Shirin Neshat

Shirin Neshat

Shirin Neshat is an Iranian artist famous for her photography, film, and video who lives in New York. As a child, she was enrolled in Catholic boarding school in Tehran so she could be “westernized”. She left Iran to study art in California where she went to Dominican College and UC Berkeley. After graduating, she worked for a non-profit art organization, but she never tried to make art herself. In 1990, she returned to Iran to begin her famous series “The Women of Allah”. This refers to the social Muslim culture and society through a sequence of black and white, very contrasted photos. In 1999, she won the International Award of the XLVIII Biennial of Venice. Shirin Neshat has become one of the most famous Persian artists within the Western artistic world. Her earlier work was a symbol of personal grief, anxiety, and the pain of separation from her home country of Iran. Recently, her artwork has become more political and critical. In 2006, she was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize that is given to a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life. In 2009, she won the Silver Lion for best director at the 66^th Venice Film Festival for her debut “Women without Men”.

Her art interested me because I liked the contrast of the black and white. Her theme of the women from Iran is very striking to the eye, thought I do not like it very much. Her photos look very photoshopped as well because the writing on the people is way too dark to be ink on their skin, which bothers me a lot too because it just looks incredibly fake.

Sally Mann

Sally Mann started taking pictures one day when she saw her daughter's face as it looked like it had been beaten; Sally saw this as art. She loved taking pictures of her children in many different aspects, but usually they were all nude and sometimes very dirty looking. Other than portraits, she liked taking landscape pictures and of people in front of landscapes. When she was young, she always had to get her way, but her parents were very strict. Her father was an interesting man who made awkward sculptures, but never did anything with it. Along with her children and landscapes, she took a lot of pictures of her husband and her dogs.

Her husband was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and Sally was in complete denial about it because he meant everything to her. Once, they received a phone call from the police saying there was a loose prisoner and he was supposedly on their property. Sally's husband sighted him and shot him in the hip, but it didn't kill him so the prisoner ended up shooting himself.

Sally had one dog that was a big part of her life and when he died, she kept his remains until it was completely gone and rotted away except for one paw claw.

She had a show at the Pace Gallery about her photos dealing with death that she took at an anthropology center. Unfortunately, her show was canceled.

Cultural: Amexicano

The movie Amexicano is about an American man named Bruno who needs a new job because he’s broke. His friend gives him a job, put he needs another man to help with the job. He goes to a street corner where the jobless Hispanics stand everyday, waiting for a job opportunity and finds a young man named Ignacio who is able to work with him. The two men work together for many days on construction projects and they sometimes go out together for fun. One day at work, their boss blamed Ignacio for stealing one of his tools from his car and he fired him from the job. Later on, Ignacio gets stabbed and Bruno takes him to the hospital even though Ignacio says not to because he will get deported. But instead of letting him die, Bruno takes him to the hospital where he’s told he will be deported from the United States because he’s an immigrant. After he’s deported, Bruno tries to go and rescue him again so he can go back to his sister in the states, but while searching for him, Bruno finds Ignacio dead in the desert because of dehydration.

This movie is very realistic in showing Mexicans illegally living in the United States. They all are looking for jobs, and many stand on corners and streets waiting for someone to come pick them up to give them a job. Many times, Hispanics get blamed for things they don’t do, causing them to be deported. It’s really easy for an American to get a Hispanic in trouble because they are the minority. In terms of education, this movie teaches American characters how to speak Spanish and teaches Hispanic characters to speak English. The dialect in the movie is very degrading, but it only shows how these people actually speak. In reality, this movie tells the truth about the life of illegal Hispanics in America. There’s a lot of crime and violence in their life, but living in the United States will always be the prominent choice for a better life for them and their families.

Museum Trip #2

Most of the pieces of the Pre-Columbian art were sculptures of humans or animals, though their faces and bodies were somehow deformed or made to look very geometric. These sculptures were made of stone, gold, clay, and jade. These countries were also very famous for their pottery, which many times contained colorful drawings that set a scene or told a story. Many times, the pottery was in the shape of a human or animal, which made it hard to identify as a vase or bowl until you really looked.

The Spanish Colonial Art was based mostly on very colorful paintings. All of these pieces were portraits of adults, and some of adults with their children. For some reason though, many of the faces in each painting looked very similar. In each painting, there was some type of religious affiliation, usually a cross that represented Christianity. Along with the painting, there were also many sculptures that were full of color, family bonding, and religious affiliations.

