Around Town

About a month ago, I got up early and took a walk downtown to take pictures. I love taking pictures downtown when no one's around. It seems like a completely different place. All the bar-goers are at home sleeping, and the business people aren't quite up and about yet. The only places open are coffee shops. Now and then a car drives by; there are a few people lined up waiting for the bus; and early morning birds chirp. Other than that, downtown is mine!




This first picture just makes me smile. It's gotta be something about the bright red car in front of an art store. I had to capture the feeling I got when I saw it.



If you've every been to downtown SLO, I'm sure you've seen (or smelled) Bubblegum Alley. This is a photograph I took from in the alley looking at the stores across the street. Another one of those pictures that looks better in a larger size.


I love the colors in this one. The oranges, blues and greens are magnificent!

Everyone likes a quickie

Ok, so that's not always true. Not everyone likes a quickie. It usually just leaves you wanting more. Better to want more though than to have too much, right? Off to a comedy show tonight, so gotta make this quick and then go get ready. This is a building near my apartment. Just love the window.

Hope everyone has a great Thursday night.

Don't fence me in

There's an inside joke with my mom and her wife about my photographs of fences. I have a lot of them...some intentional, some not. I discovered while at the zoo in Honolulu that my new camera (new at the time) wouldn't let me manually focus at all. The ending result? Some really great pictures of fences with fuzzy blobs of animals in the background. This is the biggest reason that I'm saving up for a nice digital SLR. I want to have control over the focus. Auto focus ruins more of my pictures than I can say.

Having said all of that, these are some of my intentional fence photos. They were all taken at the old mental hospital in San Luis Obispo, CA (the same site as my banner photos). Hope you enjoy!

Rainy April Day

Took a few photographs in my best friend's backyard today. This was about an hour before it started sprinkling.

Under the Sea

Well, not really under the sea: more on the other side of the glass. These are all photographs that I took with my phone at the Monterey Bay Aquarium back in October. Once again, am amazed at the camera capabilities on small little cell phones.

Old shots

Here are some older shots that I've taken. The first one is the moon behind Morro Rock on Christmas morning 2007. We went for an early morning trip to the rock to watch the otters play in the bay. It was a magical morning...and a cold one.



This next picture was one of the first digital pictures I took. Crazy to think I didn't have a digital camera until 2006, but I fought against it for a long time. I just loved the way a film camera felt in my hands; the excitement that built up waiting for my film to get developed; and the joy when I looked through my prints and found something magical. But I finally switched over (not that I don't still use my film cameras) and this was the first shot that I took that I really liked. And like with my film shots, there was no editing that went on. I know I could improve it through photoshop, but I just like it the way it is, flaws and all.

Animal Crackers

Have come to the conclusion that dogs are much more photogenic than cats. My proof? These pictures. The two dog pictures are just average pictures that I could take anytime. However, this is the best picture I have been able to take of my cat in the year and a half that I've had him. Must be part of the sneakiness for which cats are so well known.


This first photograph is of my best friend's dog, Moon. As you can probably tell, she likes to chew things up. She's sweet as can be, but very very destructive.


This photograph is of my best friend's other dog, Pug. Yes, her pug is named Pug. What can I say, it fits him. He's pretty much the opposite of Moon. Likes to sleep in your lap all day while Moon runs circles around the house.


And this is my cat, Loki. He lives up to his name...very mischievous. Caught him mid-yawn here.

Couldn't resist posting some pet pictures. I love animals and wanted to share a bit of it with you. Who doesn't like a cute fuzzy friend to snuggle with?

Spring

It's a gorgeous spring day here in California. One that I desperately needed. It's been cold and rainy lately which is not something we're used to in April...especially towards the end of April. Have already been out on an adventure and now getting ready for work.

Here are a couple more pictures taken at the Honolulu Zoo in Hawaii. I took these last October when I went for my birthday. Have decided that it takes some of the pain that you feel when you turn another year older away when you're somewhere fun and beautiful. It doesn't get much more beautiful than Hawaii.

Long day...

Have had kind of a rough day, so straight to the pictures:


This first one is one that I took while living in Santa Cruz attending UCSC. Just one of the cool bits of graffiti I found on my daily walk through the woods on my way to class. This is one of my favorite photographs of all time. I just love it: the composition, the depth of field and the message.


The second is a Hawaiian sunset. Love the silhouette of the boy throwing a rock into the water.

As always, hope you enjoyed.

