Ducklings in the Sun

The ducklings in Drumheller fountain were basking in the sunshine this week! They were slumbering together on the duckling ramp the UW puts in the fountain every spring. Aren't they cute?

[I really like the composition on this one below, with the different horizontal stripes broken up by the ducklings (and their own stripes on their eyes and bodies!)]

Then they started waking up

And took a quick dip! With the mother duck keeping an eye on the spectators.

Happy Mother's Day!

It's beginning to feel a lot like...Spring!

It is finally feeling like Spring here!

Well, sorta. Last week was all sun and no clouds, so everyone on campus broke out the shorts and dresses. We all soaked up the sun, and got sunburnt and no homework done. But hey, when the sun comes out, we all emerge from our winter caves in Seattle. It is a holiday in itself.

But then of course, this weekend it poured (perhaps to make up for the suddenly nice weather?). So hey. It's April showers.

But here are some shots I took during those hot, muggy days (I'm a wimp in heat).

These first two were taken during a walk with The Boyfriend. The walk ended up lasting quite long, but the scenery was really pretty (if a bit hot...heh). We walked around a neighborhood nearby campus.

I know this second picture is technically the same composition of a previous one from Easter, but I couldn't resist. I really like the pattern of the shadows from the petals. And I think this new one turned out better than the first :)

You really know it's spring when ducklings come out to swim! This is in Drumheller fountain.

Because it was sunny for such a long stretch with no rain (3 days, oh my! haha), every slight breeze jostled off seeds from the trees on campus. I'm not sure what tree these are from, but they covered all the sidewalks and gutters. As you can see in the background of the last picture.

I didn't see that car in the background!! Oh well.

Have a wonderful week!

Let's Play Catch Up. Sorry I have been absent for awhile.

I know what you've been thinking, I've been gone forever, and these are all the pictures you're giving me? I haven't been doing as much photography lately, instead drawing a bit more. But here are a few pictures from the past few months. It's spring time, and the first couple pictures certainly show the rarity that is blue skies where I live.

The wonderful thing about my city is that there is so much water surrounding it. During break, my parents and I visited a light house on the Sound. This composition isn't ideal (I personally can't figure out what is wrong with that bird second from the left. Looks like it's going to drop into the water any second), but I liked the stark contrast of the black and gray against the blue and white of the sky. And how it looks like the birds are rising up the borders of the photo, their wings not synchronized.

Of course the cherry trees bloomed! As a whole, they were clouds of white, but up close, the individual flowers have hints of pink.

(And it looks like a Y-branch is sticking out of the bunch of flowers. It bugs me)

Last week was supposedly a brilliant eclipse. I haven't seen one since I was little, but unfortunately there was cloud cover all over the city. So instead, in the dim orange-y-green-lit clouds, I took a picture of the Space Needle. I like how you can clearly see that the Space Needle is indeed in a city, with the lit up buildings in the foreground.

Hope everyone's spring is going well!

The cutest demon bird ever

Exactly what the title of my post says: This is the cutest little demon-looking bird ever. It is an owl, but I don't remember the exact name of it.

Look at the eyes! It is clearly plotting something nefarious.

But he fluffiness factor is totally killing the ability to believe it is evil.

That is the worst kind. They are all cute and fluffy and the evilness sneaks up on you too late!

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?

Some beautiful things today

Hello! I'm in a great mood right now (as in this past hour, haha), even though things in my life are complicated and hectic right now....and add onto that, it's final's week!

But here are some pictures I was able to capture on my way to the last day of class on Friday!

This bird was so quick, but it stayed still for just a moment so I could take a few pictures. I had another one that had a better composition, where the bird was facing the camera, and its body matched the line created by the line in the sidewalk, but it came out blurry :( Boo. Oh well, this one captured every detail of the bird, down to the gleam on its eye, which I thought was interesting too.

It was difficult to focus on the bird instead of the cement, so that was the challenge for this picture. Finally got one right!

This picture was too good to pass up. This mother and her son were crossing the street to catch the bus, and I kept my eyes on them until I saw them approaching the bus map. Then I pulled out my camera and took a picture. I was going to walk away, when I decided to take one more, as I realized the boy was beginning to stand up on his toes to reach the same spot his mom was pointing at. I thought that the coordinating color of her pants and his coat, combined with the joined pointing was a great combination for this moment. I'm glad I took another shot because I like this one better than the first one!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Some things I am loving today

I know I'm constantly saying how much I love birds. Well, today this duck was sitting on the side of Drumheller fountain, and as I was going to take a picture, it stood up and started doing funny things like preening itself and fluffing its wings while standing on one leg...So I took a picture, and I think this one above captures the humor I find in them :)

The sun came out today! I love it when this happens, and flowers have been blooming around here, adding to the beauty of everything. I don't know what these flowers are called, but I've seen them around campus (this one ironically wasn't taken on campus, but nearby) in various colors varying from green to pink to deep purple. They are quite interesting!

