A Celebrity Week

Well, this week was pretty exciting. In celebration of MLK day, I visited our nation's capital. George had asked that I let him know next time I was in town, so I stopped by the White House to say hi. Lucky for me, they still had the Christmas tree up, and the White House staff photographer agreed to take our picture. Nice guy. My only complaint was that for some odd reason, my hair looked just like Laura's that day. Not a fan. And, whew! I've sure added on a few pounds this holiday season. (Gotta get back on that treadmill....)



Then, as a late Christmas present, George flew me out to Hollywood. Great gift, eh? While touring around the area, I accidentally bumped into Johnny Depp on the street. Well I bumped into his dog actually. Which freakin' bit me. I've got bloody teeth marks on my ankle! Can you believe it?? It was a stupid little yappy dog, too. But anyway, Johnny felt so bad he invited me in for coffee and Band-Aids. I don't even like coffee, but I think I drank about five cups. (I mean, it was Johnny Depp's coffee mug - what can I say...) He was so smitten by my dry humor and witty conversation that he asked if I'd like to meet his friend Orlando. I had to get a picture to prove it, because I knew you wouldn't believe me. Thanks to the trusty treadmill, I shed the extra flab pretty quickly. (And boy those ab wheel things really work!)



Of course, Orlando was equally enthralled with my superior conversational skills, and offered me his spot on the Pirates of the Caribbean II poster. They just happened to be shooting the photos for it the day I was there. I must say, however, I think I look a little better as a girl. (Although my beard is coming in nicely.)



So. As you can see, it was a pretty busy week. Gee, I wonder what next week'll hold...

Me, Myself, and my URL

I am the new proud owner of http://www.emilychastain.com.

I own it the domain name, but there's nothing there except a GoDaddy.com ad. You can check if you don't believe me.

But I own it. That's the important part, right? :-)

New Year's Resolution: Get a classy website going at www.emilychastain.com.

I'll keep you posted.

Merry Christmas!

I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a great holiday season. God bless!


(and a special Christmas greeting from East Tennessee....)
http://www.killsometime.com/animations/animation.asp?ID=151

Hello again...

I'm well aware I haven't updated in the last month, and there's no really good excuse for that (except I've been busy, which is true, but people don't like that one.) My Africa trip was so long ago, I don't really know if I wanna write more about it... if you want to see more pictures, please visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/emster214.

Anyway, I found this cool thing where you can create a map of the world that highlights in red all of the countries you've been to. So here's mine.



create your own visited country map

I didn't think I was doing too bad (I've been to 22 countries) until it told me that even with my 22 countries, that's only 9% of the world. Nine percent!! Do you know how little that is?? I've got to get busy. Of course, then I was thinking, well, I'm 22 years old and I've been to 22 countries - maybe by the time I'm 60 I'll have been to 60 countries. But then I realized that's only 26%. And then at the age of 60, I'll have only seen a quarter of the world. So how do I solve this problem? Is seeing more than half of the world a realistic goal? To do that, I'd have to visit approximately 113 countries.

Wow. The world's really big.

Johannesburg

I've decided that talking about my trip is (obviously) too much stuff to sum up in one post, but I have to start somewhere. So here goes...

We flew from Tri-Cities to Atlanta, and then Atlanta to Johannesburg. The flight from Atlanta to Jo-burg was 19 hours straight. We landed once at the Isle of Sal to refuel and change crew members. Unfortunately, we passengers weren't allowed off the plane. The only thing that got me through the grueling hours in the air was the really cool video screen thingy. Not only could you watch a new release of your choosing, you could also play a game, tune into music, or check out a little featurette on Africa. I went the educational route and played blackjack. To my mom I introduced the game Shanghaii and she was then quite occupied for the rest of the trip.

plane
Originally uploaded by emster214.

After we landed at the Johannesburg airport, we had to wait for buses to take us back to the main terminal. They just let us wait underneath of the nose of the plane, something I think would never happen in America. If you look closely you can see the large crowd of people reflected on the underside of the plane nose.


