Steven's Cars

This was back in 2006, when my Uncle Steve took my cousin Steven antiquing, wanting Steven to start a collection. He was showing me the old cars & game stuff he had found that day when I got this picture. It was taken with my old Minolta (I think) and is really bad quality, so the full size probably isn't very good. It was put into grayscale on the camera and I sharpened it a bit, and also adjusted the shadows and highlights.

Seaside, Oregon

In order from left to right: Hannah, Steven, Benjamin, Sophie, Kay, and myself.

I don't know why, but this picture looks more spectacular in iPhoto than on my blog. :(

Every year for the past seventeen years, my family has gone to Seaside, Oregon for the week before school starts. On our last trip, I was able to persuade 5/6 kids (and our dog, Sophie) to go down to the beach for pictures, since it was the last year we'd be going to Seaside. I set up my tripod, set the timer on my camera for 10 seconds, got everyone to hold hands, and told them to jump when the timer went off. As you can see, that plan didn't work out very well, but I like the silhouettes and the color of the sunset.



another - just my cousins and dog. there was a person in the top right corner, but I cropped it out. Other than that, it's unedited.

color!

here it is!
I found a wild daisy shot that was in color. Not my favorite, but still okay. If you would like to know about this picture, read the paragraph that goes with my last post. Since this is a continuation of the last post, I will find one more picture on my computer to add before I go to sleep.

flowers

Last August, my cousin and I visited our grandparents in Chehalis (small town a little bit aways from our state capital, Olympia) To our surprise, their entire backyard was covered in wildflowers. They had recently cut down what was practically a forest of pine trees, and the flowers grew in their place. I had so much fun out there, enjoying the lighting of the sunset (until the mosquitoes came out!), which you can't really see because a majority of the shots are in black and white. I will try to find a color one to add on here.

all I've done is recap the past year so far,

but don't worry! I'll get out there and shoot some once the weather gets nicer than this. One more zoo picture before I go to sleep:


oh dear, I just realized that there are words on the picture. This is not good, because this is one of my favorites! It reminds me of that children's book titled Verdi. Um, cropped and straightened, saturation adjusted slightly.

in the spirit of zoo pictures

a year ago on spring break, my family took a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo. It is an exciting place that I've been visiting since a very young age. I had gotten my camera 4 months previously, and was still in that stage of taking pictures of anything and everything I saw. These are two of my favorites from that day.

This male gorilla just happened to be holding his "staff" and looking wistfully at the (non present in this shot) younger gorillas playing in the sun. I have one other shot of him close-up but I like this one more.

While my family was watching the new baby tiger play, I was next door at the Komodo Dragon (yes, that's what it is) Kingdom. These animals were much easier to photograph, considering they didn't move too much. This guy was my favorite - he had his favorite rock right up next to the glass, and didn't move when I got close. I darkened this one a bit and upped the saturation.

flipper and his cat toy (and my hand)

The big orange cat you see is my baby, Flipper. I had just made him a bed out of the lid to a cardboard box and an old rug, and he immediately sat in it. I was trying to get his attention with a toy so I could take his picture, when I accidentally got a shot with my hand and the toy in frame. I was more pleased with this one than the other portraits taken of Flipper, because of the way he turned out of focus, and the vivid orange & purple of the toy fish.