Continue reading “CFFC: Catching People Unaware” →
I do not like photographing anything – especially landscapes – through any kind of window or glass. It not only distorts the color temperature – makes the scene look cold when it’s supposed to be warm, add green when there shouldn’t be green, and don’t get me started about cloud colors – it’s a nightmare when it comes to editing these photos in Lightroom.
Sometimes though, I can’t say I have a choice like unless I suddenly sprout a pair of wings, there’s no way I could photograph in the open air more than a hundred stories above ground. I took these with my phone, by the way, in RAW before uploading them to Lightroom and stitching them to make a large panorama. If I remember, each of these images are made up of 9 to 11 images stitched together. The smaller focal lengths of the phone’s camera really helps sometimes.
I thought these came out great except for the bit of reflection, which as hard as I tried, I couldn’t get rid of them.
As much as I don’t like it, sometimes, it is the way to go and I got a few favorites that were taken through the window while the car was moving or through a plain old window.
Good morning! Come on in! It’s a good day to have some hot drinks and relax.
Continue reading “#WeekendCoffeeShare – The Highs and Lows of the Week” →
Seeing full-blown autumn colors can definitely classify as a fleeting moment as it’s constantly changing from near peak to peak to past peak. Yesterday was most likely the last real weekend to see autumn colors as we are expecting the temperature to drop about 10-degrees and rain this coming weekend. In my opinion, once rain comes, autumn colors are no longer pretty.
Yesterday’s trip was all my mom’s idea. She saw one of her co-workers post photos of Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon and thought it was pretty. Next thing I knew, she was calling her sister and brother-in-law (BIL), asking them if they were interested. Of course, they were. They’re off every other weekends and after this weekend, they will be working all the way into November. So I wrote, probably the last weekend for autumn colors.
Her BIL was driving. It’s always him who drives and it was a good thing it was him who was driving because I ended up sorta tricking everyone to go to the place I wanted to go.
The whole trip, for me, was full of fleeting moments because I was traveling with three adults who did not want to walk. My mom has back pain and can’t walk a few steps without complaining. She’s currently waiting to do surgery to fix that problem. Meanwhile, her sister and BIL just didn’t want to walk. They aren’t out of shape, they just prefer to sit and look at their phones all day.
Thankfully, they let me roam, for a very short time at least like a dog on a leash. If I venture too far, my phone instantaneously rings, one of them telling me to get back to the car. So I needed to walk fast and take as many photos as I could so I can have it for memory.
This was the my first time going to Provo Canyon. I’ve always stuck to the Alpine Loop as it’s closer to home and I happen to think it’s more beautiful up by Mount Timpanogos with all the aspen trees. If you’ve ever been in the area, you’ll know what I mean. Even in summer, it’s beautiful with its white trunks and its leaves dancing to the breeze. I made a trip there back in August (before the accident) and couldn’t get enough of the place.
I fell in love with this picture as soon as I blew it up on my laptop. Another fleeting moment as we were parked in one of those tiny turnout on the road and as soon as I got out of the car, my mom began yelling, “How can you do such thing?” She was talking about how I led her BIL to the Alpine Loop when I knew fully that it’d be a narrow road that required drivers of one direction to yield to oncoming traffic.
I drove on this road before and didn’t encounter any problem. The only one that might have a problem might be my mom as she doesn’t do well in narrow road situations.
Anyway, I ignored her and focused on finding compositions. After all, I only get this one shot and everyone was waiting on me, so I must make it quick despite I could stare at this golden landscape for hours, maybe days.
The Alpine Loop was surprisingly crowded. I’ve never seen so much traffic that it was backed up. Perhaps maybe because many people knows to come here to see fall colors and that this would probably be the last weekend of 2022 to see such color.
After my accident, I became very anxious whenever something comes too close to the passenger side of the car, almost like a kind of claustrophobia. With the traffic, my uncle was forced to steer the car toward the trees a few times, causing me to panic as I seem to be doing quite a bit lately. These were definitely moments I didn’t want to remember from the trip and was relieve when we were no longer on the narrow road.
All in all, I am very grateful for the trip as I got a photos for memories despite my time there was very limited. I guess my goal to see autumn colors in 2022 is now fulfilled.
