Birthday

Surprise surprise, it's my birthday! I had some birthday money, so I decided to go out and buy this harmonica. I've wanted a harmonica for a long time now, and I finally followed through with it. It may not look all that special in the photo, but this isn't some little toy. It's the kind that harmonica legends like Toots Thielemans and Stevie Wonder use. I can't play it very well, seeing as I have very little skill, but I will learn, just you wait!

But more importantly, today was quite a big day. A lot of great things happened today, like doing well on a math quiz and kidney dissection. I'm greatful that I didn't have some kind of shit day, but I just can't help but to feel like I'm getting old. I guess I've just always associated the age of 18 with adulthood. I unno, I don't feel like a little kid. In my head I know that this day is no different than any other day. I know that there as many minutes in this day than any other day of the year, but it still feels really different. Am I just afraid to grow up and face the world?

Start to end

So earlier this month I took a photo of some roses, and now I found these roses in the living room. I'm not sure if these are the same ones, but I just thought they were pretty so I snapped a photo. It just fascinates me to think that something like a rose can go through so many changes in its life. I assume the roses were grown on some kinda of rose farm or greenhouse, cut, transported, bought, and now preserved indefinitely.

Snack time

I came home today after over 14 hours, and I just needed something to eat, so I just cut up a pear and ate it with yogurt. It was quite delicious :D

Anyways, I had another performance today, this time with the North Van District Honor Band. Pretty much the best students from every high school in the district were invited to play together with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. It was a fantastic experience. I got to meet some incredible people, students and professionals. Overall it was a ton of fun and I'm hoping to stay in touch with some of the people that I've met too lol

Birdland

So I performed in a choir today at the museum of anthropology in UBC, and it was quite amazing. There was a lot of great music, and the setting coulsn't be any better. I had my camera with me, so I got quite a few good pictures of some of the exhibits, including the one here. I have yet to post all of the photos, so when I do, I'll be sure to add a link to the photos

Your move

Alright, I'll just be honest here, I didn't tke this photo today. It's an image I took a few months back and never got the chance to share it. I actually have to get going to a choir rehersal so I didn't have time to take a photo today, sorry. I'll try for a good shot tomorow though :D

Success

I really wasn't sure what to expect when I was writing my post yesterday. Well, I had nothing to worry about. What I failed to mention yesterday was that there were tryouts for two different ultimate teams. Since I made it to the lower of the two, it means our team plays in the junior league (grades 8-10). Pretty much, we ended up winning with a final score of 13-0 haha

First game

Tomorrow's the start of a new season of Ultimate. Growing up, I was never really into sports, so being a part of a sports team still feels a little different. I don't mind it, I love it! But yeah, it also means that I'll be taking the camera with me too. I guess most people don't like being benched, but for me it just gives me more time with the camera lol.

Return of the return of the trippy turtle

You know, I really don't know much about this little turtle. I know that it was made in some distant land miles and miles away. For all I know, it could be one of a kind. Well I suppose it is in that it was hand made, but still, what if it was the only one ever created? Could this be the only time where it appears more than once simultaneously? I just love the things a mirror can do. It seems like the turtle is looking into another world, rather than just a reflection of itself. I'd also like to point out that I didn't add any colours to this photo, so that green came naturally as a result of lens flare....or another dimention?

Skills

The are some things in life that never cease to amaze me. These two pens may just look like fancy pens, however, the one on the right was made by a close friend of mine. Yeah, made, as in from a block of wood and everything. I don't even know how it came about, but I'm damn happy with it! It just feels amazing in hand. I guess I just find it really fascinating because of my ignorance in this field. It's funny how I'm giving the same kind of reaction to this pen that a friend once did when I showed him light painting lol. Anyways, Mr. builder of pens, if you're reading this now, thank you