I was not able to relate with much of the art because I have no connections with Christianity and I am not able to paint or make sculptures. I did enjoy looking at the art and trying to understand how these artists were so creative so many hundreds of years ago. This art compared to the modern day American art that I usually encounter has many similarities and differences. Pottery is still made out of the same materials and with the same intentions, but pottery now is more basic and is not usually made into the shape of a person or an animal. Paintings today are very specific and precise and do not always associate with Christianity.

Though I’m not a fan of museums, this was a good experience and I enjoyed looking at how art has transformed throughout the past centuries.

Sam & Jenn

So I had another photo shoot so I could add to my Blurb book and just my personal photo portfolio. Out of the bunch, I feel like this is one of the strongest pictures of Sam and Jenn because their eyes are pretty ridiculous.

I have finals this week and I'm not excited whatsoever. Studying is already a bitch, and I'm not even almost done with one of my study guides even though I worked on it last night for 6 hours in the library.

So my photos are basically my get away from all my work, but then I take too much time looking through them etc.

I go home in 6 days for winter break, but I'm not sure if I'll be doing any traveling, though I really hope I go somewhere photographic. Is that a word?

Photo shoots

So for my FSEM project, I'm making a book of photos that I've been taking all this weekend. The theme is friends in leaves basically, so obviously the pictures are of my friends in leaves/on the ground/in trees etc. This picture (of Spencer) is one of my favorite pictures that I took this weekend because the colors have no been photoshopped at all, which I find pretty amazing because his eyes are incredibly blue.

I've been trying to start making my book on Blurb, but I really don't like the program and I prefer MyPublisher because there are more options on there. So I think I'm going to end up using MyPublisher because I don't want to spend money on a crap book from Blurb.

In total, I took just over 1,455 photos this weekend, which was more than I expected, but I guess it's good because now I have more to choose from!

Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz was born a Jew in Connecticut in 1949. She attended the San Francisco Art Institute for painting but after some time she found her passion for photography. She began her photography career working as a staff photographer for Rolling Stone magazine and then became a published portrait photographer, where she worked for 10 years. Unfortunately, she attended drug rehabilitation because she was around so much drug use through the magazine. She was the last person ever to photograph John Lennon because he was killed 5 hours after their photo shoot in 1980. In that decade, she started working for Vanity Fair magazine and photographed celebrities and she got her first book, Annie Leibovitz: Photographs, published. In 1991, she became the first woman, and second living portraitist to have her photographs in the National Portrait Gallery. She has three children: Sarah, Susan, and Samuel and Annie was very close with Susan Sontag, who died at age 71 in 2004. Her most recent book, A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005, includes pictures that she has taken of celebrities, along with pictures of herself with her family.

trick or treat

So I was walking home from Safeway with Caleb and he freaked out when he saw a squirrel eating a carved pumpkin! He told me to quickly take a picture of it before it ran away. But instead of running away, it kept eating, took off the top, and crawled inside! And Caleb had just said how funny it would be if he did and then stuck his head out! LOOK! He did! So that was our 3 minutes of entertainment for that day.

Halloween was a drag this year. I planned on being Snooki and I bought a costume and everything, planning on wearing it Sunday night, on the actual holiday. Friday, I went with friends to a costume party and I decided to wait until Sunday to wear Snooki, so I bought a fire fighter costume and wore that. Saturday night, mostly all of my friends went out to party, but I stayed in to do homework and study for an 8 A.M. test that I had today (Monday). I decided it would hopefully be fair to study Saturday and Sunday during the day and go out at night and be back at a reasonable hour. So I did some studying Saturday night, and woke up the next morning and immediately started working. I worked ALL day, literally. The only time I took breaks was to eat or go to the restroom. I studied until 1 A.M. Monday morning, went to bed, and woke up at 6 A.M. to study some more. So obviously, I didn't go out Sunday night and wasn't able to wear my Snooki costume, which really upset me because it was really expensive and fun to plan. So now, I'm planning on just wearing the costume, with all the make up and hair poofing, randomly one day on a random weekend. I'll post pictures.

Cheeseheads

Friday night- we beat Wisconsin 4-2

Saturday night- tied 2-2

But they never beat us!