I’m writing this post on my phone as opposed to my laptop. I’m not sure how it’ll look, so bear with me.
I traveled to 3 states yesterday. That must be some kind of record or maybe that’s just me because I’m from Western U.S. and the states are huge compared to the east. Anyway, we crossed into the US early in the morning after we were grilled by the custom officer.
He asked why, of all the cities in the whole world, we chose to visit Toronto and Ottawa. I don’t remember being grilled like this when I returned to the US after visiting Canada 5 years ago or is that just typical manner of the people on the east coast? Mom said he was just doing his job but really?
It certainly left a sour taste in my mouth.
We drove through New York and Pennsylvania before getting to our destination – Washington Crossing State Park in New Jersey. It surprised me by how green it was. Perhaps, it’s because I’m from out west where there’s little to no rain.
I loved the greenery and seeing the autumn colors starting to peek through. It was one of my purposes of the trip.
I’ve always wanted to see the place where George Washington crossed the Delaware river as depicted by the famous painting but it turned out, the painting had exaggerated the event as often history does. It was certainly a good history lesson and I learned quite a bit from this little history tour.
Which brings me back to why I’m writing this post on my phone. I stayed at the worst motel in the history of worst motel last night in Bordentown, New Jersey. I requested for a non-smoking room and the moment I entered the room, the smell of pot and smoke hit me like a punch in the face. I told front desk and all he did was spritzed air freshener in the room.
After he left, I discovered not only could I not get wifi in the room but my cell signal was gone too. It was like being sucked into a black hole. Normally, I wouldn’t mind a night without internet but I happened to need to modify the itinerary which involved modifying a few hotel reservations and I can’t do that when I don’t have internet.
After complaining to the guy and showing him the room was a black hole, he switched me to another room. Still, the smell of pot and smoke hit me when I opened the door. I’ve stayed at plenty of bad motels before but this is by far the worst.
Well, I’ll reporting from Philadelphia for the next 2 days. Hopefully, my living accomodations improves.
How can one tell when autumn is in the air?
I know it’s Thursday and tomorrow is Friday but I’m doing it anyway. Anyway, this week on 5 Things Tuesday, Tanya at Salted Caramel asked everyone to name 5 things they love about Autumn.
Continue reading “5 Things Tuesday – 5 things I love about Autumn” →
There is something about nature that if you manage to catch it in the right moment and under the right light, it’s so beautiful that you will remember it for the rest of your life. I got the chance to witness such wonder this year during the height of autumn on September 20th. I was so glad I brought my best lens along to capture those moments.
As we venture into October, my aunt and I were adamant to search for some fall colors around us. Therefore, we spent one weekend hiking from one mountain range to the next. We finally found it in a beautiful scenic area near the Snowbasin Ski Resort near Morgan, Utah. Continue reading “Autumn Colors Panorama” →
It’s been so cold lately that I haven’t had a chance to go out and check out my backyard. Continue reading “Photo of the Day!” →
I woke up on Sunday morning to a thin layer of that white stuff on my back lawn. Continue reading “Photo of the Day!” →
This picture was taken about a year ago. Continue reading “Photo of the Day!” →
Here is another picture from my afternoon trip up Snow Basin on Sunday. I absolutely love the colors autumn offers in this picture. It’s one of the main reasons why I love fall – the colors are just incredible.
If it wasn’t for the cold, I believe I would’ve stood there longer than 5 minutes.
Please do check out my Instagram profile.
Technical Details
Sony NEX-5T v. 1.00 (f/11, 38 mm, ISO-100, 1/80 sec)
After completing my household tasks yesterday, I drove up to Snow Basin Ski Resort (about 30 minutes away) with every intention of doing one last hike before winter sets in. Continue reading “Which Ways to Snow Basin?” →
It was tough picking a photo for Photo of the Day today because I haven’t gone anywhere in the last two weeks. Continue reading “Photo of the Day!” →
The weather this week is the opposite of the last few months. Continue reading “Photo of the Day!” →
Since now that we are in October, I guess it means the season of pumpkin spice is upon us but of course, that season began more than a week ago. Continue reading “Photo of the Day!” →
This has been the best Labor Day ever! Continue reading “Photo of the Day!” →
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