Category Archives: Photography

Russ had a connection at LAX Friday night. Once his flight got cancelled, Me, Jason, and Curt booked a hotel and drove up. It also happened to be his birthday so we tried our best to re-live our elementary school high school sleepovers. Except with Roscoe’s and hotel beds instead of Albertson’s and futons.

Also: Nate Robinson! Go Huskies.

Went for the UX Speakeasy Conference. Stayed for the animals.

Pre-party. Almost always more fun than the actual going out part. I had a lot of fun in Washington for the holidays but I really needed a good night’s sleep by the end of it.

Drove up to Monterey this weekend to see Lt. Cuajunco and Janelle.

Paul and Mike’s friends will ask what they did in San Diego and they can joke that they picked me, Jason, and Curt up and went to LA. And the joke’s not that far off. And it especially looks like it in these pictures because my battery wasn’t charged the one full day that we spent in San Diego. Best part of the weekends was easily seeing Aziz Ansari at the Irvine Improv. Great weekend — shout out to Christopher Columbus.

It was my first time visiting the Santa Monica pier. Grub before the pier was at Umami Burger (I love you truffle burger) and grub after the pier was at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles.

The picture of the photo booth picture is one of my favorites in a while.

Tubo and Garsh visited San Diego this past weekend. The only goal when planning things was to try and do as much as possible that wouldn’t be done in Seattle. Meaning go to the beach and avoid chain restaurants.

Yes, I’m still posting things from June. I really enjoyed wandering around the National Museum of Natural History, because, hey, dinosaurs!

I tried to make it a point to shoot more video this year. I did that, but I took a lot fewer pictures and will probably never get around to editing any clips together. Anyway, this looks more like pictures of a fishing trip than a camping trip. Lots of sunset shots.

These pictures are from the past couple months sort of in this order: Jason coming home from deployment, fishing at the beach, Safeco during my trip to Seattle, a Weezer concert at the Del Mar fairgrounds, the Seahawks/Chargers preseason game at Qualcomm, and some shots of Bryanth and his board at Moonlight Beach.

I’m posting these before posting pictures from the museums in Washington D.C. because I get overwhelmed with dinosaur excitement opening those albums. Which is an elaborate way to say I’m lazy.

Spent my Saturday at the San Diego County Fair at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Basically went during its busiest hours, so traffic and parking were pretty ridiculous. But the fun was worth it. It gave me Oak Harbor carnival flashbacks. Except everything’s bigger. Seems like (according to my research aka reading Facebook statuses) everyone here tries to go at least once during the month that the fair is here.

I went to the Air and Space Museum Annex (in Herndon, Virginia and also in Transformers 2), the actual Air and Space Museum, and the Natural History Museum. And I took a lot of pictures in each place: thank you Smithsonian Institute. But these are the pictures not taken in those places. I ate a lot.

Here are some pictures from a weekend in Philadelphia and a weekend in Los Angeles. I’ve been bringing my camera out more often. Short review: the lobster roll was really freaking good.

Pictures only for now. I’m planning to write up some thoughts this week. (“Planning to” hasn’t meant much in the past as far as posts go, but I’ll try my best.) But if I end up not writing more thoughts, here’s a summary: it was really really good, all of it.

I went to LA to hang out with Dan and Jamie. We planned to go to the Natural History Museum but found out the dinosaur exhibits were under renovation so we decided to just go to that hill in 500 Days of Summer, lesser known as Angels Knoll. I was probably a little too excited to be going there, but it definitely wasn’t a letdown. I guess some people on Yelp complain that it isn’t as big as it seems in the movie, which is true, but it’s still really nice. And it’s a cool feeling being there since the buildings are such a prominent part of the scene and you get the same view as seen in the movie.

We also found out the theater where Tom and Summer watch Vagiant was nearby so we checked that out too.

Got their bleu cheese burger and was pretty happy with it but then I tried Jamie’s truffle oil burger and loved it. Then I ordered one and loved my very own truffle oil burger. A week earlier, I was over at Curt’s for food with some friends and I brought some marrow bones to roast. I sort of messed up prepping everyone else’s—too much or too little salt—don’t worry though, mine were great!

I started writing captions for the pictures in the second December post, but I got sleepy. I didn’t think I’d finish so I decided to just post pictures from the actual camera that’s not a part of my phone. One of my resolutions was to sort of get back into photography. In the sense of taking more pictures and not in the sense of buying more gear.

We had eleven people this year compared to seventeen last year, so it was toned down a bit (not that we were throwing an outdoor rager last year or anything). Lots of fun this year.

