havasupai pt 2

This is part 2 of my havasupai trip! Check my first post if you haven't ^^

Friday (03.23.18)
On this day, the two falls we saw were Mooney Falls and Beaver Falls. After a hearty breakfast and getting ready quickly, we headed out north of the camp.

havasupai pt 1

Hello unseen audience, I just came back from an incredible adventure!

My friend Michelle and I went backpacking to the Havasupai Reservation and visited some waterfalls in the area. It has been something that we have been training for and I'm excited to share with you what we did!

aquarium

Courtney and I went to the Aquarium of the Pacific today and I wanted to share some pictures! I always take so many pics when I go to an aquarium so it surprised me that I haven't yet on this blog.

I personally feel like aquariums are so magical because you're observing an entirely different world of animals and organisms from the other side of a glass. It was really fun to go with Courtney, since we shared a similar excitement of the place. Anyways, here are some pictures from today!

carlsbad adventure

Hello my unseen audience, it's been a while I know.

Last week, I went to Carlsbad with a couple friends to go to the flower fields and Legoland! It was a lot of fun :3 I took some pictures and I wanted to share it here since Facebook posting isn't really my thing.

The flower fields are in full bloom and it was such a lovely sight. It reminded me of:
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?" (Matthew 6:28-31).

accidental photo gig

Hello unseen audience, I got paid to take pictures, accidentally. I was at a photoshoot because Nathan invited me to be in a picture with him.. I brought my camera and basically ended up taking pictures since there was a high demand for photographers. One of the photographers laters texted me saying that I'll be taking home some of the money that was collected for the photoshoot. I took pictures merely because I enjoyed it and so this came as a surprise to me. It was quite a pleasant surprise, I've got to admit. Anyway, some nice pictures came from it and I wanted to share it with you guys.

Balboa Park

I like plants and flowers and I like taking pictures of them. I went to the Botanical Gardens at Balboa Park and so I wanted to share them with you :) Enjoy!

    

my camera probably feels unloved

Haven't been taking my camera out lately so the only pictures I have been getting are of flowers since they make for nice subjects. Enjoy ~

bye bye until next time ^

break in the botanical gardens

I had an hour gap between classes so I decided to take a little break at the Botanical Gardens at school. I should really take more advantage of this beautiful place.. playing with one of the lenses that my brother gave to me as well and I'm finding that I really like it :) 

huntington botanical gardens

i love succulents

farmers market

My favorite thing to do on a Saturday morning is to take out my bike and head over to the local farmers market. It gives me great joy to take a leisurely stroll in the fresh of the morning while sampling some fruit, smelling the kettle corn, admiring the dahlias, and be in the presence of people. I am experimenting with an old camera lens that my friend Pawncheaux gave me and it has been so enjoyable thus far.  Enjoy!

san deigo adventures

Hello unseen audience,

Last week I went to San Diego to spend time with Jenny and Boi. It has been a long time since I've spent time with these two when we weren't stressing out about school and worried about time. It was such a pleasant time of enjoying each other's company.

side tangent: right as we drove into the parking area of the beach, a young couple was getting in the car about to leave. So we took their spot. *^^* It made me so happy to find parking so quickly because it is usually a nightmare finding beach parking.

anyways, here are some pictures:

photoshoot

sorry it's been a while my unseen audience!

When someone has a camera in their hand and calls my name, I automatically look away. I'm not sure exactly why I do this because I love taking pictures and have my picture taken. I guess its because I am self conscious of other people and I don't want to look silly.. I think this applies for a lot of things.. (something I need to work on).. But with my younger brother Christian, I am shameless and act like I would if no one was around. I guess my weirdness naturally comes out because I don't care of what he things about me; one reason I enjoy spending time with him.

So I wanted a new profile picture (and I just got my haircut), so I forced Christian to have a fifteen minute photo-shoot. So these pictures show the kid that is inside of me.

'read more' with caution… oh and sorry in advance to those on mobile devices.. it looks funny :(

a week

I am challenging myself to take a picture a day and it's a lot harder than I thought it would be to find time.. but it is definitely good practice and it forces me to take time and relax despite my busy schedule. Well, here's some of my favorites from the past week!

new hobby, new excitement.

