basketball game! 2.8.13

Today the Boyfriend and I saw a basketball game at our college. It had been an indefinitely long amount of time since I had seen one of the Husky games. I know this because when I came in a sat down, I distinctly remember everything being much bigger :)

I'm not very good at action shots, so I don't really have any shots of moving players. They always end up blurry, and every time I change the f-stop so it'll be quicker, the aperture isn't bright enough. I probably just need a tripod. Anyways, I did manage to take shots during the few moments when players and cheerleaders were still (I got progressively better at predicting when they would pause), so here they are!

I wish I had gotten the ball in this shot, but I was still zoomed in from the picture above.

We were playing UCLA. They won, but only by about 2-3 points. We were constantly fighting for the lead.

And since I got the UCLA team, I had to get ours too, of course.

What I learned from shooting the game:

• There are a lot of pauses, but you have to be sure to take many pictures because someone will move, and mess up the shot (making it blurry). 
• I need to get better at taking motion shots.
• Take some time to enjoy the game (I took a lot of pictures in the first quarter, and then sat back and enjoyed the rest of the game, taking a few more pictures here and there).
• We actually have a good women's basketball team. Apparently they are one (now two, I guess) win behind the champions. And the games are free admission for students! A.K.A. no excuse to not go!

Simplicity today

I'll be uploading more pictures from today. But for now, I want to share these photos which I think share the same theme of simplicity. Sometimes the little things are what help us relax and be happy. Right now, I have this quote on my bulletin board: "Let be, let go, let see, let flow." Simplicity.

Have you ever wondered what grass looks like to all the other blades? What it is like to be so small and short, and overlooked. I think that grass is unappreciated. We take the each green (is it really green? I see different shades of green and yellow) blade as a daily occurrence. But picture the world without green grass. What would we use to fill in the empty lawns? Our parks?

This crow is almost a silhouette against the blue sky. I liked that there was only blue behind him (I always assume crows are male for some reason), transitioning into the clouds on the right. Also, the light box thing he is perched on is also blue (including the light!) which helped blend in to the sky and contrast the crow and clouds.

"Il faut vivre dans le present car le present est la seul certitude" ~Albert Camus (L'Etranger)

(one must live in the present because the present is the only certainty)

I'm a hypocrite: photo editing try # 1

Okay, so I couldn't resist it. On one of the craft/baking blogs I read (yes, I like making things too. Why am I looking at a science major again? =P ), I learned about PicMonkey, an online photo editing site. I actually just wanted to visit it because I wanted to put text on my pictures (ie. my name). But I was playing around and, I know I said I don't alter things on my computer...but I couldn't resist! It was fun, and I like the dark, mysterious look, sometimes. So here are a few pictures (and their originals, for comparing):

Original:

Edited:

So this one I darkened around the edges, and overall lowered the brightness and upped the highlight. I tried to improve the sharpness and focus, but I actually didn't really know what I was doing and how to do that.

The original picture is pretty bad, I will admit. This was part of my unofficial (unfortunately ongoing) series of "picture ideas that went horribly not like I wanted" (in this case, there were leaves in a puddle with too much reflection). But hey, I thought, why not. The picture is pretty bad to start with, couldn't get much worse...

Original:

Edited:

This one had more drastic changes. Originally, I just wanted to bring out the rainbow gleam of the oil on the road with some sort of highlighting and contrast something-or-other (you can tell I don't know how to edit photos), but then I just kept perusing through all the options and editing features. I did some highlights and contrast, but then pushed a button that gave it this green hue and brought out the yellow into an fiery orange, which I ended up leaving it with. It lends an entirely new look, and I kind of like it.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

But in the end, I still like to think that all of the work should be done with the camera. The camera and you are magic, not the editing technology. What do you think?

photowalk on the way to class

Hello, midterms are over! I took some pictures this past week, but didn't end up liking them that much, so we'll just skip to these ones I took on my way to Chem lab... Enjoy :)

I always end up doing macro photography (photography close-ups), for some reason. This one wasn't quite as close as some others, but I was getting the lens right up in this flower's grill (yes, I just said that).

I've actually come to realize that my shots aren't really that "close" to the object. I think I might want to work on that for macro shots, or otherwise find different original approaches.

Who wouldn't like this picture?

I also like the rain dripping off.

I really like this picture. It actually surprise me when I took it. I was originally looking at the line of lights on the left, and then noticed the building behind it all lit up, and progressively, the water reflection. After I took the picture, I had this sudden realization that, Hey, it looks kind of cool!

