Hi-DOF Photography

Catching up with Reality - LMU Concert

2008-10-28T16:20:00.000-07:00

A Hello Goodbye Poster at LMU
Click on Photo for larger view

I have been pretty busy this year and after looking through my computer, I noticed I have a large number of photos that I had wanted to blog about. This is the fourth part in a chronological series in which I catch up on the blogs I have missed this last year. So, without further ado...

On March 14, 2008, I attended an exclusive concert at my lil' brother's school LMU(Loyola Marymount University) with some friends and captured some really interesting shots. Wyclef Jean and the band 'Hello Goodbye' performed to a crowd of about 1000 on the lawn, which was very cool, because I got close access to the stage. Also, there were no restrictions on bring my SLR camera, so I was a photo-snapping fool. Unfortunately I wanted to enjoy the Wyclef Jean portion of the show so I was unable to capture any shots of him performing, but I got plenty of cool shots nonetheless. Enjoy!

I'm going to arrange these shots in order of the way they occurred so you can get a feel for how the evening went.

We(Kris and I) arrived at LMU late-afternoon and proceeded to my brother's dorm room.

Kris walking from the Car to my brother's dorm.

My little brother as we arrived.
I ofcourse had the camera all up in his face.

I decided to take a shot of myself in my brother's dirty mirror.

Kris received a phone call from a friend, Al, and we invited him to join us for the show. He called a short while later to let us know he had arrived so we made our way to the parking garage where he was waiting for us. He also brought his SLR with a fisheye lens, so I will be showing some of his shots below.

A shot of me as Al arrives.
Photo courtesy of Al Bueno

A shot of Kris as Al arrives.
Photo courtesy of Al Bueno
Click on Photo for larger view

I let Kris snap a shot on my camera as we head toward the show.

Me posing for the camera.
Photo by Kris Zalameda
Click on Photo for larger view

Al shoots a creatively composed shot.
Photo courtesy of Al Bueno
Click on Photo for larger view

We finally arrived on the lawn and waited, along with a somewhat small crowd for the show to begin.

The infamous Al
Click on Photo for larger view

I pose next to a poster for Wyclef Jean
Photo by Kris Zalameda
Click on Photo for larger view

The crowd waits in anticipation as Hello Goodbye sets up
Click on Photo for larger view

'Hello Goodbye' finally takes the stage

The crowd watches in a trance-like state

I pose for the camera as 'Hello Goodbye' perform in the background

A shot of Kris as he takes a shot of me on his cell phone

Al reviews his shots

We went back to the dorm to put my camera away, so I could enjoy the Wyclef Jean portion of the show.

Me and Al reppin' it during the Wyclef Jean show
Photo by Kris Zalameda
Click on Photo for larger view

We watched the rest of the show, and during one point Wyclef came into the crowd which was cool. I was toward the back of the crowd at the time, and all of sudden I see this guy climbing on the table where the sound guys are. At first I was confused, but then I noticed it was Wyclef. I tried to reach out to touch the Superstar, but I could rejected by one of his bodyguards. So close!

We headed back to the dorm room, slightly inebriated, but very happy to have enjoyed such a great exclusive show!

A shot of Kris as he cheers with the bottle

Kris feels his cheers and needs to take a rest

My bro Andi acting a fool

My bro Andi trying to make a statement

All in all it was an AWESOME event and I can't wait for the next exclusive show. It's so nice having a brother go to a rich school that can afford to have these bands come to their school, I will enjoy it as long as I can. Ok gang, 15 more to go. Keep checking back for more!

Catching up with Reality - Behind the Sheets

2008-10-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

I have been pretty busy this year and after looking through my computer, I noticed I have a large number of photos that I had wanted to blog about. This is the third part in a chronological series in which I catch up on the blogs I have missed this last year. So, without further ado...

This is going to be a pretty short entry, but I really like the finished product so I have to share. I want to show you all a CD Cover my friend Maurice Ngo created for a school project in which I helped, so I received a spot on the CD Cover artwork.

Around March 2008 my friends Kris Zalameda,Chelton Perry, Nate Wise(I shot the photography on the banners of the page of the link), Maurice Ngo, and Patrick Gorman approached me to help them with a video project they were working on. The project, Behind the Sheets, is a video tutorial on how to make different styles of beds. One of these styles is the Military way of making a bed, which due to my army experience I showed them how to do. They decided to include me on their CD Cover also, which I thought was pretty cool. Check it out!

