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??)

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!

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.

My attempts at some artistic photos

Along the way, I've found a few shots I took with more than the intent of capturing life and happiness. For whatever reason, I never intend to go out and pursue an artistic shot, but more likely, stumble upon something and experiment. Here are two of them and my thoughts as I took them :) 

I was with The Boyfriend when I saw these two guys. Don't they look like twins? I tried to take it so your eye is drawn to the guy in the foreground, and then to the similar shirt of the guy in the background. There were other people in the background, so I used objects in the foreground to block and cover other people and misguiding clutter.

But isn't it uncanny how similar they are? The color and pattern of their shirts, the slouch of their backs, the color of their hair and style of their beard. The jacket on the back of the chair, the act of listening to music, the computer they look down at.... it's a game of "find the 8 similarities" as The Boyfriend cleverly said :)

This picture is perhaps slightly more morbid, but with not direct intention. I was at the art museum with my family, when a new exhibit was opening up. There was a VIP special presentation preceding the opening, and I could view it from the balcony above. The car suspended from the ceiling with lights shooting out of it is part of another permanent art exhibit. From my vantage point, it looks like fireworks are exploding from the car as it flies above the group. It reminds us of our unsuspecting nature, and how we must find the beauty of life.

Are you enjoying life as much as you can? Or should? Please try to make your happiness.

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 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.

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