Category: Photography

Between lenses: Movement

Life & Adventures, Photography, Thoughts

Where do you feel most at peace? More than anywhere else, I think I feel most at peace standing beside the ocean watching the waves come in. There’s nothing quite like it.

the ocean in motion

The ocean has always been a special place for me. I especially love watching the waves go in and out. When I was a little girl, my older sister and I would play tricks with the waves. As the waves would start to come in I would call out “You can’t get me you little rascal waves.” Except, I had a hard time pronouncing words then, so it sounded more like “You can’t get me you wittle wascal waves.” Then I would either run away from the water or my sister would pull me up by the arms so the waves wouldn’t get me. Maybe this actually only happened once or twice. Either way, it’s a fond memory.

Being on the beach always makes me think of that memory. I get so excited to stick my feet in the water, even if it’s a cold day. I know that if it’s too cold for me, I can just run away and come back when I’m ready. The waves will still be there.

I took this photo a few weeks ago I was in Santa Barbara with my best friend just for a day. We took a break from exploring the city to hang out by the ocean waves. It was really fun! Not many people were on that area of the sand so we had our own space to be silly and take photos. We played around with the settings and took turns modeling for the camera. We were acting like kids. A lot of the pictures turned out bad. Out of the bunch, this was my favorite. It’s not just a decent pictures. It also has a soft quality to it, which I like.

So, I decided to share it as part of the Between Lenses photo challenge put on by Latrina and Tara.

Between Lenses

To find out more about the Between Lenses photography challenge, visit Latrina’s blog Of Trees and Hues and Tara’s blog Tara Victoria.This challenge is really beautiful and hope to keep linking up with them. If you’re interested, the next two themes have already been planned out so you can get a head start.

Here’s what’s coming up:

no. 08 Tuesday, August 12th // Symmetry
no. 09 Tuesday, September 9th // Silence

One crazy long weekend

Life & Adventures, Photography

my nephew

No, that is not my baby up top. Of course, I would tell you guys if I had a baby.

So, July has already been a pretty busy month. Summer is much more fun than spring was, at least for me. What do you guys think?

Here are a few things I did in the past five days:

  • Tried to help a man call for a ride while outside of Union Station. Actually helped one guy get on a bus.
  • Ate vegan food in Hollywood and got a discount because my boyfriend used to be in a band with the restaurant owner
  • Cried about LA traffic because I panicked. Good thing I wasn’t driving!
  • Started watching Orphan Black and got sucked in
  • Ate at a new favorite waffle place in Santa Monica
  • Hung out on the Santa Monica sand
  • Celebrated the 4th of July with my boyfriend’s family in Orange
  • Met artist Paul Frank at his pop-up shop in Anaheim
  • Went to a hospital to await the birth of my new nephew
  • Held my sister’s brand new baby when he was just a few hours old

my nephew

Wow, wow, wow. I guess I’ve been busy. This summer has been shaping up to be pretty memorable! Honestly, I didn’t think it would be. At first, I was so bummed to be out of college without a job. I was also super bored being home alone a lot, but I adjusted. Don’t get me wrong, I do still want a job! I would like to earn an honest day’s wage, make money, do what I love, learn new skills, use the ones I’ve got, and actually use my diploma. But it’s not too bad to have free time.

And hey, isn’t my nephew the most adorable little baby ever (besides the cute ones in your life)?

June Adventures

Life & Adventures, Photography

Happy July!

Last month flew by crazy fast for me, but also slow at the same time. Yeah, that makes no sense. But life moves at a different speed when you’re unemployed and out of school.

I was looking through my Instagram account earlier to remind myself what I had done this month. Although some interesting things happened, I was thinking “There must have been more events than that.” I checked my Flickr and it turns out I hadn’t updated it since May. Whoa. That’s odd for me.

