Jzoe Blog

June 26, 2007

More of my life, in photos

Filed under: Random thoughts., goings-on — jzoe @ 10:03 pm

Well, I’ve got another round of photos- these are from the last week mostly. Last night, Monday, Kendra and I went to a Giant’s game. It was a great time, although a little cold. The ball park was beautiful and surprisingly clean. The sunset over the bay is a beautiful thing to see over the ball game. I honestly can’t imagine a more beautiful backdrop.

There’s also this photo of the field that Kendra took:

I also got a movie- Ball.avi, and a really cool panorama of Kendra and the game. I have a far larger version if anyone is dying for a big poster printout.

A really freaky thing about the game was the real-time talking seal mascot, with a human mouth. The movie of the seal is kind of disturbing.

On the way out on the BART this weekend I took a few photos of pigeons. I thought that these came out nice enough to post just for the sake of looking at birds.

And a pair of them-

We were on our way to soccer practice at the time, and I took a few photos there as well. Actually, I might have the chronology mixed up.

On the one hand, I kind of like the blurred effect- if gives a lot of motion.

On the other hand, it would be nice to be able to get some nice clean shots without the blur.

Unfortunately, the closer I get to a non-blurry shot (by increasing the shutter speed), the darker the image gets:

The alternative is to increase the ISO (light sensor sensitivity), but that makes the photos so speckled and static filled that I don’t even want to post them. Here’s an example- it might not look too noisy, but it’s also not terribly bright.

That’s it, that’s why you spend the big bucks for a Digital SLR. They take better photos in low light at high speed because they have larger, higher quality sensors. Of course, if I could connect the camera to a big external flash, that might help a lot as well.

Here are the last of the photos for tonight- a photo in Berkeley of a squirrel that got a little too close:

Also a photo of the Stockton Tunnel in San Francisco:

I actually walked through that thing once, and over it on a different occasion.

June 17, 2007

Photos, cameras

Filed under: Electronics — jzoe @ 10:28 pm

Tonight I was talking with my friend, Digant, about some cameras he’s looking at, and I went through some of my photos to show him how I like the one I bought. I came across a couple that I didn’t post that I actually like, so here they are.

The first one I took while we were taking a bay cruise tour. I saw Coit Tower lined up with the Transamerica Pyramid, two icons of San Francisco, and I thought it would make one of those nice contrast shots- old and new.

I’m too lazy to look up what the third tower is on the left, but I guess it’s probably famous too. If I wanted to, I could probably blur the background a little to get a better effect… but I don’t care that much right now.

Here’s another one that I took while Kendra and I were out with our friend Phil doing a tour of a chocolate factory. We were walking back to catch a bus when we went through a part of town with a lot of thrift shops. Kendra was looking at a dress, so I snapped a quick photo so that I could get a record of what’s cute. I like this one; it has some areas with a lot of color, and others without. I think you can kind of get a feel for that part of town and the local atmosphere based on the colors.

The store front is painted brightly with new paint, but the planters are empty and you can tell that whatever is under the paint is not new. The dress is bright, but old. There are green trees around the upper edge, but most of the areas you’d expect to see some grass has been paved over with concrete. I think this part of Berkeley has seen better days, but hasn’t lost hope that it will see them again.

June 14, 2007

Lychee Fruit

Filed under: goings-on — jzoe @ 9:57 pm

This is so weird- I was in the grocery store tonight picking up some fish, and I saw these crazy spiny things they called Litchey Nuts. I picked one up and it felt like a soft dense fruit, but it didn’t smell like much. I bought about a dollar’s worth and brought them home out of curiosity.

I think that their flesh reminds me of a cross between a grape and a coconut. It’s soft and squishy and translucent like a grape, but has a very fine and rich texture like a coconut, and almost feels like it has some oil in it. It tastes like a cross between those fruits as well, but it gives a slightly tingly feeling on my tongue that’s not like other fruit that I’ve had. I don’t know if I’ll buy them again, but if I ever see them on the menu at a restaurant, I know I’d order them to see how they prepare them.

June 3, 2007

Photo post!

Filed under: goings-on — jzoe @ 12:54 am

I think you all know I got a camera and I’ve been taking photos again- I think it’s time to show you all what I’ve been shooting lately. Here they are!

This is a photo I took of some of Kendra’s team mates playing power soccer. Most of the photos I took that day were kind of spotty because the lighting in a gymnasium is only so good. I took this one on a longer exposure to capture some more of the light and get some motion.

Speaking of light and trying to catch an interesting shot, this is the view out of our back porch from when the weather turned from hot to cold. The way the fog rolled over the hills with bright patches of sun on just some of the trees was really neat, and it was constantly changing. I wish I could have gone around on rooftops getting better pictures. That kind of weather doesn’t come around very often in most places I’ve lived- and definitely not here.

This is our friend Jesse getting his tattoo. It’s huge!

When everyone came out for Kendra’s graduation, we were riding the train and Kendra said to me, “Doesn’t that woman look like your sister?” I had to stop and think, but then I realized that she really could look like Bri in ten or fifteen years.

After we got to San Francisco we spent some time on the piers, and we saw these sea lions. I think the big one is annoyed at the little one.

We also saw some gigantic strawberries, and I had Kendra hold her hand up to them for scale. Aren’t the enormous?

This is funny- this is a picture of the guy who sits on Fisherman’s Wharf and hides behind some sticks and scares people when they walk past without noticing him ahead of time. He just spreads the sticks and pokes his head out. Sometimes he says “boo” or the equivalent to scare people, and a hilarious number of people scream and jump. This is the guy who got me while I was on the phone with my mom while I was walking around right after moving out here. He’s still at it.

A different day when everyone was out here we went to Muir Beach. I just thought this was a cute one of Kendra and me.

A little later Kendra and I went down to Santa Cruz with her dad and stepmom and stopped on PCH to take a few pictures. It was a good time, and I thought this was a great smile in the light.

The other day, I think it was Friday June 1st, Kendra and I went on a chocolate tour with our friend Phil. This is what Kendra thought of the gear they made us wear.

I still don’t know how to feel about the beard net.

Even more recently, this is Kendra with her new glasses. I think they’re really sophisticated, and a good fit for her.

In conclusion, here’s a puppy. It’s surprisingly hard to get good puppy photos! They’re in constant motion and they want to eat your camera.

Sorry I couldn’t give a little more narrative context for these photos; it’s tough to catch up if you don’t stay on top of typing the story as you go!

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