Adventures after Yellowstone...

With the awesome experience we had during Yellowstone, it was hard to just let it go.  When I got back to MCG we were all thinking on how we could continue this life changing experience for our students.  One of the ideas came to me, is to offer a class where we would continue to explore the surrounding environment.  The class I'm teaching now is titled "Trek Pittsburgh".  I've done many classes like this before, but now it has even more meaning.  This past Saturday, we loaded up 12 students and went to Ohio Pyle which is in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania.  This is the home Fallingwaters, Kentuck Knob, Seven Springs and Jellystone Park!  :-)

Here's some images...

 Group shot, you know how I love to take these!

 Familiar face!  Khalil.

 Silhouette of a student with the gorgeous scenery.

 This was taken with STEEEVE in mind! :-)

 Rapids taken by Khalil.

Lower rapids taken by Khalil.

We are Family!

We were very fortunate to have the parents come and support us

Gallery Talks Pictures

Yeah Lateeka!!

Oh what a night!

Our exhibition reception was great!  Students from the trip and other MCG students came down.  The Yellowstoners :-) gave gallery talks and became docents to the over 600 gallery crawl participants!  Some of the artwork sold, which was great too! 
The exhibition runs until the first week of January 2013.  So you have time to view it and purchase more artwork!

 Table  food display made by our MCG students!

 Snap shot of the crowd.

 Michelle brought her Steeeve!!

Students gearing up for the gallery talks.

Excitement building!

Today we installed the artwork for our exhibition!  This Friday, September 28th from 5:30 - 9pm will be the reception.  Our downtown gallery is located at 212 9th Street, which is on the corner of 9th Street and Liberty Ave., Downtown Pittsburgh.  Come on down and celebrate with us!  Our students will be talking about their work as well as their experiences during the trip.  Be prepared to be amazed...and to purchase an image or just donate!  Tell EVERYONE to come on down and see this FANTASTIC exhibition!!!

Special thanks to Jolie Valentine and Jeff Guererro for helping install the show!

Exhibition Date....

Park Journeys: Yellowstone Exhibition

Day: Friday
Date: September 28, 2012
Time: 5:30pm - 9pm
Give a call if you need more info... 412-322-1773 x114

Our exhibition will be ready for viewing at the Catholic Charities Welcome Center located at 212 Ninth Street in the heart of the Cultural District of Downtown Pittsburgh! 

September 28th is the Gallery Crawl of Pittsburgh's Art Galleries.  So come on over to our MCG Downtown gallery to view our students' awesome work during the trip.  Oh yeah, bring your check books too!  You may want support our students by purchasing their work or by donating to future Park Journey trips... just sayin!  :-)

Framed for exhibition are some gorgeous metallic prints 16x20. 

Yeah baby!  Going LARGE, are some awesome scenic shots by the explores, 20x30!!












When at MCG, be sure to patronize our gift shop where we have some memorabilia from the trip for sale too!  Magnets make the best traveling sized gift for all!  :-)

We're back!

Yesterday was the first day of enrollment!  We had nearly 200 students swarming MCG in total excitement!  It was great seeing returning students as well as new students.  Looking forward to our classes and sharing our Yellowstone experiences...

MCG Youth

Gigapan

So, during the trip, students were able to work with the Gigapan.  It's a robotic camera made by some fine folks at Carnegie Mellon University. 

 

Above is a "regular" shot of the falls.  I'm not sure if regular is the proper word though!  I'll say the image was taken normally with a camera.
;

This gigapan images was taken with over 200 images.  They're then taken through the gigapan sticher which then puts them all together to make the picture you see below!  This is the originator of the Iphone's and others panorama maker.   By the way, we have some former MCG folks working at CMU Create Lab, instructing gigapans and a former MCG student was interning there too!  Just a shout out.  If your reading, make a comment to give details of what you all are doing at the Lab...DY & CP!  :-)

Editing!

