Storms can be fun

Everyone wants me to go outside now. Apparently they want some footage of the lightning going on outside..think I'm gonna be headed to the parking garage heh.

Well that was fun, we went out for almost 2 hours. Tried to get some good pictures of lightning, but not many pictures came out. I took some video which I haven't looked at yet though. Maybe there's something salvageable there too. There is one really strange picture..





I mirrored the image because I couldn't move the camera at all for the shot. It's so unpredictable when the lightning is going to appear, and where. I just had to guess and set the shutter speed at 10-15 second intervals. I missed out on a lot of good pictures, but it's alright. Even though that picture is mirrored because I wanted to make it more complete, it was totally worth my going out. It's kinda scary, to me it looks like a duck with goggles haha and a shirt with a stripe on it. Went up to the hospital parking garage for these.

Short update

Sat at my computer fiddling with pictures and web pages again today. Much fun. I finished it for now at least. I feel I've accomplished something by getting the page up though. I like having a place to showcase my work, even if very few people see it.

Hoping to go to Big Basin tomorrow or the next day, but I really don't know if it's going to happen. I'd really like for it to happen tomorrow, but Sunday would work too. The only problem is I don't know who else it'd work for.

So much to do, so little time.. Was planning on getting all of the pictures up yesterday, but I don't know what I was thinking. I'd like to finish today. I just wanna get it over with so I can go back out..hopefully to Big Basin, and take more pictures. I've been thinking about it, and I really want to go down to San Diego to take pictures at the zoo. The only thing that bothers me about taking pictures at the zoo, is that I'm taking pictures of animals that aren't in their natural habitat. I think I should go to the one in San Francisco first, just to see if it's worth it. I want a zoom lens before I go, that way I'll be able to get close up shots. I wonder if anyone will have enough patience to watch the animals with me. I could sit there all day and watch them.
Guess I should get back to work on my photo page.

Oregon Continued

I had a great time in Oregon. It was nice to go out in the wilderness and take pictures. I found that what I most enjoyed, was taking pictures of the chipmunks that we kept running into at Crater Lake.





I guess I'm more of an animal photographer than a landscape one.. but this is ok. I will continue to do both. Hopefully one of these days I can get over to Africa and take some nice pictures of lots of different animals. I'm still sorting through all of the pictures. Here are some below:






Transferred all of the flash card pictures over. Sorted through them, saved the ones I wanted, deleted the others..there were a lot that I saved. Started editing some of the pics, but then realized it would take too long, so I decided to just save em and edit them later. I was interrupted a few times, but now at 10:41 I've finally got the start of the website done. The pictures are all minimized because I want to show the page to modem users and I don't want it to take forever. Was thinking about putting a link to it in my photo group. Not much up yet, but will probably work on it a bit more before I go to sleep. The pictures I took at crater lake and Newport are immense. It'll take me awhile to sift through them and selectively choose which ones to put up on the site. Ah well..maybe I'll just sift through it quickly.

I have to network the laptop soon and transfer those pictures over to this computer too. It was really nice having the laptop.. I love being prepared. The only thing that I'm missing really, is the lens filter kits. When I can save up enough money to feel comfortable buying those, I will. I have to go back to work next tuesday, so I have plenty of time to go on a few more little trips around the bay area and take pictures. It's great to have a hobby, and one that I've been meaning to incorporate into my life for such a long time.

Trip to Oregon

Getting out of the bay area sucks. I hit at least 3 traffic jams which lasted for miles and miles each, got off at the wrong exit, but found my way rather quickly, and finally found my way after at least 150 miles, to highway 5. When I got onto highway 5, it was a straight road surrounded by farm land. All flat and dry and brown and yellow and hot..very hot..I was melting to my seat hot. I don't have air conditioning so I had to have my window down. Bad idea in dry land I soon found, my eyes started stinging eventually, and every time I stuck my hand out the window (as I often do) my hand was just blasted with hot air, then when I brought it back in, it was all dry and dirty. I hate desert like areas...

So as 100's of miles passed, I finally got to a city called "Weed". From there on, things were looking pretty green and mountainous. It was nice, and it started to cool down. I drove by Mt. Shasta around sunset and took some pictures going around 90 miles an hour. Must've been adrenaline or something, but I soon realized I was going that fast and slowed down.




Was happy to see the Oregon sign..only a couple more hundred miles to go heh. Stopped for gas, the attendant was nice (they WILL NOT let you pump your own gas in Oregon), he even went inside to ask some guy how long it was going to take me to get to my destination. Then I went to Burger King as it was right behind the gas station, but I forgot that I didn't have any money on me. The manager was very nice, and let me pay by check. He said he was from Santa Rosa.

Got back on the road, listened to the radio, which was constantly going out on me so I was channel surfing most of the time. As I'm getting close to Eugene, I start getting followed by some car. It goes on for miles and miles... Finally I "get away", and then as I'm driving, I see a car coming up behind me. Then beside me. Then the car drops behind me and I see the lights..damnit... So he stops me, and I make small talk (I mentioned I didn't realize he was a cop and thought I was just being followed, that's why I kept speeding up). He ends up giving me a warning ..yay. So at least an hour later I get to my destination. It's only a bit after midnight so I wasn't too late. Talked a little to my friend who was hosting my stay, then went to sleep.

