Photo Update

FAIR WARNING: If you're sick and tired of hearing about photography, stop reading, close the window, just do it, no one will know.

Still here? Good. There's some exciting things happening in the world of Eastman brother photography. Thought I'd share some quickly.

The site:

Today is Day 70 of the One Photo Per Day Project. 70 days. Whoah. We're in the middle of our first f/4 contest. Check it out here. You should enter, to0 (only requirement is a point & shoot camera). Last week we had over 500 visitors! Then again, 495 of those may have been H trying to pad the stats. To celebrate, we're launching a new site today. Check it out here. Read about all it's new gadgets and gizmos here.

The photogs:

Matt's turning into a pro. He's had several portrait gigs lately and has several more coming up--and he's gettin' friggin' good. If you live in the Utah/Idaho area and are looking for some saaweeeet family/portrait/wedding pics, you should check him out here or send him a note here.

Hebe has several photos entered in a contest with Capture My Utah. Photographers enter photos, the public votes, popular pics get published. Could be biased, but I think Hebe's pics belong in the book. You wanna help make that happen? You can vote for his photos here (click on each photo, then click "Yes! I dig it").

I also have several photos of Luke climbing entered in a contest with Rock & Ice Magazine. The winners get published and profiled in the mag. Fingers crossed! I'm also putting together an NYC photo book before we head off to the west coast. Any ideas what should go in it? I'm all ears.

I'm really proud of what Matt and Hebe have done photographically speaking in the last 4 months. It's been really fun to be a part of it with them. It feels good to have the support of so many great friends and family--especially H. I think I speak for Matt and Hebe when I say it takes 3 of the greatest wives in the world to let their hubbies enter the crazy, time-consuming, insanely expensive world of serious photography, let alone to be so incredibly supportive. You're the best H.

Campy McCampertons

We dusted off our tent and sleeping bags and headed for the great outdoors this weekend to do a little camping. Our ward does a camping trip every year. This year we went "upstate" to a church-owned campsite called Camp Liahona (as if I needed to tell you that it was church-owned, right?). We love going "upstate." Partly because we love saying we went "upstate" last weekend, but mostly because we've always been amazed at the beautiful nature you can find within minutes of the concrete jungle that is our home.

It's been awhile since H and I have been camping (really we only go once a year--with the ward). We looked like rookies.

Essentials we forgot:

• Air mattress (to the camping 'purists' out there who prefer to rough it on the ground: can it, we're city dwellers, okay?)
• Pillows
• Dinner
• Lunch

Anybody who knows H knows there is no way in h (sorry, can't help myself) we were gonna leave home without breakfast. As for the other stuff, we instantly became the ward charity case once our fellow campers realized our, ah, lack of "real" food (we managed to bring plenty of snacks, too--never leave home without those) so we didn't go hungry--gotta love our ward. We had the worst night of sleep ever. We were cold, uncomfortable, it was just a mess.

Oddly enough though, we both had a great time enjoying nature, our ward friends, and of course a good campfire and s'mores. We've decided we need to up our camping skillz and explore the old Sierra Nevada's outside our upcoming new home town. That is, according to H, as long as we take a "defense against the bears" class. Anyone know a good instructor???

I'm 28

Things I did this year that I am happy about
1. Took a sewing class and made my own skirt, pillowcase cover, and 1/2 a blanket...and have a goal to finish the other half in the upcoming year.
2. Finally got my passport (that's been a goal for 2 years now)
3. Explored a little...Maine, Bahamas, North Carolina.
4. Gained a strong liking to salmon and have really taken a liking to most fish. Who knew living in a coastal(ish) town would taste so great!
5. Landed a sweet job at an NYC publishing company
6. Found a strong love for people at church...they really are our family away from family.
7. Learned (ok, learning) how to knit (Thanks Martha! :)
8. Grew some thick skin (in a good way) living in Queens...need I remind you of the tie guy???

I have a few goals set for year 29, but will leave you hanging on for another year.

PS. I can't let a birthday go by without a shout out to Hill and say thank you for being my best friend for 28 years (and 9 months) Happy Birthday Twinkie.

And the list goes on

GoodBye #51, #52, and #12

I hope we all had a nice, relaxing, unlaboring labor day (weekend.)

Our weekend in a nutshell:

We started by stocking up on old candy at the Economy Candy Store. I was like, well, a girl in a candy store. (ba dum pum) If anyone knows me, knows I LOVE candy! I got the best little licorice nibs at this place.