Front Cover

Back Cover(yeah, that's my mug in the top left corner)

Full Cover(Click for full size)

Here's the finished product:

BEHIND THE SHEETS from Shaka Perry on Vimeo.

Come back and join me for my next blog coming soon!

Catching up with Reality - Photography Class

2008-10-15T01:27:00.000-07:00

Hello again ya'll,

I have been pretty busy this year and after looking through my computer, I noticed I have a large number of photos that I had wanted to blog about. This is the second part in a chronological series in which I catch up on the blogs I have missed this last year. So, without further ado...

For this edition of my 'Catching up with Reality' posts, I will be showing you a number of photos that I either shot or turned in for my Photography II class in February 2008. I'm quite proud how many of these turned out, so enjoy!

My brother Toni

The 405 Freeway in Costa Mesa, CA

HDR(High Dynamic Range) Photo of a local theater

These next shots are all part of a portrait project I worked on. Each portrait was supposed to portray a different personality. First off are a group of photos for the 'Longboarder' Portrait.

My models were very cooperative and also great actors

This one is definitely my favorite of the group

Nate looking hard

The next ones are a group of photos for the 'DJ' Portrait.

Kris doing his DJ thing while I get some creative shots

Here I tried a different approach with the use of a snoot which is just a tube that goes on the flash in order to create a spotlight effect

This next shot a photo for the 'Stoner' Portrait.

These last ones are a group of photos for the 'Photographer' Portrait.

I really like how the flowers reflect in the lens

Another one down, 16 more to go. Keep checking back for more!

Catching up with Reality - Kansas Trip

2008-10-02T04:25:00.000-07:00

Hello all my loyal blog readers,

I have been pretty busy this year and after looking through my computer, I noticed I have a large number of photos that I had wanted to blog about. This is the first part in a chronological series in which I catch up on the blogs I have missed this last year. So, without further ado...

I visited my friend in Leavenworth, Kansas in December 2007. These are the photos I shot while I was there. Although this is a fairly quick and simple blog entry, I was pretty pleased with the photos I shot of normal things around my friend's home. I never went out with the sole purpose of shooting photography, so considering these are just playing-around pictures, i like them. Enough Disclaimers, check 'em out!

Some sort of cool-looking tapestry hanging on the wall

I have no idea what these things are for. I think it's a thermometer of some kind.

Again, I'm confused, but it makes for some great photos.

My friend was trying to sell her ring online, so I shot a few pictures of it. The artist in me couldn't help but get creative.

A different approach to showing the ring, this time in the case.

A scented candle that was burning on the table.

A different angle of the scented candle that was burning on the table.

This is just the first of 17 new blog posts that I have planned coming up, so make sure to come on back and check it all out pretty soon! (But not until after this weekend; I'm going to Tahoe!)

Summer 2008 Randomness

2008-08-31T22:31:00.000-07:00

Hello all my fellow photography enhusiasts,

I haven't been very active in my photography in the last 4 months. I did take a good number of shots for classes and family, but have just not made the time or effort to post process them. After some coaxing from SeptemberSky, I am now processing my favorite pics from the past 4 months. Here are just a few pics, as I am getting ready for a trip to PhotoshopWorld in Vegas next week(Stay tuned for many pics from there), and I have many more pics I want to process and show. So here they are:

Kelsey at the Siggraph Conference

Jimmy at the Siggraph Conference

Me saying goodbye to a friend at an Army BBQ
Courtesy of Seckler Corp. Photography

My lil' bro Andy enjoying Dinner

My lil' bro's friend Christoph acting goofy!

These next shots are all from the Photowalk I attended in Laguna Beach on Aug. 23 2008. Here are some more photo's from other member's of the same photowalk - Photowalk Laguna Beach. Also if you would like to know more about the Worldwide Photowalk that Scott Kelby from the NAPP organized, then check it out here - Worldwide Photowalk. Hopefully they'll organize another one again.:

A couple enjoying the view

Lonely Tree

There's always somebody...

Mysterious man overlooking the ocean

Waves coming in, sort of

Creative or annoying composition, you be the judge

New Age Hippy cult playing patty cake and singing songs together. Very Weird!

Cute couple together by the Ocean. I don't have a telephoto lens, so I had to get pretty close to the couple that was having a very obvious private moment. I felt like a creepy stalker when I took this photo hiding behind the palm tree!

