Patrick Chan delivered the most incredible back-to-back free skates I have ever seen, finally topping Chris Mabee and Jeff Buttle in 2005. (No offense meant to Chris and Jeff, I still adore those moments, too.) It's funny—during the competition, I am so focused and so worried about my action shots, and initially, those are the ones that I look through first. But months after the event, when I go through the photos again, it is almost always a photo from the emotional reaction that jumps out at me...

...like Vanessa & Paul's reaction in the kiss & cry, when they found out that they'd won the Canadian title. Again, I had no idea that this would be the last time that I would see this familiar scene.

...and like Shawn Sawyer's extended celebration at the end of his free skate. I think that his flawless performance surprised even himself, and for me, it was the most incredible moment of a wonderful week. And I don't think I have ever left an event more exhausted than I left Victoria.

February:

February kicked off with a big, white, fluffy bang. Chicago had its worst blizzard in something like 30 years. People who didn't listen to repeated warnings and tried to drive home on Lake Shore Drive were stranded until the wee hours of the morning, but I didn't mind the blizzard much at all, tucked inside my house, watching the snow drift all the way to the top of my patio door while I sipped hot chocolate and probably ate Nutella.

Fortunately, the blizzard came the day that it did and not a day later, because just two days after the dumping, I was on a flight east for my second skating event of the year. The eventual destination was Oshawa, Ontario, for EOSIC, but since I'd forgotten to make my plane reservation while I was at Canadians, I ended up flying to Buffalo, taking a bus to Toronto, and taking the commuter train to Oshawa. Quite the ordeal. I wasn't too excited about the actual competition at first, since it was a StarSkate event, and I did not know most of the competitors. But of course, once I was there, I had a great time shooting. I especially enjoyed the Triathlon event, which I had never shot before, since I got to follow the same girls through three phases of the competition. A few highlights:

Francesca Joanette, one of the most expressive skaters in the junior bronze event

I even got to shoot some dance! Here's Chelsea Sheridan & Alex Gunther in the pre-juvenile Fiesta Tango.

Casey Barber, gold triathlon skills

Marisa De Souza, bronze triathlon interpretive; this Chicago program is one of the only skates that I still remember at the end of the year, such a joy to watch

Rebecca Marcinek, gold triathlon free skate

I don't think I did anything interesting the rest of February. At least, I didn't take any photos. I wrote a lot of Olympics-in-review and year-in-review posts in February, so I'm guessing that it was cold and I stayed inside all month.

March:

March kicked off with beautiful weather. I remember this because I left my coat in the car when I went to a concert on March 3, and I did not suffer from frostbite or hypothermia as a result.

The show was Made Avail's CD release party, but they invited Superchick, and that was why I was there.

Specifically, because I grew up in church/school/jazz band with the Superchick bassist, Matt Dally. I was hoping to see more folks that I knew there, but the only person I knew besides Matt was his mom, who was running the merch table. I'm also remembering now that I think I promised to send her photos, and I don't think I ever did...perhaps I should see if I can find her email address. Anyway, Superchick always puts on a great show, but this show was even more fantastic because the lighting was just perfect. I got so many great shots, most of which have still never seen the light of day.

The following weekend, I went to see Stars on Ice with my mom. This was my 10th event (or so) of the season, but this was my mom's first time seeing live skating since Disney on Ice with Girl Scouts, circa 1993. I was excited for the chance to take her, but a little worried that she would hate it. She didn't, though, and she even wanted to talk about who was good and who wasn't on the drive home. Our seats were crap (sometimes Stars on Ice gives the photographer a good seat, and sometimes they can't be bothered; this was a 'can't be bothered' day), but Mom was willing to scootch at intermission.

Mom and I were both most excited to see Jo, who was definitely on our "good" list.

I can't remember if Sasha jumped or not at that show, but she was into the dramatic flair, at least, and I really enjoyed this shot.

I was also thrilled to get a dramatic!Evan!spin! photo, and even more thrilled about the angle. Perfectly in front of the SOI sign! Tell me again why they haven't hired me as their official photographer yet. Haha.

