Website Complete!

My project is finally complete! For the time being...I'm so pleased with myself =) I finally uploaded all the pics I'm going to upload. I feel silly having posted some of the pictures, since they're really poor quality, but I'll live with it. At least I'll be able to learn from the page. I'm already running out of room on that website and I just started it. In the future I might have to be picky with what I post, or maybe I'll end up going back and deleting some..no matter..I'm tired.

Quick photography update

I decided to change my photography page. Changed the layout so that it was a bit easier to navigate. Still have a ways to go. I didn't even get to start the zoo pictures, but at least I have a template that works now.

I think I own enough books on photography now..

I just got two more photography books in the mail today. That makes for a total of 8 that I've bought in the past two weeks. I think I'll stop now! I have decided that my photo books will be a just in case thing, rather than a, I'm gonna study photography thing.

So far, I've just gone out and taken pictures, and as I come back in to edit them, I see things I need to change, and I work on the things that I need. I don't want to take photo classes, I don't want to study photography books. If I have a natural talent, it will come out as I adventure around in the world of photography myself. I don't need a book to tell me how to do it, I can learn on my own. If one finds themselves strongly interested in a particular subject, one is bound to explore that subject until they know it in and out..

I also got another battery for my camera, it was pretty cheap and I have run out of battery power, so I figured it was necessary. I need to stop spending, and start saving for trips. Why does money have to be so important?

Finally looked into setting the timer for my camera. I feel like such a beginner, but I still am, so it's cool. The excitement of running out and taking pictures once I got the camera is now turning into a "hey wait, I want these to look good". A little bit of studying the manual first. I'm going to be a very slow but steady learner I think. The excitement of just saying "I just wanna shoot now" is always there. Now I know how to set the timer I feel I won't need to learn that much for awhile now haha. There's a 2 second and a 10 second. Now I don't have to worry about a cable release. When taking a picture of something that isn't moving, I'll just set it on 10 seconds, and POOF! A picture will be taken without any shake, unless it's windy, but you can't help that anyway.

Now that I've learned something, I can't wait to go back out. At least I know now, if I get bored, I can just learn something new, and then I'll want to go out and take pictures using my newly learned ability.

Filter kit

I won the auction, woo. A little over a hundred. I should be getting the kit next week. It'll be fun to play around with.

Japanese Friendship Garden

I got woken up by a friend who wanted to take pictures with me today. That's one of the only ways I can be woken up and not mind waking up for. I'd never been before, so I drove around looking for this place (Japanese Friendship Garden), just to end up going back to my house because I got lost. Apparently it wasn't my fault, where the directions said "arrive at 1300 Senter Rd." it should've said TURN LEFT at Senter Rd. I ended up not paying attention and driving right by it the first time. The second time I found that there was a road called Senter, and thankfully you could only take a left on it.

We found our way there, and get out to try to find it. It's SO hot. We end up going to where there is a sign. There's a birthday or something going on in the middle of the park, so we go to the "museum entrance" just to be weirded out and realize this doesn't look right. We ask some woman and she points to way in the back of the field. I don't see an opening from where I am, but I guess there is, so we walk that way.

We get there, and the opening to the place is beautiful. I even see a little chipmunk with a piece of acorn in his mouth..a black squirrel too (never seen a black squirrel before). We decide to go right instead of left (everyone was going left) We walked around, and the initial excitement of the opening scene, left me. Then I was just surrounded by bleh, with moments of "oooh that's cool". I guess it was alright. Left kinda early cause it was so hot out, and my brain wasn't functioning because I needed to eat.

I love going out and finding things to take pictures of, but the worst thing about photography, is the picture sorting. I hate being a critic of my own work. I end up deleting a hell of a lot. I guess it's probably a good thing.

I'm starting to think I use my tripod too much too. When I was first starting, I didn't use one, and I feel I got better shots..was more versatile or something. I guess maybe I should only use it if I'm zooming in past 3x. And I have to learn the timer thing. I still haven't decided to learn how to do that, and I'm sure it's very easy. The timer will be like the release cable I can never own.

So I'm sifting through the Friendship Garden pictures, there are so many images floating around my systems, it's crazy. I need to stop so many projects at once. The friendship garden isn't what I expected either. For some reason I thought there were lot's of flowers there. Did I miss them? I don't know, but I guess I'll just check the website again. Maybe there was another park in San Jose that had lot's of flowers.




I'm proud. I did some work on my page, just fixing the links at the bottoms of the pages, but it was work. I finally put up the final Muir Woods page, wonder what took me so long, it took me less than 10 minutes. Oh well. Also getting the zoo ones sorted a bit more. It's going to take a little time, but I'll handle it, and at least I'm getting some where.

Haven't done much work on the friendship garden, because I decided to go back and fix the older stuff first.

I'm tiiiiireed. I have to work at 1 tomorrow, and have to wake up before that because the auction for the lens kit that I want ends tomorrow morning, and I HAVE to win. Yes have to.

Lafayette Street San Jose, CA

I feel slightly disappointed, but not too much .. knowing that the area I was going to shoot tonight, will still be there tomorrow.

After work today, I had decided I wanted to go to this "industrial" part of town. So I called a friend, not wanting to go alone. I bring us to the part of town that was talked about from one of my co-workers a day or so ago. As I'm driving through it, I can't wait to get out and take pictures. We pass a few street people, and my friend says "don't stop there". So I finally find a place to park, get out of the car, and get my tripod. I'm about to set off, and she's like "Uhhh...I don't feel comfortable here." I had specifically told her I had wanted a guy along for this very reason. And I also had asked her numerous times while we were driving through and she was making comments about it being a "bad part" of town. Oh well..

