New lens!

I am very, very excited about my new Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens that arrived a couple days ago! I got it with a package that included a new camera bag, a lens hood, 3 filters in a storage case, a cleaning kit and more, so now I'm feeling pretty equipped for my next photoshoot!

I've been reading up on how to shoot in AV (aperture priority) mode since I don't usually, and have been just doing lots of tests to figure out how the lens works. No matter how much you read or know in theory, the best way to learn about a new tool is to practice! What is special about this lens is that it's perfect for portraits because it gives you that smooth, blurry background with the foreground in sharp detail. For example:

Here's an illustration of all the F-stops. That's what the photography world calls each widening or narrowing of the aperture, which is the hole through which the camera captures the image. When the aperture opens wider the background becomes blurrier, and the amount of the frame that is in focus gets smaller. So the first picture in this series at F/1.4 has the blurriest background, and the smallest area that's in sharp relief. The last is F/22 which has the sharpest background with the majority of the shot in focus. The difference is enormous! 

I've been practicing with my family members too, not just flowers! This lens is great for capturing pictures in low-light settings, like this one of my dad working late the other night:

But it can handle bright conditions too!

This is a fixed lens which means it doesn't zoom at all. Because of that it takes a lot of moving around to get the shot right, which is fun!

My sister's cats are honorary family members, but mostly they were being cooperative, so they got some photos too. This is our mama cat who is tiny and still looks like a kitten despite having had a couple litters herself already.

Kitten #1 looks just like mama.

But #2 takes after dad.

They were so cute playing together.

I'm loving this purchase and can't wait to use it during photoshoots! I have a few that are coming up, so stay tuned for more pics soon!

The latest greatest news!

Lil sis Isa and her bf Matt are pretty cute.

The whole fam is a fan of Matt. He's all sorts of good (plus he's tall enough for the leggy sister). So when THIS HAPPENED yesterday,

our smiles were almost as big as these two!

Congrats both of you! Super excited and happy for you!

To read... or not to read?

It's no secret that I love books. My mom loves books. My dad loves books. My brother and my sisters love books. Our living room in our many houses growing up was always easily identifiable as the one mom and dad set up all the bookshelves in. So it's no surprise that my parents have a family subscription to Audible, and that they have an extensive library. And lucky for me, I get to use it!

But my Audible obsession hit an unfortunate peak recently. 

I got to the point that if I were doing anything that didn't involve reading or listening, I felt I needed those headphones in. Showers annoyed me. Having to reply to a friend's text annoyed me. Even my husband's conversation would annoy me! So I've been on a little break for the past week, and instead of having gone through an audio book and a half in that time, I'm not even halfway done with a paper book. Actually having to hold the book and not being able to multitask makes the going so slow!! But also I'm really not liking the story at all, which doesn't make for motivated reading. However, its lack of inspiration inspired me to write a bit about a few of the myriad books I've sunk my teeth into lately, and let you know that you should read them... or stay far away.

Gone with the Wind 
by Margaret Mitchell

Not gonna lie, I hesitated to begin this one. The audio book being 50 hours long is turnoff enough, but add to that a memory of thoroughly disliking the movie when I saw it ages ago, and it took some convincing to start this one up. But over the summer both my mom and little sis Maria were very insistent that I give it a try, so I took their word for it. Three hours in I was bored and uninspired, but Bia reassured me it would pick up, so I kept plugging away. Soon enough I was hooked. Who knew a book with not one character I actually, truly liked could invoke so much interest and emotion?? I honestly didn't want the 50 hours to come to an end, and that's saying a lot. Definitely a classic worth picking up if you've never read it. And let's be honest, you probably haven't.

Crime and Punishment 

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Having parents who are ardent admirers of great literature (and a father who now routinely teaches a Russian literature class to my younger siblings and friends), I grew up hearing the titles and authors of the Russian Greats tossed around in conversation frequently. The images invoked by this particular title always conjured up grandiose scenery peopled by royalty and aristocrats, so by the time I got to the second sentence I was already experiencing something of a let down. However, the story was gripping, despite being slightly tediously preachy at times, and it is one that will stick with me. It's definitely worth picking up, if for nothing else than an interesting introduction to Russian lit. In the past year I've been delving more into Russian literature—Anna Karenina and Dostoyevsky's The Idiot last winter, recently Turgenev's Fathers and Sons and now Dostoyevsky again— and have discovered that in its essence lies not in its stories but in its particular approach to storytelling as well as its timeless characters. Its charm is still rather mysterious to me, but I certainly have enjoyed what tastes I've had thus far. My dad is pushing for War and Peace next... we'll see when I can work up the courage to tackle that!