At the end of the month, Mom went to a conference in San Francisco, and asked me if I would go with her. I couldn't turn down an almost-free trip to one of my favourite American cities, so off I went! Unfortunately, a sunny California weekend was not in the cards for us, but we went out in between the showers and made the best of it. We went to SFO in 2007 for Thanksgiving, and it was the first trip that I took with a "real" camera. I was anxious to get better shots this time, now that I have a bit more experience, and I even sprung for a wide-angle lens rental. I typically rent with BorrowLenses, and they are based in SFO, so I was able to do a local pick-up 3-day rental. Awesome!

Day 1: Scoped out the walk to Mom's conference and also picked up my lens rental. Introduced my mom to the magic of eating quick meals at Whole Foods, instead of at a sandwich shop. Took the ferry to Sausalito and spent the day walking, drinking cappuccino, and browsing art galleries. Dinner in North Beach, walked back to our hotel just off Union Square.

Great views of San Francisco on the ferry ride!

And I fell pretty hard for both the Ferry Building and wide-angle photography.

Day 2: Mom's conference started, so I was on my own. Met up with Tina for lunch at the Ferry Building (Blue Bottle Coffee & Cowgirl Creamery & Scream non-dairy ice cream!) and wandered the Saturday market, too. Walked and photographed all afternoon, through the Financial District, Chinatown, Nob Hill, and Union Square. Met up with Mom after sessions ended, and went out for sushi.

More Ferry Building photography

View from Nob Hill, looking north down Stockton Street, all the way to the bay

I also decided to try HDR more on this trip, and here's one of the crazier results. I don't know, I really like something about the effects on this shot at Union Square.

Day 3: On my own most of the day again. Took the cable car to Ghirardelli Square (I would do this every day of my life if I lived there, I feel), then continued west to the Palace of Fine Arts and the Presidio, where I thought that I would see the Golden Gate Bridge, but I did not. Treated myself to froyo twice. Photographed Alamo Square once the afternoon sun went away. Paid homage to the Full House house. Met up with Mom, and had dinner at the fabulous Hyde Street Bistro, which I found a Yelp, and which I later read about in a travel magazine. Guess I picked a good one!

The Palace of Fine Arts is other-worldly!

My effort at the postcard shot. Much better than the 2007 attempt, but still not zingy enough.

Day 4: No photos, since I had to return my lens on the evening of Day 3. During Mom's morning sessions, I walked around Union Square some more, but the real highlight came at lunch, when I brought her to the Blue Bottle Coffee shop on Mint Plaza. Most perfect cup of coffee ever. I can still taste it.

April:

Much of April was spent finishing my last lit class ever, in which I wrote a killer paper that compared the two most recent film adaptations of Sense and Sensibility to the novel. It was a good way to end my lit class career. Of course, even with concentrating on school, it's not like I could deal with staying home all of the time.

So once again, I spent the second weekend of April in Ottawa, shooting the Gloucester Spring Skate. I had fun shooting the interpretive events and a lot of cute little ones, but I did not have fun when my shutter died. It had been acting funny for most of the day, and at least I had my backup 20D close by. Until that one died, too. Oups. So I had to spend the second day shooting with Phil's backup Nikon. Everything felt backwards, so it was challenging, but I made it through. And at least we didn't have to close up shop on one of the rinks. Of course, it was just about the last thing that I needed. I sent the 50D off to get fixed as soon as I got home, using the money that I made from the competition, but I still haven't been able to afford to fix the 20D. It also seems silly to fix a 20D (soooo 4 models ago), but I am having a hard time imagining being able to afford an upgrade. Everyone cross your fingers for me for more photo sales and freelance work. But anyway, a couple of random shots I liked from Gloucester:

Beyond the photography that weekend, I had a wonderful weekend with the Ottawa family, and as was the theme of the year, I didn't realize that it would be my last event with them. I am really missing my regular trips to see my "Canadian li'l sis."

