4th of July!

This is the first year I've got decent photos of fireworks! I adjusted the f-stop and ISO, and just held the camera. I didn't have a tripod, so I did my best. And it sort of worked!

 Hope you had a fun and safe 4th! And to everyone else, hope you had a wonderful weekend.

My hand shook on this one above, but it makes it look a bit like a peony or a chrysanthemum, doesn't it? Coincidentally, the latter is my favorite flower :)

Full Moon

Have you looked at the moon lately? This past week, it became a full moon, and walking back to my dorm on a warm night, I was able to fully enjoy its beauty. 

When I returned (safely) home, I was compelled to capture its brightness and the crisp circle of the moon as it diffused into a halo of light. I have never been able to photograph such a bright, clear picture of the moon before. This one was taken from the 7th floor, out an open window.

I like how you can see the bright ring drawing the moon's edge, contrasted with the darker center, and the light disseminating from it.

Goodnight, Moon.

UW Night Market 2014

Last night was the Taiwan Night Festival at the UW. I went with a close friend and we had a wonderful time. In between eating delicious food, we also watched music performances, one of which was her cousin, Fiona Dawn. It was nice night with blue skies, good food, and catching up with old friends.

Fiona played the Guzheng, a traditional Chinese instrument. She writes and composes her own songs, which are in English, Chinese, or both! I really liked how she managed to weave the two cultures together in the language of the lyrics, and sounds of the music.

I still need to figure out how to photograph at night :/ This picture below does not have very good clarity, and the bright lights overtake the lack of details. 

I like the composition of this picture a bit better, but it still doesn't have very good clarity.

Snow!

So. Funny story. 

My friend sent me a picture of the snow at her college's campus (she lives in another city), and I was saying (read: complaining) about how it is supposed to snow here and yet the weather has only got the cold-as-balls part down. Guess what she replied? Look outside. Oh.

Yep. It's snowing outside.

I've been studying in my room, ensconced with my five weeks of class notes and a stack of flashcards. And apparently oblivious to the fluffy white stuff  falling from the sky. And sticking. Apparently I've been studying too hard.

But nevertheless, I abandoned my studies for a few hours to make dinner and take some pictures (not necessarily in that order. And yes, hours, plural. What can I say, I'm a slow eater...). Here are a few.

I really like the composition of this picture, but I'm not too fond of the yellow-tinge from the street lights. (Yellow snow is never good. Mantra for every snow camping trip.)

I over-exposed this one a bit, but I kind of like how it turned out. The blurry light adds an ethereal glow that adds to the magical feeling of snow everywhere. And as you can see, there was almost no one out here. And  you know it's a college campus because that student is jay-walking. :)

This is the Elm tree my dorm is named after. It is shadowed from the lights, so there wasn't much I could do about lighting. But the ashen-white look of some of the branches reminds me of the tree on Minas Tirith (Lord of the Rings fans anyone? No? Okay.).

It's too bad I couldn't get the whole tree in the frame (I tried. I really did) but I do like the background. It keeps it from being too dreary (as you can see in the top, the grey sky).

Have a safe night! Let's all hope the city doesn't go crazy tomorrow morning. We're notorious for losing our minds with just a hint of snow. It's hilariously embarrassing.

Terry Hall is doing it right: 12th Man

Our Seahawks are in the Superbowl!! I'm honestly not a huge football fan, but I always tune in to the Superbowl. To celebrate, the dorm across the street from mine shows their 12th Man spirit at night. They're tearing the building down and rebuilding it soon, but for now it's closed so someone went in, opened a few curtains, and turned on the lights. I found a little ledge to take these pictures between the trees. 

I had to fiddle a bit with the manual to get the window boxes clear, but the lights are still a bit over-exposed. Oh well.

Happy Superbowl!

Destination: Home

Hello! Yes, I'm back. I spent the last 4 months in a wonderful state of mind, and this allowed the blog to slide. I would apologize, but the past few months were amazing and so I'm not sad. I was simply busy enjoying life. However, now it is the new year, and I have a wonderfully persistent boyfriend who has been encouraging me to post more pictures here. So let's start with these!

