Great House on Capitol Hill

I recently photographed a terrific house on Capitol Hill for Dierdre Doyle at Windermere Capitol Hill.  This house is on a beautiful quiet street in a great neighborhood.  I’m not sure where to start with this one:  It has true cook’s kitchen, the french doors swing open to the beautiful back patio and tiered garden.  Some of my favorite details: the desk in the hallway has charger ports built into the desk to keep your cord clutter hidden, the surround-sound media room has a secret door into a temperature-controlled wine room, the circular layout on the main floor, the leaded glass windows & the fir floors…but most importantly: The owners of the house are two of my favorite people in the world.

For more information, contact Deirdre Doyle.

Get Adobe Flash player

 

 

Purple House in Green Lake / Phinney Ridge area

It’s not often that I photograph a purple house. I shot this cute craftsman near Greenwood Ave for Brad Hinckley at Windermere Real Estate. I’m not sure it’s the color I personally would choose for my house, but the great thing about paint color is that I could change it. Somehow, this purple house “works” where it is located. Several other houses on the street have similar bold bright colors, urban gardens, and lots of sweet neighborhood cats.

Get Adobe Flash player

Here’s the description posted on www.doylehinckley.com:
“Conveniently located between Green Lake and Phinney on a quiet street of cute homes, this sweet Craftsman is full of personality and charm. Retaining many of its classic details, including coved ceilings, picture rails and mullioned windows, the home features spacious living room with fireplace, formal dining room and large sunny eat-in kitchen. Great entertaining deck overlooking fully fenced south-facing yard. Detached garage with alley access. An adorable home ready to welcome its new owners.”
If you want more info, please contact Brad at bradh@windermere.com.

Purple Craftsman

Cairo Print – Ginormously good.

I’ve printed my Cairo photo bigger than I’ve ever printed anything. It’s 60″ Wide by 40″ tall. I’ve always wanted to see this and some of my other images blown up really big, and… it looks spectacular! There is so much to look at, and the desert sands and the pyramids begin to take on a haunting quality that is missed in the smaller prints. I’ve the prints mounted on 68 x 48 foam core, so now the trick is figuring out how to mat and frame the beast. After printing it this large, I found out that the biggest mat sizes available from most places is 60×40. Oops. There is one place that sells 98 x 48 mat board, and it’s pricey. Having a 60×40 window cut in it is even more money… So I’m going to try to figure out how to cut 4 pieces and miter the corners, and hopefully it won’t look tacky. I am imagining that the framing would be even more expensive, so I have decided to build it myself. I just spent an hour at Home Depot figuring out what I want to try to do. Stay tuned for updates!

Ok. Update: I cut the mat using my mat cutter and somehow managed to do it all in on giant piece, without screwing it up. Yay!

I started the frame yesterday. Cut the pieces, glued the corners, wood putty, sanding, painting…

…Finished!!

Old Booth

I love this iPhone photo app called Old Booth. It turns a photo of someone’s face into an old school photo from decades past. Some of them are disturbingly realistic, while others are just downright bizarre. Here’s my facebook album of Old Booth self-portraits:

http://www.facebook.com/gregwhitephoto?ref=name#!/media/set/?set=a.451690360675.244264.604620675

http://www.facebook.com/gregwhitephoto?ref=name#!/media/set/?set=a.451690360675.244264.604620675

Meditation

I’m not good at meditating. In fact, I’m terrible. I started doing it a few months ago, 10 minutes a morning… and I gave it up a few weeks ago when my life got more chaotic. How lame is it that I can’t even get myself to sit down for 10 minutes and do nothing? Since I don’t seem to have the discipline to sit for 10 minutes a day, what better way to jump start my practice than to sign up for 10 straight days of nonstop meditation? I know, I’m crazy. There will be no talking, touching, even looking at other people (other than instructors), no books, no music, no phones, no media of any sort. Is it possible to die from lack of external stimulation? Oh, and no food after noon. Schedule is as follows: 4 AM get up and meditation. 6 AM breakfast. 6:30 AM meditation. 11 AM lunch 12 PM meditate 8:30 PM any questions? 9:30 PM sleep… Repeat.
Interested?
http://www.dhamma.org/en/code.shtml

The World Through My Eyes