Spider I found by my garage. I almost walked right into this guy. I'm glad I didn't cause I quickly ran to get my camera and got some awesome shots! Too bad it was so hard to focus!

Spring Break Part I: Joshua Tree National Park

2008-04-04T15:31:00.000-07:00

A Joshua Tree at Joshua Tree National Park

This is part I of a three part series detailing my photo excursions during my recent Spring Break. I was fortunate to photograph three locations over my break: 1) Joshua Tree National Park, 2) Gold Digging in the Mojave Desert, and the 3) Rock Crawling Competition in Johnson Valley. Please click on any picture to see a larger version

Originally, before my Spring Break began, I had planned to visit Yosemite with the photo group Shoot The Planet. When that didn't work out, I decided to grab a few of my buddies and head out for a more local(so to say) photo trip. I researched many locations within a 3-hour drive as this was going to be a one day trip. On the list of ideas was the San Bernardino Mountains, including the abandoned Calico mine north of there, San Diego, and Joshua Tree National Park. As most of us had not been to Joshua Tree National Park and after reviewing the landscape and others' pictures, I made the decision to go there.

We(Myself, Adrian, Nate, and Mike) all met up on March 27th, 2008 at 6AM-ish and headed out toward Joshua Tree National Park. On our way, as we stopped in Indio, we noticed this traffic light, which we thought was humorous. I guess they don't replace things in Indio. Duct Tape works just fine!

Creative repairing techniques in Indio, CA

Joshua Tree National Park Map

Upon entering the park, we stopped at the Visitor's center to obtain a map and to inquire about the interesting spots in the park.

Myself and Adrian
Photo Courtesy of Melowise

I was told that the Cactus field along the main road was the first real interesting spot, so we headed that way.

We arrived at the Cactus field(#1 on the map) and decided to take a group picture.

From left to right: Mike Kerwin, Myself, Adrian McKinsey, and Nate Wise
Photo Courtesy of Adrian McKinsey

After knocking that out, we ventured into the cactus field.

Path leading into the cactus field

I, being the adventurer that I am, decided to wander off the path and through the cactus field to get a few interesting shots.

Cactus

Big Mistake! I should have listened to Adrian as two minutes before, he warned me not to go off the path because it would be very painful to be stung by a cactus! I quickly learned this lesson the hard way!

Adrian laughing at my stupidity and then helping me
remove the cactus from my leg

After this not so fun experience I was determined to stick to the paths, but I could not help myself, and decided to get some more shots off the path, this time walking very cautiously and looking exactly where I stepped. Here are some shots I got:

Adrian posing as Nate and Mike walk on

Cacti

More Cacti

Some sort of Desert Wildflower

Again some Cacti

Nate meditating in the cactus field
(At least that's what it looked like)

After carefully walking back out of the cactus field, we decided to move on. Our plan was simply to keep driving along the main road until we saw something interesting worth taking pictures of. We quickly came upon a huge formation of rocks called White Tank(#2 on the map). We spent most of our time at this area, climbing the rocks and shooting away.

Some creative editing

Nate posing on a rock

Many Rocks

Nate, Mike, and Adrian pose for me

Adrian holding up a boulder that Nate is sitting on
(What can I say? He has superhuman strength!)

Photographers being silly!
(Nate took this picture while Adrian was taking a picture of me taking a picture of Mike who was taking a picture of Nate. Did you catch all that?)
Photo Courtesy of Melowise

Here is what resulted from our experiment above:

Mike taking pictures

After shooting some shots around the base of the rocks, we decided to climb to the highest point we could find. This was quite a challenge, especially with backpacks on, but we made it.

Adrian on top of the world

Me enjoying the view

Me doing my magic
Photo Courtesy of Melowise

Here are a few more pictures I shot as we headed back to the car:

These lines of rocks are all over the place.
I think it has something to do with the earth plates shifting over time

Desert Plant

We left White Tank and headed further down the road to Barker Dam(#3 on the map). Here are the shots I got there:

Barker Dam area

Barker Dam area

Barker Dam area

Barker Dam area

We left Joshua Tree National Park after a long day of shooting and climbing. I was exhausted and I have no idea how Mike still had the energy to drive the long way home. Props to him!

Nate and Adrian exhausted after a long day of fun

Oh, the Randomness!