Okay, PAUSE for a moment. I really don't want to give a narrative about my trip (on this day we went here, on this day we did this... blah blah blah...) so maybe I'll just share some of my observations and post a few pictures to accompany them.

Johannesburg, South Africa. It was not quite what I expected. It's a big city, quite normal as far as big cities go. There are nice places to eat, shop, visit, and see. There are quite crappy places where no one wants to eat, shop, visit, or see. Like any big city. One thing I wasn't prepared for was all the trash. It's a dirty place. But then it also had its really nice places. For example, there was the Montecasino, a huge casino/shopping mall complex. It could have been on the strip in Vegas and I wouldn't have known the difference.

montecasino
Originally uploaded by emster214.

The Montecasino was the first place we went to eat after setting foot on African soil.

casino
Originally uploaded by emster214.

The view of the casino floor from the Thai restaurant we ate at in the Montecasino, located in Johannesburg.

parrot
Originally uploaded by emster214.

Not only did the Montecasino have shopping and a casino, it also had what they called a bird garden. We got there just as the garden was closing, but I was allowed to sneak in and grab a quick shot of the parrot.


Someone on the airplane told us that Johannesburg is the most treed city in the world. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but there were a surprising number of trees. They weren't all particularly green, or even sizeable, but they were there. The most unusual tree I saw was the jacaranda, a tree with purple flowers.

jacaranda flowers
Originally uploaded by emster214.

On our second day in Johannesburg, we went to visit some friends of the missionaries we were in Africa to see. This is a view from at their house where we had tea. (Everyone drinks tea in Africa, apparently.)The purple flowers had fallen from a jacaranda tree.


Alright, now I'm going to revert to a few observations I made in my journal after being in Jo-burg for a day or so. (Yes, I am a nerd for quoting myself.)

"Johannesburg is a strange mix of European influence and African culture. It's almost like a big city in Europe, but it's completely African at the same time. The effects of European colonization are apparent but not so strong they overshadow what is truly native. I think if I had one word to describe things so far, it would be DUSTY. (The second word being DRY.) Everything is constantly covered with a fine layer of dust. Good thing for those "domestic workers" as they are called. Apparently, it's nearly insulting to not hire household help. Any middle-class South African home has a live-in domestic servant. And security. Security is a HUGE deal around here. I've yet to see a house not surrounded by some sort of fenced enclosure (most often topped with barbed wire.) Private security guards are more plentiful and more effective than actual policemen. All windows have those steel bar things across them because at night people leave their windows open (air-conditioning in homes is pretty much unheard of.) Crime is a big concern. The mentality seems to be a purely selfish one, where people are concerned primarily with their own needs, often sacrificing morals to meet those needs. Life is cheap here, so I've heard, and so someone won't think twice about physically harming you for a few dollars."

Out of Africa

Well folks, I'm sure you've been waiting in hopeful anticipation for my long-awaited return. And here I am, once again on American soil. (Sometimes I need to go away to really appreciate that more.)

The trip was good. Africa's cool.

I am being purposely vague and unspecific, as I will elaborate with many details later. Right now, I am struggling to type without my eyes closing up on me. After arriving at the airport at 1:00 this afternoon, I had been travelling for 36 hours. THIRTY-SIX HOURS. That's a DAY-AND-A-HALF of my life I will never get back - forever sucked away by airport layovers and long flights.

I. need. sleep.

Off to Africa!

Well, folks, the time has come. I'm leaving for my long-awaited Africa trip. So it might be awhile until you hear from me again (okay, like two weeks) but then I'll be back with plenty of awesome pictures. Hopefully. (I hear they malaria over there.)

Until then, here's a couple of other shots....

horses
Originally uploaded by emster214.

Horses in a field in Longbranch, VA.

lawn mower racing
Originally uploaded by emster214.

Lawn mower racing?? Has anyone ever seen this before?? These guys at the Shenandoah Valley Hot Air Balloon and Wine Festival were pretty serious about it.

october views

I've been shooting more scenic stuff lately, I guess mostly because everything is so beautiful here. I usually have off Mondays from work, and I've spent the last few driving around and taking pictures. There's so many great places to go here for good photo ops - mountains, trails, roads, farmland, etc.

