82. Gutsy

We found a Kebab place in Ottakring and decided to check it out (I'll probably dedicate a whole post to Kebabs soon).  We had talked about asking people if we could photograph them, so I asked the young girl that worked there.  I didn't really want her to look at the camera, but I had to ask her before, so then she posed.

Kebab stands are always little family joints, usually run by Turkish families.  In this family, the mom and daughter ran everything while the brothers watched the World Cup outside.

Sorry this is kind of a lame post, but it was a big day for me, asking for a picture and everything.  

Later in the day I made the biggest photography mistake of my life.  We were walking down the the U-Bahn and we passed an ice cream shop.  On the front step, four little tiny kids sat stripped down to there underwear eating gelatos of all different flavors.  It was PICTURE PERFECT, and I just kept walking instead of asking the parents if I could take a couple pictures.  I'm still so mad about it.  I'm new at this whole travel photography thing I guess...

76. Profiles

On Monday in photo class we practiced taking portraits.  This meant sixty minutes of getting in one another's faces.  I learned that I have some fabulous looking friends here in Vienna.  Here are are five of the best photos I took.

This is Ambree.  I want all her clothes.  She used to work at Anthropologie.  She lost her passport somewhere in the flight here: luckily the Austrians let her still enter the country.

Here is Cassie.  She is originally from China and she had a bit of a nightmare getting her Visa worked out so she could come here, but she made it.  She's willing to try anything, she shocks us all with her daring.

And there is Ale.  Everyone loves her and gets lost in her eyes, but the Hungarians ESPECIALLY adore her.  She has a standing offer to meet a young man in Iceland.  Romantic!

And then there is Kayla who looks amazing in every photo ever taken of her.  Not joking.  I couldn't decide which of these two looked best, so you get both.  Kayla is from a small town and it is fun to see her open up and have crazy adventures (and hear about them in writing class).

 

And for an extra photo: JP.  It is a lot harder to take narcissistic photos of yourself with a DSLR, but I successfully did not drop the camera on this one. 

64. Flutterbies

On Monday we went to the Imperial Butterfly House for photo class.

It was pretty warm so I had to wait for the fog to clear off my lens.  It reminded me of how my glasses fog up whenever I open the dishwasher.  I also I had to remove several jackets and a scarf so I could breathe (it was cold outside), and my hair I had blowdryed straight one hour earlier was no longer straight.

Once the fog cleared I could tell that the flowers were fake.  That was disappointing.  Well not all of them were fake, but a lot of them.  They have to keep the butterflies fed I guess.

I wandered around the greenhouse looking for colorful butterflies.

I found a few.

Those two in the last photo are the same butterfly species. I still think the camo aspect of the whole butterfly thing is one of the most impressive things in nature.

62. Charles

Somewhere back in Czech history there was a King named Charles.  He did a lot of great things for the city of Prague, including building a bridge on July 9, 1357 at 5:31 in the morning (well that's when they started it anyway).  This day and time was chosen because 135797531 is one of those palindrome things (like Hannah, kayak and race car), and the scientists and astrologers that were advising King Charles thought that this would make the bridge last forever.  Well, it is 2010, so I'd say they did a good job.  Besides the tower he built a humongous castle and a beautiful cathedral  Here are a few pictures from inside.

In the night pictures, the castle is up on the left, and the bridge is on the right.  I was pretty stoked about those shots considering I didn't have a tripod.  

Below is more experimentation with shutter speed, etc.