Also, I realized that I think it makes more sense for descriptions/introductions of the pictures to be written before presenting the picture. Does it? And I'm trying out the text flush to the left. Just fyi. Anyways, onwards:

One of my good friends was in town for perhaps the last time (she moves around a lot, and my hometown is a bit out of the way), so one of my friends and I took her sightseeing and touring around the city. Honestly, this was the first time I've ever been a tourist in my city, so it was quite exciting. We all had a lot of fun together, and with the city.

It was a bit overcast (in other words, a real Seattle day) but not too cold. We started down at the Waterfront, where the new "Great Wheel" was just put in a few years ago. I'm not sure why, as I'm not entirely sure it's stable or safe (it's tall, metal, and on a pier in an earthquake zone...does this not raise red flags for anyone else?). However, the Sound was quite calm, and offered a really nice reflection. One of our iconic ferries was coming back as well. If you've never been on a ferry, please ride one. You don't even need a car. It's so much fun. And if you take it at sunset, it is beautiful.

And of course we had to go to Space Needle. By this time, we were being spoiled by the sun which decided to grace us with its presence. It made for a beautiful blue sky, and very very cold temperatures (there's always a trade off, isn't there?). We actually went up the Space Needle, which was really fun. As "locals" it was fun to point out our neighborhoods (my friend even found her house).

I really like that in this picture below, you can see all the trees surrounding and framing the Needle. I find it representative of Seattle, which is ridiculously eco-friendly, and the balance of the city with nature (Washington is the Evergreen state).

I also like the composition of the clouds and blue sky. It is quite pretty, and draws your eye up the Needle.

We went a few other places as well, but I couldn't let my friend leave without showing her this gorgeous view of the city skyline. The lights at night are beautiful, and this is my favorite lookout point. The light was a bit green/yellow, due to the clouds coming back in and oppressing all the light. But nonetheless, it is still quite lovely. I love our skyline.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful start to 2014!

My Summer So Far....

Okay, so now that I have a bit more time, here is a recap of my summer, as evidence by these pictures! Be warned there is a lot of fun and sarcasm in my personality for this post. I had a lot of fun. I think school is finally getting to me :)

One day, my family woke up and decided to go to the zoo. We have passes because we kind of go crazy about the zoo. So what, we're grown up adults? Never stopped us yet ;) During the penguin feeding, a Great Blue Heron decided to stop by. Such a majestic and HUGE bird!

There was also this classy looking flower-plant by the elephants. The colors look just like the kale from the farmer's market! It makes me happy.

My all time most favorite part of summer are the California poppies. These little kiddos are beautiful from a physical and biological standpoint. When I was in ninth grade, I used to look at all of them in our backyard because they showed dominant, co-dominant, and recessive genes via their color, and I'm kind of obsessed with it. See the orange fading to sunshine yellow? Some of the them are all orange, and some are white! And I think it is so cool that they open and close with the sunrise and sunset!!! Ahhh, okay I'll stop talking about my love affair with these flowers. But just so I can admire their amazingness and beauty, there is this picture above.

A month ago, my mom planted new flowers! This is one of them. I don't remember what it is, but it is so pretty. It sort of reminds me of a lily. I like the seemingly delicate look of the petals. A good flower to give a sweet little girl...

Okay that might have been a slightly weird comment. Sorry. Moving on....

Baby duck! Also called duckling!! I hung out with 3/4 of my old Girl Scout Troop (which was only 4 girls total) at what my city passes for a beach (it is actually a nice one, as far as beaches go). We were sitting on some rocks at the edge of the lake, and this cute little duckling swam by with its [legal?] (does legality apply to ducks?) guardian. We kind of went crazy over its cuteness factor. And discussed other names for baby animals. I had a weird moment when I completely blanked on what a baby dog is called (hint, it isn't doggy). That one goes down in the books for stupid quotes we shouldn't ever repeat :P 

And THIS happened in my house. Yuuup, we are fully capable of producing flowering tropical plants in the Pacific NW. I was fiddling around with the manual a bit here, and this lovely picture happened. Taken at the dead of night (when I finally noticed that something bloomed that wasn't there before. I said we could keep the plants alive, not that we are very aware of them... :P ) with artificial lighting. Looks like it was taken during the day if you ignore the grossly lit wall in the background, eh? 