Thanks to our great friend, we were able to hang out with her and her boys and spend a day in the county of Dutchess. The day consisted of:

Peach picking
Great Mexican food in Poughkeepsie
Visiting the Vanderbilt mansion (in Hyde Park) which was really cool! I love hearing about history and wished I had a FRACTION of the moolah that those VB's have.
Dairy Queen Blizzards

We spent the actual Labor day taking some pics of the cute Brenchley family, having a few snaps taken in return, watching TOO MUCH U.S. Open (which makes Jed very happy), shopping, eating grilled corn on the cob and a cuban sandwich here (which makes Jed even happier.)

60 Things - Take 5

#41. Visit Coney Island.

Whoah mama. H had been there before, this was my first time. For a guy who enjoys taking the--um--occasional picture, this place was the biggest candy store this kid has ever seen. I'm telling you, I haven't seen that many weird and crazy things in one place since I was in the MTC. It is one crazy island. Anyway, enough words, let's see some pics, huh?

Amusement park classics ...

The boardwalk ...

The souvies ...

Yeah, it says what you think it says ...

And yeah, that says "live human target" ...

Some Coney Island silhouettes ...

The first roller coaster I've ever seen that looks older and scarier than the one at Lagoon ...

Pretty sure H was tall enough. Doesn't mean we were about to ride it ...

The boardwalk v.2 ...

Classic ticket booth ...

Mr. Happy Balloon Man ...

A cool Coney Island sign ...

Ah, the sideshow freaks ...

All the Nathan's hot dogs you could eat--these guys eat their fair share ...

If by some miracle you still want more pics, you can see a few more over at the boys' photog blog here.

60 Things - Take 4

A few more came off the list this week.

#32. Visit Chelsea Market. Even though they yelled at me for taking pictures in their stores the first time we were there, we still love this place, and it was good to see it one more time. Feels like Bobby Flay's about to walk around the corner any minute.

#49. Eat empanada @ Mama's Empanadas. Yummo. My favorite is the Cuban. It's like a Cuban sandwich wrapped in empanada goodness. The fact that it's in Queens about 10 minutes from our apartment doesn't hurt either.

#9. Eat bagel @ H&H Bagels. Hmmm. How do I put this? You're right, give it to you straight:

H and J walk into H&H. Excited and hungry.

H to H&H employee: What kinds of cream cheese do you have?

H&H employee: In the fridge.

H and J walk to the fridge, confused.

H to J: Is this it? Can you only buy packages of cream cheese? Can't you get it on the bagel?

J to H&H employee: Do you put cream cheese on the bagels?

H&H employee: We don't put anything on the bagels.

H and J exit, stage left, less excited, still hungry ... and bagel-less.

It's my new culinary honesty policy: I like Tex-Mex more than 'authentic' Mexican food. I enjoy hot dogs, chili, and yeah, sometimes even the two paired together. And, the new one, I like Einstein Brothers Bagels--especially their asiago cheese bagel, toasted, with veggie cream cheese--better than any New York bagel I've ever had.

Whoah. Scary. But it feels good to finally tell the truth.

9 down. 51 to go. 53 days left.

60 Things - Take 3

We scratched a few more items off our list of "never to be done again in NYC (or Jersey in this case)" list.

#45 Eat at a Jersey Diner
#46 Visit Princeton University (also in Jersey)

We had a great time eating (just as a sidenote, we are diligently working out, and although we may gain a few lbs... it's worth it, right? Someone had better agree or we are calling this whole thing off! We are not doing this for our own good, but for the good of NYers and those lovers of NYC who are vicariously living in this city through our blog.)

Anyway, the diner was featured on---you guessed it, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. It's called the Brownstone Diner and Pancake Factory (I was hoping to see a conveyor belt with dozens of flap-jacks coming down the pipe, but it didn't happen)

You can't go to a place named the Pancake Factory without getting pancakes, so I did. Pancakes WITH peanut butter chips. I didn't use syrup. I could only eat 2/3 of one. They were even better 3 hours later in the car (shhha, I took a doggie bag. These 60 things don't come cheap!) Jed indulged in some corned beef hash. He gets embarrassed that he likes corned beef hash.

Princeton University is only an hour away from Pancake Heaven. It's truly going from one magical place to the next.

Jed and I both LOVE visiting college campuses. We like to act like we go there (so much that we bought a shirt. Jed got mad at me when I didn't stick to the game plan and tell the cashier that we enrolled for the fall. I buckled.) Seeing this campus puts all others to shame. It was very old, gothic, cathederalish, Harry Potterish. We wished we went to school there. Not to study, just to wander around campus with our t-shirts on.

We loved our day in Jersey.