Category Archives: Photography

Congratulations! Glad I brought my camera along. These are the groomsmen and a few extras. More to come, but probably this weekend because I’m swamped.

Note to self: you’ll probably regret not taking pictures a lot more than you’ll regret having to take your camera around. These pictures are basically from the first and last six hours that we were in Vegas. Which makes me wonder–was I more tired 1.) immediately after staying up all night for an early flight and getting a couple of hours of sleep in a cramped airplane seat or 2.) after three days and three nights in Vegas (and a false-alarm heart attack AKA heartburn).

Here are a couple of pictures of my (and my two partner’s) EE senior project. My EE concentration is in embedded systems, which I guess is easiest described as the computers in other things that aren’t primarily computers. Our goal was to transfer wireless video from a camera to an LCD screen. We managed to get colors across but our camera broke along the way, which is sort of crucial. Anyway, I stared at this for a few dozen hours a week for the past five weeks so I thought I’d share.

Our night at Tap House Grill.

The two team pictures and the big group picture.

I took these pictures during the first few plays of the game. Then I put my camera away. I sort of wish I took more. Maybe I could’ve taken breaks during my marathon of dropping passes.

I was in San Diego for a week at the beginning of the month and took a lot of pictures (I just got a Nikon D90 and I was antsy to use it). I was posting them on Facebook because I didn’t (and still don’t) have access to my main computer. But now I basically have a new main computer and can edit images again. Also, it’s Sunday night in Oak Harbor and everyone went back to Seattle already, so I have absolutely nothing else to do. That helps. This set contains pictures I took that don’t have people in them.

These pictures are from our annual Christmas Eve party at the Knights of Columbus hall. The uncles basically get together to drink four times a year: 1.) Planning for the summer camping trip, 2.) Summer camping trip, 3.) Planning for the Christmas Eve party, and 4.) The Christmas Eve party. It’s something I’ve always looked forward to. The party used to be a lot bigger, and this year was especially small. I’m guessing it has a lot to do with the weather recently.

Anyway, we made the most of it. “We” this time consisting of an unusually strong showing from the OHHS Class of 2004. I told my brother it was one of the most random groups, but I thought about it some more and I’m absolutely positive everyone in the first picture sat at the same lunch table the first day of 8th grade.

I’ve said it before, but night photos are easily my favorite type to shoot. The long exposure reveals a lot of things that I don’t notice as I’m taking the picture. I guess it’s counterintuitive to the idea that good image quality depends on how closely something matches the real world. In night photos, you usually don’t want it to match what you see in real life. You want a brighter sky, visible clouds, and interesting colors.

If you want a no brainer recipe for interesting pictures, do long exposures during a snowy night with a fisheye. That night, all I was missing was a full moon. But hey.

I don’t know the name of this bridge. I don’t think it’s particularly famous for anything, but it looked cool and that’s enough for me. Vancouver has a bunch of those buildings scattered about, which I’m assuming are apartments or condos. Either way, from far away they help make Vancouver look like a good futuristic RPG city.

Me and Dan ate at some sushi joint. And I say “some sushi joint” because that block alone had four. They’re like teriyaki spots on the Ave. We lucked out and the parking meter took American coins. But the luck ran dry because we only had a dollar so we had to eat pretty fast. The sushi was good and relatively cheap. And that was basically all we got to see of Vancouver because the family event we went to was a lot farther from the city than anticipated. We hope to make a return trip sometime.

A good feeling is when you announce your pick and you hear a combination of groaning from people who were waiting for the same guy and “oooh”‘s from people who had no idea that the guy was available. The opposite feeling is when you announce your pick and someone yells “He said it! Write it down!” And that’s when you remember that Manu Ginobili is out with an ankle.

Last weekend me and Dan met circumstances that forced us to stay in Wal-Mart for a couple hours. We did what most people would do and bought things we probably don’t need and then read magazines. I got myself a cast iron dutch oven. I was tired of having to look up recipes where you could substitute aluminum foil for actual pots. Last night I got the chance to break the thing in.

I bought some short ribs, chuck pot roast beef, pearl onions, and garlic and went to work. Work meaning peeling garlic and tiny onions. Stuck in Limbo forever, my arbitrary tasks would involve peeling garlic while waiting for luggage at an endless baggage claim. After that, it’s easy. Sear the meat, pour in some broth, then wait for a few hours.

The first time we saw Murs will probably just always be my favorite concert. That and when we saw Nas at Bumbershoot and I got hit in the head with a toilet paper roll. I’ve been pretty excited to see Murs again, especially since I missed him at Rock the Bells. Tonight’s concert was good. Kidz in the Hall opened and did their thing. A dude named Isaiah opened and did his thing. And his thing includes grabbing people, caressing their hair, and even shaking them. Murs did a lot of his songs about girls, and he shared the stage with a guy named Verbs. I enjoyed hearing him do “L.A.”, but I didn’t enjoy the two girls behind me apparently screaming directly in my ear the entire time. I’m glad he’s gotten bigger, and I can’t imagine that kind of grueling tour schedule. Tomorrow he performs in Montana. And within the next week he’s also in Sioux Falls, Omaha, Des Moines, and Minneapolis. Thirty-three shows from tomorrow through December 11. I probably won’t even post 33 times in that time.

Random pictures from this summer.

• PBL
• Rock the Bells
• Bowling
• Some good ass cheese
• DDR

First one was shot near Golden Bear territory. Second one was shot from my window seat flying down to San Diego. The third one was shot in downtown San Diego, near Dan’s place. Cortez Hill. That last one is heavily cropped and I tried to use Photoshop’s cooling filter. It’ll do! I really want to do more night shooting. It’s probably what I enjoy most as far as photography goes.