Right after the semester ended, I was off to Toronto for the annual Canadian Stars on Ice weekend. We went to the usual Friday night show at the ACC, which I photographed, of course.

This program of Kurt's wasn't my favourite (I am getting a little tired of voiceover programs), but it was quite photogenic.

Another photogenic one was this quirky ensemble number that reminded me of the way SOI used to be, pre-budget cuts.

We were feeling a serious lack of energy and commitment from the skaters during the show, so for the first time in a long time, we didn't feel like going to another Canadian show. Jules, Christina, and I skipped Hamilton and spent our Saturday in Niagara-on-the-Lake instead. Christina took us to some touristy sites we'd never seen before, like the world's smallest chapel:

and we feasted on a Whole Foods picnic in the park before doing some photoshooting on Lake Ontario. Note to self: when the plan is to save money and skipping eating in a restaurant, buying picnic fare at Whole Foods with the girls doesn't actually save money...but it sure is tasty!

And that's it for my first four months of the year. I'm expecting the summer months to take some time to put together, so I hope I'll have that post ready by January. No promises, though. ;-)

art and cioppino: san francisco, day 1

Two weekends ago, I enjoyed a little vacation in San Francisco with my mom! Well, vacation for me, conference for her. She was in sessions most of the time, so I was responsible for planning the itinerary for our free day together and also for finding post-conference restaurants each night. I love picking restaurants.

I arrived late on Thursday, March 24, and Mom was already there. She'd arrived Wednesday evening so she could have two days to sightsee before the conference started, but I have Thursday afternoon class, so I decided to just fly out after class. Thursday turned out to be a bit of a bust—terrible thunderstorms in the Bay Area, so I'm glad that I didn't blow off class for that.

So on Friday, we were both looking forward to exploring the Bay Area! We went to San Francisco together in 2007 and both loved it, and we wanted to do something different this time. One of her friends suggested Sausalito, so I did a bit of research and we planned to take the ferry over on Friday. First, though, I had to pick up a rental lens in SOMA. Since BorrowLenses, a fabulous mail-order lens rental company that I always use when I need glass, is based in SF, they do local 3-day rentals at various pick-up locations around the city. I'd never used a wide-angle lens before, so I was excited to try the Canon 17-40mm f/4L lens. We stopped for breakfast at Whole Foods on the next block over, and my mom and I both tried Icelandic yogurt. She liked it better than I did, but I didn't hate it either. It's similar to the Greek yogurt that I've had.

Next, we headed to the Ferry Building! The F-line (streetcar) was packed, so we took a bus that follows the same route. None of the other tourists appeared to have caught onto that.

I'm pretty smitten with the Ferry Building. We went past it on the 2007 trip, but never got out of the streetcar, so this was my first time photographing it, and I went a little nuts. I'd also forgotten about the palm trees on the Embarcadero. I never think of SF as a palm tree sort of town, but there they are.

Inside the Ferry Building are a bunch of really interesting shops (mostly food-related) and restaurants. I already had plans to eat there with a friend the next day, and we'd just eaten our Icelandic yogurt breakfast, so Mom and I didn't buy anything, but I was definitely tempted by the Ciao Bella gelato shop. Just a few days before my trip, I'd noticed that my grocery store in Chicago had started carrying Ciao Bella, and I loved the key lime pint that I'd bought.

The San Francisco-Sausalito ferry has been hailed as one of the greatest ferry rides in the world. I'm not keen on boats in general, but got used to them fairly well on my Canada trip last summer, so I was looking forward to the views and not thinking about the boat aspect.

Great views indeed! I can only imagine how much more spectacular this view would have been on a prettier day, if the water could have reflected more blue from the sky.

Same goes for this shot of the Golden Gate Bridge, although it was really neat to be able to see it from this angle.