On a side note, I came across a really great song the other day which I would recommend everyone downl.... purchase.

Into the Fire, by a great UK group Thirteen Senses. This song is on the Grey's Anatomy soundtrack (which kicks butt, by the way.) Check it out. It doesn't disappoint.

october view
Originally uploaded by emster214.

Yes, fall is arriving... the leaves are beginning to change color. This is a view from my drive up to Reddish Knob, Virginia.

farmland panoramic
Originally uploaded by emster214.

This is really better in a larger version... with this small picture you miss so much detail.

foggy road
Originally uploaded by emster214.

My drive down the mountain from Reddish Knob, in Virginia.

Photos from the lake

Alright, I know it's just two photos and I've really been slacking off lately with the whole blogging business, but I figured it was better than nothing.

Smith Mountain Lake
Originally uploaded by emster214.

eyeball reflection
Originally uploaded by emster214.

Scenes from VA

Well folks, if nothing else, this place shore is purty.

mountains
Originally uploaded by emster214.

The Blue Ridge Mountains, as seen along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia.

road
Originally uploaded by emster214.

A road winds around a curve in the mountain along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia.

chain
Originally uploaded by emster214.

This was a great find on the way home from Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia.

sunset
Originally uploaded by emster214.

An evening sunset as I drove from Broadway back to Harrisonburg. I pulled over to the side of the road and this is what I saw. Beautiful, huh?

me, as a wedding photographer

For those of you who don't know, I'm working at a photography studio here in Harrisonburg. I've had the opportunity now to help them shoot a couple of weddings, and I wanted to post a few of the pictures I came up with. (My job as a photographer at these weddings is to capture the more candid, unposed moments everyone else might overlook.)

waiting
Originally uploaded by emster214.

A bridesmaid waits at the window for the wedding guests to arrive at the reception.

disco ball
Originally uploaded by emster214.

A boy stands and watches the disco ball at a wedding reception in Weyer's Cave, Virginia.

bouquet
Originally uploaded by emster214.

The bride's bouquet from a wedding I helped shoot this weekend.

candleflame
Originally uploaded by emster214.

A candle burns in the foreground as the bride visits tables at her reception in Weyer's Cave, VA.

Git 'Er Done

Alright, well I went to two local fairs a few weeks ago, and never got to post all the pictures I intended to. I've been trying to decide how in the world to describe my first county fair without making it seem horribly country and redneck, but I've just given up. It was horribly country and redneck, no matter how you look at it. Don't get me wrong, I didn't mind - it was just a different experience for me. A brief example....

After taking some man's picture, I asked him what his name was. The first name - James - I didn't have too much trouble with, but the last name was a different story.

"And your last name, please?" I said.

"Heel," said James.

"Oh, heel, like the part of my foot," I said, scribbling on my notepad.

"No, it's Heel."

"Uhhh, well how do you spell it?" I asked, puzzled.

"H-i-l-l."

At this point we didn't really know what to say to each other, so I just said thanks and left as quickly as possible. How do you apologize for speaking English and yet completely misunderstanding a fellow American? I'm just glad his first name wasn't Will, because I'd have written "wheel".

Anyway, after shooting a few photos, I noticed my stomach growling at me a bit, and went to find some food. There were a few funnel cake and cotton candy booths, but nothing screamed meat like the fried chicken building. Okay, well it seemed like a building at least, compared to the other small kiosks. Fried chicken and french fries.... yummm.... Now I grew up Southern Baptist, and there's something to be said about Baptists and fried chicken on Sundays. It never fails - if a Baptist is having a church luncheon, I guarantee you they're serving fried chicken. The point of all this is, I tend to like fried chicken and tend to blame it on being Baptist. So I waited for my chicken, and when the man serving handed me the plate, he said,

"There you go, sugar. We gave you an extra piece of chicken because you looked hungry."

