You have one week here… What will you do?

It’s not often my wife doesn’t know exactly how she wants to spend time- especially on vacation. That’s more along the lines of how I approach days off. But this photo, taken during our first walk to the beach on our most recent vacation, shows her happily contemplating what, if anything, is planned.

Interstate

My Saturday afternoon was spent trying to get back to the Bay Area from Truckee/Tahoe after my friend’s truck broke down upon arrival at our destination. While stopped along the highway for the 3rd time, we jumped the Jersey barrier dividing a bike path running parallel to the motorway.

Broke down by the highway.

Compositionally, I got the shot I wanted. In retrospect, I would have wanted to convey the dangerous situation we were in- This was an exceptionally bad place to have stopped (we were forced to, due to the engine on the verge of seizing.) Having only my iPhone camera with me, I settled for this but had I thought more about it, I might have tried something from the perspective of the front tire with the cars speeding by.

Vancouver Olympic Weekend

I traveled to Vancouver this past weekend to see my first Olympic event, courtesy of my brother in-law Felix who generously gave me two tickets to the Finland-Sweden hockey game. My friend Ronald decided to come with me and spend the day leading up to the game (a) trying the Olympic culinary offerings and (b) trying our hand at street photography.

A lot of these photographs will be of the same subjects since we spent the day walking around together, but here is a good way to see the difference between someone how has spent the last 8 months mastering photography (Ronald) and someone who hasn’t (me).

We both took pictures of this particular building wrapped with a giant ad:

I had a moment of “Why didn’t I frame it better?” when I saw Ronald’s posting, and I do remember that he took his time picking a spot for his shot. I think I was thinking of coffee.

I don’t have a picture in response to Ronald’s photo of our shadows, but I wish the shadows covered less of the maple leaf of my next shot. I cropped this shot heavily and boosted the color:

We also stumbled into a string of pop-up art galleries during an annual “Art Walk” in Vancouver. There were some art installations in the basement of one gallery and both of us turned into 10 year olds when we saw this on the wall:

Ronald’s pose was redolent of Lee Harvey Oswald… Maybe it’s just me.

I had problems adjusting the color on this next shot:

I wanted to preserve the nice red color of the painted brick wall, but the crowd inside was swathed with incandescent lighting. Another thing I have noticed is how careless I have been with the metering of some of my shots. This has resulted in less than sharp results in some of the shots I liked. Also, I was also surprised that I didn’t take multiple shots of scenes that I liked- to ensure that I tried different exposures/apertures to get the best starting point.

More to come as I process more.

What Kind of Photographer Should I Be?

Since I signed up to co-author this blog as an entry into digital photography, I have struggled to find an aspect of photography really interests me to the point where I’m prolific enough to submit a blog entry every few days. Photographs that I find interesting do not usually have a great deal of technical merit- It is the context of the photo that usually grabs my attention. Perhaps that’s why I’m drawn to photojournalism as a point of interest. Photographs used in photojournalism tell a part of a story that text alone cannot. The adage that a photograph is worth a thousand words is a phrase that often occurs in my mind as I flip through photos.

I strive for universality in my photographs. Every time I snap the shutter, I hope that I capture an image that is universal to anybody who looks at the photograph. More on this in later posts.

I find a lot of “throwaway” picture like this when I develop and print my rolls of film:

When I snapped the shutter for this particular photograph, I was hoping I could document something that I saw that day in the market. Living here in Cupertino, I do not encounter too many markets offering terrines, patés and the like. So for me, it’s a reminder that there are places where I could run to the store to buy these items in case I have a craving. Like now.

Required Site Seeing?: Airborne Fish at Pike Place Market

During my short visit to Pike Place Market, I observed more than a few moms shouting excitedly to their children in anticipation of a thrown salmon. While the sight of an airborne fish isn’t an everday occurrence for either, that level of enthusiasm seems out of proportion for what we were witness to. But who am I to say what people should find amusing…