2008-04-04T15:18:00.001-07:00

Hello all my loyal Hi-DOF Photography blog viewers. Today I want to share with you some random pictures that I have shot over the last few months. I played around with a logo idea, although it is not the final design. Enjoy!

Me posing for the camera

Huntington Beach Pier area

A seagull at the Huntington Beach Pier

My friend Jesse at Lunch

My Cat Jeff trying to get a closer look

Surf Shop at the Huntington Beach Pier

Again, me posing for the camera

Huntington Beach Pier

Me at an exclusive Hello Goodbye
show at Loyola Marymount University

Mmmmm BBQ!

2008-03-28T15:57:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick update. I went to a BBQ the other day that a friend of mine was having in Long Beach. We showed up 2.5 hours late, but the food was still warm and I was still very welcome! Here are a few pics from the day:

Nate being goofy as usual

They had something at the BBQ that I had never seen before. They had installed a urinal in their backyard, which was GENIUS in my mind. It had working plumbing and everything! Perfect for the annoying drunk you don't want peeing all over your toilet seat!

Me posing with the outdoor urinal

Nate giving the urinal a go

A much needed Hi-DOF Photography Update

2008-03-11T21:05:00.000-07:00

Here are a few photos I have shot recently. I have been very busy with school, so I have not had the chance to take many photos recently. I will soon though as I embark on a 3-4 day trip to Yosemite with the megacool photo group Shoot The Planet. I can hardly wait! It will be GLORIOUS!

These are pictures I shot while hanging out at home with my cat's Bob(black one) and Jeff(black and white one):

This is a picture I shot while visiting my brother at his school, Loyola Marymount University. I thought it was strange to see this car in the parking lot at a school where students pay $20,000 per semester:

These are pictures I shot for my photography class portrait assignment in which I am going to portray six different profiles or identities of people. So far I have a Rocker, a DJ, a Longboarder, and a Hippy Pot Head. This is my model for my "Photographer" profile:

Photography DIY Mania!

2008-02-25T22:26:00.000-08:00

Watch out! Coming through!

2008-02-25T01:10:00.000-08:00

This weekend was a very photography-heavy weekend for me! On Saturday February 25, 2008, I traveled to the City of Dana Point to meet my newest model for my portrait assignment. The profile or character I was trying to display is that of a stereotypical longboarder. Below is one of my favorite shots from the shoot. Please click on it to see a larger version.

Also, on Sunday February 26, 2008, I traveled to the city of Victorville, where I had the fortune of watching magic happen on the set of the newest Indigoverse Productions' photo shoot. I will post a link here if Gerry, a.k.a Indigo, posts a blog about the shoot.

Family Time

2008-02-22T05:53:00.000-08:00

WARNING WARNING WARNING!!! This is a special extended blog and is unusually long. While processing my photos, I came to like many of my photos and I want to share many of them with you. Therefore I just want to warn you ahead of time that this will be a long flight, so maybe go get a cup of coffee cause this one could take a while!

I found out a few months ago that my parents were going to be visiting my little brother in Los Angeles, and since I live nearby, they were going to come see me too. The plan was that I was going to meet them at my brother's college, LMU (Loyola Marymount University), and then they would spend the night at my house.

I woke up on Saturday February 16 and took off to meet my parents at LMU. We met up at breakfast on campus and I ofcourse had to get a few shots. Keep in mind that ALL of the pictures you see were taken with a Wide-Angle lens, so they might be a bit goofy and stretched, but I felt like experimenting with it and I didn't feel like bringing an extra lens just to hang out with the folks.

These are a few shots of the building where the breakfast was held. My brother told me it was once supposed to be a mall, and that's why there are trees inside, but it was bought by Hughes Aviation as an office building until a few years ago when it was bought by the University and is now being used as administration building. A little side that I thought was humorous is something else my brother told me about that building. He said that the President of the School who is a Jesuit Priest and is usually in a very humble surroundings, has a very big, modern, luxurious office in the building. We thought it was funny to think of a priest with his legs kicked up on the big oak desk in a nice, decked out office!

We finished our breakfast and began our excursion. My little(younger, as he's actually quite a bit taller than me) brother was already adequately embarrassed by the time we were done with breakfast due to loud talking between the Seckler family during a boring speech given by University officials. He had no clue that the embarrassment was just beginning.

