Paradigm Drift

digital art

2012-01-31T10:50:00.000-08:00

A while back, I wanted to try something a little different... toy around with digital art again but take it in a new direction. Add words to some, overlay images together, and just play with a different style. So I did! I had lots of fun. And I think some pretty cool art came out of it. :)

napa hike

2012-01-22T11:22:00.000-08:00

Tim and I spent New Year's in Napa and while we were there we went for a short hike through the hills and the vineyards. It's so beautiful up there!! It took me a while to finally edit them and get them uploaded for you, but that's ok. I've been busy with so many wonderful things lately, I can't even begin to tell you yet! Some very good things with my photography are on the near horizon, but I'll wait until I have photographic evidence until I share it with you. I can say this, though: It's REALLY exciting!!!

iphone photography

2012-01-12T15:58:00.000-08:00

I recently got a new iPhone (never had one of these before) and I have to say, I am loving the wide variety of apps that there are to choose from! Because -- you guessed it -- my favorite thing on the phone is the camera. Of course. :)

I have been playing with this wonderful app called 'Vintage Camera' a lot as well as 'Photosynth'. Photosynth is really cool because it allows you to stitch a series of images together really easily into a panorama. It has some imperfections but all in all it makes panoramas wayyy easier for me to do than with my Canon. If I was trying to create extremely high quality work for printing, I don't think I would use the iPhone; I just don't have enough control over things like focus and exposure (even with other awesome apps like Camera+.) But for making fun panoramas on the fly, it is freaking fantastic.

This is the result of my experiments with my "new camera". :)

diamond valley lake

2012-01-03T15:20:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone!! I have some beautiful new images to share with you. :)

Last week, Granny Mo and I stopped by Diamond Valley Lake. She was telling me about it and I had never been there before, so of course I wanted to check it out. It was gorgeous!! Fishermen relaxed on the shore, boats puttered around out on the water, and flocks of birds squawked overhead. I stayed until sunset and am really happy with how this batch of photos turned out!!!

the mission inn

2011-12-31T07:39:00.000-08:00

Two days ago Grandma and I went to the Mission Inn in Riverside to meet her friends for lunch. I've never been there before, so I was excited to discover how incredibly beautiful it is!! I took lots of photos, but only a small percentage of them turned out. Although the Christmas decorations are pretty, it made most of the photos far too cluttered to use. It would be nice to go back again when the decorations aren't there. Even still, quite a few of the photos did turn out, and I like how most of them look. :)

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!! It's my blog birthday! I have officially been writing this blog for 2 years! Yippeeeeee!!!!

crystal cove - part 3

2011-12-26T13:04:00.000-08:00

Here are the last of the photos from Crystal Cove. The sunset was beautiful and an easy subject to photograph. :)

I was toying with the colors on these next couple of shots and they were soooo pretty when I turned them blue. I actually like it better than the orange. It's very dramatic. I know they're basically the same, but I like the boat that crossed the water in the second one. And then in the third one, two boats crossed each other.

crystal cove - part 2

2011-12-20T11:56:00.000-08:00

This is the tunnel that goes underneath the road leading out to Crystal Cove.

When I was editing this, I accidentally hit the wrong shortcut and inverted it. It looked so cool that I kept it. :) Gotta love "mistakes"...

crystal cove - part 1

2011-12-17T13:48:00.000-08:00

Last week, Mom and I took a day trip down to Crystal Cove. I'd never been there before and several people kept telling me that it would be a great place to go take photos. They were right. I took so many photos that I'm splitting it up into three blog posts so as not to overwhelm you with a hundred photos all at once. :) Enjoy!

Here's mom, collecting things to put in her painting... and my shadow :)

And this is what I saw all day long... Crystal Cove from my perspective. Hehe.

Look at this shell!!! Isn't it so pretty? There was a surprise inside...

Isn't he cute!?!?

Starfish hanging out on the underside of a rock!

christmas lights

2011-12-11T09:18:00.000-08:00

In the past, I have never felt a lack of Christmas spirit. Usually I am already thinking about decorating the tree before Thanksgiving has even arrived and planning out what cookies I want to bake to give away and going through old Christmas music. That's why when Thanksgiving came and went this year and another week passed and I hadn't even once contemplated any of these things, I began to wonder if I was ever going to feel any Christmas spirit at all. Even in spite of the fact that every time I went to the store I was accosted by snowmen and reindeer and flashing lights, I admit I was sort of hoping that I might be able to just slip by it and step into the New Year without Santa being the wiser.