Excuse me? Now I could bet my camera on the fact that they didn't give the fat guy in line behind me one less piece of chicken because he looked full. Why is it that people feel personally responsible for fattening me up just because I'm a little on the slender side? People don't think twice before making remarks about my weight (or lack thereof) but I know they aren't commenting on overweight people to their faces. So what makes them think they can do it to me? I've been blessed with good skinny genes, and sometimes find it a bit offensive when people snidely point it out to me. Alright, that's my gripe for the day. I'll let it go now.

Here are some of the pictures from the fair.

maynard
Originally uploaded by emster214.

Maynard pauses for a portrait at his booth at the Bergton Fair in western Virginia.

walking through the fair
Originally uploaded by emster214.

A silhouetted figure strolls past the caramel apples and sno-cones booth at the Bergton Fair in western Virginia.

shawn
Originally uploaded by emster214.

This guy, Shawn, was working one of the rides at the fair. I like the photo because the background tells so much about his job. I wonder, however, are the bright colors and cartoon too distracting to the portrait?

small, medium, large
Originally uploaded by emster214.

Livestock on display at the Rockingham County fairgrounds

she sells no seashells on the gulf coast seashore

seashell church
Originally uploaded by emster214.

This church, right along the beach in Biloxi, MS, was one I visited in June. Now, it has been pretty much destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. I saw a shot of it on the news the other day. The church, St. Michael's, was shaped like a seashell, and each stained glass window represented a fisherman or an aspect of the sea.

I've been a bad blogger lately. Shame on me. This is just a short update to let everyone know my grandparents are okay. It took them four days to realize they couldn't live very long without electricity or running water, and so they left for my parent's house in Tennessee. My uncle, out at sea with his job, returned to find that his entire apartment complex had flat-out disappeared. He is staying at my grandparent's house now, sweating out the 90-degree days and hoping the power will soon be restored.

Hurricanes suck.

Goodbye Gulfport, Hello Hurricane

The last time I saw Gulfport, MS, was in June, not quite three months ago. It was as it usually is: part beach town, part tourist town, part trashy town. I see what I always see there: souveneir shops with shark-mouth entrances boasting cheap swimsuits and beach towels; casinos glittering with neon LCD screens; hotels with blinking vacancy signs lighting up the night.

We're visiting my grandparents - good southern people who will make me eat loads of gumbo and banana pudding, and with whom I will watch the pre-recorded 6 o'clock news at 8 o'clock at night. I will smile as Granny pulls a half-used tissue from some hidden spot up her shirt sleeve, and laugh as Gramps asks me once again how to operate his brand-new digital camera.

Before the trip is over, I will walk with my family along the beach by the ocean, very careful to step over both sand castles and broken glass. I will also take a guided tour of Biloxi, a town we always visit, but have never really known much about. I will slurp a cheap sno-cone from a vendor on the beach, and get tired of it halfway through.

I will do all these thing, and leave, never once giving thought to the possibility that this town I'm so familiar with - this town my grandparents have always lived in - might not be there when I return.

And now it isn't there. It's gone - almost all of it. Watching the news these past few days has not only made me very sad, but a little apprehensive as well. Are my grandparents still okay? Why wouldn't they just evacuate when they were supposed to? How will the town survive? Who will be able to live there now?

The last I heard, my grandparents are alive, and their house (about 3 minutes from the beach) is still standing. Yes, they have plenty of yard damage and debris, a tree through the roof of their garage and one blocking their driveway, and some water in the house, but they're alive. And for that I'm grateful.

Just to make you smile...

snout
Originally uploaded by emster214.

From Wetsuits to Weddings

I thought I'd go over what I've listed as the top 5 experiences of my trip to Texas last week, as well as some photos. So here we have, in no particular order:

1. I swam in a wetsuit. It was about midnight when my friend Heather suggested we go swimming in her pool. I said, "Are you crazy? I'll freeze my butt off." Heather said, "You can wear my wetsuit." ?!?!? Who but Heather would just keep a wetsuit hangin' around the house? So I wore it, and thus had my first-ever wetsuit experience.