As we left the hall where the breakfast was served, I began my shooting spree! I scanned for potential targets and then I found some. I aimed toward my Dad and little brother and squeezed the...shutter-release button:

We left University Hall(#1) and started to head toward the main part of campus. Here is a map of the campus so you can follow along in our travels. Just click on it to see a larger, more clear version. I have numbered each stop on our trip so that you have an idea where we are at.

Click on Map for larger version.

As we made our way toward the Theater to watch a show, I encircled my family like a solo gang of paparrazi. Remember that I said I only had a wide angle lens, right? In order to get some of the shots I got, I had to move in very closely to my subject, so imagine a family walking across campus and some weird guy with a big camera is all up in their face trying to get good pictures. I didn't care though, It paid off!

I tried to take a picture of my mom and I, but I was very paranoid about holding my SLR with only one hand trying to get a shot when I had no idea what the composition looked like. Anyways, here's the result:

We arrived at the Theater.

This was nearby. I understand the cross, but not the purple sash and why it was just standing around, but I liked the composition and feel the sash blowing around gives.

This was also nearby. This is a piece of the Berlin Wall as it obviously says on the sign.

We went inside and found out that there were no more tickets. As I was walking out of the building, I noticed the water fountains spraying straight upward and a man laying down in a perfect position. I was debating whether to creap up on him and take the shot, but just then he got up and left. I showed my brother what I saw and he posed the shot for me, which I think looked even better than other guy anyway. Here is the shot of him in that perfect position in front of the fountain:

My mom and brother got into a heavy discussion about some college stuff, so my dad found a nice little patch of grass and decided to lay down to take a load off!

Since we were not able to watch the show, we decided to go to an art exhibit not far away. Here's a shot I took of my brother on the way there:

Unfortunately I was only able to take a few shots in the art gallery, and they turned out blurry. As we were leaving the art gallery, my little brother decided to follow in my father's footsteps and lay down in the middle of a little courtyard. I ofcourse had to document it.

Next on our stop was the Gym where my little brother, who is 19 years old, is a personal trainer. He holds the highest certification out of all the trainers there and I believe he's the youngest. That kid rocks! Here is a picture I shot of him in front of the building:

He gave us a tour of the building. Here are a few pictures I shot as we went around inside:

My dad at the Pool behind the Gym

The Pool behind the Gym

After the tour, made our way to Andy's(My little brother's name) dorm room to check out his living situation. His roommate has a good cashflow from home, so he bought a 38" LCD Flatscreen TV and has it in the dorm room. Here are a few I shot in the hallway before we entered the room:

My brother decided to show my dad "Planet Earth" on the 38" LCD on Blue-Ray, so I figured it would be a little while. I went outside and continued to get some nice shots right outside his dorm hall:

I walked back toward my brother's dorm hall when I decided to walk up to his window and peak in. He came to the window and opened it so I could lean in (The window was waist high). My mom came closer to the window to talk t o me and I took a shot of her. The light that was shining from behind me was really nice and so I decided to get everybody in the room to come to the window for an Xtreme closeup.

My brother's roommate walked in just then and I had to get a shot of him too, especially with the Xtra large sunglasses he was wearing.

After my photo shoot, the whole gang headed to the Admissions building where my brother was talking to some official people about official stuff, so I officially split and decided to go take some shots behind the church overlooking Los Angeles.

The Admissions Building

I decided to get a few shots of the church from the front also:

I met back up with my family as they exited the Admissions building and we discussed where we should eat dinner. During this discussion, my brother starts acting like his goofy self and doing weird poses for the camera. I made use of the situation and got a few funny pictures:

We decided on Italian Food, which was a good choice because the food was excellent! I headed home after dinner, after saying good-bye to my family.

They are a good family, but after looking through my pictures of that day, i realize they also double very nicely for models!

Portrait "DJ" Shoot

2008-02-19T23:05:00.000-08:00

This is a collection of photos I shot recently for a portrait assignment for my Photography class. I will end up shooting 6 different portraits of individuals who are showing some sort of job or hobby that represents them.

In this case, the portrait was of DJ Takbo. I had some difficulty with the lighting during this shoot, because of the small size of the room. Keep in mind that ALL of these pictures are only slightly edited and are nowhere near completion. This is just an update of what I am currently working on.

Here is one in color for comparison:

I love me an animated gif

2008-02-15T00:13:00.000-08:00

Check out this animated gif I made the other day of my friend Nate. It's pretty funny, because of the wide-angle lens I used to make him seem cartoony.