It's funny; when you're in the spirit of the Holidays, it's fun. But when you're not ready for it yet, it's really annoying that everyone is just looking for an excuse to tack red and green glitter onto everything you see and play the same old songs over and over. It's like Christmas threw up all over them and you're trying desperately to hold your breath and get by without noticing - but it's impossible because the stench is inescapable. It clings to your clothes even after you've made it home, showered twice, and are hiding in the back of your closet, shivering.

I was doing a REALLY good job of avoiding most of it. Because why should I put up tinsel and add holiday-friendly sprinkles to my cookies and wear snowflake earrings if I don't feel like it? Who slammed their gavel down and decreed that I had to participate in this nonsense? The year went by so freaking fast that it seems like it was just last Christmas for crying out loud. I was even considering sending a proposal to the board of Holiday directors requesting that we only celebrate it every three years. Then it would actually feel like a whole year had passed since the last one. Great idea, right?

Then a few days ago I was in desperate need of some exercise. I put on my hat and gloves and three layers (as if I need to be constantly reminded that I'm not in a perfect warm paradise any more) and headed out to go for a night walk. Aside from the fact that it was freaking freezing in southern California, it was a really nice. The streets were quiet and the moon and six stars were out.

And then I saw them.

Christmas lights! Everywhere! Twinkling red, green, gold, and white. Icicle and snowflake shapes. Reindeer and snowmen lit up on people's front lawns. Christmas trees glowing in living room windows. Santa clauses and holiday trains and wreaths. People who had strung a million glowing vines across their roof and posted rows of giant candy canes along the sidewalk and set them to the 'flash on and off all night long' setting as if to say, "This is a FESTIVE house!!!! No humbugs here!!!"

That's when I felt a sharp pinch somewhere on my left shoulder blade, and I let out a scream. I whirled around to find the Christmas Spirit Bug laughing evilly as he zoomed away on iridescent candy cane dusted air, the sound of echoing laughter and jingle bells fading into the cold night. I WAS BITTEN!!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

I raced home and grabbed my camera, turned around and returned to the scene of the crime. Click, click, click, click. It was completely hopeless. Pretty soon my memory card was filled with evidence. All I wanted to do was make gingerbread cookies, sing Christmas carols, and drink peppermint hot chocolate.

Damn you, Christmas lights!!! I was doing just fine until you came along and ruined everything.

There was this AMAZING ring around the moon!!! It was the largest I've ever seen. (God must have liked it, cause he put a ring on it... ;) Seriously though... is this not incredible??

interior design

2011-12-06T09:56:00.000-08:00

Michele commissioned me to take photos of a couple of interiors that she designed, so I went on a little field trip. It was a lot of fun, but also hard, too. I've never taken interior photos before and so I didn't realize how hard it would be when the rooms are really tiny. I tried to get a shot with everything in it and no matter where I stood I just couldn't. I took some photos that I thought I might be able to stitch together, but ultimately couldn't make it work because of the distortion from my wide angle lens. And if I zoomed in, there wasn't nearly enough in the photo, so that didn't work either.

I ended up having to take a ton of photos, adjust the distortion in all of the wider ones, and ended up taking several detail shots to make up for it. I figured since I couldn't get a lot of shots with the whole room in it, at least I could highlight some of the details of each design. I spent 4x as much time in photoshop than I did taking the pictures. :) But that was ok, because I learned sooooo much. And it was really fun. These are the photos from the first room...

And these are the photos from the second room... this one was a LOT harder than the first.

grandma's backyard

2011-11-30T11:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I stepped outside my grandma's back door and was struck by how beautiful the rocks on the hill were next to the contrasting blue sky. So I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures. Pretty soon I was photographing all of the plants in her backyard as well as the hillside. The sunlight was very striking and everything was so beautiful. I had fun playing. :)

Ok, I admit, this picture was taken by the side of her house, not the backyard. Whatever. Details, details... ;)

This pompous grass was gorgeous bathed in sunlight!!!!

