March 17, 2009

Something green for St. Patrick's Day. I like how many different shades are represented.

March 16, 2009

I don't normally use flash, but I forgot to turn it off when taking a photo of this tree during an early evening walk through the neighborhood. Somehow it managed to highlight only the tree and its petals and not overwhelm the nighttime setting. Cool. I'll have to keep experimenting with this one.

March 15, 2009

When Mel came back from San Francisco armed with macaroons, they were so colorful and tasty-looking that I took them to the backyard so I could harness the sunlight for a photo shoot. I played a lot with composition, trying to find the best way to represent the macaroons while limited to a 50mm lens and a see-through, busily-patterned table. Initial experiments revealed that the macroons' allure was heightened by seeing as many of them in frame as possible, and positioning them diagonally proved the best way to do that. The table pattern served to offset them nicely. I only wish I'd been able to line up the angle of the macaroons with the angle of the diamonds. Whenever I tried, the table's legs would peek through, and I decided I'd rather have a clean background than matching parallels. And again, f/8 was my friend.

March 14, 2009

After the surplus of great photography subjects during my month of traveling, I was at a loss of what to photograph when limited to my own home. I decided to test the limitations of what I could and could not capture inside at night with poor lighting. Murray's food bowl is only in focus because I set the camera on the floor for stability. If I were to do it over, I would isolate the focus even more so that everything is blurred except the big "dog" in the middle.

March 13, 2009

If going back to real life means going back to Trader Joe's, I think I could be okay with that.

March 12, 2009

Taking photos at the California Academy of Sciences was quite possibly my most frustrating photo experience to date. I had both my DSLR and my point and shoot with me, and neither could capture the colors and vibrance of the fish on display, not even using the aquarium settings! It made me miss my old Olympus point and shoot, which took beautiful photos of the jellyfish at the Monterey Bay Aquarium last summer. In the end, I did manage to get a few good photos, although most were of people, not fish. I am now more thankful than ever for the copious amounts of trial and error that digital photography allows.

March 11, 2009

Our last full night in Alaska meant our last chance for an aurora sighting. Predictions of activity were high, but the weather was poor. We decided to push the odds in our favor by going on an aurora tour that took us high into the mountains and away from any distracting city lights. Heavy military surplus pants, parkas, and boots neutralized the danger of being deterred by cold. Our plan worked -- in the early morning hours, a small, green band of the northern lights broke through the haze of clouds on the horizon! The long exposure setting enhanced what our eyes could only dimly see. The mission was a success, but the thirst for a more dramatic display lingers. Next year, maybe Norway ...

March 10, 2009

We spent the day at the Chena Hot Springs Resort, located about 55 miles outside of Fairbanks. It operates year-round, with many hiking, camping, and rafting options in the summer and dog-sledding, snowshoeing, and aurora viewing in the winter. After a morning of relaxing and reading in the steamy, sulfury water of the springs, I spent the afternoon wandering and taking photos. I like this one because it evokes the balance of power between the two seasons: despite the overwhelming dominance of winter, the memory and promise of summer are still evident.

March 9, 2009

The solar winds weren't strong enough for us to see the northern lights during our first night of aurora watching. I had fun playing around with my camera and tripod anyway. Most of the photos from that night were taken at a dog mushing arena away from the aurora-obscuring lights of downtown. The cold eventually got to us after a few hours, so we packed up and drove back to the hotel with the car heater roaring at full blast. Once we got there, I braved a few more minutes of the below freezing temperatures to take this photo of the full moon and the rings that had appeared around it during the drive.

March 8, 2009

We spent the morning at the North Pole! It was the North Pole in name only, as it was located about 10 miles south of Fairbanks, not at the actual north pole. But that didn't mean the town didn't play the part well. Streets had holiday names like "Santa Claus Lane," the walls of the Santa Claus House were decorated with kids' letters to Santa, and even sign posts for welding shops featured candy cane spirals.

March 7, 2009

This was taken at the Ice Park in Fairbanks, Alaska, site of the World Ice Art Championships. In addition to amazing one- and multi-block sculptures from some of the world's best artists in the field, the venue included mazes and slides to entertain kids of all ages. This set of slides was tucked away in a far corner of the park, but with the laughter and delighted screams bubbling out of it, it was by no means hidden. I spent about twenty minutes taking photos of all the activity. This is my favorite. I like the way the ice slides absorb the colored lights and the contrast between the static foreground figure and the movement in the background.

March 6, 2009

Another day spent in transit. I did not want to take any more airplane photos, either or the cabin or out the window, so I focused on finding subjects in the airports themselves. With all the people using the power outlets and work stations (including the three of us, who spent a good amount of time looking for an available spot to plug in), I was struck by how truly mobile and technology-dependent our society has become. Somehow, the images seemed to be more resonant in black and white.

March 5, 2009

While wandering around Skywalker Ranch today, I made a point and shoot discovery -- how to blur the backgrounds so the foreground object is in focus! You use the digital macro function but don't limit the frame to just the object you want featured close up. I'll have some fun playing with this.