My First Gig

2008-02-15T00:08:00.000-08:00

I had my first gig as a photographer on February 7, 2008. The job was to photograph an underground hip-hop show for the group "illodd" at "The Patio" in Anaheim. Although I did it as a favor for a friend, I still consider it a real photography job. Everything was the same, except for the cash. I gained invaluable experience in furthering me as a photographer.

All the pictures here are what I gave the group, so all of the pictures have the illodd watermark on them.(NOTE: There is much compression in the pictures I just noticed that is most likely due to JPG conversion or because ning resized my pictures)

Here's the rundown of the night:
I was told that the show was to begin at 9pm and that the group I was there to photograph would be going on stage around 10pm or so. My friend, Kris Zalameda whom you all might know from the WDIM classes at AI, arrived at The Patio at 7:30pm and I met him there shortly thereafter.

Takbo(Kris) in front of the Patio Sign

Once I arrived, I went straight into observation mode scanning the exterior of the building for possible shots. I ran into the members of illodd, Takbo(Kris), Trash, and Verbs, in the parking lot.

Takbo(Kris) and Verbs

We went inside and illodd began their sound checks while I used the opportunity to test my camera and scope out possible interior shots.

After the sound checks were done, we began to wait for the show to begin. The group went out for a cigarette break and I followed. While outside, Takbo(Kris) was hounded by adoring fans begging for autographs. The group also used this break in time to film a series of interviews that will be edited together for their band DVD.

We waited for about an hour when people started to arrive and fill up the venue.

Two groups opened and then it was time for illodd to do their thing. I planned to have my wide-angle lens on and to take a whole bunch of crowd and over-the-shoulder shots from behind the group members. That was hard from the get-go, since I had to try and push my way through the crowd to get close enough to get the stage, but I pushed on.

At some point I got sick of trying to fight to get a shot, so I decided to switch over to my 28-75mm lens in order to get some framed portrait style pictures. I ran to a side table and quickly switched out my lenses. As I was about to put my wide-angle lens back into my camera bag, I noticed that I had placed the lens directly into a little hill of refried beans somebody had left for me there. Luckily, I had the lens hood on and the lens wasn't damaged. I ran back toward the stage to get my portraits.

I switched back to my wide-angle lens and decided to get some trippy weird angle shots from the front of the stage. I fought my way to the front where I began to shoot away again. Every few seconds when I would identify or anticipate a move a member made, I would pop up and pretty much light it off in their face.

Trash.

All in all, it was a lot of work and I was super-paranoid about all my nice equipment, but it was also exciting and fun! I'm sure it beats photographing a wedding any day.

Below are a few more pictures that I couldn't fit in all nicely into my blog:

DJ Artistry (Guest DJ for the show)

Takbo(Kris) and Sandmann(Heladio; He also goes to AI; He was the headliner)

My Unexpected Trip to Washington D.C.

2008-02-15T00:03:00.000-08:00

My unexpected trip to Washington D.C. actually occurred a little while back (Jan. 5-7), but I just now processed my pictures and I decided to write a bit about my experience. You can right-click and then select "View Image" on any of the pictures to see a larger and most likely better picture.

My family and I travel to Germany every year to visit my extended family who all live over there. In the last few years, we have been fortunate enough to receive free employee-companion stand-by flights from a family friend who used to work for United Airlines for over 30 years. He gets a certain number of these free (tax only) flights and he's kind enough to let us use some of these to travel to Germany. The thing is this: When you fly on "stand-by", you basically wait until the plane is full and then the airline people see if there are any extra seats left for stand-by travelers. This is pretty hard usually when you try to fly stand-by around Christmas time when most flights are already full anyways. Usually you will only find 2-5 open seats on planes around that time of year.

Anyways, my mom and I tried to fly back home on Jan. 5th. What we found out when we arrived at the airport was that there was very stormy weather on the U.S. west coast and that many flights to that area of the U.S. had been cancelled. So after trying to see if there was any other flights, we decided to try and fly stand-by to Washington D.C. in order to simply get out of Europe and back to the States.

A cool set of pillars we saw upon getting off of the subway

Once we arrived in Washington D.C., we decided that if we are already in the Country's Capital then we must go and see all the things one sees in Washington D.C.