Chocolate moo

I don't really have much to say beside the fact that I love chocolate milk. But as for the picture, I guess there's a little bit of a story. For one, that's my mom's hand in the photo, since I asked her to slowly poor in it in while I operated the camera. Second, I took this on my dining room table, but on a piece of poster paper. I'll be honest, the lighting wasn't perfect, and I'm working on that. But yeah, I've just noticed that photographing things on the table alone was a tad distracting, so I thought I might simplify the background a little lol

Through their eyes

Today I decided I might take another look at ordinary things. I've been using a toothbrush for as long as I can remember, and in my life, it's always been a little rod I hold in my hand. And yet when you get a little lego man to hold it, it's gigantic all of sudden. I can't even begin to imagine what life might be like for a little bug or something. Everything would look huge, except not in their eyes. So walking a mile in their shoes would be quite the feet eh?

Opinions

I don't know why, but today I started thinking about the idiom my two cents. I've never actually used the idiom in my life, I've just heard it here and there. I guess a more common term in this day and age would be, "No offence, but..." I just thought that it's an interesting way of stating an opinion. But yeah, doesn't this also imply that opinions with more gravity have a higher monetary value?

I just hate it when I start reading too far into things. I know it's just supposed to be a little saying, but I can't help but to analyze it. I mean, it's this kind of thinking that got me going about that post about quotes. I just feel like sometimes I might be on to something, and at the same time I think that I might be rambling on about nothing. I dunno, it's just my two cents ;)

Africa

So after Ultimate today, I found this little piece of wood lying on the ground by the fields. If you look closely, it kinda resembles the continent of Africa. Now because I don't have access to a tilt shift lens, this is the closest I can get at this point haha. Which also reminds me, the music tour to Banff is coming up pretty soon. I gotta figure out what I'm going to do about my lenses before I forget.

Seasons are a changin'

The first calendar day of spring is this coming this saturday the 20th. I was quite excited to see some fresh strawberries on the dining table today. It really made me feel like winter was coming to an end. The weather's been a tad chilly for the past few days, but the sun's shining it's face upon us. I'm very much excited for the days to come. Summer's pretty nice, but spring's probably my favourite season. I guess I should be thankful that I'm not suffering from allergies lol. But yeah, it's just so nice and fresh.

St. Patrick's Day

Today was March 17th, also known as St. Patick's Day. I honestly don't really know the origin of St. Patrick's Day or the reasons behind our actions in this time, but it is fun to celebrate. Now the fact that I was able to light paint a shamrock suggests that I wasnn't intoxicated by green beer or any other substances haha. But yeah, today was a lot of fun. However, I was quite surprised by the number of people who didn't even remember that it was St. Patrick's Day

The people who did remember got quite into it, and it was awesome. Even more awesome were the reactions I got from people today. It was quite interesting, just walking down a hallway or street and seeing people just smile a little bit with minimal eye contact. I think to sum it all up, it makes my day, to make somebody else's day.

Raindrops

I've been seeing a lot of rainbows recently, more than ever before. They're absolutley beautiful, no doubt there, but they can get boring if photographed the same way every time. I decided to try to capture this rainbow in the backgroud, with the raindrops in the foreground. I actually took a shot similar to this back in December before I started the blog, but instead of a rainbow, I had christmas lights. I guess I could upload some of those photos sometime in the future. Well, another job for another day

Mug shot

Man, I love puns! I just can't get enough of them. One of the things I love about this daily photo thing are all the creative opportunities I face everyday. I'm not talking about just making puns, I'm talking about all of my photography in general. As I mentioned before, some days I just walk around my house looking for stuff to photograph. Today, these little mugs caught my eye. I really like this photo, and the craziest thing is that I never even considered these mugs in the past three months. I'm quite excited to see what I can come up with by the end of the year :D

Generations

Today was a very exciting day for many gamers, as the new pokemon game was released. Well, I guess new is only half of the story. It's actually a remake of the gameboy colour game. On the left is the original game, which was released in Oct 2000, and on the right is the new version. Anyways, I hold that original game very close to my heart, seeing as it was favourite game when I was growing up. I remember coming home and looking forward to playing it for hours on end. I was never any good at sports, but I knew I was a pokemon master in that game.

