Looking Back and Looking Forward

2011 has been an interesting year, to say the least. Photography wise, I was rather active in the spring and especially when I was in London for the summer, and then extremely inactive during the fall. (Personal life related, fall was a bottom low for me this year and hard to deal with)

So here's a look at some things related to photography that I accomplished (or wanted to) this year:

• First and foremost, I was able to (somehow) take pictures everyday while I was in London. Whether I uploaded them immediately was a different issue I need to work on.
  
• Second, I had hoped to do some weekly assignments from one or two places... which didn't last long for me. This is something I really need to work on. -.-
  
• I did have a few opportunities to enter photography related contests that I didn't enter. :(
  
• This blog itself was, admittedly, forgotten when fall semester started. Personal issues made it difficult for me to keep interest in taking pictures, so I apologize for that.
  
• As corny as this sounds I have started (started being the keyword) on a business plan/what I want to do with photography.
  

Now with that out of the way, here are a couple things I'd like to try and uphold for the upcoming year:

• Although I'm a little slow on joining the bandwagon, I will be doing a Project 365 for the year 2012. :)
  
• A weekly photo shoot of one item a week. I'm a little iffy about this one, but it'll be mostly items that I find around my place and such in order to experiment with angles, exposure, etc.
  
• Weekly photo assignments. Yeah... considering how it didn't last long last year, I'm hoping that I'll stick to them better this time around.
  
• Creating a portfolio (physical and digital copy): this one has been on my to-do list for quite some time and it's sort of started yet when you take pictures often, the portfolio needs to be updated often as well.
  
• I know I said this last year, but I'm going to go ahead with ordering postcards. Yay! Now I need to find which images I want to print. :P
  
• Along with postcards, I'm going to try and complete my business plan that I've started. Last year I said that I wasn't interested in starting a photography business. As of right now, I am re-examining my decision and figuring out what I want to do with my photography.
  

I think that's about it for goals. Crossing fingers on upholding these this year! >.<

PS: Happy New Year!!! :)

Merry Christmas

So to celebrate the holiday, I did a little photo shoot of some of the ornaments on our Christmas tree. Enjoy! :3

Cute Camera

And so December begins. I found a cute camera in a mail catalog. :)

On a random note, my point and shoot Nikon Coolpix is getting repaired after six long years of torture it has gone through (oops). It feels weird not having a easy-to-use camera on hand, even when I wasn't taking pictures. Just the assurance that I had a camera nearby was nice... :(

Lost at Sea...

So I randomly stumbled upon this article. I hope I never drop my DSLR into the ocean for a year T_T

PS: Hope the warranty is still good!

Little Raindrops

It's raining in SoCal... *sigh*

Homemade Boba

So... I was craving for boba at 1am, so I decided to make some. Sad to say it didn't turn out good :'(

Bee

The bright yellow of the flower makes me smile. :)

Shut-ters

Yes, horrible pun, I know. =__=

Obon Matsuri

Obon is probably my favorite festival in Japan. Unfortunately I didn't stay long enough for the other events. It was really hot and we left after an hour or so. :/

Being Back in Berkeley

First day back and a couple things have changed, but all in all, it's the same ol' Berkeley.

Nice Day to Fly

Flew back to Berkeley today. And as usual, some airport shots. :P

Barbed

Nothing really special today, sorry :(

London Day 48: Bye Bye London :(

To get a lot of last minute things done, I decided to do an all-nighter on my last night in London, and took the following pictures at around 5AM. One last glimpse of the view outside my window. (and a picture of Paddington Station while hauling my stuff to catch the Heathrow Express) :P

London Day 47: Last Full Day in London...

The last field trip was to the Tate Britain. Although I didn't find much art work that interesting, it was nice to explore in the amount of time left afterward. I went to the National Gallery, which I didn't have much time to explore, but it felt like another art gallery sadly. (maybe I shouldn't have gone to all those museums during my stay before going to the National Gallery...) :P

London Day 46: Last Day at Work

Today was the last day of work at my internship. I shall miss it greatly. :'(

London Day 45: Off in the Distance

I figured, since next summer is the Olympics, I should visit the site where they will hold the events next year. Unfortunately, I'm not the best at researching these types of things. I went to Stratford, but what I found was a lot of construction going on at the Athlete's Village. (couldn't find the other venues) :(

London Day 44: Walking Home

Since this is my last week in London, I decided to do something really crazy... walk from where I work at St. James's Park all the way back home near Liverpool Street! As tiring as it was, I must say I feel really accomplished for it. :)