Seattle Part 2!

So let's continue our little walk around Downtown Seattle. One of the place I really wanted to check out was Pike's Place Market. This place is right near the Waterfront area and practically smacked in the heart of downtown. There were a bunch of neat little shops there and flowers stands where you can get a bouquet for $5! It was pretty sweet.

One of the first few stores you see when you come up to the market is this fish stand. The guys here are so friendly and awesome. They would put on a show for the visitor and would shout back at each other while tossing a fish back and forth! 

Not too far from the fisherman was a street performer. He was playing "Let it Be" by the Beatles. It was a really great performance. There were actually a few street musicians scattered around the area, and they all were really talented.

Here is the floral stand I had mentioned earlier. The florist arranges the bouquet pretty quickly and beautifully. There are an assortment of flowers, and all for $5 a bouquet! My photos of the florist is probably one of my best shots from that day!

After my brother and I walked around on the upper floors for a while, he headed stairs to see what hidden gems we could find. And we did: he was name was David. David is a book lover and owner of the little book shop under the market. He was a jolly guy, and really positive. When he would talk to a customer it was in a sing-song kind of voice, and it quickly made everyone smile. 

Spring Break in Seattle

Hey guys! So for spring break I went to Seattle, WA to visit a really close friend of mine from Guam. he is practically my brother; here he is! Chris Patocka!! This was on my first day there, we were waiting for the bus to take us to Belltown, a neighborhood near downtown Seattle.

Seattle was very different from Houston, well for me anyway since Texas is the only state I've ever lived in since moving to the US. Anyway, it had a more 'city' feel to it. A lot of shops, businesses, and homes/apartments were in walking distance of each other.

My brother Chris is a musician, and is the front man of The Last Great Calvary, an alternative punk rock band that formed in 2011. If you're into this kind of music, check them out! =)

I took the photo above at the LGC's practice studio. The lighting was a little weird since but it turned out OK. I had to experiment a bit before I got this shot. The room was a bit crowded since the shared it with another band but all in all, I think it turned out good. 

After he showed me the studio, we headed down to Pike's Place Market. BUT! I'll show you guys that next week! =) 

The Violinist

Hey guys, so this is going to be a very short post because I'm behind on some work. So last week we need to shoot photographs of people. The assignment didn't require us to take photos of strangers but I decided to ask some strangers anyway. I had the amazing luck and opportunity to meet a violinist named Luz by the Moores School of Music.

She was a wonderful photo subject! I was a lot more comfortable asking her for her photo this time around than I was at the start of the semester. I took my time and asked her about herself. She is from Dominican Republic and is going to audition for a Masters Program with the Moores School of Music. She's played the violin since she was about seven years old and hopes to play for the Houston Orchestra some day.

I asked her if she could play a piece while I am taking photos of her and she was totally cool with it. Unfortunately I didn't write the name of the piece she was playing but it was the piece that she was going to perform for her masters program audition.

 I felt very privileged when she chose to perform that for me and I will never forget this photo shoot. 

On a side note, the photos are very exposed and I would love to fix that. If anyone has any solutions or suggestion to do this please send them my way! I would greatly appreciate any help!

Landscapes

Last weekend I went to two parks to take some landscape pictures for my photography class. The weather was not so great for me and I really did not know how to work the gray clouds and the overcast so it was pretty frustrating. But I managed to get some OK pictures. Not as great as I would have liked tho. 

I took this photo at Hershey Park. It's a simple shot; the field was pretty open with a rising slope to the left, so I just laid on the ground and took a photo of the grass field. 

This was also at Hershey Park. A lot of trees were very bare so I took a small detour off the trail took this photo. I though the weather might be able to add to the mood I was trying to get, which was kind of a dreary feel with the overcast.  

The next day, Sunday, I went to Hermann Park. The fountains around this monument were all turned on but I could not get any really good photos of them together. The clouds started to look more stormy so I tried to use it in my photo. It did not turn out too bad, I think. 

This little water fountain was outside of the Cafe Express at the Museum of Fine Arts. It had started to rain a little bit so I went there to wait around a bit. It was still sprinkling a little bit when I took this photo but I thought it was a nice photo op. 

This was along Montrose, over by the bridge over 59. I wanted to try to get something more urban than all my other photos and this one turned our pretty good. 

After walking around Montrose for a while I headed back to Hermann Park to see what I can do at the Japanese Garden. This was the last place I checked out before heading home, and I'm glad I went. This was close to 3 or 4 o' clock so the clouds were not so dark as it was earlier in the day.

Practicing Depth of Field

Hey guys! So this week we practiced with depth of field for photography. It was pretty fun! I got better shots than I thought I would, since I was really limited to where I could go. A lot of my pics were around my apartment complex and school. Here are some of my pics that I turned in:

 The picture of the bike is probably my most favorite of the bunch. It's the tassles! XD

 This guy was just chillin' outside near the water fountains.

 This is my cousin Tina. Her picture was pretty impromptu because she was on her way to chill with a friend. It was not as good as I wanted it to be, so my professor suggested I try again.

For this pic was feeling a bit nostalgic <3

 This tree just started to bloom, and I thought it looked quite pretty. Its blooming a lot more now so I'll take a new pic of it this weekend.

 This is my roommate's dog: a 5 and a half month old mini Aussie. I would have liked it more if it wasn't so tilted but I was laying on the floor and it was really windy....plus Tex (the dog) kept getting distracted....  -_-

Now for some throwback to the 90s!

 . Does anyone one remember this guy??

And if I had to ask about this last one....your childhood isn't quite complete...just kidding!

photo assignment number 1!!

So last week I had my first photo assignment for my photography class. I was pretty nervous about it, but excited at the same time. The assignment was that the class had to take portrait photos of 12 strangers. It was an easy enough assignment and I got it done in one afternoon.

But looking back on it, I think I should have taken my time with the photos and talked to the people I was taking a picture of more. The point of the assignment was to to get us out of our comfort zones, and I was pretty tentative about asking someone to take a picture of them. But most of them were very nice and I got some pretty simple shots of them, but I think I could have done better.

Lesson Learned: Take your time. =)