This little guy was so not afraid of me!! Jiminy here was playing Mr. Model. He let me get all up in his face, clicking away. Don't be surprised if you see him on the red carpet soon, he seemed to love all the attention. :)

sensual

2011-11-26T21:48:00.000-08:00

So my grandma has all kinds of knick knacks scattered throughout her house that she's collected from her travels around the world, paintings that she's painted, and other miscellaneous things she's amassed as an artist. Last time I was here, I experimented with a lot of still life photos. This time I wanted to do something a little different.

Then I noticed a couple of cool statues that she had and got inspired to create some abstracts. I created a series from one of them, then the other. Then I went around her house hunting for other things that fit the theme of sensuality. My goal was to highlight tiny details and aspects of each one to make them more emotional. I really love how they turned out!

These next two are the same, with just a little different post processing.

This is from a couple of different paintings my grandma did.

back to california

2011-11-05T18:04:00.000-07:00

When we were flying in the plane over the great wide pacific ocean, I looked out the window and saw this... so beautiful. Does this picture below not look like someone giving a peace sign?

I got stuck in San Francisco for two nights after they way overbooked my connecting flight which was supposed to take me to San Diego. But it was a fun adventure and I got to spend more time with Tim. :) The next couple of shots were when I finally was landing in San Diego...

My aunt and uncle are always remodeling some aspect of their house and their latest project is to add a loft above the kitchen / living room. It's super cool. So I took several pictures of them working on it. :)

Next stop, Irvine! :)

aloha also means goodbye...

2011-10-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

I definitely didn't think I was going to have time to post one last post, but as we were driving down the highway yesterday there was the most incredible sky waving goodbye at me, so I took a few pictures. :) I just barely had enough time to upload them and post this for you guys before our internet gets disconnected. We leave in just two days. Wow, another fast move. Crazy stuff! I will definitely miss the snorking... yes, I said snorking. But otherwise, I am happy. For the first time in my life, I'm actually thinking of California as cold!! lol I never thought that would happen. So mainland, here I come... off to my next grand adventure!

xoxo

volcanoes national park

2011-10-26T10:48:00.000-07:00

These pictures are from a day trip that Tim and I took a few weeks ago down to Volcanoes National Park. We went there once when we first moved here and did the Kilauea Iki hike, which was fantastic (in my opinion, it's the best thing I saw in the whole park) but we wanted to go back and see everything else that was there to see. There were some really interesting formations and petroglyphs -- and lots and lots of lava rock! :)

For those of you who haven't heard, we will be moving back to California next week. So this will be my last Hawaii blog post!! I'm a little sad to say goodbye, but I'm always looking forward to the next adventure...

This is devil's throat! It's an unmarked, little known trail off the side of the road that most tourists don't know about and technically you're not supposed to go there because the ground is unstable and you can fall in and kill yourself.

But you know me, we went anyway. :) It was super cool!!! This pit is crazy deep!!

The lava was all shimmery and multicolored. So cool!

See the dark area? That's one of the most recent lava flows! (Hardened and cooled for a long time, of course.)

Petrolyphs!!!

mauna kea summit

2011-10-19T11:45:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago Tim and Mark and I went to visit Mauna Kea and drive up to the summit. Most people think that Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world, but actually, Mauna Kea is significantly taller when measured from its base, which is underwater. However, Mount Everest has a higher elevation. Mauna Kea stands at 13,796 feet above sea level.

We had to acclimate at the visitor's center before driving up, and even then by the time we reached the top I was gasping for breath and feeling a little lightheaded. But it was an amazing sight!! A blanket of clouds covered most of the landscape below and the sky was the most brilliant, clear blue gradient. It was FREEZING up there, even wearing three thick heavy sweaters. We didn't take a tour, so we didn't get the luxury of tour guides giving us parkas. I haven't worn a sweater once since I arrived on the island, and it might has well have been snowing up there it was so cold. Not everyone knows this, but in the winter, it does snow, and lots of people go skiing and snowboarding. Yep, in Hawaii.