2. While fighting off fear in a completely cricket-infested office, Heather and I designed the entire wedding program for our friend Erin's wedding. We finished AN HOUR BEFORE THE WEDDING STARTED. Did we get thanked? NO. It was a darn good program too, if I say so myself. Albany (the small town where the wedding was held) has a serious cricket problem. You might think I'm talking about those small cute chirpy things that make a little noise in the summertime. I'm not. I'm talking huge honkin' black cricket-beasts that not only fly, but bite too. Maybe Moses plagued Albany with crickets after he finished with the Egyptians, I'm not sure. There's a town square, okay, and all the shop owners put out pesticide pellets in the afternoon, and then the following morning they sweep the dead crickets into gigantic mounds. It's GROSS, and it's a never-ending cycle because there's always just as many the next day.

3. Amanda and I snuck out the house window to TP and shoepolish the cars of Heather's brothers and their friends. It was so 11th grade all over again, only I never did that in 11th grade. I was a late bloomer in the prank department.

4. I ate REAL Tex-Mex food again!! This crap they serve in VA will never, ever compare.

5. Heather's car broke down halfway between Abilene and Dallas on my way back to the airport. For those of you who have no clue where Abilene and Dallas are, well they're about 3 hours apart. And the car just died about halfway between the two. It was pouring rain, which didn't help me at all because of course I had to pee. After calling Triple A (or is it AAA?) we waited a good hour for the tow-truck to arrive. It didn't, and so we thought we'd try starting the car one more time. And it worked, miraculously. If you were to see Heather's car, you'd say it was a miracle too. Anyway, what had happened was all that rain had gotten everything wet under the car hood and caused the car to die. If you're wondering how this can possibly happen, just get in enough accidents to where your hood doesn't rest flush against the body of your car and then let it bounce around a little. But the story has a happy ending... I caught my plane just as they called for final boarding.

Say goodbye to Erin, who joined the ranks of married people last week at her wedding. Sad but true.

A cool photo, I thought, of the place where Erin's reception was held. Enlarge this for a much better view.

This is the courthouse in Albany. It's also the "center" of town. Notice those stormclouds rolling in.

This is a shot from inside of The Prairie Star - convience store, deli, and grill. This place is one of four eating establishments in town. Albany boasts a population of about 1900 people.

Blue Balloon

I took my best picture of the summer this evening. I think it's my best, at least. I'm not the one who should be judging, but I really like it. See for yourself. Agree? Disagree?



I photographed the Bergton Fair in western Virginia tonight. My LAST assignment as a free-labor intern (supposedly). I had five hours to finish up and I FINISHED!!! I say supposedly because Wednesday when I mentioned to my boss that I only had five hours to go, he thought about it for awhile and then said, "Well, I could definitely get you some freelance work here at the newspaper if you'd be willing to shoot the fair next week." (This is a different fair, by the way.) I said, "Umm... I don't exactly want to make working for free a habit." He said, "No, of course not. I wouldn't recommend it either."

Sounds like a manipulation tactic to me. But it worked for him, I guess, as I am at their disposal next week for the Rockingham County Fair. And then after that, I'll hopefully be a "freelancer" as I continue to also work at my other job I just started yesterday. It's at this place called Artistic Photography, a studio that does weddings and portrait work. Anyway, we'll see how that goes...

More about the fair later. I'm tired.

Arbor Man Strikes Again

Well folks, I'm back from a week of vacation (sort of) in the good ol' Lone Star State. (Yes, that means Texas.) I have quite a few pictures and stories from that trip, but not enough time to share them. So instead, let me tell you about the interesting character I met today while out on assignment for the paper.

He was a retired pediatrician who spends his time now planting trees. Yes, tree planting. Before you think of this as a fruitless effort (ha! pun intended), I'll inform you that he did indeed win one of two national awards entitled: Arbor Day Foundation Good Stewardship Award. Don't ask me what it means, but it sounds important, right?