Friday night was the first hockey game I'd ever been to in my life, and I sat front row with people from my hall. It was amazing! Soooo much fun!

Saturday I decided to go all out and painted my entire face and wore a jersey with leggings and DU colored boots. I felt like Peter Pan though.

I'm planning on going to all of the games from now on, or at least most of them, and painting my face for the majority of them as well!

Yaaaay DU hockey!!!

FALL

Finally, it's fall! Cold weather is awesome.

Mad dog

I had a sociology assignment to do so I went to the park and saw this dog. I went up to pet him, but he wasn't very nice. He looks like an angel though!

The Impassioned Eye; Henri Cartier-Brasson

The Impassioned Eye

Henri Cartier-Brasson

“You just have to live and life will give you pictures.”

“It’s everything. Life. Death. Pure bliss. Everything”

Henri believed that photography was just something that came natural. You did not have to know much to make art.

He chose to look at the extremes, which were sometimes very emotional.

The eye does the framing and the camera does the work.

Eye mind & heart have to be in line and balanced

Geometry and structure

Geometry is the foundation because everyone has feelings

Most of his pictures were taken without the subject knowing because they are never looking at the camera.

When you hit the target there is no need to crop the picture

He liked doing portraits.

“Basically you just have to make people forget about the camera.”

Portraits are the most difficult because you can’t get the same smile or look after it’s gone after that instant.

He loved Mexico because of the intensity of passion, there were whores on the streets at night making love on the street and during the day there were hammer sounds because of the carpenter making coffins.

“Take care of your eye.”

A photo is like the stab of a knife. Painting is meditation.

I promise to...

My best friend Caleb decided that he was going to quit smoking. This really makes me happy :) and so I promised to make sure that he does quit, because it means a lot to both of us.

I'm not sure what to post on this blog anymore... I don't really have time to take pictures daily and post and write about them. I know it's homework... but it's just not working out very well.

Best Fraaand

This is Caleb, my best friend at DU.

We went shopping downtown and this was taken on our journey back home on the light rail.

The End.

Updates

Natalie
A rainbow over DU
Before the storm
Downtown art
Gangster rabii
Ketchup plate
Tracks
DU

So I haven't done my blog in a while because I've been super busy with classes and evening activities. I'm not sure what to say about these last 2 weeks that I haven't done my blog because there's too much to say. So I'm not going to say much and I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

In Plato's Cave

In Plato’s Cave

Despite what anyone says, photography is a form of art. Unlike a painting, a photograph is an artifact with no faults or alterations. Paintings, drawings, and sculptures may be noticed as a form of history, but is everything in that work of art exactly proportional and realistic? A historic photograph on the other hand will always be the truth. When taking a picture, there is no way to change the outcome unless the lighting or the camera angle is altered. Either way, a photo will always be the exact representation of what really was in front of the camera.

Plato’s Cave is an allegory where reality is created by man’s imagination. As prisoners were tied up by their necks and legs, allowing them no movement, a fire burned behind them. A high wall stretched in front of the fire and behind the prisoners, casting the shadows of the subjects upon the cave’s wall. These prisoners could only imagine what these subjects looked like until they were freed and were able to see reality, though some of them were not freed. To these prisoners, the truth was nothing but what they were able to see on the cave’s wall.

Perceiving the world this way was nowhere near truth or reality. The shadows of the subjects casted on the walls were only an outline of what may have been a person or animal. But by believing that these shadows were replicas of the subjects only made reality more exciting. Any shadow is only, and will always be, one color. The image will always be proportionally larger than the subject and there will be nothing but an outline; no details will be involved. So these people had no rights to what features each shadow really had, they were only able to envision a large dark outline. Only to a blind man would this be considered seeing.

A photograph is a paused segment of time featured on photo paper. There are infinite pictures in the world to be taken, and each picture has infinite opinions from the public. Historical photographs: these are ways viewers can see the past, but is everything they see real? There is no way to forge a photograph, but what about the story behind it? Some pictures can make a person completely biased towards a story or myth in history. Why? Because there are no words to explain the frozen subjects or actions, so one’s opinion is less likely to change unless another photograph is more powerful.