So, I decided I need a way to track my adventures besides just Instagram. I need a writing portion. Since I haven’t kept a journal in a few years  and this is my Modern Notebook (get it?) I’ll recap my month here!

last college paperour succulent

I submitted my last college paper, which I stapled in the library that has a sense of humor, apparently. Paul and I got our first plant for his apartment. Every time I look at it, I think of the love fern in How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Well, the boyfriend hasn’t broken up with me yet.

we're alumni now Cal Poly ladies

Graduation day! Every time I think of the phrase “graduation day” I think of Reba McEntire saying “Here’s Cheyenne and Van on Cheyenne and Van’s graduation day.” The Reba show was the best. Any way, I graduated! I couldn’t have done it without these beautiful people.

Grandma's favorite place Snoopy and friends

These ladies are the best. Summer is my favorite. I got to go to Laguna and Knott’s Berry Farm in the same week. #Blessed

DTLA bookstore cutesy tea time

 

My adventures took me to Downtown LA one day, where I wandered around The Last Bookstore. Later I took a bus to Santa Monica and got desperately lost for an hour. But it worked out. A few days later I was relaxing in a tea house in San Dimas.

best friend adventure beautiful ocean

The best friend and I took a one day trip to Santa Barbara on the Amtrack on Monday. That was quite an adventure! Neither of us had been on the Amtrack before. It was a good option, especially considering that we don’t drive much or own cars. We got to see Isla Vista, where she will be living in fall, and even splashed around in the water at the beach. It’s crazy how close of a walk the beach was!

Wow, wow, wow! June was pretty perfect, I must say.

All the photos in this post were taken from my Instagram. Follow me, if you would like! I just started doing a photo challenge for July on Instagram by Postcards from Rachel. You can find out more about that here.

Did you guys have any adventures in June? What are you most looking forward to in July? 

Head in the clouds

Life & Adventures, Photography, Thoughts

blue skies

Note: I wrote this a few weeks ago and accidentally pushed publish before adding in the pictures. Here’s the completed piece, as it should be.

It rained today.

My mom excitedly pointed out the rain as I was looking at my computer on the dinning room table. We could see through the dinning room window that there was rain pouring down, but there weren’t any clouds blocking the sun. “There must be a rainbow,” she said. Sure enough, there was practically a double rainbow.

I went right out in the rain with my flip flops, running shorts, tank top and hoodie on. (This California weather changes fast. It was hot a few days ago and I was inside most of today, so I was in lounge clothes.) After about 10 minutes, it stopped raining. I had some photos of the rainbow, a truly beautiful feat of nature, so I retreated inside to warm my feet.

from porch

I got lost in the Internet again. When I looked up from the 10+ tabs I had open and saw the sunset, I decided it was time for another photo session. Queue more cloud photography, a downpour and then hail started falling from the sky. That happens a few times a year where I live and I love it every time.

in motion

flying

dark clouds

Each time I was outside staring at the sky, I thought about how my head has been in the clouds lately. I like to live in reality, but sometimes I get too caught up in thinking about the future, what it could hold, and what it should hold. The things that have been weighing heavily on my mind feel so personal at the moment, that I would rather not go into detail. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to say I’ve been deeply considering marriage and my career both as separate and intertwined things.

As I’m writing this, I just remembered a quote from one of my favorite books and movies, Little Women. “We’ll all grow up someday,” Amy March told her sister Meg. “We might as well know what we want.”

In my experience, this is true. We should know what we want. We should be dreamers and have our heads in the clouds sometimes. Of course, eventually we’ll have to come back to earth and see how our dreams can match up with reality.

I also try to keep in mind that wherever there’s rain, there’s likely to be a rainbow. Take the bad with the good and vice versa. Gray skies and blue skies can exist in the same day, even in the same stretch of sky. So appreciate what you have.

The sky always makes me feel very contemplative. I just have to remember to look up.