In Sausalito, one of the first things we did was stop at the tourist office, where a very nice lady was kind enough to point out the entrance to a delightful wooden boardwalk along the boat docks. There were a lot of boats, which led to an amusing conversation between my mom and me...we don't really get the whole boat concept, unless you actually live on a lake. Like, how often would you even use a boat that isn't in your backyard? Personally, I would much rather spend my extra money on traveling or art or even a nice car! But then again, I don't really like boats, so maybe that is clouding my judgment.

We walked around for a bit, then settled on a restaurant on the east side of the main downtown

area for lunch, where I ordered a salmon burger and yam fries. Doesn't get much better than that! Then we walked up to Caledonia Street, which is kind of the "local" version of Main Street, so the locals don't have to fight tourists. It wasn't too crowded on a blustery Friday in March, but I'm sure that downtown is super clogged on sunny weekends during the summer. Caledonia Street was a lot of fun and featured two of my favourite Sausalito stops, Studio 333 and the Pinestreet Papery. Studio 333 is a huge art gallery in a renovated warehouse kind of space, featuring work from over 40 local artists. We especially liked the . The Pinestreet Papery is a delightful little shop featuring cards, books, decorative papers, stationery, etc. I love a good paper store.

We headed back towards the main part of town after that, and climbed a huge staircase/ramp conglomeration to the top of a giant hill. We're talking, like, 5-6 stories up. It was brutal, but the view of the bay was pretty grand. I took this from someone's driveway. Can you imagine waking up every day to a view like this?

Back downstairs, a patch of blue sky had moved in, so I took a ton of photos of downtown, including this one of the Sausalito Hotel.

Here's the west end of the main street, where Bridgeway curves around and follows the bay to the Golden Gate Bridge. Around back of the curvy building is Piccolo Café, whose sign out front proclaimed that it had the best cappuccinos EVER. Of course we had to try. I think it's pretty bold to say that they're the best ever, I mean, forever is a long time. But the cappuccino I had was pretty heavenly!

We visited some of the galleries in this part of town, but for the most part, they were a lot more formal than Studio 333, so we didn't linger anywhere too long, since we weren't buying. However, the exception was the Hanson Gallery, which was friendly and bustling and featured some work that I loved by Scott Hanson. We saw this piece (or a similar one), a map of the United States made of out pieces of license plates. My mom and I both loved it, and one of the employees heard us talking about it, so came over to tell us a little bit more. My mom mentioned that she was sure I'd love a Canadian version, and the guy brought us over to his computer because the artist has made a couple! Seriously, if I could afford it, one of those would be on the wall in my living room, pronto! I'm actually already starting to wonder if I could create something similar out of my photos from the trip...

It was starting to rain when we left Sausalito, but an enchanting blue sky was hanging over San Francisco when we got back, so of course I had to shoot the Ferry Building again!

Then we walked to North Beach, a mostly Italian neighbourhood in the northeastern part of San Francisco for more seafood with some Italian flavour.

I'd scouted out Caffe Sport on Yelp on the ferry ride back, and it turned out to be a fantastic find. This shot is of Green Street outside the restaurant. The inside of the restaurant was covered in all sorts of random stuff. It was like Buca di Beppo on crack, but less commercialized, you know? Then our waiter told us that the owner had actually made most of the things on the walls—random posters, painted tiles, bits of mosaic, etc. Really neat. Caffe Sport serves meals family-style, so my mom and I split a house salad (simple but delicious), salmon ravioli (a special), and the signature cioppino. Cioppino, WOW. It had lobster pieces (still in the shell), scallops, mussels, clams, and I don't know what else, but it was all incredible. My mom and I are suckers for fresh coastal seafood, and that definitely hit the spot. And since dinner was such a hit, we topped it off with cappuccino and a cannoli for dessert. The cappuccino was wonderful, but only our second-best cup of the day. Hard to beat the best ever, you know!

We decided to walk back after that, since I wanted to walk through Chinatown, but it was getting late, and everything was closing up. We ended up walking down Stockton by chance, but it turned out to be an excellent choice, since Stockton St. tunnels under Nob Hill for a less strenuous walking experience.

It might be a few days, but I have posts on days 2 and 3 in San Francisco still brewing!