Portraits

So, I'm really not a big fan of taking portraits...especially self portraits. It's so difficult to capture someone completely in a single image. However, on rare occasions, they just work out so perfectly. Luckily, I have two really great models in my life: my best friend, Anna; and my boyfriend, Noah. Unlike me, they are very comfortable in front of a camera (I'm more comfortable behind it). And it doesn't hurt that they look good on film...or a memory card.


This first photograph is actually a self portrait that I did a few weeks ago. It was a rainy day and I was bored.


"Portrait of a Pineapple" was another shot from Hawaii. We'd gone to a farmer's market at the International Market Place and purchased a pineapple. Somehow, a whole photo shoot erupted when we returned to the hotel. Not only was the fruit photogenic, it was delicious!


This last photograph was taken years ago when I was living in Santa Cruz with my best friend. It was taken with an Olympus OM2-n. Anna is just a natural in front of the camera. She is also an amazing self-portraitist. If you have time, you should check out her Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/trickybusiness.

Hope you enjoyed!

Phone day

These two photos were actually taken with the camera on my cell phone. It amazes me the things you can do with a phone these days: take pictures, listen to music, play games, check your e-mail, watch videos...and I hear, even make phone calls.

Up close and Personal

Have another overnight at work tonight, so this is gonna be another quick one. Enjoy!

Time for a quickie

So, today's gonna be a quickie. I have to go take a nap before doing my first of two overnights at work tonight. So, here it is:


This one is dedicated to my Momma. I took this shot at the Honolulu Zoo in (can you guess?) Honolulu, Hawaii. She loves this photograph and I love her. So, here you go, Momma, "Bird on a Fence." I know, I'm pretty much awesome at titling my photographs.

Ok, time to go attempt a nap so I can stay awake until 3am working.

Banner Photographs

Thought I would share the actual photographs that are in the banner above. These were all taken at roughly the same location on the same day. Yet they all turned out so differently. The first one, the sunflower. I love the way this turned out. This was one of those lucky shots. I had to lean around really far with my camera arm stretched out and hope for the best. Couldn't even see the lcd screen to find out if the composition was what I wanted. Then, upon reviewing the picture, I was amazed! It was perfect.


The next is of a piece of wheat in the foreground with a mountain in the background. I love the detail on the grasses.


And the last is a simple silhouette as the sun started going down. Surprisingly enough, this was one of the first shots I took that day though it looks like one of the last. Don't you love light? I'm not quite sure what it is that I like about this picture, I just know that when I look at it, it makes me happy.

What I love about these pictures is what actually really annoys me about my camera. That's the fact that I don't have manual focus and a choice of only two apertures when in manual mode. Yet somehow, in these pictures, I got the focus and depth of field exactly where I wanted. Further proof that you don't necessarily need the best camera to take amazing shots.

As always, I hope you enjoyed looking through my lens.

Gotta love Fridays

So, something I can really only say every other week. In my life as a retail manager, I only get every other weekend off. This weekend is that weekend though. Looking forward to getting out tomorrow and taking some pictures. Just have to decide whether to go somewhere new, or try again at one of my normal haunts.

As for today's pictures, the first is a flower from a potato tree vine. It grows on the trellis surrounding the patio at my apartment building. I call this photograph "Peek-a-boo." The second I took while sitting in my car waiting to go into work. Not sure what kind of tree it is, but thought it looked great. While the colors didn't turn out quite as I had hoped, it was still a successful shot. Would like to show it on a grander scale as you can see the texture of the leaves quite a bit better, but we don't always get what we want.

Once again, hope you enjoy.

First Post

So, I'm trying to do more with my photography. I'm not quite sure yet what more is. A month ago, it was starting a Flickr account. A few weeks ago, it was getting a few prints framed. Today, it's starting a blog. Tomorrow? Well, I'll see tomorrow, I suppose.

Most of my pictures are taken with a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H20. I'm saving up for something a bit more spectacular. While the one I have does take some amazing pictures, I'm really looking forward to something that has a manual focus and more than two f-stops to choose from. Basically, a digital SLR.

So, I think I'll start with a few shots that I took last week on my day off. I woke up early and took a walk downtown. I saw chairs lined up waiting for a restaurant to open. I've always loved things lined up. Not quite sure why. Perhaps it gives me a sense of order in an otherwise chaotic life. The flowers caught my eye with the bright pinks and fuchsias.




Hope you enjoyed these. Until next time.