 

Exploring Downtown Los Angeles

Life & Adventures, Photography

Yesterday was my last day at my internship in Downtown Los Angeles. I’ve become so used to my commute, coworkers and work there. It’s going to be sad not to be there three times a week any more. It was a great experience and I learned so much.

It was a great adventure.

Besides being an incredible learning experience where I got to work with awesome people, it was also really cool to be in the big city of Los Angeles a few times a week. I love

I thought I would share just a few photos I’ve taken over the past three months in LA, along with some restaurant recommendations.

store front view

Santee Village

sandwich shop
^^ Delicious and cheap Mexican food

Bega

Ace Sewing Machine & Thread Supply Company

Best Sewing Maching

illy and fishy

^^The pastry fishies at Delicious Together are amazing. They come with every purchase. Illy coffee there is so good too! Try the honey vanilla latte or Vietnamese coffee.

There are so many great places to eat in this area. If you happen to be in the area, definitely try out one of the independently owned places to get an experience you won’t find anywhere else. I recommend Delicious Together, TBLA, Grand Central Market and Casa la Doña. There is also a great pizza stand near the Urban Outfitters on Broadway that I can’t think of the name of and that good Mexican place pictured above. Try them! If you can, then you must!

LA folks, do you have any favorite places in downtown you would recommend?

Pink sightings

Photography

powerful

nice ride

It’s almost spring. Yay, hooray! Spring might be my favorite season. It’s not too hot and not too cold. Pastels are in. Bunnies are everywhere before and after Easter. Besides that, the color pink seems to show up more often. I love pink so maybe it’s just one of those things where you notice what you’re looking for.

I snapped these pictures last Wednesday when I was on my college’s campus to get my second internship approved. It was approved, thankfully, and I got to hang out with a few of my favorite people that day.

ready to bloom

pink path

fake snow fall
Yeah, I know this last one isn’t pink, but it’s still worth sharing. This fake snow was falling from a tree on my street. I’m not even kidding. Someone had hung snow ornaments on a tree by the curb and it was so windy that a few had fallen off. It caught my eye when I was on my way back from school.

I’m so tired and I just can’t stay up much longer, so this is a super short post. Good night, cuties! I hope you all are having an amazing week.

Practicing photography

Photography

IMG_0678

IMG_0713

One thing I’m trying to work on lately in this in-between time of unemployment is photography. I have the free time, I’ve always loved it and it’s a great skill to have. I’m trying to put my Cannon to good use. Hey, maybe one day I can even take on clients.

I took my first photo class two years ago and now I’m at a total of three. I had a different professor each time, each with different styles and backgrounds. The classes were called Film Photography, Photojournalism, and Digital Photography. Well, actually the last one was officially called Photoshop, but the professor taught it with a wider focus in mind and changed the title.

Grandma Donna

As a little kid, one of my favorite things was carrying around a disposable camera and taking photos. Is that what phone pictures have become? Hmm, that probably only makes sense in my head. But what I’m getting at is even then I enjoyed taking photos. I just didn’t have a technique down.

At stoplight

Lifestyle photography is what I’m going for. I love the photography on lifestyle blogs like A Beautiful Mess and Sincerely Kinsey. I also always enjoy the photos on Lifesize Paperdoll and if found, make. The blogs have different styles, which are each easily recognizable. The photos have a sort of uniform look.

My friend Mina and I were just talking about this recently. She was actually taking pictures of me for class, so I turned the camera on her too. That gave me some good practice and made me realize I really would like to take more photos of people. A lot of my photos have been of my dogs and nature. I might start soliciting my friends for a photo session so I can get in the practice.

close up in the corner

I found some good photography articles around the web today that my fellow photogs could find useful.

14 Portrait Photography Tips / Digital Camera World, 5 Tips for Lifestyle Photography / A Beautiful Mess

The photos above were all taken by me. I took them all over a few months, but am just now sharing them here. I’m slightly embarrased to let my practice stuff out, but I’m starting to see improvement. It’s just for fun now any way.