Hey

Hello! It's been awhile. Why? you ask. Well, it's complicated. And no, I'm not back for good, but I'm not taking this blog down either. 

You see, I'm now in my 4th year of university, and I'm looking to the future. I started this blog to share my photography and spread some good vibes. I was supported by The Boyfriend who urged me to post regularly, and continued onwards because I needed it for myself. But things have changed, and while not always for the better, there is nothing that can be done about it.

But why now? Why am I posting a photo now? The answer is, I don't know. Sometimes we need a little cheer and a good picture to raise our spirits. For me, that was now and today.

So here is a picture from my trip to California last summer:

Starbucks Reserve

I've had this post in my drafts since December 2014 and thought I would finally post it:

So Starbucks has a Reserve Store, which is like a huge, glorified fancy Starbucks cafe. The Friend took me there after seeing The Hobbit (!!), and I had a wonderful time wandering around.

It's made up of four different sections. There's a restaurant by the well-known Tom Douglas that serves pizza and wine in one corner. In another is a coffee-tasting bar. Then there's the place where they roast and bag the beans; sort of a factory-like setup. And of course, the baristas and where they make regular Starbucks orders. It was truly an experience I hadn't had elsewhere, and I was really happy to be there.

The Friend was a great sport about me taking all these pictures, which was wonderful too, haha.

We got a seat at the "bar stools" where we could watch the baristas make the drinks. It was quite busy there, and a great way to remove ourselves from the general crowdedness (it recently opened here apparently).

If you got your drinks "for here", they served them on a wooden platter with complimentary seltzer water and an almond cookie. The overall building had tons of wood accents, which lent a nice ambiance among the dreary Seattle weather.

Their mugs have the star and R logo that represents the Starbucks Reserve (SR).

The Friend and I got espresso drinks specially served at SR.

Florence, Italy

No, I'm not in Italy right now, but my family took a trip there this summer, and I'm just getting around to showing y'all the pictures! It's bright and sunny here in Seattle, so I wanted to post some colorful pictures from our trip. 

We stopped in Florence for four days and stayed in a cute little local hotel called the Hotel Alessandra. The concierge was the most adorable, friendliest, and overall helpful person we met in Florence.

My brother and I were fascinated by the Duomo, a cathedral originally built in the Roman times, and consequently re-built throughout the ages. The architecture is Italian gothic in style, and is just overwhelmingly huge. The facade is entirely made of different colored marble (!!).

These pictures were taken from the campanile (the bell tower) right next to the Duomo. The brother and I climbed all 414 steps (it is 278 feet tall!), taking pictures along the way.  It was a lovely sunny day which offset the building's colors and created some nice shadows and highlights.

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This picture was taken looking out one of the ventilation slots in the campanile. My aim was the frame the picture with the ventilation slot (though it looks like the top didn't quite make it), and simultaneously show the beautiful orange roofs of the city disappearing into the hills.

I do like how you can see in the bottom of the picture that someone had traced some filigrees into the grime. I think it adds a little extra texture to the picture, making it more realistic and less just a pretty picture.

Because there are so many straight lines and curves in the building's facade, I wasn't sure how to display them without overwhelming the viewer. So I only put about the top third of the Duomo in the frame, focused on the dome (with the roof to offset all the marble), and looked for the shadows from the other parts of the structure to add some depth.

I'm very happy that we had blue skies, because the same pop of color would not have happened with overcast skies.

I hope you are enjoying the lovely spring days in your region! (Is the snow finally melting??)

Fencing pictures!

Recently the fencing team drove down to California for a tournament. On our way back, we stopped by the beach. It was a beautiful day with wonderful scenery, so we took a few fencing pictures to send to our instructor.

En garde:

Stopthrust!

The Salute:

Gingerbread Houses

The Sheraton hotel downtown always hosts a gingerbread house competition. They are each designed by architectural firms, and have a theme. Here are a few of them! These pictures aren't exactly photographically wonderful, but I just wanted to capture the brilliance and beauty of these.

Here is the Star of Bethlehem in the middle, made entirely of candied sugar. To the left, is the non-vacant inn, and it's difficult to see but the right is the manger where Jesus was born.

 Close-up of the inn. I love how the candied sugar was blown out into a globe.

Do you recognize all the Seattle sights? In particular, the Space Needle, ferry, Great Wheel, Big Bertha, and Underground.

This is the back side of it.

And a close up.

Under the Sea!

I like the sea turtle it's all built upon.

This is all a family tradition to go and visit these after school is out. It always was and still is so much fun!

U Village

I grew up in this place near the University campus called U Village. I have fond memories of wandering around the outside shopping village during the holidays. Here are a few pictures I took during my last shopping visit with my family.

There is this cute little Japanese crepe stand outside, and this mother and her daughter were buying one at the window.

Hope you are having wonderful holidays!

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Okay here's a post I wanted to do awhile ago--that is, about two quarters ago! Every spring, the university has a research symposium where undergraduates who have been working on any sort of research project (genetic testing, socio-economic trends, etc.) can put up a poster and present their work to prospective company bosses, other scholars, and students. It was bustling when I went, and some of the posters were in the main hall of Mary Gates Hall. These are the pictures. I really like how colorful the people are dressed. They make everything pop, compared to fall right now, when everyone is transitioning to greys and blacks.