Planes

to the mountains!

It's taking a while for Winter to find Seattle,

so we headed out to look for Winter instead.

December Days

I woke up to a crisp and clear December morning.

Walking out to the garden,

I found that everything was covered in a thin layer of frost.

The water on our rain catcher froze.

New moss was growing.

Berries were ripening.

And some things seemed like they couldn't make up their minds between being alive, or dead.

Rainy Occupation

Are we tired of Occupy stuff yet? I don't know really how to feel about it.

This protest that I followed about a month ago started out organized but then digressed into random chanting from multiple groups...simultaneously. After blocking traffic in the freezing rain for about 2 hours, the group split up, one headed back home while the other marched on to the community college.

With no feeling left in my extremities, I gladly followed the first group back while a fellow photographer went with the second group.

Even though nothing too exciting happened, I got a chance to shoot nighttime, which was something I hadn't done until that day. It's a completely different world, shooting at night (cue pre-photo-assignment anxiety), so what I got was a butt load of blurry nothingness and a handful of clean ones.

And guess what? It turns out my camera is waterproof! Huzzah!

A student speaks to the crowd before marching to University Bridge.

Protestors marching down University Way on their way to University Bridge.

Students climbing on University Bridge...

Blurry, but cool looking.

Students in the dorms look out their windows at a group of protestors heading back to campus.

Daily Lessons: News Stops for No One

Yesterday was the last night of production for fall quarter at the Daily, but that doesn't mean news stops happening!

I was just about to leave the library to go home today when I decided to check The Daily's Facebook page. Apparently there had been a chemical spill in one of the buildings on campus and the next thing I knew I found myself with two reporters and another photographer down by the chemistry department shooting pictures. Wow, what a rush!

This was the first time I had to go through the whole photo process by myself. It was nerve-racking but I really had no choice but to do what I could since no other photographers were around (the other photographer had to leave early). I can happily say I am pleased with the results! I even got to use my new lens hood! You have to admit, a camera looks so much cooler with a lens hood.

I think I can honestly say editing photos doesn't scare me anymore. Now I just have to overcome my fear of writing cutlines... Those things are surprisingly difficult to write.

Lessons learned:

1. Store a pair of gloves in your backpack. You never know when you'll be in the cold shooting for a long time. You can't get crisp photos with cold hands.

2. Bring a hat too, for the cold ears.

3. When you are absolutely terrified of what you are about to do, but people are counting on you to follow through, you take a deep breath and do the best you can...and hope everything turns out okay.

4. Everything usually turns out okay.

Daily Lessons

By now you probably know better than to expect any sort of chronological continuity from this blog.

That being said, here are some shots from my first assignment for The Daily from October. It was very stressful. Aside from the anxiety of it being my first project, I didn't know how to react to the crowd, where to stand, who to take pictures of, what functions to set my camera to...It felt like everything was out of my control, even my own camera, which is never a good feeling. But like with every new assignment I get from The Daily, I always come home with a pocketful of lessons learned.

What did I learn from this?

1. Be ahead of the crowd when they're marching.

2. Know WHO you are taking pictures of.

3. Always have a notepad and pen with you so you can write down those names (and anything else important because you won't remember an hour later).

4. And don't be afraid to get in people's way in order to get a good shot (which is a problem I still have trouble with).

Sweet Dreams

Make sure you watch this right before you go to bed.