afternoon coffee

Things I don't like about this photo: it's slightly out of focus, and would have benefited from being a little less zoomed-in.

Things I like about this photo: the out-of-focus background, and the diagonal lines of Jimmy's forehead, nose, and coffee mug.

radio silence

You'd think that getting a new zoom lens for Christmas would make me take more photos, but strangely enough I've taken not a one since I got back to college.  One of the biggest reasons is probably that I like photographing plants most, and it's been cold and dreary for the most part.  But, no excuses!  I'm pushing myself to take more pictures starting today, and challenging myself to find good photographs...yes, even indoors.

Photo taken while studying for a Religion final in the stacks of my favorite library.

double take

Photos of UVa's rotunda reflecting in the flood on the Lawn, taken with a friend's Canon Rebel XSi. Truly ghostly with the light coming off the low clouds--I was walking home from a friend's and had to stop and stare at the reflection for a while.

Click to enlarge.

the golden hour

My favorite time of day (and time to take pictures) is what I call 'the golden hour'. It's just before sunset when the light is a perfect syrupy yellow. And it lasts nowhere near an hour--the best part of it will last maybe 25 minutes if you have a relatively flat horizon.

It probably doesn't make "good" photos in the sense of artistic colors (of the kind that Ken Rockwell chases), since the images invariably turn out saturated in gold. But I love the bright shock of yellow-orange in these pictures, and the fact that they remind me of being outside during the sunset.

Photo taken of a church in Yuma, Arizona, where I just attended a friend's wedding.

bodhisattva

new camera

Experimenting with my new Nikon D40.

cowboys AND indians

My friend Jimmy, always a diplomat.

downpour

Quick snap from the doorway of a bakery in Old Town Alexandria, before we ran for the next available shelter towards our car.

rattlesnake master

Taken at Blandy. Rattlesnake master was thought to be a remedy for rattlesnake bites, hence its odd name.

festivities

Merry Christmas!

distichy

Title referring to the alternate distichous arrangement of the flower buds.

from patagonia

Most trees in Patagonia were stunted by the constant high-speed winds (look up flagging). This one was no exception--it was only about four or five feet tall.

two stories up

Sown by some bird, perhaps, this daisy took root in a tiny crevice 20 feet above the ground.

reflecting pool

The Lawn (UVa's quad) flooded after a long bout or rain, and the puddle was a perfect reflecting pool for the Rotunda, our main historical fixture on the "Academical Village" (what we call the Lawn at times). Taken with my Sony point-and-shoot, but better photos coming soon that were taken with a dSLR.

ashley

You'd never know it from all of the nature and macro photos I post, but shooting portraits is actually my favorite thing. This is of one of my dear friends from my internship this summer.

footwork

At a youth soccer game coached by one of my friends. It always amazes me how mature nine-year-olds can be--I don't really remember having thought processes at that age.

traffic

The stadium lights were on for the football game so the lighting was excellent this night.

lanterns

Sacramento Betsuin's Obon festival.

bombus

As always, click to enlarge.

specimens

Stuffed birds at the Smithsonian's Division of Birds.

moss-covered

Each fruiting body of this moss extends only about half an inch from the surface of this broken stump, raised on a delicate, hair-thin filament.

cosmos

a bug's eye view.

portal

An old arch on the UVa grounds, across the "Dell Pond".

seedling

Transplanting yellow monkeyflower seedlings at my summer internship. I tweezered 1392 of these, one by one...a micro-version of meditative gardening.

knot