What else are photographs used for? Photo albums are special keepsakes to a family because they may include the last memories they had with a relative or friend. They also may include photos from a family vacation just so the special trip is never forgotten. Along with vacations, many photographers travel the world to show people, who do not have the ability to travel, what the rest of the world looks like and what is going on in other places around the globe. While traveling, most of the time people will take pictures of what appeals to them and what they find interesting, unique, remarkable, or beautiful in some way. To a percentage of the viewers, the same image will emotionally appeal to them in a special way, just as it did to the photographer.

The first picture of a baby when he or she is born, his or her first steps, as a toddler, the first day pre-school, elementary school, middle school, high school, graduation day, college, college graduation, wedding day- all of these pictures are important to a person if they want to look back on their past. Taking pictures of ones self shows growth and how that person physically changes over the year, and it is always interesting to look back on those photos.

Framed, published, or printed, a picture is only one viewers perception of what was in front of the camera- the photographer’s. He or she is the only one able to understand the picture completely because no one else experienced the evidence the way he or she did. Each other viewer of the work of art will, without a doubt, create some sort of opinionated response to the picture, may it be fair or negative. A person will always believe what they see versus what they hear. In this case, a photograph will be more emotionally appealing than writing because of the lasting visual image they will have in their minds.

Printed material, like magazines or newspapers, can spread a story very quickly, but it is more likely that a person will even start to read an article if there is a picture attached beside the facts.

A photograph overpowers television because the viewer is able to create his or her own story behind the picture. In television, a story is told with footage to follow, leaving no room for one’s imagination to wonder what is going on. Also, in news, a selection of video footage may be cut out of a segment, changing the storyline. Is it possible to cut parts of a photograph without ruining the image? The vividness of a photograph will never be changed as much as video footage because there is only one piece to a photo.

Photography is one of the many arts, but it is the only one that will always be completely true an honest about what the work of art is about.

Posters

This is on my wall in my dorm, isn't is adorable? Hahaha

Today on the bridge there was a huge poster sale so I ended up buying this along with 2 other large black and white posters of pictures of cute children doing cute and/or silly things.

Today was also my first day of classes! I had Sociology at 8A.M. which wasn't too bad, and then I had spanish at 10 which couldn't have been easier! So I had a nice simple day of academics and was finished by 11 A.M. with all my classes and so I took a nap and then had a lot of time to work out. I started reading the first chapter of my sociology book and it began to drag so I had to take a break from taking notes. But I believe I'm about to go back and try to read again right now.

Sunsets

September 12, 2010

J-Mac; my new home.

A sun sets and reflects in the windows of Johnson Macfarlene. I'm pretty used to my new home now which is good. I can actually find my way around campus too! I'm pretty surprised!

Today I finally went to the gym and worked out for the first time since at DU. I think the altitude got to me because I got a nose bleed and had a hard time breathing at one point. But I feel so great after doing more activity then walking around campus for hours a day!

September 11, 2010

Caitlin Whitney facts:

Her major is HRTM because she wants to travel.

She takes photos for fun.

She's only 17, which is young for a college freshman, but she loves it!

She played basketball, lacrosse, and cheered in high school.

She has an older brother and she loves her family.

May those who were lost 9 years ago on this day R.I.P.

Field Trip!

Today my Personal History of Photography class went on a field trip to downtown Denver. Starting out by jumping on the light rail, we headed to the Denver Art Museum. We walked around for 2.5 hours taking pictures of interesting art and photography. This photo was taken from the Asian Art exhibit. We then ate at the museum restaurant, which was way too fancy for me. The menu consisted of calamari and lamb types of food, which I've never eaten. So I ended up getting macaroni n cheese with grilled chicken. It had like 3 different cheeses on it and it seriously was great! But I couldn't finish it so I took it to go and gave it to a homeless person on the street.

After eating, we went to 2 more photography exhibits and then jumped back on the light rail back to campus where I took a nap for about an hour and then just hung out with friends. Tonight was definitely the most fun night I've had so far. All I did was watch a football game, eat s'mores, and hang out in a friends room just talking and meeting more people for literally like 5 hours.

My favorite part of the night included a neighbor named Sam, who we now call Joseph Sam because of a joke, decided to go to the restroom. Unfortunately, he believed the men's restroom was too far away, so he just went in the girl's restroom and did a cartwheel afterwards into the hall. I can't even count how many laughs I had tonight; that's when you know the night was great.

