Airport Adventure?

I picked up CN at the airport on Saturday and on the way home the skies were relatively clear and I was driving through the ports of San Diego without a thick fog obscuring my view. As we passed the main streets, I would have been remiss to skip an opportunity to take such nice shots at night. So after some…..”complex” maneuvering through traffic we pulled over to a pier and setup.

It just so happened that CN just received a hand me down tripod from his dad. It was a little janky and we were standing on a floating pier so we weren’t in the most stable of locations. But after a bit of fiddling with our camera settings we managed to get a few great shots.

CN lining up his shots:

Pretty Bokeh on this shot:

My “perfect” shot of San Diego:

San Diego is a beautiful city, I’m really glad everything worked out for me here. For the most part anyway, but you can’t have everything. This shot had to be saved with LightRoom again even through I thought it originally turned out pretty good. SL pulled out all the pretty colors in it. I shot with my ISO too low thinking my camera would do all the work, turns out it was a noob mistake.

After our random shoot, we took off for Yakyudori and saw SO. Had a quick dinner, watched Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World at my place and headed home. I only really have about a week left to hang out with CN since he’ll be finishing up this quarter. Its sad to see him go especially now that he could be more active in PhotoClub. I’ve always thought CN had a really interesting life so far, something to aspire for. It won’t be the last time we’ll see each other through, blogging his travels & I will see him in NorCal. 

I probably won’t update too much until after next week ends. I’d rather be out spending time with people I won’t see next quarter between studying for finals.

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Black Friday & Restaurant Review: Tadashi

SL & JL came by for Thanksgiving break to visit my roomie, had some fun with them. I took them to Hodad’s but unfortunately forgot to take my camera along with me. They enjoyed it at least, even through we didn’t have much time to go shopping for Black Friday.

I didn’t get much this year, now that I’m taking photography more seriously I got a travel sized tripod like /IF/ for my traveling. I also picked up a 2TB hard drive for half the cost of what it usually is, it’ll last me for a long time until I start doing videography projects more often. Looked around for winter clothes, but didn’t really find anything of note. Trying to save money for Christmas as well since I blew all of my savings on my camera.

The tripod I think will serve me very well, its sturdy enough to handle carrying my D7000 and it’ll be good for taking stable night shots. Also it will be nice to be in my own pictures with my friends, for a change. I’m hoping to document my travels like /IF/ did in Japan & Europe.

JL, CW, & my roommate after a night of beer pong.

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Restaurant Review: Tadashi
Tadashi is located in the La Jolla Downtown area, so its pretty upscale part of town. Lots of other competitive restaurants around it. Its a Japanese Fusion style place, seemingly like an Izakaya. Quite a typical fusion place, I wasn’t particularly wowed by it. But I wasn’t let down either. The food was fresh and tasty, just nothing to go crazy about.

I had the Drunken Roll. Part tuna, crab, tempura crunch, and avocado: 

While SL & my roommate got the all you can eat sushi deal for $25 each:

Now for someone like me, $25 is just not worth a price paying for. My eating capacity just isn’t that great, unless I’m in the same restaurant for three hours or more which would probably require me to drink a lot. I’m much more suited for an izakaya type environment. But for SL, this was totally right for him. He ate his heart’s worth and didn’t have a single complaint.

Food: 2
Ambiance: 2
Service:  2.5
Price: 3

My scale is out of 3. My roll was $13, and while it was filling I don’t think I should have paid that much for it. Japanese fusion is always a pricey endeavor however. Service was worth noting, was quick and they gave me miso soup for free.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

My whole life is an irony, or at the very least the world is just much smaller than it was when I initially moved here to the mainland. Thanksgiving was great this year, nice to just take it in and have a simple dinner [but totally delicious, thanks for cooking!] with great company.

Theres many things I’m thankful for this year, but heres a few:

• My parents and family, for always supporting me and making me the person I am.
• My friends, who improve the quality of my life everyday
• JSA, PhotoClub, Karate
• To live my life the way I choose it to be, I am only so lucky to be able to.

