Walking Kiko

This was Kiko during our walk. It was pretty warm at the time that this picture was taken, despite the cool breeze.

Day 133 Of 365 Project:

Trash

While I was walking Kiko today, I saw this very deflated balloon floating around. It still had enough air to stay floating above the ground, but not enough to fly above anything higher. Seeing this deflated balloon reminded me of the movie, "American Beauty" when the high school kid took videos ofeverything, including a trash bag. By the way, if you haven't seen "American Beauty" yet, you should rent and watch it.

Day 132 Of 365 Project:

Ducks Golfing

I visited the Old Ranch Country Club in Seal Beach, CA for an event today. I noticed this group of ducks harassing these golfers and they would get in the way of the game. The golfers had to shoe them to the side and off the green so they could continue their game. Silly ducks, golfing is for people!

Day 131 Of 365 Projects:

Food

So, I've been busy doing either nothing or taking pictures. I've been practicing on my food photography. I think if the food is not served or presented in a more appealing/appetizing way, there is nothing I can do to make it look better no matter what I try to do.

Day 128 Of 365 Project:

I went to Carl's Jr on Friday because I played this stupid game on facebook. I was suppose to get an upgrade on a combo from a small to a medium, however, I only got one dollar off. I think the small combo is more than one dollar cheaper than the medium. I got the grilled cheese bacon burger. I had been wanting to try this...it wasn't as exciting as I thought.

Day 129 Of 365 Project:

I got some discount coupons for Yoshinoya in the mail recently. I went there with Dave yesterday and we got a combo bowl (with teriyaki beef and chicken) and a small chicken teriyaki bowl.

Day 130 Of 365 Project:

I went to The Hat this evening with a bunch of photographers for dinner. I had never been here before, even though I've lived ten minutes away from one.

Summertime

It's the first week of summer. Luckily, we have been getting very nice weather with temperatures in the low 80s, upper 70s. This usually doesn't give me a reason to jump into the pool because I'm not brave enough to jump in when temperatures are below 90F degrees. Perhaps, I should muster up the courage anyway and have fun. I have a swimming pool in the backyard, why not put it into use?

Day 127 Of 365 Project:

Garden

My sister has a few vegetable and fruit gardens in the backyard. The tomatoes seem to be thriving the best right now and the vines seem to bloom a lot more than the other gardens she has.

Day 126 Of 365 Project:

By the way, I attended a business photography meeting last night. Click here to see an update. To me, it was very interesting!

REI

I was in Santa Ana, Ca today for a meeting. The meeting also happened to be in the same parking lot as the REI store! I didn't make any purchases today from the store, however, I do like to buy some stuff from there.

Day 125 Of 365 Project:

REI = Recreational Entertainment, Inc.

Pink Flower

So, I just realized that I'm 30% into the 365 Project. This is harder than I think!

While I don't have a marco lens to take a better shot, I like taking shots of flowers/plants right after a rainfall or after the sprinklers went off.

Day 124 Of 365 Project:

Robert Calixto - Author Of "The Cloud Seekers" children's series

First, I'd like to say "Happy Father's Day" to all the fathers, grandfathers, godfathers, soon-to-be fathers, and mothers who took the father's role. I hope you all have a great day!

My friend, Robert Calixto, had a book signing at the Borders in Pasadena, CA today. He is the author for children's books and he started the first series of "The Cloud Seekers". I do not have any of my own kids, however, I did pay him a visit during his book signing and received an autographed book from him.

Day 123 Of 365 Project:

The Movies With Friends

I went to see "The Karate Kid" movie with Dave and my friend, Makiko. I enjoyed the movie and thought that it was good (not great), however, I would probably recommend watching this on DVD rental.

Day 122 Of 365 Project:

I took a sneaky shot during the movie

June Monthly Dinner

I went to dinner at the Manna Korean BBQ restaurant in Culver City, CA this evening with the Asian Animal Lovers meetup group. I have had Korean BBQ in the past, but I have never been to this place before. While this place seemed like a college student party place, it was still a fun place to hang out with friends.