We watched the sunset, and then after night fell Mark rode down the mountain on his mountain bike and Tim and I drove back down to the visitor's center, where we stopped to drink hot chocolate and peer through a bunch of telescopes that were set up. The stars were incredible! I have never seen a more clear, star-flooded sky in my entire life. Which is why they have the observatory here, as you can see from all the pictures. :)

See that mountain below? That's actually not on the big island... it's Maui! :)

We didn't know this until after we had left, but this is the trail that actually leads to the summit, which is a peak off to the side which is slightly higher than where all the tourists and visitors go. So technically, we didn't go to the summit, but really... eff that. The difference between this peak and that one is minor. Plus it was freezing up there, lol. But anyway, that's why you see the two lone wolves down on the trail there, determined to tell everyone they went to the real summit.

Pshhhh, whatever. :) I stood on top of the tallest mountain in the world.

I really liked the photo below for some reason... it's just different.

lava tree state park

2011-10-13T10:10:00.000-07:00

A while ago, Tim and I went to Lava Tree State Park, just to see what it was all about. I would have to say that if you are coming here on vacation, this would not be one of the places to visit (unless you're here for several weeks.) I mean, it's really beautiful and everything, but there are SO many other places that are better. Still, the formations are interesting and it was a really pretty thing to see. I enjoyed it.

The drive up to the park though is spectacular. These absolutely massive trees tower over the road. I kept trying to step out into the middle of the street to get a shot down the middle, but the cars were unceasing. I had to wait for ages just to get an empty road in one direction.

I finally managed to get one quick snapshot in before I had to hop back in the car.

The Park is named after the hot, fast flowing lava that collided with wet O'hia trees. As it hardened, they became lava molds of the tree trunks. As you can see:

It took me forever to find an angle where I could capture the brand new tree growing out of the mold... it blended into the foliage so well. Finally I settled on using the sky as a backdrop, because I had to capture this. I love that life is always growing and adapting to new circumstances...

The path that wound through the park was absolutely beautiful, too.

far east...

2011-10-07T10:52:00.000-07:00

As far east as you can go on the big island, anyway. :) A while back, Tim and I took a drive to the easternmost part of the island. If this beach has a name (which it probably does) I don't know it. Well, I guess you can't really call it a beach because there isn't much sand - but it is beautiful!

The air is so fresh here because you get all of the clear air that's been traveling for miles and miles across the pacific ocean. Scientists actually do tests on the air here when they're doing comparisons to see how clean air is, because this is some of the freshest air in the country! Believe me, our lungs were fully oxygenated. :)

Only a few pictures turned out, but I wanted to share them with you.

geometrics: scenic

2011-09-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

And finally, the final post in my 5-part geometrics series! These were created from landscape images, architectural images, and scenic images. You can basically see aspects of the original scenes, but they've been shifted and warped in really cool ways! This is probably my favorite style.

If you are interested in purchasing some of my geometrics as prints, be sure to check my website out tomorrow evening, many of these images will be available. :)

2 (outdoor patio of a restaurant)

3 (movie theater)

5 (caboose on a train)

7 (sj capistrano mission)

16 (deck of a large ship)

17 (boat on the dock)

18 (ramp to lower dock)

Look closely at the one below... You can see the paths winding through this square world back to the mountains... this one's one of my favorites, it's so cool. :)

The next two are from the same image, but they have been turned inside out. In the first one, the reflection of the water is in the middle. In the second one, the reflection of the water is on the outside and the sky is in the middle. I like how unless you look at them closer, you might not even notice! But the subtle differences make the image really interesting.

This one is my favorite!!! The roof and the blue and white fence just made this image turn out sooooo freaking cool!! :D

geometrics: automotive

2011-09-26T10:31:00.000-07:00

Yippee! Part 4 of my 5-part geometrics series. I think these are soooo cool! These geometrics were made from my classic car abstracts, and they turned out awesome. My favorite is the one at the very bottom... you know I love to save the best for last! :)

geometrics: subjectural

2011-09-21T10:30:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know subjectural is not a word. But if you are like me and you have a Tienese dictionary that you add new words to all the time, you can say stuff like that. :) It means, these are my geometrics that are semi-abstract but you can still make out the subject(s). I think they're fun. Here's part 3 of my 5-part geometrics series!

