April 21, 2011

Happy 50th Birthday!

Happy 50th birthday to my wonderful mother. I sincerely hope I  inherit her skin, because she still looks wonderful and she is definitely fabulous at 50. A half century ago things were very different. President John F. Kennedy had just been inaugurated, the Space Race had begun, the United States is in the midst of  the Civil Rights Movement and Elvis, The Shirelles and Ray Charles were at the top of the music charts.

Here is a snapshot of life in 1961:
  • Cost of a gallon of Gas was 27 cents
  • Average yearly income: $5,735
  • Cost of a new home: $12,500
  • Cost of a new car: $2,850
  • Federal hourly minimum wage: $1.15
  • Life expectancy: 70.2 years
  • The Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup
  • Pampers, the first disposable diaper, are introduced
  • Barbie gets a boyfriend when the Ken doll is introduced
  • Ray Kroc buys out the McDonald brothers and takes control over the hamburger chain
  • The last episode of I Love Lucy is aired
  • FM stereo is introduced
  • Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin makes the first manned space flight
  • Navy Cmdr. Alan B. Shepard, Jr. becomes the first United States man in space
  • U.S. breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba
  • Fidel Castro declares Cuba is to adopt Communism and bans free elections
  • "Freedom Riders" test the United States Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia by riding racially integrated interstate buses into the South. Some are attacked and beaten by white supremacist supporters of racial segregation.
  • Construction of the Berlin Wall begins.

BAS

April 15, 2011

2011 Top 10 Places to Visit in the United States

Springtime in Savannah, Georgia
I came across an article on Lonely Planet's website about the top United States destinations for 2011 (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/usa/travel-tips-and-articles/76390). I am curious to see who has been to some, all or none of these places so I created a poll you can vote on below.  I have visited three of these destinations over the years. I went to New Orleans in 2004 for an Irish Dancing competition, it would be interesting to take a trip there now and see the post- Katrina changes first hand. I also imagine it would be an entirely different trip being of legal drinking age... I have also been to New York City several times. Most recently in November I visited one of my college friends A, who is volunteering with the Jesuit Volunteer Core (JVC) in Brooklyn. This time in NYC I had the opportunity to visit the Metropolitan Musueum of Art, the Gugghenheim and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Once upon a time when my sisters were in grammar school my parents thought it would be a great family vacation to fly into San Francisco and then spend twp weeks driving down the coast on HWY 1 to fly out of Los Angeles. Despite spending way too much time in the car together, it was a spectacularly beautiful drive. We saw the Golden Gate Bridge, Big Sur, rode horses on Monterey Bay, went to the National Redwood Forest and visited Sonoma Valley wine country. I would love to return there as an adult, especially to San Francisco. However, if I could pick one of these places to visit in 2011 it would be Savannah, Georgia. I fell in love with Charleston, S.C. when my friends and I rented a house there on the beach for Spring Break 2009. I have heard that Savannah has many of the same qualities I love about Charleston, history, beaches and southern charm. Perhaps I will have to plan a trip there soon.

Have you visited any of the 2011 Top 10 places to go in America?
Southern Utah
New Orleans
New York City
Austin/West Texas
Savannah, Georgia
Denver, Colorado
Northern California
Grand Canyon
Palm Springs, CA
Hawaii








  
pollcode.com free polls

Where have you been?
Which one of these places would you like to visit in 2011?

BAS

April 13, 2011

Why Don't More People Watch Parenthood?

Parenthood: Tuesdays 9pm CST on NBC
I have a busy life this year with work, school, babysitting, and teaching Irish Dancing among other things. I watch very few shows on a weekly basis. Usually I DVR everything, and catch up on shows a few weeks or months later. However, the one show that I watch religiously every week is Parenthood. I absolutely cannot figure out why more people are not watching this amazing show. My mom watches parenthood every week as well, it is rare for us to find a TV show that we can both enjoy and relate to. Parenthood is a compelling and interesting drama with three-dimensional characters and amazing actors.