Also as part of the restaurant's tradition, birthday people get sprayed by bottled champange from the wait staff. It was fun to watch this tradition. It is also not free to get sprayed by bottled champange....

Day 121 Of 365 Project:

Mountain + Sunset

I always enjoy a sunset (usually with some clouds). I also love mountains in the backgrounds.

Today was a very warm day. While we love nice and warm days, we also love our air conditioning. So with a combination of moving vehicles (with possibly running ac) and AC units running in every possible buildings, we got a lot of smog, haze and air pollution.

Day 120 Of 365 Project:

Barbed Wire

I like taking pictures of chain link fences. I wouldn't want to try climbing on one, but I like taking pictures of those spikey things.

Day 119 Of 365 Project:

Star Trails

Here is my second attempt at taking pictures of star trails in the night sky. I don't know, I can't seem to get it right. I changed the aperature so that I could get a slower shutter speed. I think because of the light pollution (from the moon and city lights), I couldn't get any star trails. I need to find a better location with less light pollution.

And look at how bright the moon is! Those are trees "surrounding" the moon.

Day 118 Of 365 Project:

Mustards

I sometimes run on the cross country course at a local junior college. Supposedly this course is the toughest in the country. Running and walking on this country course (lots of hilly trails) is open to the public everyday, however, their track is off limits to the public during school/college hours.

Anyway, I wanted to take a picture of someone running. I ended up messing up and taking a picture of the mustards, but I like how it came out.

Day 117 Of 365 Project:

Curry-Up Indian Restaurant

Dave and I went to dinner at Curry Up, an Indian restaurant, in Pomona, CA. I looked up the review on yelp about this place and it seemed to get some good reviews (with some bad ones too). Despite the few bad reviews that it got, it seemed interesting enough to pay a visit and the food really was good! For a reasonable price, you get a lot of food for one plate.

Day 116 Of 365 Project:

2-combo meal: rice with chicken curry (tan sauce) and chicken tikki masala (orange sauce)

Creeks

I live near two parks that have running creeks that go through them. Both parks are across town from each other and the creeks are possibly connected to each other by way of underground water system. One park is larger than the other.

I went to the larger park and took photos of the running streams in the creek. I remembered awhile ago, my photographer friend told me what settings I should be using to take motion blur of the running water/stream. I kinda got what I want, but I'm on experimenting mode. I think I should have used a different aperature for more motion blur.

Day 115 Of 365 Project:

f20, 1/5 sec shutter, ISO 200

Night Drive-by Shooting

I should stop telling people to stop doing drive-by shooting...I mean, with a camera. I don't condon shooting at anyone with a firearm/weapons. I keep doing "drive-by" shooting.

Anyway, I'm surprised by how the below photo came out. I thought that it would be blurrier than it should considering that it was at night, in low lighting and my camera was handheld.

This photo was taken after a "lecture" meeting that I attended tonight. I will update my other blog about this tomorrow, so you should check back it then. In the meantime, you should visit it for an update about a "lecture" meeting I attended last night.

Day 114 Of 365 Project:

Alfred

I used to do security work. I used to enjoy doing that kind of work, but I think due to how stressful it was and how ungrateful many people were towards people who did their jobs *correctly*, I didn't enjoy the work anymore after awhile. I suppose how I felt made me dislike being around other security officers. It wasn't because they did terrible things to me. I just didn't like them for some reason. It was very rare that I did like one. For example, Alfred was one of them. We didn't work at the same company, but we worked at the same shopping center. His company was hired to take care of a specific grocery store only. My job was to take care of the parking area and the other businesses on the property.

Today, I was taking care of business and I was in his part of town where he was working, so I paid him a visit. He was a very nice person when I was "working" with him.

Day 113 Of 365 Project:

Grappling in Kajukenbo

The picture below is actually not of me, but that is what I look like after grappling for three minutes or so in Karate training.

Three minutes doesn't sound very long, but when you are grappling/fighting/boxing, it really does feel like a long time. It's even harder when you're really fighting back.