March 4, 2009

I've posted so many photos of destinations recently that I decided that my photo today would be of the method of transportation. This is the interior of my Virgin America flight from Washington Dulles to SFO. Virgin has a different in-flight service and entertainment format that most airlines, and judging by my experience and by the conversations of other passengers I've overheard, their innovations seem to be working. As you can tell, they also have a different look -- black leather seating and purple mood lighting. It gives the flight a very modern, space-age feel. I'm not sure I like the head you can see in between the seats at the bottom. It ruins the clean look of the photo, but it also conveys that the plane was in use. Thoughts?

March 3, 2009

My flight from Buenos Aires deposited me at JFK in New York City at 6:00 am. The next step was to get myself from there to the Upper East Side in my hazy post red eye state. I saw this steam cloud while I was waiting for a train to take me to the Jamaica subway station. The rising sun was perfectly positioned behind it, resulting in an ever-changing array of translucencies and shapes.

March 2, 2009

Welcome to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay. I took a high-speed ferry across the Rio de la Plata to see the buildings and cobblestone streets of the town's historic quarter (barrio historico) that were declared a UNESCO hertiage sight in 1995. The town was cute and picturesque, but the real highlight of the trip for me was renting a bike for the day -- leaving only payment with its owner, no collateral or liability forms! -- and biking up Route 1 to the Bodega Bernardi Vineyard and back. I shared the road with cars, trucks, mopeds, scooters, other bicyclists, even the occasional horse and wagon. I have a lot of photos from the day, but I thought this one captured the sense of place best: old but with some aspects of modernity, unhurried but purposeful, and welcoming.

March 1, 2009

I thought I'd become really good at taking the surreptitious photo on this trip. I had it down to a science. You scope out the scene, see something interesting, maybe apply a little misdirection, and -- bam! -- you get a cool photo of something you don't see everyday. It's a helpful skill to know, especially when you're not quite sure how to say, "May I take a photo?" in the language spoken by everyone around you or are unable to understand the response you get when you do ask. So imagine my surprise when I took a quick shot of this antique cart in Palermo SoHo and its proprietor not only noticed, but became very excited. I was a little worried until he grabbed a photo off the cart and posed so I could take a photo of him! His quirky character, his mostly unbuttoned shirt, and the old wedding photo in his hand go well with the jumble of oddities he was selling.

February 28, 2009

This is Buenos Aires Playa, also known as Buenos Aires Beach. The funny thing is, it's not so much a beach as an imported strip of sand. And it doesn't sit on the edge an beautiful, blue ocean with waves and shore break; it overlooks the muddy, calm of the Rio de la Plata, the widest estuary in the world. It was bizarre to get there and see picturesque, white sailboats in the distance on top of very brown water. Weirdness aside, it really was a great place -- the day was beautiful and sunny with just the right amount of breeze; umbrellas and chairs were provided; and the portenos (people who live in Buenos Aires) were out in full force, playing soccer and volleyball and sipping their ever-present yerba mate.

February 27, 2009

Today's neighborhood was La Boca, one of the poorest in Buenos Aires, but also one of the most visited by tourists thanks to the street of El Caminito and its brightly colored buildings. History says the unique color scheme developed after the area's Italian immigrants painted their houses with the paint leftover from their boats. It's know for being very crowded and touristy, but since I visited toward the end of the day, I found it relaxed and mostly (although not dangerously) empty.

February 26, 2009

This is the Puenta de la Mujer (Women's Bridge) in the Puerto Madero neighborhood of Buenos Aires. The neighborhood itself is one of the ritziest in the city, full of old warehouses that have been converted into restaurants and lofts. I don't really understand the bridge's name given that it reminds me of a harp, but I liked the pairing of the bridge with the photo of the woman on the left. It was part of a public art installation of black and white photos of women that continued down the riverbank. Maybe it was inspired by the bridge ...

February 25, 2009

Today was a travel day. I left Quito, flew to Panama City, spent an hour in their airport, and took a red eye to Buenos Aires. My day was spent in line, in boarding areas, and in airplane seats, none of which were all that photogenic. My boarding pass was the best I could come up with. At least it's representative!

February 24, 2009

Most Quito guidebooks highlight the city's Old Town or Centro Historico as the highlight of the city. Since I was too busy being indoctrinated into what I'm going to call "true" Ecuador, I didn't make it to Centro Historico until the day before I left. It didn't disappoint. The buildings and architecture were truly spectacular, and the multicolored colonial buildings and ornate iron balconies made me feel like I had stepped back in time and maybe into a part of Europe if it weren't for all the modern Ecuadorians around me. Best of all, I managed to wander through the area in the late afternoon, so the skies were dark and dramatic -- excellent backdrops for the white church towers and statues all around me.

February 23, 2009

In addition to its Carneval celebration (also known as Fiesta de las Flores y de las Frutas), Ambato is also known as one of the country's biggest producers of fruits and veggies. I spent the day at a house in its suburbs, and true to the city's reputation, the backyard produced delicious plums and raspberries. A friend of the friend I'm visiting invited the group of eight Peace Corps volunteers and me to her cousin's house for lunch. I spent a few hours cooking, eating, playing soccer with the kids who lived there, and soaking up a very authentic introduction to Ecuadorian hospitality and culture.