Dan brought the night vision goggles that came with Modern Warfare 2. Pretty fun until you start to imagine creepy things. I kept imagining something similar to the Are You Afraid of the Dark episode where the kid puts glasses on and sees a bunch of people dressed in all black spandex. But spooky scarier than that.

We went for a hike, if you can call it that. We didn’t really pick a specific trail or anything, and a lot of it was walking along the beach and skipping rocks. Then the rest was mostly eating.

We went to Hillcrest and took dunk pictures. It’s always good for guys in their mid 20s to hang out at elementary school playgrounds. The nerves must’ve got to us or something; a lot of the shots were of missed dunks. But if you can’t tell then it’s no problem!

We also spent time taking turns doing Dwight Howard’s dunk where he taps it off the backboard with one hand and puts it down with the other. When I watched it during the dunk contest, I thought “Oh that’s harder than it looks.” I didn’t realize how much harder it was. None of us came close.

P.S. Sorry Marvin, I didn’t get any of you! Also, it might not seem like it between these pictures and the skimboarding ones, but Matt does own a shirt or two.

I went skimboarding with some friends at Double Bluff, about forty minutes south of Oak Harbor. After it was all done I was mad that it was my first time ever. We should’ve been doing this way more in high school. We also just walked out into the water and did the things you do when you’re waist deep in water: water uppercuts, water fireballs, tried to jump out of the water, water wrestling, water kickboxing. Sorry, didn’t finish earlier, I meant the things you do when you’re waist deep in water and seven years old. We followed up the beach trip with like 7000 calories at Applebees happy hour.

Pictures from the past couple of months. Still sort of bummed that the quality of my fireworks pictures regressed this year. I wish I brought a wider lens.

Shot these over the weekend. Continued my trend of mostly taking pictures of my friends. Really need to consciously try to take pictures of other things on the next trip. Mix it up a little. We didn’t go for any particular reason. But it was cool to be there during the World Cup final. They shut Granville down and laid mats down in the street for spectators to sit while others stood on the sidewalk.

Later we saw a couple on a motorcycle wearing Spanish colored jackets and the girl in the back was holding a giant Spanish flag. Even better, the guy was honking his horn up and down the street and we saw him slow down next to some Netherlands fans walking on the sidewalk. They barely reacted. They simply looked defeated—as expected. I really wish I had picture of that.

P.S. The title of my portrait where I’m standing in the window is “The City is Mine”. Email me if you want a print.

We went to a Mariners game as a celebration for our friend getting accepted to medical school. It was also a small celebration for gluttony and bobbleheads. The biggest celebration of all is that this post marks the first appearance of girls in a photography post since February. Whoooooooo!

Sunday we gambled in Paris, shopped at Caesar’s Palace (I stop and think before I say the name because I ALWAYS think Little Caesar’s first), ate at the Wynn buffet, and then gambled on the strip. Monday we woke up, thought about what that day meant, got depressed, got talked into taking a limo to the airport (which was just more depressing), and flew home.

Here’s the first half of the trip. I split it up into two sets because of Flickr’s limit of posting 30 pictures on a single page. (Actually, I looked through the terms of service just now and couldn’t find that limit anymore. I’ll just assume it’s somewhere.) These are pictures from Friday when we flew there, Friday night getting ready for Tao, Saturday walking the strip, Saturday night getting ready for XS, and some of Sunday our relaxation day.

The kitchen and living room shots are by Albert, aspiring photographer. Fantastic Sunday.

One of the best Saturdays I’ve had in a long time: great Seattle weather, a whole lot of my friends, football, steaks, and ice cream.

I got Jon and Janice in this one! But I don’t have any of Gee, or the dozen other people there. Great times.

Previously:
2006 1
2006 2
2007 1
2007 2
2008 1
2008 2
2009 1
2009 2
2009 3

Some pictures from my friend Ireneo’s birthday party and some pictures from Dick’s.

Went through my old pictures last night. Found a few more to post.

Medieval Times pictures are in this post. They look a few thousand times more serious than the show actually is. Even better is the idea that the location is so close to Hollywood that more than a few cast members are probably aspiring actors.

I shot the last picture earlier today. It’s my first picture with the 35mm lens I ordered a month ago. (AAFES 20% off coupon made the lens $30 cheaper but ordering from AAFES increased shipping by three weeks.) My quick verdict about the 35mm: feels like a 50mm, except it’s a 35mm. I knew that when I ordered it though. Still, I’m planning to keep the 35mm on for a while and hope that it’s a step forward in taking my camera around more.

