MouseAdventure Fall 2009

12/12/09
MouseAdventure!!! The Rain Gear...er...Reindeer Games! Rained all day and night and my foot got hurt because it was wet all day haha. Super fun!

Emperor's New Crew, 109/155 teams. Whoo hoo!!!

San Diego Trip

A look at my photo book that I won from voting in the Multiply design contest. I created it using the Multiply photo book maker.

Halloween with Yin and Natasha

10/31/09
Fun Halloween times at CVS. Pumpkin carvings. And candy :)

Halloween 2009

10/31/09
Yin and Natasha carve their first pumpkins!!!

The Hobbit at UCI

10/24/09
The magical world of The Hobbit comes to UCI, presented by Theatre Sans Fils. Directed by Andre Viens, this puppet-filled play entertains adults and children alike as they follow Bilbo Baggins on his unlikely journey into becoming a hero.

Or something like that.

PUPPETS. Say it wis a Franch accent! C'EST DROLE.

French production notes!!!

A Prom to Remember

5/26/07
(for all the wrong reasons lol)

Some snippets of what happened during prom. Yay!!!

Reporting done by Natasha Larakev.

Token Mania at Chuck-E-Cheese

3/21/08
Yin, Natasha, and I gamble and WIN!

(at Chuck-E-Cheese)

LOL at how hungry we are for tokens.

California Science Center

11/19/06
The animation exhibit at the California Science Center!!! We did voice acting, stop-motion coolness, and more!

LOLLL watch Yin's picture in the beginning. I don't think she knew what was going on hahaha. Also in the first part of the video I accidentally bumped Dana's head with my elbow so that's why she's like D:

Universal Studios Hollywood w/Natasha

7/19/07
Some random snippets of video from when I went to Universal Studios with Natasha while my mom was at a work conference.

RIP Back to the Future ride.

Yin and Dora's Movie Adventure!

4/4/07
Dora was picked/volunteered to be in the Special Effects Stages show! She got to play with a big cat and then carry "heavy blocks" of stone. Yin got to tumble books around for sound effects! And Natasha got to be my seat partner :B

Yearbook Riverdance

7/26/06
Annie and Jackie enjoy dancing (while the real Yearbook Camp dance was through the doors behind them) hehe.

KITTY

10/28/09
A KITTY VISITED OUR PLACE!!!!! Took forever to get a good look at his tag though.

Meow meow meow

..^-^
='x'=
(9 9)S

What an unfriendly kitty >=(

Piggyback Races

10/17/09
It's Yin and Dora vs. Natasha and Dante vs. Kenny and a bucket!

WHO WILL WIN?! WHO WILL LOSE?! WHO WILL BE THE GUY WITH THE BUCKET?!

Watch the video and find out!

(Water Festival.)

My Grandpa Gets Down

9/8/09
My grandpa gets jiggy wit it at my cousin's wedding.

Video by me, my brother, and my uncle.

Water Festival

On your right, the pedophile pumpkin.

10/17/09
Dora invited me to go with Yin, Natasha, Dante, and Kenny to the Water Festival at Santa Anita Park! It was fun in the sun :) Hot enough to elevate my blood pressure and get hyper.

Don't know why my colors got so desaturated by the end though.

Shocktoberfest Overview

10/16/09
Thirty seconds of Shocktoberfest! Yes it really was that exciting.

At 23 seconds, you can see the dude cheating by filling out a lot of raffle forms.

Spin the Shocktoberfest Wheel!

10/16/09
We spin the wheel for free stuff at Shocktoberfest!

I won a pen :B

Plus, literal beer goggles!

Knott's Scary Farm w/ Maryann and Fanny

10/08/09
WHO HAD AN AWESOME TIME?

WE DID.

OMG...NO LINES+NO CROWDS=FUN IN THE (UN)SUN!!!

First monster encounter: Maryann asking where the bathroom is to a ZOMBIE who then points her to the opposite direction. Let me add that we were standing right next to the bathroom at that point.

Team Hope HD Charity Walk

9/26/09
I "donated my services to charity" by covering the Team Hope Huntington's Disease Charity Walk they held at UCI. They raised over $40,000 I think in order to help fund reasearch for Huntington's Disease. This was Irvine's first year as a chapter.