I’m grateful for everyone who I’ve spent time getting to know me during my first year at UCSD, its quickly coming to a close and I will be a Senior this coming quarter. It’ll be busy for me trying to prepare for graduate school and furthering my interests. But I’m glad that there are people around me will be there to help slow the world down and just chill with me.

Great company indeed. =] Remember to take time for yourself.

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JSA: Thanksgiving Potluck

Might as well start with the best picture right? I had the pleasure of having A show me the ropes with basic flash technique. Running around and taking pictures of everyone with much more dramatic lighting was so much fun.

Props to AM for letting me use his awesome flash and assisting me in making my photos look much better.

Here is some of the best work that we put together:

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This is the second time I’ve roasted turkey and I’m happy to say despite the oven not completely doing its job, I was glad to hear that it turned out well and everyone enjoyed it!

Spent some time with KA & SK last night and it was time well worth invested. I found another fellow adventurer in KA, the irony that I did not spend more time with her after we met in Tajima is not lost to me.

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SD City: Seaport Village

Last sunday was quite an enjoyable day with no plan on hand other than a full tank of gas and some change in our pockets. I enjoy cities, I always have since I was young. I haven’t been to SD city lately, so I seemed like a good idea.

I recently purchased Adobe Lightroom 3 after taking a Photoclub session on it. I tried to bring out the pink & purple skyline from the sunset. It turned out decently but with more practice I wonder how much better I can make it.

I feel like shopping is just another form of traveling the world. Except the trip is shorter and its more accessible. Both activities are greatly enhanced in quality by the company you go along with. Little trinkets become memorable set pieces, I need to make some cupcakes.

Christmas season is coming up, so plenty of places will start decorating with lights. I’m looking forward to interesting opportunities for photography.

Picture of the Week: Very subtle changes with Lightroom, couldn’t do much to make it look better. Theres a bit more contrast to make her stand out more from the background.

I started a Flickr account to start posting high quality pictures, can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/teddykuma

It was long overdue, but I cooked a birthday dinner for H. It was simple and satisfying. I love cooking, I really need to put more time into it.

I’ve been investing more time in things I once really enjoyed, putting more time in my photography has made me evaluate my priorities. While I enjoy what I’m doing now, It might be time to put more effort on myself again. Practice photography, play the piano, or run out and travel more.

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I'm on a Boat? o.O

Well, lets be realistic here. I’m from an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, its not the first time i’ve stretched out my sea legs. However, taking night shots on a moving boat is really challenging! Circle K Masquerade Ball last weekend was my first photoshoot with the club. Quite the event, I couldn’t believe it was even on a boat to begin with. I’m used to UTA stuff being rather outlandish as well, but this was definitely comparably good.

Stephen demonstrating how my computer can be used to cleave people to death. I finally joined PhotoClub now that I’m capable of contributing and going to events. I’m really excited to a part of it since I’ve loved photography since I was a kid, but as a hobby it was far too expensive for me to actually enjoy. I still have my old film SLR.

Like Casino Dance, there was gambling tables, through I’m pretty sure they came up with the idea first. Felt bad for this guy losing everything, but when I came back later he was still holding his own.

Karaoke was something I haven’t seen in any “big” event and while there were plenty of terrible singers [as long as they’re having fun right?], there were some pretty ligit ones as well.

Around halfway through the event I ran into M after taking pictures on the floor for about an hour. I had the pleasure of her company and got to meet her friends as well. Got to practice my night shots for M and took a few good ones, even if the boat moving messed me up constantly. Thanks for the patience, and I hope you enjoy the shots.

By the end of the night 3:00 – 4:00am before we were docking, most people were like this cute couple. Had too much fun and exhausted. My pictures of the dance floor weren’t too great, so maybe I’ll get better next event.

In retrospect, I think it was a very successful event for me. Got to know M a bit better & PhotoClub members are people I get along with amicably and I look forward to contributing to the club.

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