And now it's 2010. 10 years; I'm still having a tough time imagining that. Mind you, I didn't start playing the original the day it was released, I got it a few years later. But I digress. Pokemon itself has been around for 12 years, and is still strong to this date. It's just funny how a franchise could affect so many people. I know that I'm not alone in owning both these games. I'm just curious as to how younger kids will see this new game. Heck, it makes me feel old. That's something somebody my age shouldn't be saying.

Anyways, I could go on and on about how much this means, but I have to be up in 7 hours from now. Maybe I shouldn't have played so much today and posted this sooner haha

Red

It's been over three months since I started this photo blog, and several years since I picked up a camera for the first time. And yet, there are still things I haven't even considered trying. I've seen this kind of editing several times, but I unno, it just never appealed to me. But today, I took a picture of these lovely roses, and I noticed that the red in the original photo really stood out. I eventually ended up with this after about 30 minutes of editing back and forth. I'm happy with the result, but I don't think I'll be using this technique in the future

Changes

It's friday night, and the choir assignment is due tonight. This is something that nobody would have said last year, or the last few decades for that matter. With technology ever changing, it's only natural that its uses would too. You know, I don't think I've ever even sent a letter to anybody before. Like, I've sent in applications or other things like that, but I've never actually written a note, put it in an envelope, put stamps on it, and taken it to one of those red postboxes. I suppose it's pretty normal for someone of my generation, but I can't help but feel like I'm missing out on something fantastic.

Darkness

I was experimenting with lighting today when I stumbled across a way to make plants resemble plants from the movie Avatar. I'm quite glad that my family was ok with me messing around with the lights whilst they tried to cook. I'm really starting to feel that this blog is just another part of my day, which can be a good thing and bad. I'm hoping that I don't just all of a sudden get bored or loose inspiration, cause that would suck

Party time

It was a pretty crazy day today. It started with bussing around to buy a warm unde armor shirt that I used for Ultimate this afternoon. I then went and chilled with a buddy for a while, before getting a random phone call to play an epic game of risk, as well as eating nachos. I just love all this freedom that comes with spring break. Sure, some things are planned out days or weeks in advance, but some of the best things in life are just spontaneous. I'm really hopnig that I don't waste these last few days doing nothing, after all, it's my last high school spring break

Reminder

So this may just look like a rock, and well, I guess it is a rock, but to me it holds some awesome memories. I picked up this rock last summer at the top of Mt. Seymour when I biked up. It took a few hours, but it was a lot of fun. I'm planning on doing it again this summer once the weather clears up a little. Maybe this time I'll find something more interesting, like a twig :P

High Five!

First of all, I would just like to say that I technically did not take this photo. I had a good friend operating the camera while I light painted my friends doing all sorts of crazy stuff. It was a tad cold out, but definitely worthwhile. I'm thinking this might catch on as a more regular thing from now on :P

P.S. the photos can be found here

Life?

Life can be quite incredible. Amazing things happen every single day. And yet, we're often dissatisfied with what we have; we just need a little bit more. At this point here, I could really go in any number of ways in terms of trying to comprehend life. I could be all, "it's always good to have high expectations." On the other hand, I could argue, "be happy with what you have, and don't ask for too much."

One of the things that really bothers me is when people abuse quotes. Just because something is in quotation marks doen't make it true. Now that statement there sounds like it could be a quote in itself.