February 22, 2009

Don't be fooled by this photo. It's Carneval in Ecuador, and I spent the day and night in Ambato, Ecuador's fourth or fifth largest town with one of the biggest Carneval celebrations in the country. The festivities there were not this serene. It was more of a chaotic battle ground with roving bands of people armed with spray foam wandering through crowded streets of revelers listening to live music performed on multiple stages. There are different colors and scents of foam, and it shoots out of a can much like shaving cream does. Apparently being a tourist makes you more of a target, which would explain why I was foamed many, many, many times. I should be happy, though, that Ambato has outlawed the flour, water, and dyed oil that are used in other Ecuadorian cities and towns.

All photos from my time in Ambato can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26588367@N02/sets/72157615271955891/

February 21, 2009

I spent the bulk of my Saturday in Otavalo, a small town about 2.5 hours away from Quito that is known for its arts and crafts market. There was lots to look at, from intricately carved and painted chess sets like this one to t-shirts that were alternatively touristy with images of the Galapagos Islands and ridiculous with bad pick up lines in Spanish. The vendors were surprisingly nice about letting me take photos without buying anything, and I would probably have hundreds if my camera battery hadn't run out. Luckily, I got it to come back to life just in time to take a few last photos of the day's highlight -- an afternoon snack at a pie shop just off the main square.

All my Otavalo photos can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26588367@N02/sets/72157614516789764/

February 20, 2009

This is the Sanctuary of El Guapulo as seen from the very steep stairs leading down from the Hotel Quito. Lonely Planet said climbing down the stairs to the neighborhood of Guapulo ("a bohemian enclave that time forgot") was one of the highlights of a visit to Quito. It was a good walk with a lot of interesting sights, but I have a feeling that only Lonely Planet gives the neighborhood such high acclaim. The only people on the road with me were one or two other Americans toting their own copies of the guidebook and Quito residents walking down the hill to go to church.

February 19, 2009

I spent the day wandering around midtown Quito. These tires popped out at me at the start of my walk, but because people were watching and I was worried about my camera being stolen, I let the photo opportunity pass me by. Fortunately, I got over my camera shyness and the tires were still there when I returned. Later on, my host told me this was the most "Quito" of all the photos I'd taken that day. Excellent.

All my photos from Quito can be viewed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26588367@N02/sets/72157614081911527/

February 18, 2009

This photo was taken as my plane taxied away from its gate at Miami International Airport on its way to Quito, Ecuador. It was the perfect time to take off. Sunset was just starting, and it became more intense over Cuba before adjusting itself into bands of saturated yellow, orange and blue over the open ocean. By the time we got to Quito, it was dark outside and the lights of the city were there to greet us. Interesting fact about the Miami airport: there were no Starbucks or McDonald's, at least not in my terminal. Impressive.

February 17, 2009

My time in NYC was too short for sightseeing, so I prioritized spending my time on errands and friends. Noah, Jean, and I had a fantastic dinner at a restaurant called Salt in SoHo. I hadn't seen Noah in over a year, and we had a lot to catch up on ... including my upcoming trip and his recent marriage! Dinner with the newlyweds was definitely the highlight of my day. Second place went to our Salt dessert of lemon tart with lavender crust and earl gray ice cream, followed closely by the Wi-Fi enabled bus ride I took from DC to NYC.

February 16, 2009

Now I'm going to go back on everything I wrote in the previous post. Today's decision came down to this photo and one the mural of Marilyn Monroe on the corner of Calvert Street and Connecticut Avenue that welcomes you toWoodley Park. It's a part of DC not often seen by tourists, but since I lived in that neighborhood for two years, it's something I've come to associate with the city.

Maybe it's because I went with a DC-specific photo for February 15, but this time I went with the photo that I liked better but could have been taken anywhere. I love sunsets, and this one had it all -- oranges and golds, God-rays (a matte painter's dream!), dark clouds of varying hues and textures, and silhouetted shapes. The linchpin, though, was the plane that can be seen near the upper right corner. It connected the photo to my hope that my travels are filled with beautiful and unexpected sights.

February 15, 2009

I had a very difficult time deciding which photo to post for February 15. I guess that's part of traveling. There's such an over-abundance of photo choices that it's hard to pick just one for the day. Compounding the issue was the fact that I had a clear favorite, but it didn't do much to evoke an overall sense of where I was. Do you choose the best, or do you choose the one that represents where you were and what you did? In the end, I went with my favorite of the requisite DC photos, not the one I liked best for the day. It came down to blog philosophy. When I look back at it, these photos are meant to tell me what I did and saw over the course of the year, and something that represents DC overall will be more evocative than a little statue of a man made out of bottle caps. It's pretty cool, though. You can see it and the rest of my DC photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26588367@N02/sets/72157613771822421/.