Peacock Number Three

3/26/09
Look at this silly peacock! He's walking!

Second Peacock at the Arboretum

3/26/09
Look at this guy eating away. Yum yum yum.

Peacock at the Arboretum

3/26/09
A peacock at the Arboretum. My dad dared me to touch it but I said no.

Mystical Forest

3/27/09
We came upon this awesome fallen tree with awesome vines and ivy around it and it made a real neat walk-through and as soon as you walked through it you'd think you entered a different realm.

But it got really dark so you can't really see it in the video :( I wanna go back there sometime to take pictures there. It was really lovely.

Hiking Up A Storm

3/27/09
Me, Natasha, and Yin hike with Albert and Alvin and it's getting dark and we don't know where we're going and the water is wet and so is the ground but we keep walking, walking, walking.

Little Shop of Horrors

3/28/09
AHS's production of "Little Shop of Horrors" which was their first musical. It was pretty good. $10,000 puppet. Yes. I manually focused everything because I don't know how to turn off my autofocus light and didn't want to distract the actors by blinding them.

Then I hung out with Natasha, Yin, and Dora and we made cake and smoothies and breakfast at 11 PM.

Hiking w/ Albert, Alvin, Natasha, Yin

3/27/09
First me, Natasha, and Yin had a picnic in Yin's front yard using stuff we bought from Albertson's. Mmm chicken wings and salad. Then we went to Chantry Flats and hiked backwards on a trail and got lost momentarily and then back. I was dying on the way up and Natasha was dying on the way down. Good stuff. Then Sin Bala for dinner!

Arboretum with My Dad (Again)

3/26/09
I went to the Arboretum with my dad and tried out the 70-300mm/2.8 lens. It doubles as a macro too. It was sooo hard to use. There weren't that many animals. But I think I got some good stuff out of it. Props to my dad for spotting the ladybug oh yeah.

P.S. DUCKS!!!

Natasha Lala Reporting

3/21/09
Natasha Lala reporting live from the Norton Simon.

Our station recently received more funding and we were able to upgrade our equipment and now we're fully HD.

Twilight Scene v2.0

3/21/09
Me and Dante get our turn but we had to leave right away and I started giggling. Boo :P

Director: Natasha
Bella: Niklj
Edward: Dante

Twilight Scene v1.0

3/21/09
Twilight scene with Mike as Edward and Natasha as Bella.

OMG I had so much fun shooting this because I got to use my select focusing!!! And the acting was cool too XD We had to keep stopping because people kept walking by and it was embarrassing hehehehe.

Norton Simon Museum

3/21/09
Mike, Yin, Dante, Dora, Natasha, Sean, and I went to the Norton Simon Museum to take pictures!!! And look at art. No actually all we did was take pictures. AND IT WAS SO MUCH FUN AND WE HAD THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MODELS AT OUR DISPOSAL.

I wanna do this again! I love my (dad's) 50 mm/1.8 lens!!!! I need to get me one of my own soon. I felt really inspired today. I actually put up all the pictures I had instead of what I usually do, which is pick the ones I like best and put them up. Took me two whole days, haha.

I hope everyone enjoys them as much as I enjoyed taking them! (Even though most of you already saw them at Dora's house.)

Props to Natasha and Yin for doing my hair and makeup respectively. Natasha helped on the make up too. You guys are rock stars. Also props to the security guard peoples or whatever at the Norton Simon--you guys were so nice :D

AND DOES DANTE MAKE THE BEST VAMPIRE OR WHAT?! OR WHAT?!

Credits: All pictures of me taken by the wonderful Natasha. Sean helped pose some of the models.

Third D90 Video

3/19/09
Playing with the focus. Everything is manual focus, so it's really hard. I'm using my dad's 50/1.8 lens.

Second D90 Video

3/19/09
The view outside my window. I didn't realize I was taking video directly of the sun! Oops.

First D90 High Definition Video

3/19/09
I had time so I decided to take out my D90 for a spin. While taking pictures, I wanted a picture of myself so I wanted to try out the new Live View option. When I pushed the button that said Lv ('cause I don't have my manual, I guessed) it gave me an option to record! I was sooo happy!!!

So I took a video of me pulling out my silicone thumb, but I left my macro option on by accident so a lot of it is out of focus. But oh my gosh, I feel like I've had a breakthrough. I'm sooo happy. I looove my camera.

Museum of Contemporary Art

3/15/09
Me, Dora, Natasha, Yin, and Dante went to L.A. to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art. Then we went to Little Tokyo. Fun fun fun!

I felt like I did when I first took pictures with my D40x. Slightly embarrassed. I didn't really know how to work the camera so I spent a lot of time post-processing these pictures before I put them up. Still getting used to the Capture NX2 software too, so uh...this was a learning experience. I need to make everything more consistent.

My favorite part of editing is cropping. I don't know why. I also saved these as low-quality JPGs so they don't look too good. But I'll just upload from the camera straight next time.

Thanks to Yin for the pictures of me.

Trial By Jury

2/27/09-2/28/09
Gilbert and Sullivan's "Trial By Jury" at UCI. They were all very good singers and it was very entertaining.

Book of Tink

3/4/09-3/5/09
Book of Tink. A warped version of Peter Pan. Very...interesting.

Basically, Wendy is power hungry and controlling, Peter Pan (played by a girl and a guy) is uh...well I don't know what they are, Tinkerbell is in love with Captain Hook who is in love with Peter Pan who is in love with Wendy. And Nana talks and John is a really big guy. It was so funny to hear him say "I'm five years old!"

Family Day at the Beall

2/21/09
Beall Center for Art + Technology had a Family Day where they held lots of activities and stuff.