Oh and by the way, I discovered something cool... if you click on one of the images it will go to a close up view with a bunch of thumbnails and you can hit the left and right arrows to look through them at full size. Thank you blogger for being awesome!! :D

geometrics: nature

2011-09-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

Part 2 of my 5-part geometrics series! These are my nature ones... flowers, leaves, and plants - oh my!

geometrics: abstract

2011-09-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

This is post #1 of a 5-post series of my new geometrics! Woo hoo. I've been experimenting some more and having fun (as usual) and made a collection of these new lovelies even bigger than the last. So I thought I'd be kind and split them up into categories. The first are going to be my abstracts. You can sometimes tell what they were made from, but usually not. Keep your eye out for the next 4 geometric posts!!

incredible sky

2011-09-09T10:22:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing Hawaii has plenty of (well... actually there are a lot of things Hawaii has plenty of, lol) it's incredible skies. The clouds here are just amazing. This post isn't all sky... actually it's a mish mash of some other miscellaneous shots I've taken over the last month. But I saved up some of my best skies for you, too. Enjoy. :)

I thought these clouds looked so cool! It looks like there's water in the sky and the clouds are sitting on top of it and being reflected back in it.

hakalau bay

2011-09-06T10:08:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Tim and I were in Hilo and stopped at Hakalau Bay. This huge bridge towers over the bay and below it is a crumbing ruin - all that's left of an old sugar plantation. It was wiped out by a tsunami a long time ago. It was actually pretty fascinating to walk about and see what little is left. There was one spot where you could walk between giant old rusted gears covered in moss and leaves. It was so dark though that my pictures didn't turn out. It was still a cool experience though!

waikoloa golf course

2011-08-30T10:07:00.000-07:00

Michele has been asking me to take some pictures of the golf course here, so the other day Tim and I went for a walk out on the course in the afternoon and I got some beautiful pictures. :)

hawaii tropical botanical gardens

2011-08-25T09:50:00.000-07:00

Last month (yes, I know I'm a slacker and take forever to post my photos nowadays... ;) Tim, Elyse and I went to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens and wow was it gorgeous! There were so many beautiful plants and flowers I've never seen before. There were like a million (no exaggeration at all there...) different types of ginger, and an entire area dedicated to just orchids.

Next time you're on the big island, I definitely recommend it. These are not your traditional gardens where everything is plotted into it's own perfect little squares and neatly labeled. You walk through a magical tropical forest and could easily spend hours in here making your way through all the winding paths lined with flowers and plants and eventually find yourself down by the ocean with a breathtaking view of the cliffs. Bring mosquito repellent, though... they didn't bother me, but poor Elyse had the bloodletting of a lifetime. I'm surprised she had any left at all by the end of the day!

Rastafarian tree...

hawaiian cultural festival

2011-08-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

Recently, Tim and I were invited by our neighbor to go to the Establishment Day Hawaiian Festival at the Pu'ukohola Heiau national historic site in Kawaihae. This is the real deal, not just some luau put on for tourists. Tribes come from the other islands for the Royal Court ceremonies and there's a day of cultural demonstrations, warrior exhibitions, and all kinds of crafts, like lei-making and so on.

They chant, dance, and go through this huge ceremony in Hawaiian. Then when the ceremony is over they fight! No joke, all the men get out spears and fight each other!! It was really cool. I guess in 2005 one guy got speared in the face and they had to stitch him up on site. It was fascinating to see how into it they all were and how important this was to them.

As you can see, they take this whole spear fighting thing very seriously.

This guy (below, with his hands in the air) beat all of the other guys who tried soooo hard to get him with their spears and couldn't. Yep. All of these spear throwing pictures are of them trying to get him. lol.

This shot below is one of my favorites because he's holding up the winner's hand and you can see the expression of the guy on the right who lost. (Click on it to get a closer view)

puako

2011-08-15T14:52:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago Tim and I found this little secluded beach in Puako which (almost) nobody ever goes to. Because of this there were so many whole shells scattered all over the place! I had a shell-collecting session. We tried to snorkel but discovered the water was so hazy gray you couldn't even see a foot in front of you (kind of like my kaumana caves adventure!) So we abandoned that idea. We tried to have a picnic until we were attacked by ants. There were a few sailboats just chilling out off the shore so they made lovely silhouettes in lots of my pictures. We also saw some sea turtles taking a nap.

We watched the sunset. The atmosphere magnified the sun to create the most dramatic fiery sphere and I snapped on my long lens in order to fill the frame with it's brilliant blaze of glory. All in all, it was a perfect afternoon.

The photo below turned out a little blurry, unfortunately, so isn't really usable... but it was so pretty I had to share it anyway :)