Architecture #2

Okay, I couldn't help it. I was on campus, and there was more architecture just waiting to be photographed. Here's take two:

This was taken through a window (it's got a weird line right there ^ )  But I find that I like the ___

layered building top geometry...   

This is like the stairs one from last time. But this time looking up instead of down. Not too original...

This is the architecture building. It looks amazing (it better!). Unfortunately, there are pesky spindly trees in front of it that I couldn't seem to cut out of the picture.

I ended up really liking the lighting here. And I don't do a lot of wide angle architecture photography for some reason. So here is one! I like the clouds in the background.

That seagull is cool....

The obelisk again. The sun hit the rusty colored part lighting it up. But I think it's actually a bit washed out here. Oh well.

Architecture #1

Recently, I have been taking multiple pictures of the architecture around here. Here is a collection of some of the pictures I have taken recently:

Let's start off with this picture. I have always walked through here, and like the linear lines and repetition. I dislike that this picture is a bit crooked. I suppose I could have fixed that on the computer... Also, I think the color is a bit dark/drab. I think if there was sun, it would look much more lively and interesting.

There is some great architecture around here! I like the contrast of color and material, coupled with the design.

Okay, you caught me, this isn't wonderful architecture or anything (I hate walking up these steps; I feel like my foot is going to slip through the cracks between them). However, it's an interesting vantage point? Of course, not too creative though. Also, wish it was brighter.

I liked the image in real life, but there were trees on the bottom (you can still see some of their spindly tops) I tried to cut out. Unfortunately, I think this picture looks a bit weird now, because I cut out the bottom when I took the photo. Oh well, I guess sometimes it works when you cut out stuff, and sometimes it doesn't.

I like this picture though. I like the "framing" aspect. It creates a window for you to look through and experience a different world. This picture was taken through a window, also.

Walking past here, I liked the lit up part of the obelisk. The night sky turned out pretty well too, I think. I cropped it to focus the eye more (hopefully) because there's a lot of other light in the background. However, I do remember trying to line up the obelisk with the brick towers behind it to create a linear effect. Did it work? =P

[A sort of planned] photowalk around campus #3

It was sunny today!! After participating in a psychology experiment, I took a walk in the last few hours of light (the sun still sets too early for me...). It wasn't really a photo walk because between classes I passed areas and objects (like the flowers and rain on the leaf) that I put in the back of my mind to take pictures of later. I like the check the weather every day so I can dress accordingly (yes, I'm organized like that), but it also helps me plan for taking photos (like if it's going to be dark or overcast all day, versus sunny). Anyways, enjoy the plethora of pictures to follow:

These yellow flowers are the single most acrid smelling plant I have found on campus. Of course, I haven't been in the greenhouse yet, haha. But there were about 2 or 3 tree-bushes of these that I pass on my way to two of my classes, and you can smell them before you see them. It's not a gross I-stepped-in-dog-poo kind of smell, but more of a this-is-really-strong-and-giving-me-a-headache smell. Due to this unfortunate side-effect, I couldn't stay around them too long taking pictures for fear I would pass out. However, what drew me to these, were that these are the only flowers I have seen on campus. Everything else is bare or dead. (This is why we need snow.)

The most difficult part of this picture was focusing on the "petals." (In quotes because I don't really know what they are.) They were so delicate and thin that it was difficult to focus on all of them at once with the depth of field. Even now, I think the brown part is a bit more in focus than some of the other petals.

Did you really read all the way through this writing to the second picture?

Anyways, this is mud with a few bike tracks through it. I would have liked it to be a bit less washed out where the puddle of water was. Oh well, it add character, I suppose. I did like the slight reflection of a building, in the edge of the puddle though. But I think it's hard to tell that it's there.

This shot reminds me of yesterday's. I think today's flora object is less interesting though. Oh well. I wanted to practice shooting water. I couldn't figure out which droplets looked the best in focus. This picture above has the droplets in the middle and bottom half focused.

This is where it seamed into a regular photo walk. I really liked the light on the tree. I had to take the photo twice though, because my shadow was in the first one.

To celebrate the 100 years of connecting people (I think specifically with Native Americans), a tree was planted with flowers spread around. I took this photo of some of the flowers (also had a problem with my shadow in the setting sun) and I ended up liking the building in the background, giving some depth of field.

 I also like the colors.

This cairn was next to the tree and flowers from above. Thought a close up would make it nature-y. I think the color palate is too grayscale, making it difficult to discern the cairn from the surrounding dirt and wood chips. But the sun made some nice shadows.

If you didn't actually read my descriptions, (but somehow read this), thanks for looking! Have a nice day. Please leave a comment so I know you visited :)