Well, it’s been over a year since I took these. I said I’d post 100, so I’m giving it the old college try. These were taken in Baguio. The native Igorots have costumes for tourists to try on and take pictures. Also, those wooden barriers keep you from falling down a steep hill (almost a cliff). And when I say “you” I do mean “me”, because I lost my footing trying to take one of these and went for a tumble but caught myself on the posts.

From what I’ve gathered reading Yelp posts from San Francisco residents, Fisherman’s Wharf is the worst place on earth. But I don’t live in San Francisco, so I’m blend right in with the other tourists. It sure is interesting and there’s always something for photos. And the crab stands are awesome. But every time I go, something comes up so I don’t end up eating at the crab stand. Next time for sure.

I arrived a little before noon and there was a line with about a dozen people. Which didn’t seem too bad, except they only sit fifteen. A little eavesdropping revealed that I’d be waiting at least an hour. Except I was the loser by himself that gets to skip ahead when only one spot is open. This is common for roller coaster lines as well. So I only waited forty minutes. And it was good. Cheap oysters still don’t make a cheap meal, but the service lived up to its reputation. Definitely check it out if you’re visiting San Francisco.

Pictures from an earlier excursion. It was the week that the iPhone 3G’s came out, and the line was ridiculous. As far as I know, that’s the first Apple Store ever. In my head it was the New York one but the one I’m thinking of probably wasn’t even the first one in New York, just the biggest deal since it was a giant glass cube.

A few weeks ago I realized that people come from all over the world to spend some of their time in San Francisco. And it’s only an hour away from here, so it wouldn’t be the worst idea to go there once in a while.

I decided to try and go there every weekend, since it beats staying home even if I didn’t really do anything significant. And it’ll give me an opportunity to take pictures. So that’s what I did last weekend and the weekend prior to that.

And I didn’t really do anything significant, but I did take some pictures.

Graffiti has always interested me. Just off the top of my head, San Francisco seems to have about as much as Seattle. When we went through L.A., it seemed to be basically everywhere. The bird picture was taken at the crab shacks on Fisherman’s Wharf, possibly the most touristy place on earth. And I’m a part of it.

After posting this, I started to realize it was a little creepy to be taking pictures of other people taking pictures. But I think it’s interesting. And it’s not like I’m zooming in from a football field away or anything. Still, not too sure I’ll continue this.

I was walking around trying to find a U.S. Bank ATM. I realized I basically wasted half an hour to keep from paying the $2 transaction fee at another bank’s ATM and gave up. What happened is I thought I wrote the cross street down, but I wrote down the names of two parallel streets, which is not what you want to do. But at least I stumbled upon this group doing some kind of photo shoot. I think the guy in the red jacket is the model, but there was also another guy in the vehicle the entire time, so maybe there were two.

This is my living room wall. My roommates had some animal photo book and they cut some out and framed them. It’s one of my favorite parts of the house, along with the gas range.

We took a lot of pictures of our swings. And a lot of video. Old-man day 2008.

We are truly as happy as we look. And we are truly as sad as we look as we sit in the car and contemplate whether or not we should have eaten that much food.

Those awesome tourist pictures where the guy is alone in the frame in front of a landmark. And Jason’s raising the roof. These are in fact from 2008 not 1997.

I’m writing this about a couple months after the fact. At the time, I really thought the Lakers basically were on their way to a championship. And I wasn’t the only one. I enjoyed the audience blackout.

Graffiti in L.A. The Los Angeles Times logo looked awful gangster when we passed by it. All I could think of was that song “Old English”. Which is also what comes to mind in the grocery store when I pass by the wood cleaner.

We ate at Sushiya before driving to Los Angeles. They have 50% off of everything. All the time. It’s basically the same business model that makes laptop prices sort of high on manufacturer sites because of the perpetual coupons. That’s supposed to be an “L” for the Lakers game.

“Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake!”-Olgrin

This is from Thursday night and Friday morning. We’re just exercising our 8-year Starcraft enamorment together. This was an awesome weekend.

And smiled! It turned out a lot better than I expected, considering it was on my camera phone. Work is riveting.

This is when I tried to expand my horizons. I guess I’m uncultured, but I really couldn’t stand being in there. The art is definitely cool, but I left once I caught myself staring at a painting for way too long and trying to think of some sophisticated blurb to describe my appreciation for it.

I took a bunch of pictures of Dan throughout the day and told him I’d title the series “Kuya”. I don’t know if he appreciated it all that much, but he’ll thank me later.

It seems like basically everyone has an SLR in San Francisco. Probably just tourists. I saw a middle-schooler with a 5D and wanted to throw up. That’s the jealousy talking.

Janice said I should take pictures of where I live. Here are a few shots outside the house and around the neighborhood. I’m renting a room in a townhouse. When I tell people where I live, the response is sometimes, “Oh the place with the stucco and faux Tuscan exterior?” And they say it like it’s a bad thing. I don’t I don’t know if I’m not cultured enough or something, but I like it.

San Francisco Urban Hike 2008. I found out yesterday that the taxi up the hill to Huf would’ve cost probably $7, but I guess I wouldn’t have been able to take these pictures.

Lost Coast Brewery. I really enjoyed this place. The fries had some kind of lemon/Parmesan thing going on and the calamari was probably the best I can ever remember having. But I’m always saying so-and-so is “the best I’ve had/watched/remember” so take that with a grain of salt. So hey, if in the off chance that you happen to be driving through Eureka, I recommend stopping here.

Images aren’t all the same height. So I just changed the width and height in the image tag of the 2nd and 4th pictures. That’s why they look horrible. If the others look horrible also, then I’m just doing a bad job behind the camera.