DC Day 1

Dulles


Not your LA subway


Pseudo Chinatown

That is not a fortune!

Weird, all these stores near Chinatown had chinese words...


Do you see the helicopter?

Maybe Obama's in it!

And there it goes

Washington DC, Day 1
May 2009

We stayed a few blocks from the White House, and the only time we went was our first night! We didn't even get to go during the day. Oh well. Jerry's highlight of the night was taking all those helicopter pictures. More photos to come!

Academy of Sciences

The members-only line. At like 8:30am!

The regular ppl line, literally about 30 minute after we got there. We were 10th in line? Being early 30 min saves you over an hour later!

When you walk in. I love the natural light!

We had a game plan (based on reading dozens of reviews on yelp)

A bit overexposed. Oh well. Brings out the bright colors more!

I really like this picture.

The line for the rainforest. We were not 10th in line anymore.

I just like this picture for no reason.

Rainforest roof

I used the 17-55 on this but could have totally used the 180mm. We left it in the car, boo!

I have a thing for butterflies.

The planetarium. This looks like an opening credit scene for a Gene Roddenberry show.

The line at 2pm! (We went back to get our lens)

Which I used to take pics in the aquarium b/c we were sitting so far back.

Fun job?

I had to wait forever for ppl to stop walking by so this pic would turn out clean.

Colorful! I should have cropped the top. Oh well.

I used the 180 for this too. Caught the penguin surprising the other penguin with a kiss! (hence the blurriness)

I like this perspective. Must take more pics from above!

Academy of Sciences
San Francisco
December 2008

Way back in Dec, we decided to visit the Academy of Sciences. Bad idea, it was so packed! Duh, the kids were on winter break. We also inadvertently had chosen a day that members got to go in an hour early. But with helpful advice from yelp and friends, we had a game plan: 1. arrive at least an hour before opening, 2. run upstairs and get passes to the planetarium immediately, 3. then run somewhere else to get the bug show passes immediately, 4. stand in line for the rainforest, 5. go see everything else in btwn the assigned times on the planetarium/bug show passes. We had heard that planetarium passes sell out for the day by 10am, so as soon as we got in that door at 9:30, we made a beeline for them. I don't think we're going back to this museum for a really, really, really long time. So it's a good thing we saw almost everything in the whole place!

It was a really fun day, we got to take some interesting pictures, and I learned a thing or thing about the environment that I already didn't know from Al Gore. However, we also both got sick the next day. Germy kids + hands-on exhibits + standing shoulder-to-stroller-to-shoulder + alternating btwn being cold (standing in line) and hot (exploring the rainforest) = the nastiest flus/colds ever. But don't let that stop you from visiting someday. :) Btw, they should ban strollers from all museums (including the LB Aquarium)! Who's with me on this??

Queen Mary

On the free shuttle! I actually cropped this.

I tried to make the a regular shadow pic different by incorporating the various layers into the shot

It looks like something's coming out of Jer's head haha

Oh geez, it took me like a dozen tries to get the exposure right for this shot. Though I'm more comfortable shooting in manual, I still don't remember all the right combinations of settings for each lighting situation...so each time I fiddle around with my metering, fstops and iso, I always have to check my picture and re-adjust. If I was ever a professional photographer, I can't waste time like that- esp if it was a sporting event. Once the moment is gone, it's gone! But yeah for this picture I was trying to expose the dark part correctly by showing some detail around the window opening, but I didn't want to overexpose the rest of the pic. I guess this works.

Jer was quite fascinated by the mechanics of Queen Mary. I thought it was cool to see history preserved!


I'm used to being behind the camera, not in front! Wow, I need better posture. I look pregnant.

I love, love the lines and curves in this pic. The flags make the top part of the pic not boring.

Jer says this is my best shot of the day. Eh, I like the flag/lines pic better. I'm not that confident of my low-light shooting abilities, but I should practice more. I've always favored outdoor light conditions and not so much low and indoor lighting situations. But if I ever want to improve, I gotta challenge myself more.



The propeller under the boat. It was so surreal in person!

Queen Mary
Photoist: Me and Jer
March 2009

The Queen Mary is free for So-Cal residents until the 15th I think. I don't think it's really worth the $25 admission price PER person, esp since you gotta pay $7 to park, so if you get a chance to go when it's free, definitely take advantage! There's plenty of photo opps. Wear hiking shoes or good walking shoes though, there's lots of nooks and crannies to explore.

Happy Birthday, Hyobin

Corean kimchi kutie refugee sista
Opus Restaurant
Corealand
June 2008

Too bad picasa collage doesn't let me form my own collages. I don't like the way these are staggered but oh well, you get the gist of her bday night. Opus is an insanely hard restaurant to take pictures in if you're like me and you don't like to use flash (with the exception of the posed pic). Of course we didn't have the tripod b/c our tripod is huge and not something you'd bring along to a bday party at a lounge. :) Here's how it looks inside. Jer had to rest the camera on the chair to prevent blur-age. The streaks on the chair/across the floor were created by the light that was coming in.