Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

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Behind the SSP Logo

I don’t think he’ll kill me for posting these. When my brother, Michael, visited me a few weeks ago I talked him into letting me take a few quick portraits of him. I’m pretty sure he’s used to that…he was often my guinea pig for photography as I was learning. I thought I’d post an image or two here so you could see the boy genius who is behind my branding – he is a graphic designer and created my logo. Michael moved to Scotland a couple of years ago in pursuit of his master’s degree in graphic design. He has since graduated and is living and working in Scotland (are you as jealous as I am over that?!). He’s super talented and I’m so very proud of him!

January 19, 2009
Beaver Activity at Prince William Forest Park

Okay, so I’ve only been twice now, three times if you count our first geocaching trip, but…I think I actually have a craving to go hiking now! And considering how completely non-outdoorsy I am, that’s a very strange new thing for me. Chris and I kicked off the New Year with a trip to Prince William Forest Park to do a 3-mile hike, but we haven’t been able to go since then (I was working on getting rid of some kind of cough for a little while). Prince William Forest Park on New Year’s Day was great – we only saw one other pair of hikers for the entire time we were there, and it was just really peaceful. Of course I brought my little point-and-shoot along to show you some visual goodies.

The hike was recommended in our guidebook, and one of the things the trail description mentioned was that this was a good place to see “beaver activity.” When we read that, we had absolutely no idea what to expect (beavers just chillin’ and hanging out? beaver parties or games?), but we got about half-way through the hike and saw this down by a stream – huge mature trees, with tons of little teeth-marks! Some of the trees were still being worked on (above), but some were completely knocked over by the power of these animals (below). I hadn’t ever seen anything like this before. It’s an easy hike, probably easy enough for smaller kids – it was certainly educational for us so I imagine it would be neat for the kiddos to see.

We’re hoping to be able to go hiking again soon, assuming the weather isn’t nutty. The plan is to try each of the trails in our guidebook, and I’m assuming that once the weather gets warmer and the bugs start coming out, I won’t want to go anymore (I know, I know…most people like to hike in nice weather).

January 18, 2009
Lack of Sleep

So, I find it rather odd that apparently I have little to no physical depth perception when I’m really tired (I had such a hard time falling asleep last night!), but I can still operate a camera on manual settings. And I wish I had a surveillance camera in my kitchen to capture myself pouring a glass of milk* all over the counter before any of it even made it into the glass, and then laughing hysterically at myself, and then grabbing my camera to photograph my mess. What a goof, I must’ve looked completely crazy. I’m titling this photo below, “Not even close.”

*FYI, it’s Lactaid-brand lactose free fat-free milk, which I happen to prefer over soy milk for my lactose-intoleranceness.

January 12, 2009
Geocaching

Today Chris and I crossed #27 – Go geocaching off of my 101 in 1001 list. I’ve been dying to try geocaching for a while now, and we finally went out to do it. If you’re looking for a fun way to get some extra exercise and fresh air, if you love the idea of hunting for treasure, and/or if you have kids, you definitely have to try this! From the official geocaching website: “Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment.” So we bought a handheld GPS device (there’s also an iPhone app that can be used), and we set out this morning to find a couple of caches nearby.

Here Chris is using the GPS to locate the approximate spot of a cache not too far from our house:

Both of the caches we found were small Tupperware-type containers with little toys and silly tchotchkes inside.

When you find the cache, you can sign the log to indicate if you took anything and/or left anything inside the cache and to let other geocachers know that you were there. TNLN means “took nothing, left nothing” and TFTC means “thanks for the cache.” One of the caches we found has been there since 2005!

We had a lot of fun! And geocaching can also be really good for the environment – a lot of geocachers take a trash bag to pick up litter along the way. Now that we know how it works, we’ll take a bag next time and do our part. Hiking off-trail was really good exercise, and I’m pretty sure I worked off the cookies that I ate at last night’s wedding with Kate. Those pictures will be coming soon!

January 4, 2009
Happy 2009!

I don’t consider myself to be a particularly superstitious person, but I love fun traditions like eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day. Well, I don’t actually love black-eyed peas…in fact, I loathe them. The texture is just gross to me, or maybe it’s the beady little black “eyes” staring at me. But I love the thought of the peas affecting my luck for the whole year. My mom usually served the lucky legumes with our meal on New Year’s Day, but Chris and I tend to just eat an obligatory spoonful, sometimes right out of the Goya can just to get it over with. This year I did put them on a plate with the rest of our dinner (and later photographed them like the dork I am). Do you have any New Year’s traditions?

Wishing you and yours peace, love, happiness and lots of luck in the new year!

January 1, 2009