As I have been experimenting with my brother's camera, I have been finding myself enjoying taking pictures a lot more than I anticipated. It is a struggle to get the settings of the camera just right and I sometimes give up and use auto mode. But when I capture a picture that is satisfying, it makes me happy. Also, it gets me so excited to talk about photography with several of my friends, even though I know basically nothing about photography haha.. well I have been uploading pictures on my flickr, so look at that if you're interested :)

I am also challenging myself to take one satisfying picture a day in manual mode on my point and shoot camera as practice to become more proficient at taking pictures. So, we'll see how that goes!
Here are a couple of my favorite pictures over the last month:

birthday party!

went to my friends birthday party and played around a bit with my brother's camera. I haven't been to a birthday party in a while, so it nice to be around people and festivity, although I'm not too fond of parties.

Here's some pictures, enjoy!

spontaneous

Hey my unseen audience! It has been a while. I have been having a kind of "writing block" for the last few weeks, but with blogging.. A "blogging block"? haha. well anyways, writing is not coming easily for me now but I'll just get through it.

I have never considered myself as a "go with the flow" kind of person where I figure things out as I go. I like to have a schedule and a set time for each thing that I am executing. But I have been learning to accept that things that aren't going to go as planned, no matter how strong my will to follow that plan is. And recently, I have been more willing to do last-minute/unplanned activities and I have been honestly enjoying spontaneous and often serendipitous moments.

One time I went to school a bit early to study for a midterm that I had at 2 o'clock. At around 1 o'clock, I decided to walk to my lecture hall and study in that area. While I was walking there, I ran into my friend who was taking a break from his studies. I ended up walking and talking with him for about half and an hour, which was extremely relaxing. It was pretty random because UCLA is such a big place and almost impossible to run into people you know. Not to mention neither of us was rushing to class at that time. I thoroughly enjoyed that little, unexpected rendezvous.

And yesterday, I met up with a couple of my friends (hi Grace and Michelle) and was planning to only meet up with them for two hours. And although I was a bit exhausted from the week before, because of their insistence, I decided to spend three or so hours with them just driving around and hanging out. Of course, I wanted to have a plan of what we were going to do, but this wasn't really carried out and we just kind of wandered around. We didn't really do anything "exciting", but it was fun nonetheless. I realized that sometimes, it's better not to stress out about those tiny details but simply relax and enjoy the time that you have with each other.

And here are some pictures from the night! :) I have been slowly learning how to take pictures and it is quite exciting! click "read more" to see all of them!

pictures

I have always been interested in many different things - theater arts, drawing, playing instruments, biking, crafting... - and the list could go on. Many of these things I have tried to learn / experience, while others I have not had the time, while others I have just been honestly too timid to try. Something that I have always been interested in, but never had the courage to learn, is photography.

Photography is so intriguing to me because it captures a specific moment in time that will never happen again. And that moment is reproduced by an image of some sort that can be viewed again to try and recreate the memories of that moment. The concept in and of itself is fascinating.

The reason that I was never able to try to start learning about photography and taking pictures was my own fear. I have no knowledge of pictures and so learning something so new intimidated me.. Also, when taking pictures, people around me are aware that I'm taking a picture and this made me feel a bit self conscious of standing out and being a bit exposed.

But, I think that is an unreasonable fear to prevent me from trying something I am genuinely interested in. So; slowly, I have been trying to learn more here and there and be more bold in taking pictures.


Over the winter break, I bought a disposable camera just to experiment with it. I had a lot of fun taking pictures throughout the break (although many of the pictures did not turn out right because of lighting..) And through those two weeks, I learned that learning that taking "good" pictures is simply through experimenting with what you have and accumulating experience (although learning it from someone is very useful). Also, taking pictures with a disposable camera caught quite a bit of attention.. Although it was a bit strange at first, I learned to be comfortable with being uncomfortable and it wasn't really as bad as I thought it would be.

Here's two of my favorites that came out! 

Although I know I have a long way to go before I will be able to take "good" pictures, I want to continue to experiment and fail and learn and continue. It's kind of exciting!

Here's a couple pictures that I am actually sort of proud of haha..

Reading it over, I think I'm thinking about this a little bit too far.. haha ^^;; 

bye bye until next time ^ go and capture the world