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?

Recording the beauty of long-stemmed flowers

Hello all! My family had a lovely visitor who is friends with my brother from college stay with us. She is in the coast guard, and needed a place to stay for a few days, so we opened up our house to her, and in return, she gave us some lovely long-stemmed flowers! I'm not sure what kind they are, but they are beautiful! This is the first time I've ever seen any long-stemmed anything! I might have to treat myself to some later on in the winter when things tend to look a little gray around here....

Here's any interesting fact: in Russia and many other Eastern countries, it is considered rude to give an even number of flowers. I believe that this gesture has something to do with death or bad wishes. I also know that in flower arrangement, it is best to use an odd number of flowers so that the eye can find a place to rest and look at instead of peering between two flowers or something. So our visitor (who is well-traveled) gave us five long stemmed flowers. 

I thought they deserved to become photographic evidence of beauty :)

I couldn't get all five in the picture, but I thought I would try to show their long stems. Aren't the colors beautiful together? And the petals really are this rich deep pink.

The underside of the petals are equally interesting

The rest of these pictures were all taken in the filtered sunlight in my dining room. They turned out rather well with nice shadows!

I love the little detail of the fluted ends of the petals and how the light highlights them!

Have a nice day! It is supposed to be up in the 80s here (this is considered boiling where I live :P )

Celebration!

Today is the last day I have with this view. It's lovely isn't it? It was certainly the best part of my room. The sunsets and clear days were beautiful.

Trip to the Greenhouse with The Boyfriend!

On a particularly bad day, The Boyfriend cheered me up by accompanying me to our school's greenhouse. I had been there many years ago--in middle school(!)--but he had never been before. It was a very fun experience, and we saw many beautiful and cool looking plants. Here is a tiny sample of them. Enjoy!

This cactus (I think) was outside the greenhouse. I like the contrast of the milky gray and the dark tips of the edges. I tried to avoid as much of the green grass in the background, but this is as best as I could get. The other picture was a little too zoomed in for my taste.

Fuzzy cactus! I have a special place in my heart for cacti. Maybe it's the thought that they are so poky yet so cute! Their little armor brings to mind the image of a little kid trying to brandish a weapon to protect himself. So little, and yet so hopeful.

But my goodness, these lily pads are freaky. They have SPIKES on the bottom! It's like those people you meet who you think are nice and innocent, and then they turn out to be all claws and biting. For some reason I only remember these lily pads from the previous time I visited those 8 years ago. It's probably because of the scary spikes...

I'm sure I've seen these fragile little flowers before on cacti. But what is interesting about this picture is the line of spikes hiding on the right. Such an unexpected image...

Isn't it interesting how some cacti have flowers that bloom in a ring around the top? I like this contrast between pink and white.

It looks like a pokemon!

This little guy was growing off the side of another cactus. I'm not sure why the cactus looks different though...

This was in the rain forest section of the greenhouse. What an interesting flower...

The rest of the pictures were form the tropical section.

I like the soft washed out color of this flower coupled with the water droplets. But the background washes it out a little, I think.

The flower of a lily pad. It looks a little creepy...But a beautiful color.

This reminds me of a caterpillar. They are tiny little flowers all bunched together. The Boyfriend thought they were cool looking.

The colors remind me of a more delicate poinsettia  But I find the shape of the right flowers intriguing. They look like origami balloons.

This pink little ball was really unexpected.

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.

Photos from the week

Sorry I have disappeared all of a sudden!

It is spring break now, so I've been busy just trying to relax. But here are some photos from finals week and this past week!

 First: The cherry trees are beginning to blossom int eh Quad! I'm so excited!

I was walking my friend back to her dorm after having breakfast, when we came to the quad. I hadn't been through because my finals took me elsewhere, but all of a sudden, I was met with this sight of pink!

I like the effect of the trees creating this curve that dips down in the middle, sandwiched between the blue/white sky and the green grass.