The Martian
by Andy Weir

Living in Morocco, I rarely hear the buzz surrounding new books or movies. This can be poignantly illustrated by my toting around The Help by Kathryn Stockett a few years ago while on a meandering trip home through Chicago, and upon being asked by a friend what I thought of it so far, was very confused why he knew so much about the story. It had simply appeared in one of the "I'm leaving the country, here are all my books" dumps by friends not long before, and I had picked it up randomly. (Yes, I did love it.) This book and its recent movie, however, did not escape my attention, thanks to my big brother explaining the premise to me over breakfast in Chicago this summer, saying he thought Othman might like it. Well he hasn't read it/listened to it yet, but I did. In all of five days. The science was just science-y enough, the character was realistic but stopped just short of being annoying, and the story and background were just plausible enough. All that put together made for a thoroughly satisfying and gripping read. It's light reading, but good light reading, and I even learned a thing or two about botany! Now to watch the movie...

The Yacoubian Building 
by Alaa Al Aswany

Don't be fooled by the "International Number One Bestseller" scrolling atop the cover— this book doesn't have much of anything going for it. The story takes place in modern-day Cairo and follows the exploits of the residents of a large apartment building in the old downtown. It's a premise with potential, but the writing is uninspired, the themes are repetitive, and the characters who don't invoke sympathy are far too many to keep track of. This is the book-book I'm reading currently, and it's one that made its way to my bookshelf at some point but I rather wish hadn't. Perhaps many of my qualms stem from the author's seeming confusion the common maxim Show, Don't Tell, which he got backwards. While the book is meant to be a social and political commentary, I just call it boring.

source

There are many more I could talk about... I could expound on the graceless aging of Herzog by Saul Bellow, Turgenev's equally tender and melodramatic Fathers and Sons, Oliver Sack's interesting but endlessly repetitive Awakenings, the non-fiction Storm of War by Andrew Roberts which was a long but superb recount of WWII, and many more. But the reliving of each story as I write up my feelings about them has been exhausting, so I think I'll leave it at that for now.

On the road... except not.

I'm almost on the last leg of my crazy 56 hour journey from Casablanca to Brookings, South Dakota, currently sitting in my big brother's apartment in Chicago. It has been quite a trip, but (knock on wood) everything has gone smoothly so far! Here are some picture highlights.

On the 8 hour flight from Casablanca to Doha, flying over Saudi Arabia. These are irrigated crops. I always have fun flying over Saudi because I play a game looking out the window trying to find signs of human life. Most of the time there isn't even a road! We don't realize how huge and empty the country is.

Arrived in Doha! I thought it'd be a lot like Dubai but it was a bit less ostentatious and gargantuan. I quite liked it actually.

The architecture there was very cool.

My hotel, courtesy of Qatar airways, was goooooorgeous. Here's the lobby (decorated for Ramadan).

And again.

Going into my room...

I might've only slept for 4 hours, but let me tell you, I slept WELL.

The room was huge and wonderful. I took an amazing bath and had a room service dinner. Thanks Qatar Airways... I'll be flying with you again!!

The Doha airport, Hamad International, was hands down the best airport I've been to. The staff are incredibly helpful and nice, there was lots to see and do, the layout was very user friendly (unlike the sprawling Dubai airport) and even the gift shop prices were good! Maybe I'm giving the airline/country free publicity, and I'm pretty sure that's what they want since my ticket was so cheap (they just want people to like and be familiar with Qatar prior to the world Cup!), but hey I'm just telling the truth.

14 hours later....

