In the MINI

One stable element in our life through the past decade has been our 2003 MINI Cooper S. I placed the order for it in the closing months of 2002 and got it in March of 2003, exactly as I wanted it.

Although our life has undergone major changes in those years, and even though the MINI’s had more than its fair share of problems, we kept it. We even brought it over to Romania with us, and it sits in our courtyard right now, just waiting to be driven to some fun place, ready to eat up Transilvania’s twisty roads.

Our car’s seen a lot of ground during its almost 10-year existence. We plan to keep it around so it sees a lot more of this incredible blue world of ours. Even now, as we open its doors and get in, somehow the new car smell hasn’t gone away. The design (both exterior and interior) is still appealing to us. The engine still pulls like a fine horse and it still tears up the curves. And the fact that it’s been with us this long, through thick and thin, through incredible changes, has provided us with no small amount of comfort and it helped ease the transitions that took place in our lives. It’s a keeper.

I took these next few photos in the MINI, as we were driving around DC one winter day, a few years ago, with a 35mm film camera, an Exakta EXA Ia.

Dashboard, 2003 MINI Cooper S. 35mm film, Exakta EXA Ia.

Places

Winter in Cabin John Park – Part 2

Here are some more photographs taken in Cabin John Park during winter. Enjoy and don’t forget to check out part one if you haven’t seen it already.

Partially frozen brook, winter, Cabin John Regional Park, MD, USA.

Melting snow reveals a twig buried underneath. Washington, DC, USA.

Lichen growing on rotting tree trunk, Cabin John Regional Park, MD, USA.

Cut wood, Cabin John Regional Park, MD, USA.

Places

Winter in Cabin John Park – Part 1

These hot summer temperatures are sure making me look at winter photos in a whole new light… So for the next couple of days, I’ll feature winter scenes from one of the parks that we visited a lot while we lived in the DC area: Cabin John Regional Park. Enjoy!

Moss growing on a tree trunk, winter, Cabin John Regional Park, MD, USA.

Snow on the ground, Cabin John Regional Park, MD, USA.

In the forest, winter, looking upward. Cabin John Regional Park, MD, USA.

Thick ice over brook, winter, Cabin John Regional Park, MD, USA.

Rotten wood, fallen tree trunk, Cabin John Regional Park, MD, USA.

Places

Thinking of colder times

We’ve been hit by a serious heat wave during the past few weeks, with very little rain and ridiculously high temperatures (not normal for Southern Transilvania, where summers used to be a balmy 25-27 degrees Celsius when I was a kid). So I started to think fondly of colder times and gladly contemplated freezing weather — anything to escape the heat.

The photos were taken in Grosvenor Park.

Leaves under ice cover, lake, Grosvenor Park.

Ice and snow on lake surface, Grosvenor Park.

Hole in tree trunk, Grosvenor Park, North Bethesda, MD, USA.

Thoughts

Fun with shadows

You can get wonderful photographs by playing with shadows. They’re used to great effect in portraiture (which is a subject for another post) and you can use them to the same effect when photographing objects or shapes, in effect sculpting the image with light. Here are a few examples.