I Heart Faces: "Places I Love"

This week at i heart faces the theme is "Places I Love". They've asked for pictures of romantic places, so I expect to see a lot of people's honeymoon shots. I decided to go a different route, since the whole point of my participation at i heart faces is to actually get out there each week and practice photography. So, the place that I love and have decided to showcase is my neighborhood. (Surprise, surprise. Did you really think I'd have time to venture much farther?)

That said, you'll notice that only the last 6 of these pictures were taken this weekend - the others are summer shots that I wanted to post on this blog for posterity, since it serves as our family scrapbook of sorts.

I love our neighborhood because it is: laid back, diverse, beautiful (in its own way), heavy on hipsters, historic, full of churches, and full of dogs. Also, there are many good eats here. My pictures don't do justice to the great architecture but instead highlight some of the little things that make this place interesting.




This sign cracks me up.


Not my taste. But even the tacky can make you smile on your walk sometimes, right?


Ahhh, the boulevard in summer. Warmth and sunshine, how I miss thee.


Note: laundry, wires, random ladder and dilapidated basketball hoop, and a Starbucks awning put out to pasture. Our neighbor's art encompasses multiple religions, and we cannot tell you what the 9:00 p.m. weekend conch blowing ritual has to do with.


I wish I could bottle the vibe at the farmer's market and take some whenever I start to get stressed. It's blissed out hippy-dippy. Every weekend, this group yard sale springs up out of nowhere right next to the market. Trash and treasure available here.




So many dogs and strollers these days.




Okay, sorry for so much farmer's market, but this is where we were today - the winter market, housed in the Congress Theater.


Georgia stands mesmerized watching the musicians each Sunday. Some groups are better than others, but this one was great. (And don't they pretty much look exactly like what you'd expect? A Mighty Wind, anyone?)

I love the garage door murals you can spot around our neighborhood:




And now, for my pièce de résistance, I give you the skate park. It's underneath the highway overpass. It's loud, kind of dirty, and apparently quite popular, primarily among males age 7-35. I think it's a great addition to the neighborhood, but I have to share with you what my dear husband said when he initially heard about its construction, (and I quote), "That is one of the most depressing public use projects I've ever seen. Why don't they just invent hell and throw it underneath one of our roads?"

Happily, he has been proven wrong. During stroller rides this summer Georgia loved to watch the guys "Jump! Jump!", but you can add "highway overpass" to the list of places I never thought I'd take my (then) 1-year-old for entertainment.

Today was the first time I braved entering the park, and I gotta tell you, I'm pretty proud of myself. I was the only female there, and with a tripod no less. But I found out that if you just walk confidently like you know what you're doing, skaters will assume that you do.





Today my eye for the shots far exceeded my technical capabilities. I know that a professional photographer could've had a field day there capturing awesome silhouettes, which was my original intent, but something I have no practice in. Now that I've braved entering the park, I hope to go back sometime when the temperature is out of the teens to try again. Seriously, Joe said to me when I got home, "What happened to your face?" because it was so windburned. Oops.