Life Through the Lens

Thursday, November 4, 2010

the ballerina project

As a huge ballet fan, I am totally in love with these images.

As a photographer, I am totally in love with these images.

Such grace and beauty, I just had to share. To learn more about the project, view more images, & purchase prints, just click here.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

the day after

In my non-photographer life, I work in politics. I worked for various members of Congress for the first six years of my working life & now have a job that revolves around what the president & Congress are doing. In my world, election day is not just another day. It's a holiday. A day when there are winners & losers. A day when jobs are lost & careers are started.

I stayed up late last night... much later than normal, furiously refreshing the Twitter (that's @christinasaull if you're interested) feed on my BlackBerry, trying to get the latest results on the races I was actually interested in, which of course were not what CNN/MSNBC/Fox News/anyone was showing (I actually turned off CNN & watched HGTV most of the night, which was refreshing).

I won't get into who won & who lost here... but will say that the biggest feeling I came away with yesterday was one of pride & patriotism (okay, that's two feelings). We are so lucky that we live in a country where every citizen, regardless of race, color, or creed is allowed to vote. We are so lucky to live in a country where we can go vote without the fear of being shot at or blown up while doing so. We are so lucky to live in a country where a change of the political party in power does not mean the whole government collapses.

If you voted yesterday, regardless of who you voted for, thank you. If you did not & are eligible to, I ask you to reconsider next time around. It's the least you can do.

Front Porch Sittin'
Del Ray, Virginia
Photo (C) Christina Saull - All Rights Reserved

Iwo Jima Marine Memorial
Arlington, VA
Photo (C) Christina Saull - All Rights Reserved

Chagrin Falls, Ohio
Photo (C) Christina Saull - All Rights Reserved

Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia
Photo (C) Christina Saull - All Rights Reserved

Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn, New York
Photo (C) Christina Saull - All Rights Reserved

Ground Zero
New York, New York
Photo (C) Christina Saull - All Rights Reserved

Washington, D.C.
Photo (C) Christina Saull - All Rights Reserved

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Recipe Tuesday: REAL Greek salad

Traditional Greek Salad

There is nothing I love more than Greek salad. No, not lettuce with feta cheese. But real Greek salad which is made without lettuce. That gorgeous salad above is Royal Caribbean's version of Greek salad, which (surprisingly) might be the best I've ever had.

This is kind of a summer recipe, but a favorite one, full of really good fats and veggies.

Ingredients
* 4 medium sized tomatoes
* 1 small cooking onion
* 3 ounces Feta cheese
* 2 teaspoons oregano
* 3-4 ounces olive oil
* ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste

Instructions
1. Slice up the tomatoes into wedges, and place in a salad bowl.
2. Peel and slice the onion, and add. Sprinkle in the salt and oregano. If the oregano is in larger pieces, crush it up a little more beforehand, as it will help to release the oils.
3. Add in the feta cheese, which can be crumbled by hand or with a fork.
4. Drizzle in the olive oil.
5. Mash up the tomatoes slightly, and toss the ingredients gently.

This salad will serve up to 6 people.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Three years ago...

Photo (C) Christina Saull - All Rights Reserved

I was bumming around Sicily on my honeymoon, eating fantastic cannoli, & enjoying an unplugged life. Oh, to be back there...

Friday, October 29, 2010

Autumnal Week: Spooky Halloween Edition

Photo (c) Christina Saull - All Rights Reserved

How fitting that for my last Autumnal Week post, we have our visit to a cave!

More cool than spooky, Luray Caverns is well worth the two hour drive from D.C.! We spent an hour and a half going through the huge cavern system. Sorry Harrison's Cave, this is way better! Good thing there's no competition between the two since they're so far apart that Google Maps cannot calculate the distance between the two.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Autumnal Week: and then we picked pumpkins

While out in the Shenandoah a few weekends ago, we decided that we simply must stop at a pumpkin patch to do some pumpkin picking. So we happened upon Valley Star Farm & had a good ol' time. The farmers chuckled at us "city folk," especially when I made Brad practically beg them to take us on a hay ride.

They had more varieties of pumpkins than I even knew existed! See that bumpy one six photos down? A "peanut pumpkin" - who knew? In the end, though, I think the white ones were my favorites. Oh, the fall decorating possibilities!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Autumnal Week: Fall on the Farm

As we meandered our way back from the Shenandoah a few weekends ago, I was determined to stay off the interstate & take the back roads. There are always so many pleasant surprises when you take the road less traveled (literally). A great find we stumbled upon in Upperville, Virginia was Ayrshire Farm, which just happened to be having their annual fall festival. What great timing!

We wandered around the farm, playing with the many animals (including more turkeys than I have ever seen in my life), enjoying apple cider doughnuts & taking in the autumn-ness of it all. They even had a hay ride* to take you from the parking area up to the farm.

*There may or may not have been an incident in the hay covered parking area where there were hundreds of grasshoppers hopping around. I may or may not have screamed repeatedly & refused to walk to the car. Once finally arriving at the car, a grasshopper may or may not have jumped into the car with me/on me, resulting in more screaming, resulting in the grasshopper hiding under the passenger seat. Which may or may not have resulted in me refusing to sit in said passenger seat & insisting on driving. All this may or may not have resulted in Brad repeatedly saying "You can take the girl out of the city, but..." Hope the grasshopper likes his new home in Alexandria.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Autumnal Week & Recipe Tuesday... all rolled into one!

What a great blog day! Day 2 of "Autumnal Week" & Recipe Tuesday, all rolled into one post!

Today, I give you this:

Corn Chowder*

This became a favorite of ours during last year's snowpocalypse, round I (not to be confused with this year's snow pocalypse, round I I).

Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time: 25 Minutes
Ready In: 45 Minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients:
6 bacon strips, diced
3/4 cup diced celery**
1 small onion, diced
1 cup diced potato
1 cup water
1 (14.75 ounce) can cream-style corn
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Directions:
In a saucepan, cook bacon, celery and onion over medium heat for 10-15 minutes or until bacon is cooked; drain. Add potato and water. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until potato is tender. Stir in remaining ingredients; heat through (do not boil). Refrigerate or freeze leftovers.

* There is nothing healthy about this recipe.
** I leave out the celery since Brad doesn't like it.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Autumnal Week: Oh Shenandoah...

To celebrate our wedding anniversary (and, honestly, to get the heck out of the city), we ventured out to Shenandoah National Park a few weekends ago. A highlight of the trip was a Sunday morning drive along Skyline Drive, which offered beautiful views of both the Shenandoah mountains to the west and the rolling Piedmont to the east. The fall leaves were spectacular - more muted than the colors in New England, but still pretty none the less.

The Shenandoah area of Virginia is just beautiful. This place was on my (embarrassingly long) list of places I haven't been to in the area, despite living here for over five years. I'm glad I finally made it out there.