One of my favorite things about Parenthood is that it is told from the point of view of the grandparents, parents and children equally. I can relate to the coming of age problems fifteen year old Haddie Braverman is dealing with, but at twenty-four I can also understand and relate to the fears and behaviors of her parents, Kristina and Adam Braverman. Parenthood is a unique show on television, it portrays families, not in the cookie cutter, house in the suburbs with a white picket fence kind of way, but in a real way. Families are messy and challenging, everyone experiences it. Parenthood more than exemplifies it, but is also shows the strong bonds that families have. A family that is there for you through divorces, medical issues, infidelity and betrayals. Parenthood does not shy away from any topic no matter how uncomrfortable or awkward. It deals with readl issues that face families such as Asperger's Syndrome (an autism spectrum disorder), substance abuse, divorce, teenage rebellion, interracial relationships and many more relevant topics.

Parenthood chronicles the trials and tribulations of three generations of the very large, very colorful and imperfect Braverman clan. It was developed for television by Friday Night Lights’ Jason Katims (love him!) and based on Ron Howard’s 1989 film. Parenthood is now in it's second season hasn’t attracted a ton of viewers which is such a shame. If you are not watching you are missing out on a poignant and powerful show that celebrates the family itself in a hilarious and completely relatable way.

The cast absolutely bursting with talent from Craig T. Nelson playing gregarious patriarch Zeek Braverman (Coach, Blades of Glory, The Proposal) and Lauren Graham playing the quirky, devoted single mom Sarah Braverman (Gilmore Girls, Evan Almighty, Because I Said So) to Mae Whitman (Independence Day, One Fine Day, Hope Floats) portraying intelligent and sensitive but rebellious Amber Holt and Peter Krause (Six Feet Under, We Don't Live Here Anymore, Dirty Sexy Money) as dependable eldest son Adam Braverman.

If you have never watched this brilliant show I hope you go online and watch a few episodes or catch it on Tuesdays. Give it a chance, you won't regret it. I am sincerely hoping this is not going to be another show that I enjoy watcing that gets canceled without a decent ending.
                                                                                   
Do you watch Parenthood?
What are some shows you watch every week?
Are there any great shows you think are under watched? 

                                                                                    BAS






April 11, 2011

Photography: Digital vs. Film Discussion

“Computer photography won't be photography as we know it but it would be something else. I think photography will always be chemical.” 
-- Annie Leibovitz

A quote by one of my favorite photographers, Annie Leibovitz, got me thinking about film versus digital cameras. There seems to be a war going on right now between digital and film photography. In the year 2011, digital photography appears to be winning. It is used as the norm for most people from newspaper photographers and photojournalists to parents taking pictures of their children at birthday parties. However, there are several advantages and disadvantages to both film and digital.

Digital photography allows the photographer so much freedom. You can take virtually as many photographs as you would like. You can click click click and take one thousand photographs and store them on a memory card that that is smaller than a matchbook. Exposing or ruining the film is no longer a concern. Also, while you are taking the pictures you can instantly review them. If mom has her eyes closed in the once in a lifetime panoramic shot with the Grand Canyon in the background you and immediately re shoot it. It goes without saying that if you are planning on putting your pictures on the web or your computer, it is much easier to do so with digital pictures. 

Whereas film cameras can have manual backups for electronic and electrical features, digital cameras are entirely dependent on an electrical supply. Many digital sensors have less dynamic range (the range of luminosity that can be reproduced accurately. Highlights of the subject that are too bright are rendered as white, with no detail; shadows that are too dark are rendered as black.) Film is still the standard for landscape photographers and large prints because film records and reproduces a broader range of color than digital images.


I had the opportunity to take two photography classes in college. One class I took at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and the other one at Marquette University. For my MIAD class we used 8 x10 view cameras. Picture the type of camera that Ansel Adams used… completely manual and needs a drop cloth over your head to take the pictures. I had to lug this camera around in a box as well as a tripod (all over Milwaukee it seemed) and I could only take eight pictures on every trip. 