And on one of our hot (80 degrees F, haha) days, I braved a walk out to this lake near my old high school where I used to sit with The Boyfriend. The Boyfriend suggested I draw a picture of the lake from "our spot" but I couldn't without a picture (Problems of a picky drawer....). So I braved walking on a windy path past scary barking and howling dogs of all sizes and random sketchy guys smoking sort-of-legal substances (i.e. weed) to take this picture and a few others. (Guilt tripping....haha. The Boyfriend better appreciate his drawing when he gets it :P ). A lot of people were out, as evidenced by these kids.

 I liked the resulting framing of the trees and brick detail in this picture. It looks like we are looking through a window into a different scenery.

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So that was my summer so far...how was yours?

old summer photo

Here's a photo I took last year when my family went for a drive down to the ferry docks. As the sun set, it cast beautiful colors and shadows. There is no editing in this picture aside from my name at the bottom!

Photo of the day: The campus at night

I live on a beautiful campus. 

Look at these lights on a rainy night;

the soft glow is warmth and beauty.

Today's picture is of one of my drawings!

Today's photo is actually a picture of one of my pencil drawings. I do art on the side, along with photography and jewelry making :) This drawing is more of a print with a small drawing, but whatever. Lately, I've been motivated by quotes, so I thought I'd do this one, and post it up on my wall somewhere. In this picture, it's on my magnetized (!) cork board. I made the square magnets out of old bathroom tiles!

"let her sleep for when she wakes she will move mountains"

This picture was taken at night, so the lamp light was my only light source, and it was on my right (as you can tell by the shadows and light gradient).

I was mainly trying to square the drawing in the picture. I liked the colors of the cork board border and magnets; it adds a little contrast. And yes, that may be a flash card for the planck's constant in Chem ;)

Today's picture: 3.11.13

Today's photo:

I was drawn by the many lines in this photo. My regret is not getting the full arch in the picture :( I got the inner ones, but not the main one! I think that if I had, it would have had a better framing effect. 

Photos from today: 3.8.13

Here are some pictures from today:

I woke up this morning, and it was incredibly foggy! But thankfully it cleared up and the sun even came out for a bit!

I like how this picture mutes all the colors, and the resulting look is very somber.

By night, it was cold and the cars were streaming down the freeway. I always liked watching cars at night. I think the sound of them rushing by is peaceful and calming; I don't know why, but it just is. 

Also, the first thing I noticed when I took this picture was the one awkward car with only one headlight...did anyone else notice it? It doesn't really help that it's in the middle of the picture...oh well.

Drive safely!

Don't worry! I just changed the blog background.../ Pictures from today

Hi! I'm sure you've noticed that I changed the background and colors of my blog. I decided I wanted my blog to feel a bit less sterile (you have to admit that all that white space was begging to be in a hospital or lab) since I ended up using it more than I first anticipated. So I've warmed up the background and chosen colors that I think are a bit more complementary to the colors of the photos/weather (haha) around here.

That said, if anyone did a double take when they ventured here, it's still me, Kirsten, and this is still a photography blog. If anyone has troubles with reading headings or anything, let me know!

Anyways, enough of my jabber. On to photos from today:

I thought this was an interesting perspective of the chandelier of lights in a nearby dorm. It really fits the theme of "light" (if I were to have one, that is...)

I saw this kid and his dad on a walk across campus. Thought it was really cute. I was trying to get them in mid-step, but I think it looks a little like the kid is not on the ground at all, haha.

Someone tied this flower onto the statue's hand. I'm not sure what it was for, but there was also a necklace with a star of David on it on the statue's other hand. I really like it when people do art and stuff like this, and I love that the campus is open and receptive of it.

As I walked past this patch of grass, it was completely littered with leaves. I thought it made for an interesting picture. I really liked how the leaves were not flat or droopy. They were sort of frolicking in the grass instead.

