We're back!

[villenadecorte]

Hi PR Family!

We are back in California after living in Portland for the last six years!

Here's a summary of our time in Portland:

Bought a hipster bike

Helped my hubby battle cancer

Worked for some cool design firms

Had another baby (we're up to 4 boys now -- for those who have known me on the boards for the last 9 years)

Taught a lot of dance

Blogged about lots of mundane things

Laughed my ass off at the not so exaggerated show Portlandia

Felt trapped in the grey bubble, missed home, proximity to family

Took a lot of iPhone pics and posted them to Facebook and Instagram

Decided to move home this summer, and now we are living on the central coast of California

During my time in Portland, as wonderful as it was to live there, I was very uninspired and did not visit the PR family very often and that makes me quite sad. Excited at first, I took many pictures in Portland. I'd later sit back, and look through them, thinking, all my pics looked exactly the same and were sort of cliched (a lot of green trees, bridges, food pics, coffee pics, hipsters, streetcars, old churches, etc.)

So, I abandoned my cameras, and instead of thinking of crafting photographs that tell compelling stories, I turned to just taking snaps on my phone or point and shoot.

In fact, since I have been home and thinking about photography and such, I've come to the realization that as much as I love Facebook, the reliability of my iPhone, Instagram and Twitter... those tools, while fun and handy for communicating things quickly, do not really hold a candle to the value, community and knowledge I've derived since 2003 on the Photography Review forum. I'm hoping that with our move back to California I will continue to feel inspired to take pictures and participate in the community here, reconnect and continue to learn from you all.

That said, I am in the market for a new camera, and thankful I have PR.com to lean on for reviews to find one.

So in the mean time, here are a couple of cliched iPhone pics, from our new home on the California Coast

These pics would be:
1- Lifeguard Tower at Sunset at Pismo State Beach
2- Hubby and the newest boy (who is 2) running around Pismo State Beach
3- Hike through the Bluffs trail over the rainy afternoon this past weekend