 So when I got home I decided to weigh the bag that I was carrying...  Michelle would be so proud!  I was lugging around 2 backs that each weighed almost 27 pounds.  I'm so glad that Delta didn't charge extra!  :-)  By the way this was the same back pack that I used during the 2000 MCG to Montana "Riding Through History" trip.


Before students arrived I took their cameras from them at the airport, and came in to the Guild to download their images getting the cameras ready for the Adult Ed evening photoshop class with Jill & Jolie, who by the way was honey mooning in Yellowstone during the same time!  Congratulations to the new Mrs. Valentine!!

Students arrived!  As mentioned in a previous post, there were only 3 but they knocked it out!  They shared images with each other, had lunch in MCG-BTC dinning hall...all healthy and great food!  Sorry, no pictures.  We got our grub on!

 Lateeka even brought her mom, who by the way also got married while we were on the trip!  Wow, that's something.  Mom, said that she missed Lateeka, but knew that this was a once in a life time experience for her daughter.  Hopefully, it won't be a once in a life time experience!

Khalil laughing at the picture I took of the Bison scat.  He had to hurry up to be at work by 2:30pm.  I hope he wasn't late... 

Dear employer,
Please excuse Khalil for his tardiness, he was putting final touches on his images for the exhibition which I hope you and many others will attend on September 28th at the MCG / Catholic Charities Downtown Gallery located at 212 Ninth Street, during the Gallery Crawl.  Thanks!

Whoa, a picture of Mikayla writting her blog! Such a great kid!

Image of some CDs and DVDs made for the students to remember their experience.

Hardly Working

Why hello there! I am currently back in Pittsburgh and working at MCG to edit a few photos for the exhibition in September on the 28th. All the photos we have edited for the exhibition will sold there! The place? The Catholic Charities Building in Downtown Pittsburgh. The address? 212 9th Street.

Well for the past few days I have been sleeping and trying to adjust back to city. When I had to eat a TV dinner I thought of the yummy food I had at Yellowstone...COOK FOR ME AGAIN MICHELLE!!! I miss working out with her too...and my mom still needs to have that chat with her about low carb diets. I am just missing Yellowstone and wish I could back...maybe in the spring or the winter so I can see the wolves or the little babies that are born in the spring.

Here are a couple more shots that I didn't get to show you all! (Some are not my own)

Oh lord...I was on the second plane out to Bozeman with Cortney right next to me. I had puffed out my cheeks and had my eyes were really tiny so he called me Asian. I Then opened my eyes wide open and Cortney said "I...I must photograph this" as he slowly lifted his camera up. We burst out laughing and it took me a few moments to calm down and make the face again for this shot. Germaine used this photo when we had dinner with a few of our wonderful donors so I was really embrassed...but it has grown on me. Thank you Cortney for sitting next to me when I had 3 seats to myself.

 

This...this photo is why I am glad we were not a part of a school system field trip. We could hug without having a lawsuit happening! Michelle was laying on a log and Joanna set us all up. I am straddling Michelle and it was so awkward trying to position myself so that it wasn't painful for her or me. We were all laughing so hard trying to keep the pose.

Lateeka! Do you know how jealous I am of this shot?? These guys kept flying away when I wanted to take their photo and when I didn't want them in my shot they zoomed in and ruined it. I want to claim this as my own but I shan't. 

So right before we left our cabins, the resident herd of Elk came in. I sadly lost all but 2 photos...correction they are on another computer that is aligning the GigaPan shots. I stalked the male one and took a shot every time he looked up. Isn't he beautiful? This shot could be improved but I say it is pretty okay...not as amazing as a Tom Murphy shot. 

THIS IS NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE! I WAS JUST RUBBING THE BEAR FOR LUCK! Yup...a bear got me lucky :3

So I shall be blogging more from home and about our exhibition. Bye to alllll!

Back to MCG.

Having a crappy day due to the rain but, I made it here to MCG and it stopped raining. The day may look up after all. There are only 3 of us here but we still make the best of it. You gotta' love MCG. Now Im editing photos so keep on Bloggin'. STEEEEEEEEEEVE!?!?!?!?