I finally had a chance to hang out with my boyfriend (for only two hours, unfortunately), and noticed these chairs back to back, creating this symmetrical yet non-identical curve. I loved it! I like how there are such simple details that can make one appreciative.

In the middle of the backyard back home, there is one lone daffodil. This is it. But it's beautiful out there, all alone. The petals are so delicate, folding and bending as they wish.

I really need to learn how to photograph flowers from more original and inventive angles.

Downtown, this was the view in the sun was setting. The cherry blossoms matched the pink of the clouds!

I saw this little rainbow above the rooftops of a building. A tree nearby, was such an interesting sight complementing the oddity of the rainbow.

My old camera has two weird lines on the lens, but I can't find it when I look for them. I'm getting it cleaned soon, hopefully. In the meantime, I try to camouflage them in the dark areas of the picture, haha. One is in the shadow of the building.

The bright blue sky brings so many possibilities.

The wide angle created such an interesting point of view, making the sky stretch so much further than usual.

Do you see the mysterious shape in the left top corner? It looks like a birdcage. But in reality, it is the lantern inside my house, backlit by the sunset.

One of my favorite pictures as of late...

Something about this picture amazes me.

I really like the effect of the crisp white flower in the center, panning out into a blurred background. The first time I looked at it on my computer, I was startled and very pleasantly surprised.

I found this flower/plant among a few others in one of the gardens around campus. I thought I would take a picture from above, like this one. I particularly chose this plant out of all of them because it had only one flower that was completely opened, and the others surrounding it were beginning to emerge. For once, I did not get the camera really close up, and instead held it further away than usual. The contrast is very stark, and think it may be because the white is a bit over-exposed since it was raining. I'm not sure though...

Does anyone know what this plant is called?

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!

Midterms are over!!

But not for these people... :)

I think this picture captures the time period around midterms. The white boards in the background with equations, and the students in a circle studying together...

I'm so glad my midterms are over...2 weeks and then finals...oh boy.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Today's picture: 

I love hydrangeas because of how their flowers can change color depending on the acidity of the soil. When their season is over, and the flowers look like this, I find the petals are still quite delicate and fragile looking. 

This one had just been cut by the gardener, and was about to be hauled away. I really like the intricate texture of the petals I was able to capture, and how the background is blurred away.

Trip to the outdoor shopping mall

A few days ago I walked down to the outdoor shopping mall by my dorm. It's very small, and the shops are kind of expensive (except for the QFC =) ) but I find it peaceful to just walk around, and there are a lot of families playing on the statues and play structure. It had just stopped raining before I went, so everything was a bit damp but also had the air of new beginnings. This is why I love the rain :)

This is a typical shot of a [whatever this plant is, it looks a bit like cabbage...]. But I really liked the white leaves and contrasting purple veins. I've never seen a plant like this before!

This is something like a purple version of the plant above. But the leaves were different. This one's leaves remind me of Italian parsley (I should mention that I like food, too). To make this shot a bit more interesting than just another plant, I decided to take a picture from the side, focusing on the leaves' textured edges. I like what I could get focused. Looking back, I realize that if I had everything in focus, it would have been too busy. But I think this could be cropped or something...

Lights on a tree, looking from the bottom.

I didn't notice it until I was right next to it, but there are these tiny little metal (brass?) cast frogs! They are so cute! They were positioned in pairs facing each other and interacting, next to the outdoor cafe tables. I think the frog looks a little warped or off balance in this picture, but I liked the water droplets on its back, and the differing colors it creates.

There were cacti on one of the outdoor cafe tables. I LOVE cacti (I have a jade plant named Sula--short for it's latin name Crassula Ovata), and this one was interesting, regarding color and leaf shape (they looked like hearts!)

I just saw this security guard walking by, and noticed he was carrying a bunch of the complimentary bright yellow umbrellas. I assume he was re-distributing them evenly to all the umbrella stands around the mall. Apparently that's what security guards do when they aren't fighting crime :)