Day 112 Of 365 Project:

Skate Park - Chino Hills, CA

After going to a skate park in Diamond Bar recently, I decided to hit up the skate park in Chino Hills. This skate park could actually be seen from the highway and I used to drive by it...on the highway. The skate park was located right next to the Big Leagues Dreams sports parks (where there are different arenas for different sports like football, baseball/softball, soccer, basketball and hockey). I went by the skate park this afternoon, only to find it empty. Note to self: show up earlier or show up on a weekend.

Day 111 Of 365 Project:

See the signs on the hill? That'd be the highway.

By the way, I attended a photography workshop over the weekend. Click here to see an update.

Backlighting

Kiko is the only willing participant to let me test some stuff on, but then, she has no choice even though she hates having her picture taken.

Sometimes I know how to use backlighting on people when I'm in a group of photographers and a model or two. When I'm using backlighting on a subject during my own time, I don't know the right time to do it.

Day 110 Of 365 Project:

Kiko In Car Rides

Kiko really loves car rides, however, she can't handle long rides over 20 minutes without getting car sick. I think she is like people who also tend to get motion sickness. This doesn't stop her from getting into a car for ride.

Day 109 Of 365 Project:

Water Bottles

Summer is around the corner and the heat is already starting to pick up here in Southern California. I drink water like a fish. I drink about 1.5 to 2 gallons a day during the summer and about one gallon a day during the winter/cooler seasons. Sure, I have to take a bathroom break several times a day, but I sweat what seems like endless amounts.

I have a one liter bottle to hold my water/drinks, but I think I need a bigger bottle to carry around with me on these hot summer days.

Day 108 Of 365 Project:

Blooming Flower

Lately, I have been seeing a lot of these flowers when I walk Kiko on a local trail. I don't know what kind of flower this is, but I think it's pretty.

Day 107 Of 365 Project:

Pasadena Farmer's Market

I have never been to a "real" farmer's market before where they actually sell lots of fruits, vegatables and various different kinds of food. The nearest one to me doesn't have stuff that a real farmer's market should have...it looks like mainly arts and crafts items, accessories and non-edible products.

Anyway, I went to the farmer's market in Pasadena today. It was organized for the Street Photography meetup group, however, it was a bit disorganized since it was a non-host event (meaning the organizer didn't participate and interested members had to talk amongst each other about meeting time/location). While there were eight members who RSVP'd yes, I was only able to find one other member. I had a nice time regardless.

Day 106 Of 365 Project:

Click here for more images

My Street At Night

A photographer friend explained to me what settings she used for some night photos where you could see the star trails in the sky. She took some photos from her street where there were obvious ambien light from the street lamp posts, and she was able to photograph star trails. I tried her settings and I failed. My camera would not focus unless there was an actual subject and it was lit up somehow. Well, this is what my street looks like at night.

Day 105 Of 365 Project:

Skate Park - Diamond Bar, CA

When you stop caring about what other people really think, you actually have fun doing things. I temporarily got over my fear of taking random pictures of random strangers. Normally, I would balk and run away at the thought of taking random photos of complete strangers because I didn't want anyone to get mad and try to beat me up so they could break my camera apart. Who knows how long I will be over this fear...

Summer is basically here and many kids are already out of school, ready for the summer. I have been wanting to take photos of people doing tricks on bikes, skateboards and rollerblades at a skate park for a very long, long time.

There was a skate park in Diamond Bar. I don't live in Diamond Bar, but I only live about four miles from the skate park. I don't visit Diamond Bar very often despite living in a neighboring city for so long...who knew that it had a skate park! I had plan to go to Chino Hills for their skate park since I already knew that there was one there, but well...that was another ten to fifteen miles for me to drive.
Anyway, I didn't have much of a choice to be out in the open and I was so obvious holding my bulky camera with a telephoto zoom lens. No one seemed to care and a lot of the guys skated/biked in front of me. Must be that I was a girl and I didn't appear creepy?

Day 104 Of 365 Project:

Click here to see more photos