Park Journeys = Life Lessons

Thursday, August 9 I embarked on a Journey to Yellowstone National Park. No words can express the amount of gratitude I feel when I look back over the last week. I was gifted with an amazing camera to use while I was there. My first attempt at photography! I was amazed at how I saw things differently through a camera's eye. The big and the small of Yellowstone seemed to pop in a way that I never appreciated before. My mother was an exceptional artist and I was lucky enough to have this door opened for me to finally appreciate what came so naturally to her. On September 9, 2003 my mother made a journal entry addressed to her two oldest grandchildren and "all to come for today", it read:

"Message to Joshua & Nathanael & all to come for today, don't be superficial. Take time to really listen, to store away, to really hear. Don't be so eager to speak, to draw attention to yourself that you don't savor the moment with the person you're with. Moments are few and pass quickly. Take time - make time - to be real."

Yellowstone and the company I kept while there....that was REAL. The silence that surrounded us gave us the ability to really hear and learn from one another. Along life's journey, we are given many blessings. My blessings last week came in the form of ten amazing kids who allowed me to be a part of their lives for five days during the Park Journey's Yellowstone trip. They made an impact on my life in a way that I'm not sure they can fully understand. They are all amazing, smart, talented kids who possess the power to do anything they want. In the majestic backdrop of Yellowstone National Park, they have renewed my spirit to become a lifelong learner. This is just a short note to them. 

**********************************************************

Brianna, Lauren, Lateeka, Latrice, Mikayla,

Sean, Cortney, Xavier, Khalil and Jacques:

Throughout your life you will be faced with challenges. Those challenges are all merely steps that mold you and make you who you are. Some days are amazing, like that photo that is perfect on the first take. The lighting, the depth of field, all of it just seems to fall into place effortlessly. Other days, regardless of what you do, you still don't get the photo you want. The key is to never stop working for it or believing that you can achieve it. Never be ashamed to ask those who have more experience than you for help. (Thanks to Sean and Xavier I finally got the picture I wanted. It was one of 600+, but it's mine and it's perfect to me.) 

Work, endurance, and humility breed success. Each of you has an amazing gift that you possess and you have the opportunity to make a difference in your lives and the lives of those you touch. You have the ability to impact people, always keep that in the back of your mind with the words you speak and the actions you exhibit. Much love to all of you. You have contributed to my life and my Yellowstone memories and I will be forever grateful to you.

Yellowstone is a part of all of us now and we too have left our mark there "STEEEEVE". When things get tough, and they will, be reminded of this time and realize that prior to Yellowstone, you were strong enough to endure the string of events that brought you to that peaceful and grand place. You will endure again and your Yellowstone will be waiting. Recognize that you have NO boundaries, you have NO walls. You have the choice to make the life you want. Be mindful in your choices and you'll see your skies open up!

Finally, don't be afraid to take the road less traveled. It is down those roads that you find the stillness of Trout Lake, the majesty of Yellowstone Falls, or the vivid colors of the Grand Prismatic.

 "There is pleasure in the pathless woods,

There is a rapture on the lonely shore,

There is society, where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar:

I love not man the less, but Nature more,

From these our interviews, in which I steal

From all I may be, or have been before,

To mingle with the Universe, and feel

What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal."

- Lord Byron

Learning and Sharing

 Lateeka getting her scope on!

This is a great shot that I found while downloading of me teaching the 4x5 camera, taken by Joanna!  Thanks JoJo!  You know I had to represent Steeler Nation out in Yellowstone!

This what the positive looks like.  I hope the negatives make it back to Pittsburgh safely!

So I took a 4x5 of Shauna and a digital of her.

Group shot in front of the arch... and sign.

Last morning, Shauna brought up the water colors that the students did of the Grand Canyon at Artist Point.

Our students are awesome and talented!

Brianna presenting on why Congress should keep Yellowstone and other National Parks.