Here are some stray pictures from December. The events include the Secret Santa gift exchange dinner with my friends, the Christmas Eve party with my family and our family friends, and Christmas Day with my family. I edited these a few weeks ago and can’t really remember why I wanted to do them in black and white. My guess is I liked how it looked.

One of my favorite trips ever. Didn’t take enough pictures. I always know I’ll regret it when I don’t take my camera around, but I do it anyway. I hate worrying about my camera when I can’t be around it (like when I’m in the water). But I really should’ve brought my point and shoot around. Next time I guess.

Fun times as usual. We’ve upgraded since last year. Bigger venue, better food, better speller. Plus we went with the fantastic idea to wear jerseys. Increases the fun sort of the way costumes do, except my costume would be a giant shirt that looks like a dress. As for my team, I didn’t have a completely boneheaded pick this year. (I ended up with Captain Jack’s bonkers ass, but it’s nowhere near a season-ruiner like picking an injured guy in the third round.)

P.S. Good job in the last picture guys, the only time we’ve looked harder is playing Where’s Waldo.

I found out I could set the custom button on my D90 to a “hold down for RAW capture” setting. These pictures are all from RAW files. If the vignette setting could go left any further, my pictures would do a Haka because they’d be all black.

My favorite anecdote from the night: After we got in a huddle and gave our best “Harvey on 3!”, I walked back to my seat and overheard one of the east coast visitors laughing and saying to his table, “It’s just a shame that Harvey doesn’t have a lot of close friends.”

Just a fantastic day and night. Photography note to self: use the in-camera flash more next time, it’s actually not bad. The professional photographer might know how to compose shots and use the light and equipment ten times better, but did she get an up close shot of Paul’s fresh haircut? I think not!

I woke up early (well, relatively early) on Saturday with one goal in mind: get a picture of Dan and Junior. So I posted up around the 12th mile right about when the leader and the motorcycle entourage came through. For twenty minutes after that another elite runner would come through every few minutes. During that initial stretch I mostly paid attention to two cops monitoring a crosswalk and power tripping out of their minds. First, why two of them? It’s a crosswalk. I could understand volunteer crossing guards going wild with their whistles, but this was Seattle police. One halted a van with a clear path on a green light because a person was still finishing his walk across the street on the opposite end. He whistled, yelled at the van (which had closed windows), made the van reverse until it was behind the stop line (at this point the pedestrian had finished crossing and was at least thirty yards away), and then waved the van through.

Gradually the non-superhumans begin arriving and the groups of people coming through grow. Eventually it’s just a flood of people and I do basically 3-D Where’s Waldo, except they don’t have candy cane sweaters on. Actually, I didn’t know what Dan or Junior was wearing other than that they’d be wearing shorts (equivalent to asking “does he have a face” playing Guess Who). When I noticed some middle schoolers jogging through I started to wonder if I missed them somehow. But they finally they came around and neither of them saw me. I’ve had these uploaded on Flickr for a week, but I sort of forgot to post them here.

I never gave it much thought, but this year it hit me that 4th of July is probably the biggest day in Oak Harbor. Thanksgiving weekend is another big one where a lot of friends are in town, but on the 4th of July I know I’ll see the expected friends but I’ll also see people I recognize from high school and kids in high school now that I recognize from family house parties when they were a couple feet shorter and chasing each other around with plastic swords. Last time I took pictures of the fireworks at City Beach was in 2006. I really liked how the pictures turned out this year, in particular this shot is one of my favorite pictures that I’ve taken.

One of my favorite places on Earth. Here’s a map of some of my other favorite places in the country (scroll around for more locations, they seem to line the coasts). We went during lunch so the selection was halved, but it had most of what I liked. And lunch of course had what I don’t like–the sausage. It’s not bad, in fact it’d actually probably pretty good with a bun outside of the restaurant. But inside the restaurant, the guy with the sausage rod (haha) might as well be selling otter pops at a Cold Stone. The biggest shame is that the sides at these places are really, really good but it’s just not the time to fill up on them.

1. Shrimp Toast
2. Shrimp Lolly
3. Hoisin Glazed Pork Loin
4. Steak and Eggs (Korean Style) with Kimchee Fried Rice
5. Pan Seared Chicken Breast

New restaurant in North Capitol Hill, owned by my friend Mark and his wife Rachel. Quick review: I got to try everything shown and it was all really, really good.

Blown out and overprocessed. I need to work on this photography thing. It’d probably be time better spent than plowing through seasons and seasons of a bunch of TV shows. Anyway, these are from Memorial Day weekend.