Here is a map of our adventures in Washington D.C.:

The first stop on our excursion was the Washington Monument, also known as "The Dick of the United States" according to a good friend of mine, who will remain nameless in order to preserve a little bit of his dignity after he fed me such a lame joke. The Washington Monument is just as you would imagine. It's very tall, and I'm not sure, but I think there might be an elevator that goes up to the top, because I saw some lines of people leading up to it, but like I said, I'm not sure. Does anyone else know who has been there? (This is the test to see if anyone actually takes the time to read this stuff or if they just look at the pictures and click on)

Yeah. I'm the Man.I never had any idea how close everything actually is in Washington D.C. I could jog around all the important sites in less than a half an hour. Anyways, we could see the World War II Memorial from the Washington Monument and we knew that the Vietnam War Memorial was in that direction as well, so we headed that way. I got a sweet shot there that I think turned out real well:

Earlier, before coming up on the Washington Monument we had encountered a very overfriendly squirrel and he pretty much modeled for me while I snapped away. Much to my dismay, when I hit the play button to view the great pictures I had just taken of this rare moment, they were all black since I had not realized that I was in Manual Mode and in all of my excitement in trying to compose the right shot and trying to inch closer ever so carefully in not trying to scare away my model, I had totally forgotten to adjust my shutter speed to the correct exposure. I was actually pissed for about a half an hour if you can believe it. I felt I had just lose this great series of shots with an animal that is usually not so brave. I vowed to not to mess this up again. I was gonna be ready if anything came along my way. So as we leave from the World War II Memorial, we see these two squirrels that are playing in this tree about 5-10 feet from me. With lightning speed, I bust out my camera and begin shooting away like a madman. Some guy on his bike even drove by laughing. I didn't care, because I was gonna get this shot. These are the shots I got of these awesome little dudes:

This dude was awesome. He just sat there and stared at me

I still wasn't 100% satisfied with my pictures of these little critters. I was very surprised to see how people friendly they were and how not much would scare them. As we walked along a little further toward the Vietnam War Memorial, we ran into another group of squirrels that were more than willing to come up to me. I held my hand out as if I had some food and as if some sort of habit, he ran toward my hand to inspect it. I had my camera on continuous fire mode and i just shot away, hoping he would stay in the focus area. I am rather pleased with the results of these:

At this point, my mom reminded me that I had already taken far more pictures of squirrels rather than of our Nation's Capital. Agreeing with her, we moved on to the Vietnam War Memorial. We walked along the wall and looked at all the many names of brave men and women who gave their lives in duty for their country. It is quite impressive when the Park Ranger who worked there told us how many Americans actually died in the Vietnam War: 58,226. It is quite a humbling experience to walk there and see all those names. I got a few creative shots there:

God Bless Our Veterans

And I then I also decided to shoot a few establishing, more touristy shots:

Next stop on our trip was the Lincoln Memorial. This is the spot where Martin Luther King gave his famous "I have a dream" speech:

Or also known for Forrest Gump's famous speech in Washington D.C.:

We only stopped by the Lincoln Memorial for a brief moment as we were foolishly still trying to make it back to the airport in order to actually try and get on a flight that night. I managed to snap a nice a few nice overview shots of the Washington Monument from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial:

I ofcourse also shot off a few of good ol' Abe:

We then proceeded toward the White House. As we arrived at our destination at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. my mom told me that this was it. I asked her "where"? She pointed at the building behind me. I was very much surprised as to how small the White House is. I was expecting this grandiose huge mansion, but no, I got this little building plopped into the middle of everything else. That is how it is, but it was a letdown for me. I was just expecting more. I managed to get a nice shot of the White House from behind it:

The White Hut

As we headed toward the subway station, I noticed the Capitol Building in the distance. I liked how the street acted as a nice leading line straight to the building dead center in the middle.

We got back to the airport only with time enough to attempt two different stand-by flights, both of which I didn't make it on. We ended up having to stay overnight again and I missed two classes as tried all day Monday to make flights home until I finally got one on Monday evening. They never do anything important the first week anyways, right Amy or Jimmy or Lou or Jean? Below are just some other shots I took duting my trip that I couldn't fit in anywhere with this whole narrative. Enjoy!

Some cool DOF effects

Some more cool DOF effects

He didn't care at all that we were there

This guy had only grub on his mind

I know it's just steps but I really like the texture. (Lincoln Memorial Steps)