I had to wake up at 7 AM and forgot to bring a cap but it was a pretty fun event and I think I did pretty well covering this event. They told me what they wanted and gave me a shot list, which is a list of pictures they would like. That was extremely helpful. Also I felt a lot more comfortable going up to people and asking if I could take their picture and overall, I just felt more in my element. Maybe that's because I had a shot list, maybe because it was a smaller event, who knows. I had a good time in the baking hot heat. I didn't know anyone except a few people on the staff so I was surprised at how well I navigated the event. Also, PUPPIES!

I got to meet the Laker Girls (pictures will come up later), the Mayor of Irvine Sukhee Kang, and Commander Chuck Street from KIIS-FM. That was very neat. They are all very nice. Also, everyone there was very nice and super excited to be there for the walk. That was cool and inspiring to see.

I post-processed these in a marathon 48 hours in order to get them to my contact, who was leaving UCI on the next Wednesday. It was all done on Capture NX2. Since it was a family event and supposed to be happy and stuff, I leaned a little warm on my white balance.

I used two cameras, my D40x and my D90 and it was extremely helpful. I could get shots in a snap. People told me I looked like a paparazzo haha. Also it was extremely heavy and my shoulders hurt for the next three days (just like after grad commencement).

UCI Budget Cut Protests

9/24/09
"LAYOFF YUDOF! LAYOFF YUDOF!" lol

Also, weird "No tax cuts! No union!" dude.

They started early >=(

Around 500 people were there apparently.


Anyway, it was super hot.

Carrie's Wedding

9/8/09
Our cousin Carrie had her wedding in San Francisco. It was really cool and as my mom said, "Looked like from Elle" or some other magazine. No bouquet toss or garter toss though. And my grandpa danced all niiiight.

Guided Tour of New Apartment

9/7/09
Hi guys, welcome to Apartment Land. I'll be your host for today, Niklj! I'm so glad you've come to join us on our tour today. So without any further ado, let's be on our way!

The New Apartment

9/7/09
Hey you, read the captions! They're good for you :D They'll tell you everything you need to know. Everything enumerated has been provided by my family already for everyone to use.

San Diego

8/25/09-8/28/09
My family visits San Diego, home of Sea World and the San Diego Zoo!

Very hot, very fun.

Shot almost entirely in manual mode, so if it looks too dark or too bright, well there ya are.

Hollywood!

7/15/06
My family and I watched Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl at the El Capitan! I forgot why, but it was pretty neat-o. There wasn't any show, though, except the cannons on either side of the shade did some pretty neat effects.

Also it was very hot.

Also we met Bobby Lee.

Hollywood.

Disneyland w/ Catherine

12/14/04
Went to Disneyland w/ Catherine and her family. Lots of pictures of scenery and seen-a-me! Because Catherine didn't like pictures and she was reading her book for AP English most of the time and the lines were really long so I had a lot of time to kill haha.

Birth of my first-step-into-Disneyland tradition and the death of my first digital camera T_T

Disneyland on New Year's Eve

12/31/06
Audrey invited me to hang out with her dad and sister on New Year's Eve at Disneyland. I'd never done it before but it was quite an event!

I took a lot of pictures that showed how crowded it was and a lot of myself, I don't know why.

Disneyland w/ Leah 2

6/20/05
Fun times at Disneyland. The origin of "Look here, not here." As evidenced by a lot of the photos hehe. All of Main Street was done up for the 50th anniversary.

Disneyland and DCA w/Family

In its infancy.

8/27/03
A fun day at Disneyland. Again, I thought I took pretty good pictures at the time. It was a very hot day, yup yup. This MIGHT have been our first trip to California Adventures.

I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to name my photos -_-

Disneyland w/Family 4

4/5/05
Disneyland with family again. I thought today was a good photo taking day. Lots of construction and refurbishment though for the 50th.

My old Canon had great color :(

Disneyland w/Family 3

8/31/05
Fun times at Disneyland.

Disneyland w/ Family 2

10/5/03
Disneyland with my family. I thought I was getting real good at taking pictures haha.