So this guy had over 300 acres of land on which he had turned out a cross-country running course, two manmade ponds, a conservation area, a hand-constructed picnic shelter, and a field trip location for elementary kids. And more, I'm sure, that's just what I saw of it.

I was getting the impression this guy knew nature.

He wasn't exactly a young skipper (he was pushing 80) so after I met him, we rode off for a tour on his trusty little' golf cart. Everything was hunky-dory until I spotted IT. A fat and dirty groundhog lounging in the middle of the uphill slope our golf cart was speeding toward.

"Oh," I said, pointing. "Look at that."

Mr. Arbor Man made some sort of grunt that left me questioning whether or not he had actually heard me. (Judging from the previous leg of the journey, this was not an unfounded line of thought.) But I had pointed, so I didn't mention it again. Meanwhile, as these thoughts swarmed my head, he just kept driving. Heading straight for the groundhog.

I think he sped up a little then, but it might have been my imagination.

The front two wheels straddled the animal, but upon its attempted escape I heard (and felt!) a significant ka-bump. The last left wheel had done the groundhog in.

I gaped, incredulous, at my chauffeur. Turning his head, he glanced at the roadkill and then back at me.

The Arbor Man's only words were, "Those things are a nuisance."

And we never spoke of it again.



Here's his picture so you can put a face to the story, but please don't sic the SPCA on him.

Arbor Man
Originally uploaded by emster214.

Dr. Burntner, a retired pediatrician, recently won one of two Arbor Day Foundation Stewardship national awards for his tree planting and conservation efforts in Rockingham Co. He owns over 300 acres of land where he has planted over 4,000 trees. Part of his extensive property is seen reflected here in his sunglasses.

Click on the picture to enlarge it, as this photo is much better viewed large.

Update on Grandma

My Grandma pulled through her surgery just fine, now boasting metal rod in her leg. Apparently she broke not only her femur, but her hip as well. The good news is she will be able to move and bend to a larger extent than we originally thought. And no cast! (I guess the rod takes care of that.) Anyway, thanks for sending your continued thoughts and prayers our direction.

peeking
Originally uploaded by emster214.

Savannah, 3, gives me a shy glance.

posing
Originally uploaded by emster214.

Jonathan, 1, poses for the camera. Nobody arranged him in this position - he did that himself. I thought he looked like an old man in a little boy body.

Prayers Please

My grandma fell today and broke her femur (the thigh part of your leg). So she's in the hospital today, awaiting surgery tomorrow. The problem with this is she's 80 years old, and a speedy recovery is especially difficult at that age. She's in great health, but now she'll be in a cast from her hip down past her knee. That means no sitting down, no bending at the hip, no showers, and so on. I'm sure you get the picture. For a couple of months, this will be a complete lifestyle change, and one my grandfather is probably not too capable of helping her with.

It's hard to see my grandparents age. I'd like to think they'll be around forever, but I know that's not the case. It makes me a little scared to get old.

Also in the news... last spring I found out the son of my old boss from my job in Abilene had a brain tumor. He's the sweetest 5-year-old kid you can imagine. Anyway, the tumor was removed in surgery a couple of months ago, but after a recent MRI, they discovered it's grown back. He starts chemotherapy in less than a week, and it will last for the next 16 months. Yikes! A blog the family created to keep everyone updated can be found at: jackmarcelain.blogspot.com.

Please say a prayer for these people if you have a minute.

Alright, enough with the sad. On to the happy... pictures! A few more random ones:

bored
Originally uploaded by emster214.

A lone spectator sits in the stands of JMU's Convocation Center as he watches the boys in the leauge above him play a basketball game. JMU's Dean Keener basketball camp started the middle of July.

bailbondsman
Originally uploaded by emster214.

Bail bondsman Dover Harper calls himself Dr. Bond. He works part-time at an insurance agency, and does bail bonds on the side. When I went to take his photo, he was sure to let me know he didn't kill people.

old car
Originally uploaded by emster214.

This was originally a slide I shot a few years ago. (Ok, like four.) I just found a scanned version of it today, and thought I'd revive it a little. This old car was found just outside of Johnson City, TN.