" Just because something is in quotation marks doen't make it true"

-Kinta Maeda

See? I guess it all just comes down to context. It doesn't help that Windsor now has a quote of the day each and every day. It wouldn't be so bad if there was at least some backstory, but no. I suppose I could just go and research the quote on my own time, but I havn't the energy to do so every day. The bright side to all of this is that I can't even hear the announcemnts half the time lol

Green dots

I had spent some time to consider the best way to try to photograph this lens. I remember looking at the lens at the end of a basketball game and thinking, "I should try to get a pic of the reflection in the glass" so I gave it a shot. I just placed the lens on my camera bag, and then positioned the tripod here and there until I fould the best spot to take the picture from. It's strange that I've spent so much money on all this gear, and yet I still don't even fully understand how all the little compnents work.

Work

I really don't know if I should be saying that it's finally spring break, or it's already spring break. I really feel like it's a bit of both. This last week has been simply crazy, and yet to think that it's already March is just insane. I spent quite a bit of time tonight on my computer just sorting through hundreds of photographs since I hadn't been able to recently. It's kinda strange how doing work can be viewed in the same manner as time, in that there seems to be a lot of work, but at the end, it's not that bad. There always tends to be several ways of seeing things, right?

UPDATE - I finally posted those photos from Olympic Downtown, check them out here if you like

Process

I didn't have anything particular in mind today when I went around looking for something to photograph. I came across my keys and the TV behind it, bam, now's it's here. I guess it's an interesting daily activity of some sorts. Some days I'll have something spectacular in mind, like light painting, while other days, I'll just use a photo that I took that day while out and about. And then you have those days where I just walk around my house looking for something interesting. The last type is when I work backwards, in that I have something to discuss with words, so I look to create an image that reflects my feelings. I wonder if I'll come across another method to take/post photos here...

Back in the day

I recently rediscovered my old trumpet that I had growed up playing. I hadn't played it in a good 2 or 3 years, so it was a nice, familiar sight. Behind it is my valve trombone, which is what I currently play with. As I was talking with a friend today, he made me realize something very important. In one of my first posts, I mentioned this whole thing about what if life was different. The thing I hadn't considered was what could be had some things been different.

So pretty much the big thing here is what life might be like today had I stayed with trumpet. My reasons for switching instruments are another story for another day. Anyways, I've heard a lot of jazz bands in my life, and one of the things that really gets the audience's attention is the upper brass section, like trumpets. Back in grade 8 and 9, I was lucky enough to be able to play trumpet with some talented trumpet players in higher grades. During thoise times, it felt great, just blasting those high notes above the whole band. But now, I'm playing the lower parts via trombone. Don't get me wrong, the trombone is a great instrument. It's just not a trumpet. And particularily in our current jazz band, we got quite a number of people covering the lower parts in the band.

We have some very commited trumpet players atm, it's just that they don't really shine like they should. Maybe it's the arangements, maybe it's just the ratio of trumpets to other instruments, I don't know. The point is, the trumpets are't getting the glory they deserve in a flashy jazz band. So pretty much what I'm wondering is what would've happened had I stayed with the trumpets. I tend to be a loud player, regardless of what instruments.

The last thing I want to disscuss here before going back to Bio homework is the future. Cabaret night isn't for another few months. I'm seriously considering picking up the trumpet again just for this one time. I sound pretty bad right now, but I can practice. I'll have to make some changes, but I think it might be worthwhile. I would say something like, "Guess we'll just have to wait and see" except waiting won't do anyone any good. Sometimes, you just gotta step up and do shit for yourself.

Only for a moment

Something amazing happened today. I looked out my window and I saw the most vibrant rainbow I had ever seen in my entire life. It was absolutly incredible. Should've sent a poet? (Contact, anyone?) But yeah, it was just so amazing, and yet, it was gone in a matter of minutes. I literally ran out of my house with my camera in hand and tried to get a decent photo. I eneded up using my older kit lens, which may not have spectacular image quality, but it does have a much wider focal length. But yeah, it still blows me away, like how gorgeous it was

Super Fruit

Alright, so remember those times where I displayed my super powers? Well my secret is out: I get my powers from eating magical fruits. That's right, magical fruit. I got this one contact who grows these babies in his spaceship. Cool stuff eh?