Peacock Mating Ritual

5/22/09
Three peacocks compete for the attention of one peahen.

Sorry for the awful focus. It was all manual, baby :P

Make sure you listen for the cool noises its feathers make.

Weirdo Guinnea

7/26/09
This weird guinnea searches for food.

Lily Valley

7/26/09
The pretty lake/pond area above the waterfall.

Peacocks Getting Fed

7/26/09
A lady came and fed the peacocks. Look how they interact. The little ones fight for food and the mom waits till the kids have all eaten before eating herself. I like how the mom jumps up and down like a dog.

Peacock Family

7/26/09
Peacock family, with four little babies. How adooorable.

Nature's Wonderland

7/26/09
At the Arboretum. Goodbye Hawaii!

Aloha Hawai'i!

7/26/09
Me and Jenny travel to the great islands of Hawaii at the Arboretum.

I don't know why I said "Vroom vroom" when I wanted to make an airplane noise.

Arboretum with Jenny

7/26/09
Went to the Arboretum with Jenny. Had a really great time. Four hours at the Arboretum, from 12 PM-4:30 PM. I was sweating so bad that my camera screen got really wet haha eww. "That's how I get the boys." We took the day nice and slow, walking around. Saw some things I've never seen before! Saw the whole Arboretum in a new light. SOUTH EFFRICA. And the jungles of Costa Rica. And Hawaii B)

Shooting wide open was a beeyotch again, but oh well :P All pictures of me by Jenny. Except the ones that look like they were taken by me (read: has a double chin in the picture).

Jenny's photos from this event can be seen here: http://www.kirchu.net/blog/tag/la-arboretum/ Interesting to see a different perspective on things.

Pacific Asia Museum w/ Janista

7/23/09
Went to the Pacific Asia Museum (FOR FREE) with Janista and then the Pasadena Museum of Contemporary Art (FOR $2.50). It was hoooot! The museums were assez interesting. Some good stuff, some boring stuff. Lots and lots of pots. Then after, a stop at Lollicup. Also, Chipotle is too spicy :P

All pictures of me courtesy of Janista. Taken with my dad's new 35mm/1.8 and the regular 18-105/2.8. I liked the length of the 35 over the 50.

First D90 Shots

3/14/09
Some of the first shots I took with the Nikon D90. Well actually the first shot was of my dad, and then I reformatted the card, so I don't really have the first shot but here are some pictures of my brother and sister with our next door neighbor's Pomeranian Pee Wee!!!

Taken with the kit lens, the 18-105 f/3.5-5.6 (aaaghhhhh).

UCI Grad Commencement

6/6/09
Wow, this was a hard one! Thanks to Natasha for coming to help. Hers are all the images that start with IMG. I post-processed everything in Lightroom. Quite a learning experience and I'm glad I did it.

Small Disneyland Fireworks

6/23/09
Small snippet of the fireworks show in HD B)

Sparkling Balloons

6/23/09
Sparkling balloons, part of the Summer Nightastic promotion.

Dana at Disneyland

6/23/09
You look sillier when you're trying not to be on camera, then if you WERE on camera. Smile everyone :)

Disneyland w/ Family

6/23/09
Lots of time spent in line.

Used the 50mm the whole day. So hard. Shooting wide open=bad idea.

Torie's Graduation

6/12/09
My sister's graduation from high school. Now she's moving on to the next Big Bad: college.

Taken mostly with my 70-300 zoom lens...like binoculars!!! But it was kind of a slow lens. And a lot of my pictures came out dark. Learning experience.

We ate dinner at Tokyo Wako.

Pictures of me are probably by Dana. And also pictures 34-41. And 221-237 are by my uncle.

Special cameos by: Dora and Dante!!!!

Yin's 20th Birthday Party

Wearing the scalp of the enemy in celebration.

6/19/09
Yin's birthday party at Live Oak Park. In attendance: Mike, Alvin, Huan, Dante, Dora, Angela, Yin, Natasha, and me. And Kung Fu Pinata.

Captions as always.

For extra fun, make sure you check out Yin's expressions in the background of every photo.

Main Street, U.S.A. at Night

5/30/09 (technically 5/31/09)
It's Main Street at night! Like a classy Las Vegas.