Experimenting my DSLR

Hi guys! How are your school years, so far?

I recently started college, and it has been pretty chill though I'm not used to having a class once a day, reading assignments with twenty pages's worth of content, and papers. Typical, I'm guessing, especially for humanity courses I'm taking: psychology, english, philosophy, and U.S. History. A new thing I have started is riding a bike to school every day because I knew I should exercise and reduce my carbon footprint. The downside to this is I never imagine going uphill for around thirty minutes would render me a bit sweaty for class. Hey, at least I got a biking buddy, so that biking can be a bit more fun.

Anyway...

If you have seen me talking pictures, you may have seen me snapping around with a DSLR 3300 camera. Because I learned how to use my camera, I took two online courses at Coursera called Camera Control and Seeing Through Photographs. I enjoy both of these classes, especially on how the content relates to the techniques and meaning of photography.

What I mean is I'm not only learning on how to take a picture, but also how to take a meaningful picture. The shutter speed, aperture, framing, subject space, blur, lines, etc, are all part of how the picture is captured and interpreted, whether or not photography is used for documentary purposes and/or artistic expressions. It is important to know more about the photographer's objective and background to gain a deeper understanding of the pictures they take, or not, depending on you viewed it.

Since I'm currently learning Philosophy, the idea of "your opinion is the truth, depending on your stance" is called relativism. In a way, I find it annoying and not a solid argument. What's funny about it that my philosophy textbook stated that the authors themselves argued back that it's their opinion that relativism is wrong and an excuse to not delve into the question thoughtfully.

So I hope through these photographs I have taken, you can think about how they make you feel.

August 14, 2016
Path of lights 

I was outside and exploring the neighborhood, and I found the lights of this walkway to be mesmerizing with its circular patterns.

August 15, 2016
Dahlia (I think)

August 15, 2016
I also think it may be a Dahlia

I was on an evening walk with my mother, and I happened to spot these beautiful Dahlia (again not so sure) on someone's front yard.

August 27, 2016

Rose origami overlap

Colorful rose origami overlap

As part of my photography course, my classmates and I were asked to take a motion-blurred picture. Since this is the first time I was using a camera that allowed me to manually adjust the shutter speed, I went full-blown on the topic--except I was not sure what to take a picture of. After I thought about it, I decided to take overlap pictures of the origami rose and quick drawing for around minutes. Originally the flower I drew took me less than thirty seconds, and my intention that the motion of my hands would be shown in the picture. Instead, I got a white blur around the picture and I decided that it would be a waste of paper to try again. (This was my third time). In the end, I realized it was not a motion-blurred picture, but I shall try again!!!

August 31, 2016

Silk water

Stepping Stones

 Pondering about my motion-blurred homework, I decided to visit the creek in my hometown to see if there is still water there since there is the ongoing California drought and the creek has dried up before. I was surprised there was water, so I tried to take a four second long picture with out a tripod. What I learned is that I can use the camera strap and the rocks as an impromptu tripod. Plus I accidentally dropped my mom's sandal in the creek, but it did not get wet. I then thought to use the sandal in the picture because I felt like the picture overall show my sense of adventure to keep traveling and exploring nature with the sandal and water flowing underneath.

Gracie
Love my cats

After I got back home, I petted my cat Gracie and took this picture quickly before she walked away. Overall, love my cats.
Cats.