Everything on the camera had to be adjusted aperture, ISO,
shutter speed etc. It was not unusual for me to spend a half hour focusing, positioning the camera and framing my shot before taking even one picture. After that, I had to spend many hours developing my negatives, and then hours upon hours printing and developing my photographs. 




For the first month almost all of my negatives came up blank because I had done something wrong in the complicated process. It was the hardest, most frustrating and most time consuming class I have ever taken. However, I learned more about photography in five months than I had learned in my entire life. Even mixing the developer and fixer and making test strips became automatic. I loved the control I had in the darkroom. 
I could crop my image however I wanted and make it any size. 
I had complete control over the focus, contrast and highlights. Dodging and burning (a concept I never grasped in high school photography club) where you either hold back light by dodging or cover part of the photograph and add light to the rest which is called burning. 

My end of the semester project was to shoot and develop twenty photographs focusing around a theme. I chose architecture, and took pictures of buildings and houses all over Milwaukee. These photographs are definitely not perfect, or always in focus. Nevertheless, I still get a sense of accomplishment when I look at them, they are the work of blood sweat and tears. I have included a few pictures from my final project, let me know what you think of the photos.
  






The photography class I took at Marquette was focused on digital photography. We used digital SLR cameras that could be used in automatic or manual mode. Each week we had an assignment due with a different purpose.
Motion



Light

 


Portrait


Final Project
(I chose Marquette)




We spent many classes fine tuning our knowledge of Photoshop and digital manipulation. I learned many valuable things in this class, especially involving motion because showing motion was almost impossible for me to achieve on the view camera. While I appreciate black and white pictures, it was nice to be able to capture some color.

In the end I have come to the conclusion that digital and film photography each serve a different purpose. They really are completely different mediums, as different as oil paints are from watercolors. I prefer to use a digital camera on vacations and out on the weekends. However, if I want to take my time to be a little more artistic or shoot some nature shots I grab my film camera. 

I hope you enjoyed the post as well as some of the pictures. Do you prefer film or digital? Which one of my pictures was your favorite? Who are your favorite photographers?

BAS

April 6, 2011

Blog Beginnings

 

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that 
you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. 
     Explore. Dream. Discover."

— Mark Twain

I have thought about writing a blog many times over the years, and finally decided to just go for it. A few years ago when I joined Twitter I came up with LiveDreamTravel as my username. Since then it has become my personal mantra, so I thought it would be a fitting title for my blog. LiveDreamTravel will feature things I am passionate about such as travel, books, photography, feminism, Australia and animals. Thought provoking things that I read about, or hear on the news will also likely make appearances. 

One of the most influential and exciting things in my life is travel. The quotation above, by Mark Twain, is one of my absolute favorites. Any time I find myself getting too comfortable with my life, or wondering if traveling is worth all of the money that I am saving I read it and am instantly inspired. The quote reminds me that while using my travel fund to move into my own apartment seems like a great thing to do right now, in comparison to a solo backpacking trip I am taking across Australia this summer there is no contest. In twenty years I probably won't even remember the apartment address, but I know I will always remember what I have experienced in the places I have traveled and the adventures I have embarked upon. 

I came across a few travel statistics recently. According to the U.S. State Department in January 2011 only 37% of United States citizens have valid passports. This means that two out of every three Americans cannot even drive up to Canada, let alone travel anywhere else in the world. This statistic is mind boggling to me. I obtained my first passport at 15 months old and am currently on my third one. I definitely thought we would be leaning more towards the 71% of United Kingdom citizens that have passports, or at the very least over the 50% mark.

I don't think anyone reads this blog yet, nevertheless I thought I would ask a few questions about the topic. I would love to hear any and all responses! Did these statistics surprise you? Do you have a valid passport? Do your parents/siblings? Why do you think so few Americans have passports?

BAS