These two twins were in the Quad today. The more outgoing one was dancing around and having a lot of fun. I thought this picture showed his enthusiasm.

I don't know what's wrong (if anything) with this flower, but part of the flower is...gone? I thought it made for an interesting picture, like a "window" into the flower.

Isn't this a great view? I'm so lucky to have such a nice view of the mountains. This was taken during sunset, just as the clouds opened and reveal the range. It's been cloudy all weekend, but I was happy to see some nice colors finally, even if it was only for a bit.

Hope your weekend was great!

Some shots at night - with The Boyfriend

Hello! It's been a hectic week, but here are a few pictures from a relaxing night with The Boyfriend. We got dinner at a Thai restaurant on the Ave, and I took a few pictures on the way home. Enjoy!

 This is from of the same street from my first post, but the night was rainy and wet, reflecting the lights off the street. Also, this is the straight-on perspective from the island in the middle of the road. I think this is one of my favorite spots to take a picture/look at at night.

The flower itself was an interesting shape and color, but I like the added effect of the rain drops. Because it was night, I used the flash, and I like how it removed the background due to the color contrast. It also gave the water droplets some dimension, which is nice.

Also, credit to The Boyfriend for pointing out this specific flower to photograph right as I thought it too! Great minds think alike :)

The moon had an eerie glow with the clouds that night. But I liked how it lit up only a section of the tree branches. For this shot, I really needed a tripod, but had to improvise using The Boyfriend's shoulder =P

I think I could have centered or moved the light to a certain region of the frame, but oh well.

Hope everyone is staying warm!

morning, midday, and evening

Here are a selection of pictures which I thought conveyed different emotions and parts of the day. All of them were taken on the same day, but throughout the day.

Morning:                            lkjljlkjlkjljlj;lkjlkjlkj                                      

The dew on the grass coupled with the harsh morning (overcast) light represents the morning

I liked how I was able to get the water droplets in focus!

Midday:              ldkajfdlakjljljlja;fkldjsa;djs;ojlja

Midday is when people travel around and there's still opportunity to have an adventure.

I really like the arch created by the trees in this picture.

Afternoon:                                         jlkjlkjlkjlkjl

The day starts to wind down, and there are two modes: either people are frantically running around before dinner, or the pace of the day is slowing down, and the day feels old.

I like this sign. It feels antique with the color palette and the old, broken sign. But the word "Flowers" itself is a bright and cheery object, and I like that contradiction.

In this particular photo, I tried to frame the object with the tree and pole since I couldn't get them out of the way. (If you can't get rid of it, use it!)

Evening:                                    lkjlkj

With evening comes serenity. It is calm outside, and we have a chance to pause and reflect on our day--the things we did, and the people we met. 

The pastel color palette that started the day also ends the day, and perfectly conveys our tranquil harmony found by day's end. 

I particularly like the colors reflected off the rain-slicked tennis courts in this picture.

Photos from Today 2.8.13

I took some more photos aside from the basketball game yesterday, but was too tired to upload them last night. So here they are!

I passed these ladies in Red Square on my way to Suzzallo. The one on the left held a sign that reads "Free Therapy: Pet a Dog". As I watched, a few students came by and shelled out a few pats. Then one guy with his lunch in one hand came strolling by, bent down, and gave the dog a big hug. I wish I could have gotten that, but there were other students in the way. As people started to disperse, the women went back to holding up her sign, and this one girl (back to us) remained.

The Boyfriend and I went on a photowalk at night, and we fooled around with the camera, so these shots are a little more light-hearted. He was pointing out the architectural grooves in the buildings, and I thought this one looked a bit like a track, or a moat.

This is one of our more playful pictures. We took a picture from The Daily, with a gymnast on it, and integrated her into our pictures. This one turned out better than the others (I'm awful at night photography, especially without a tripod). I focused the camera on the newspaper and used flash to light it up. The "One Way" sign in the background caught the rest of the flash.

I used a setting with less light to get a darker look, and enhancing the circles of light. It reminds me of a UFO or something.

Things to work on:

• Night shooting. Stabilizing, and making the pictures less grainy.