On a slightly different note, I was introduced to this link-party at pret-a-vivre (which means ready to live, in French; and if you don't know a tiny bit of French, I encourage you to learn! I love French; it's a beautiful language with a beautiful culture and yummy food :) ), called "Ready to waltz!" Check it out! I think we all need a little positive in our lives (Like I mentioned in this post here).

Various Birds about town

I don't know if I've mentioned this yet, but I love birds. There's something about them, and it's not in a symbolic wings = freedom kind of way. I just like the way they are. They are pretty and each species is so different from the others. I mean yes, they have their downfalls (doesn't everything)? They poop all over (enough to shut down swimming areas around here due to "contamination from waterfowl droppings"), the Canadian geese are pretty aggressive and used to chase little kids in a nearby city (I'm serious), and worse yet, the migrating geese refuse to fly in the pre-selected V-shape formation around here! :)

But birds are quite interesting creatures. I like how they walk, how they prepare for take-off and landing in water, their songs (okay, maybe not the cawing of crows and honking of geese...), when they fluff themselves up in the cold and look like a big ball of fluff with a beak....

So anyways, take a look at these birds from around campus!

First, yes, Canadian geese. They always stand in and around Drumheller fountain when it's not on during the winter. Unfortunately, they poop everywhere. And they're loud. But on a nice day, they're a good break on the eyes from the overcast skies and gray sidewalks.

This picture was taken during a bright sunny day, so the light is a bit off, and the shadows a big dark...

First robins of spring? In January (when this picture was taken)?

I like the vantage point here. I was trying to get to "eye level" of the robin, and took this picture right as he kind of "stood up" a little.

This little song bird was such a cheery sound last week. It was warbling a bit, and flitted around from branch to branch. I managed to take a picture while he was still for a few seconds :)

Unfortunately this bird is all earth colors on a branch, so it's hard to see. But hey, that's survival of the fittest, right?

Like I mentioned, I like how birds walk, haha. Their waddle is kind of crazy and silly looking. There is no way you can take a duck like this seriously when it walks.

I really like the color of the head of this mallard duck (yay "All About Birds" badge from Girl Scouts!)

Anyone else like birds??

Lonely duck

Today's picture:

Lonely duck on the water

More photo editing trials

 Here are some more outputs from my trip through editing land:

Original:

Edited:

Here I was going for a more vintage-y look. I wanted to convey the girl's exhaustion/tiredness. I turned it black and white, colored in the girl (to take the focus away from the girl next to her and the awkward lap in the foreground), and then softened the entire image, darkening the edges of the picture in the process.

Original:

   Edited:

Here, I didn't really know what I was going for...mainly just sharpening? I added a red tint all over, but I think the contrast is a bit blinding... However, the red brought out the brown of the duck.

Original:

Edited:

I really like this picture. I saw this couple dancing on red square, and while this girl was doing a turn, I took the picture. I only wish the guy was more visible. On the computer, I cropped it and then added a green tint. The overall image reminds me of Paris; it's very romantic, old-school picture.

Original:

   Edited:

 This picture was taken by the Boyfriend when we went on our photowalk. I really like the vantage point (I take credit for pointing it out to him, haha). But since it was at night, it was a little grainy and blue. I really need to figure out how to fix that.

So into the photo editor it went. The only edits I did were boosting the color a tiny bit, and then adding a sepia tone to it. The biggest difference I think, is the color from blue-purple to orange-brown. However, with the edits, I think it's harder to tell what the picture is of.

Original:

   Edited:

I present to you: The Boyfriend. There is this random light that sticks up from the ground near the Molecular Science building. I don't know what it's for, but I told him to stand next to it. And he did! I like the way the light reflected onto his right, illuminating him. I just cropped it, brightened the light and darkened the background, and got rid of the lights on his left.

Original:

   Edited:

He's looking into the spotlight :) I had him stand in one of the circles of light from this picture, zoomed in, and had him look up so the light didn't reflect weirdly on his face. I liked the idea of the picture, and honestly would have been fine without editing it. But I thought, hey, why not, and just darkened the image, getting rid of the background.

 What do you think of these edits?