So that idea was scrapped. Then I didn't remember the other place I wanted to go, but I remembered it being a better neighborhood, so we went back to my place, got directions, then headed back out. This place was very easy to find, and was really nice.

I didn't get to take many pictures, due to fences and the fact that people were working. I just took some shots, then we left.
Here are some pictures:

And yet another update...

I have been emailing Canon's tech support for a week now, asking about different things. The last email they sent, told me that my camera didn't have any add on lenses or anything like that. But when I check ebay, it's a different story. In fact, the lenses I've been meaning to get (they were going to be a total over $200 not including shipping), are now all together as a package, and so far under $100! I'm going to have to buy the lens kit if It's under $100. I'm watching the auction anyway, it's got 15 hours left. I hope it stays under $100.

I was thinking about going to an "industrial" zone on the way home from work, but I didn't want to be there alone in the dark so I didn't stop... but one of these nights! Industrial zones and lens filters..

I've been looking at an "x drive" so I don't have to use my laptop to transfer pictures when I run out of space. It'll be cost effective for me to buy it (it's a little under $100), rather than buying a whole lot of flash memory cards. I have deleted pictures on occasion (most likely really bad shots anyway), and don't like having to do that.

I have so much to learn, but it's good that I started my photography group, and that I'm a somewhat active photographer. The more I go out, the more I'll learn.

I really wanna take some "industrial" pictures. For some reason, every time I drive by industrial factory type places, or places that seem to be falling apart, I don't want to peel my eyes away. I wonder what this mysterious attraction is about. I HATE pollution..I guess it's the architecture that I like. I need to find someone with patience to go with me to these types of places. I have a few places in mind already, down Lafayette there's a place. Someone at work told me there was a place that was cool right between my home and work. Technically before I go to work I could drive through that area and take pictures.

The thing that bothers me about taking pictures, is that I can't do it during sunset unless it's Friday or Saturday because I work all other nights. For some reason I haven't pushed myself to go to any areas to wait for sunsets and such.

Also, I'm slightly upset that the camera I bought can't do a lot of things that I want it to do. The lenses I can buy for it are limited. I can only use specific lenses that can be used with an adapter which attaches to the tripod. And of course there is no cable release attachment.

I guess it's alright because I'm still a beginner. I can learn on the S50. It's a very good advanced camera. I can move up to an SLR when I'm ready, then I can get all of the lenses and goodies, and spend far more than I should probably. Hah..

Another update

If I ever wanted to sell a photo with people in it, I wouldn't be able to without a model release form. Now I think I'm going to print out some model release forms for those just in case moments.

Sorting through pictures and music and fixing a few things on my Photo pages today. It's good to be able to sit here and do nothing, but still get something accomplished. Put up a new page. I think I have more pictures on my laptop, but I can't get to them right now. When I have a bit of extra time, I'll start uploading pictures to my servers again.

Since I don't have a networking cable, I have to transfer some of my zoo pictures to a web page of mine. Didn't get very far with that :/ Tried to view one, and it said that my site had exceeded it's limit. Guess it may take awhile. I guess I should edit some of the pictures before uploading.

I really want to get my photo's organized. I had them all nice and perfect for awhile, but ever since Muir Woods.. I think I'm going to take a weekend off from going out and taking pictures. Or perhaps I'll go to the Friendship Garden. I've been meaning to go for awhile now, and it's a very short drive.

San Francisco Zoo

Lovely day at the zoo. Was a bit hot at moments, but ten times better than San Jose. I guess going to San Francisco on really hot days is a good idea.

So my photo friend was nice. We spent from 10am to 4pm checking the whole zoo out. I took over 100 pictures. It's going to take me forever to go through them all, but it'll be fun. While we were taking pictures, these people were interviewing this lady. All I got from it was they were interviewing her because she was into digital photography.

Later on we were taking pictures of...rhino's maybe? They walked over to my photo friend and asked him if it's digital, he says yes. They ask if we're together, and if I shoot digital too, I say yes. So they ask if they can interview us. We decide to, they ask us a lot of questions, and I get into talking about my "photo adventures" group, which they perked up when I mentioned. Then after they were initially wanting to talk to him because his camera looked more impressive (yes this is why), the interviewer seemed more interested in me, my S50, and my idea. Well, it made me feel like I was doing something, and getting somewhere. And the interview went really well. They gave us $10 each for the interview.

After the interview we went on to take many more pictures...yes...much editing and posting I must do. What a time consuming project this will be. I hope the pictures came out as good as I think they did. I used a tripod for all of them, except the first few.
Photo adventure 2...a success...

Quick Update

I still haven't sorted through all the pictures, but I'm getting there. Deleted a whole bunch. I guess I've learned what not to take pictures of in the future. However, the picture that I knew was going to be my favorite, was indeed my favorite. At least I knew it was going to be a good picture, now maybe if I only find those types of shots to shoot, I'll have lot's of good pictures. Was interrupted many times during the process..it was fine though..it was getting to be a lot of work anyway. The choosing of the pictures, and figuring out if I want to keep them is hard enough.

Muir Woods

Early this morning I got up and went to Muir Woods to meet up with a photo guy that is in my group. Had a nice 4 hours looking around, shooting pictures, talking about photo's and such. Really nice...can't wait til the group gets bigger, then I'll be able to pick more brains. So it went OK..these trips are mostly for learning, but sometimes nice pics come from them which is cool.
The first picture reminds me of a deer. (Note from today: Looking back, I think I may have to find a stream and play with the shutter some more. I love moving water pictures.)