Show-Low EI Retreat

So last week I went on a work retreat- just the 5 of us EI's. The location was beautiful and slightly snowy Show Low, AZ. We were blessed to stay at the vacation home of one of our generous EI families. This meant that our only expenses for the 3 days we were there were food. We had a great time playing games, bonding, and just hanging out. Oh, and we got some work done too. I did my best to take lots of pictures, although many didn't quite come out like I'd hoped. I did some editing, some of them are on facebook, and I have a few that I think are worth posting here. Here are some of my favorites.

Like I said, this house was utterly gorgeous and fully decorated and decked out. We didn't get a chance to try out the fireplace, but it was a centerpiece of the main living room area.
The one on the right is the view from the upstairs balcony into the dining area. Almost the entire downstairs had wood flooring.

This was one of my favorite features of the house- wooden stairway and an octagonal window at the bottom. Unfortunately my pictures of it didn't turn out well. It doesn't look bad in black and white though.

This is a picture of our crew walking down the road. Its another reason I'm glad for digital photography- I took this shot 4-5 times before I got one I liked. This is with the color equalized and adjusted a bit from there- what do you think?

Scenery. The snow was a bit of a novelty for us desert rats. :)

Overall I enjoyed playing with my camera even though I'm still using auto mode more than I'd like just because I was wanting to take pictures quickly. I keep finding that when I edit my pictures I want them brighter than what's usually considered "good" photography, and I'm not sure why. Unless I do that all of the colors seem really dull and washed out. Or maybe its my monitor, I don't know. Advice? (other than take more pictures, which I'm planning on doing)