Next day.. had a lovely day in Newport. Took tons of pictures. Also will be going to Crater Lake tomorrow so that should be cool. Here are some of those pictures:

Gregario Beach

Decided to go out with a few friends to take pictures today. We didn't leave until 3 pm, but we finally went out, and we got lost a little. I ended up taking tons of bad pictures. The weather was horrible and we had no real destination. It wasn't well planned, but we still had fun for the most part. I wasted half a tank of gas just driving from place to place. Went to umm.. some place with "springs" in the name heh. Only took a couple of pictures there. Then went to one of the people I was with's "childhood stream". There were signs saying no trespassing and it didn't look that fun anyway so I just took a few pictures there and we left.

Now we were suppose to go to some national forest, but we didn't know how to get there. We did ask some gas station guy, and we take his directions and end back up at the freeway. I did a big loop and ended up back where I started. So we went back to the gas station and someone I was with went and looked at a map. Then I went the way he told me to.

We ended up driving back to the freeway and down two exits. Then we continued down a road which was suppose to take us to the entrance. I don't remember what it was called, but he said it would be big and we couldn't miss it. We ended up not knowing where we were, and going up this huge mountain. We finally saw civilization so I stopped and was like "hey ask those bikers where it is", so he did. Then they gave us some really confusing directions, but the place they were describing sounded so good, and the guy that got the directions seemed confident enough, so we drove off again.

Ended up driving, down some highway, 84 maybe? I don't remember, but it was going back around the other side of the hill it seemed. Finally, after a wrong turn, we get to a beach (Gregario Beach). We decide to stop looking for this forest, and we just go to the beach. It was pretty nice, except for the weather.

I guess some days just aren't good picture taking days.
This one is strange. This little boy was using kelp as a whip. (I like the sign placement)



It was not that clean of a beach and the sky looks dark. Someone was getting married here nonetheless.



Windy day at the beach.

Burning Hand

At this time I have my hands full with the photo adventure group that I started. I'm going to be running things a bit differently and more organized in the future I think. Since this is the first trip, I'm sure people will be forgiving if everything doesn't go as planned.
My roommate wanted me to take a picture of his hand on fire, so I did. It came out pretty cool.

Start of Photography Group

Well I started my own yahoo group

Yay for http://groups.yahoo.com/group/photo_adventures

I'm glad that I went out and took some picture today. It was really nice, went with a good friend.

I'm so excited about these photo adventures, and excited about my trip to Oregon. Today I had to bring the friend I was with to work, so I could only shoot for 30 minutes or so. I really would've liked another 2 hours out there, because it was pretty nice. I can't wait until I go with other photographers though. Then I'll be able to get some helpful advice, and hopefully give some as well eventually.

Took a picture of a lizard, but it didn't come out very well because it was moving so quickly.

Also tried out the "photo stitch" feature, which works a lot like a wide angle lense. It seems to have worked alright, but I don't think I like the feature enough to use it often. Here's what it looks like:



As I was walking by a tree my friend pointed out this tree with it's roots going down to the water. I snapped a shot and it came out well because of the lighting in the water..

Finally following a dream

I've decided to try to get groups of people together for my special photography field trips. I think I'll take some alone, I might still go out for an hour or two tonight. I just want to go on hikes, go strange places. I want to have people come along so I don't get lost and get scared. When I get lost and I'm alone, my first reaction is ..oh **** oh **** oh ****. Then I'm like..ahh it's not so bad. If I don't have anywhere to go, don't have to be anywhere soon, I just relax and take it easy and enjoy my time away from the world. But now I want to share these moments, or at least TRY to share these moments with others. I'm so excited...I want to smell the fresh air and see the beauty of the land. So the adventure starts here. California is an interesting place to adventure. Then Oregon, then california again..then ... I'm thinking Colorado, only because I've seen pictures and it looks beautiful there. Arizona & Utah too. I hear about interesting places there (oasis like caverns), but I never see pictures. I wish I could just travel around for a living , and not worry about anything but which picture I'm going to take next. Simple life..that's all I want. (Who doesn't want that?) I have to work for the lawyer in an hour. Then only one more week for her. Then on my way to Oregon. Yay. A place similiar to where I'm from I hear.

It came!

Went to work today. Real great fun. Called home, "did the UPS guy come?", reply "no". Later on at work, I was on some phone call with this woman forever. When the call was over, and I got off the phone to get a brochure to send to her, my boss says, "your roommate called". Could it be? ..... YES IT COULD BE! IT CAME! After a small amount of happiness, I went back to work. I got to play around with my camera a bit tonight. I can't wait until I can take some real pictures. I just took pictures of the people that were over. It took me a couple minutes to figure out how to work it, but I think I got most of it. I didn't go through much of the menu yet so I'm not quite sure what it's capable of, but it seems to be capable of a lot. I'm so proud of myself for this purchase. I can't wait for the weekend.