Even though big bro is out of town, I am lucky enough to have a wonderful friend, Rene, who lives in South Bend (see above map) and who came and got me from the airport and hung out and took me out for dinner! I was only halfway coherent so the poor guy heard a lot of half stories and idea with no ends, but it was just lovely to see him. Back at Patrick's apartment, here's the view:

And the sunset.

And at night! I slept super well last night, and woke up in a panic around 5:30am thinking I was late for my flight. I have to leave at 10am, and 5:30am was 10:30am Casablanca time... I guess we know where my body still thinks I am!

Today... HOME!!

Riad Quara in Marrakech

As I mentioned  last year, Othman and I have a tradition of spending a weekend in Marrakech just before I go to the USA every summer. Well I'm off to the US on Sunday, and we stuck to tradition last weekend! I was actually lucky enough to have won a free night for two at Riad Quara during a themed photo contest held by PAGES in late April, so we had somewhere to stay for free, which is of course never a bad thing. We had heard a lot about the riad and were very excited to go.

We left once my Saturday classes got over at 5pm, and were in Marrakech around 8. The riad is located in the middle of the medina, behind Jmaa El Fnaa, and for those of you who have ventured there you know what kind of twisty alleyways that area is made up of. Despite Othman asking the way many times we walked with our bags for almost an hour trying to find it, and by then I was in a thoroughly bad mood. But then... we walked into this:

The employee who greeted us was calm and sweet, and brought us into a small room lined with Moroccan couches to rest for a bit. She came with a huge teapot and intricately decorated silver receptacle that was essentially a bucket (but I can't call it that because it was so much more) and poured orange blossom scented water for us to wash our hands. A few minutes later she reappeared with tea and cakes.

By now you might be able to imagine that my bad mood was quickly dissipating. The longer I stayed on that couch, listening to the trickle of the fountain in the open air courtyard, still smelling the orange blossom, sipping my tea, the lighter I felt. As I looked around I started appreciating the details of the architecture and decor.

I wasn't the least impatient to get up to our room. But when we did, and were greeted by this, Othman and I looked at each other, totally impressed, and oh-so-thankful to the riad's owners for having chosen my picture in the contest! 

The little bathroom wasn't to be outdone by the bed though!

One thing I loved about the room was its lack of a TV— it would have been so incongruous with the rest of the place and an eyesore for sure. And who would want to watch TV in a room like that? We also never even inquired about wifi, which is usually the first question we ask. I guess we were enveloped in the riad's charm right from the start.

We had a wonderful, fancy dinner out that night, and woke up the next morning well rested and refreshed. Breakfast was included in the stay, so we made our way up the stairs...

through an open door...

onto the balcony.

We thought it couldn't get much better but clearly we were wrong! While Othman went downstairs to talk to the employee about my food allergies, requesting different things for breakfast than the standard fare (which she obligingly said was no problem at all), I hung out taking pictures, noticing this lil guy.

I guess we were hungry, so I didn't get a nice picture of all the breakfast laid out (it was fit for a king let me tell you), but you can see my contented face at least!

I loved this touch— the Moroccan tea glass covers. Tea glasses get burning hot and there's a method to holding them, but many (most?) tourists wouldn't be aware of that, so it's very thoughtful of the riad to save our fingers! I might be used to drinking tea but I was happy with the adjustment!

During breakfast Othman made a friend too!

By the time we were done with breakfast and ready to go out shopping in the medina it was nearly time for us to check out, but our car was far off and we didn't want our things sitting in it roasting in the sun. The riad once again was incredibly accommodating, and let us keep our things in the room while we shopped. When we got back a couple hours later, they let me wait downstairs with our things while Othman went and got the car to bring it closer. The thick walls created a real oasis, and the only sounds I could hear were the neighbor kids playing, birds singing, and the fountain bubbling. I wasn't even tempted to distract myself with my phone-- instead I wandered, taking pictures of the details, and when I was done with that, simply sat and enjoyed the peace for what it was.

I photographed the beautiful walls,

the intriguing lamps,

the courtyard I couldn't get enough of, now with a daytime view,

the room we had been welcomed into the night before,

and the flowers that were bright, beautiful, sweet smelling and everywhere.

When Othman arrived, saying the car was now in the nearby parking lot, I was sad to leave, but not too sad. I know we'll be back.