Sites

My new daily view; I love it.

Walking back from the art building towards my dorm, this is what I get to see. Beautiful.

So far, I've had a great time at DU. I've made countless friends and basically just had a good time doing a bunch of "nothing". Orientation is so chill, yet so hectic. The days are full and busy, but I've managed to make it through each day without taking a nap and only sleeping 5-6 hours each night, which is a big deal for me because I always sleep at least 8. But as of now, 3 days in, I'm still awake and ready to socialize.

All moved in!

September 8, 2010

CHILI'S! Actually, though the name says Alan, I actually colored the beautiful piece of art work and added his name. After a really, really long day, me, my mom, and my friend Alan went to eat at Chili's before my mom left for Houston tomorrow morning. We had to be back on campus at 6:45 for "Know the Code" so we took our food to go and ate in the car on the 5 minute drive back to our dorm. I said goodbye to my mom with a hug, and headed to the activity. I'm tired.

September 7, 2010

This would be what the car looked like right before moving in. 5 luggage, 3 big drawers full of smaller drawers and other small accessories. I thought it would only take like 2 hours to settle in with all of my stuff, but it actually took most of the day. I was VERY surprised that everything fit in my room with a bit of extra space in some drawers; that's definitely an accomplishment!

Last day of shopping

...and this isn't even all of it!

Today was a full day of shopping, my favorite thing to do, but I actually got a bit stressed out during the process. The breakfast room at the hotel was full of students, and I introduced myself to some of them. For others, it was awkward and they kept quiet, but I'm not really shy. After my lovely bagel and yogurt, me and my mom headed to Bed Bath & Beyond, where we picked up most of my dorm stuff that we had previously ordered back in Houston a few weeks ago. Interestingly enough, I ran into my roommate there, who I'd actually never met before! So that was exciting. After purchasing, we went to The Container Store and Target, where we bought the rest of my "stuff".

This picture is most of my junk that I bought today. We brought it up to our hotel room so we could basically re-pack everything and make more room so everything could fit into the car for tomorrow.

Chinese food. Yum. My mom and I walked across the street with my new friend Ross and his dad for some late dinner to this small Chinese restaurant. It was tasty.

But that's basically the end of my day. My lips are chapped and I want to take a shower. Wake up tomorrow: 8:30 AM, though I'll probably end up awake before that! EXCITING!

I'M HERE!!!!

Flight attendants, please be seated for arrival.

I'M HERE!!! Finally, after 18 years of living in Houston, TX, I'm now in Denver, CO, my new hometown. I'm so excited because it is SO real now. My maid cried when I left the house this afternoon and my grandparents looked upset, but I was too excited to frown.

GAAAH I'M HERE!!!! Wow, it's so crazy! Since December 2009, I've known that I'd be coming to DU this fall, and now I'm here! That's the topic of this post if you hadn't noticed.

This picture was taken with my iPhone while landing in Dtown, but I actually like the picture a lot for some reason, I think it's probably the reflection in the wing along with the orange/blue color contrast.

I'm so excited. Shopping tomorrow!

WEENR

Finally, my last day in Houston! So I spent the day with my best friend Candice and we went to the Galleria to shop for nothing important. We ended up buying matching purple Kate Spade friendship bracelets and I got some jewelry and headbands, which is pretty much all I've been getting lately because I've never known how to match jewelry with clothes so I never wear it!

When we left the Galleria around 9:30, we went to pick up my developed pictures since my friend Alex was working at the photo department tonight. On the way, we saw the Oscar Meyer Wiener car, which was really exciting, so we stopped to take a picture. I took her home after that because she has to wake up early in the morning. But my friend Jackie, who was back in town from TCU for the weekend, was going to IHOP with some other people, so I joined and got home right before 2AM. That's about it, I cannot wait until I leave!!!

(Oh, and the title of this post was the license plate on the picture.)

I'm a Smarty

This is Junior, my mom's smart car. She bought it for her own birthday almost 2 years ago and it's basically our fun car. I wasn't planning on bringing my car, a Mercury Mariner, to college, so my sister ended up taking it to her school, WASHU in St. Louis. If I end up needing a car, I'll end up buying one in Denver because I'll need a 4WD.

So since my car is gone, I've been driving this thing around all day every day and all of my friends love it! It's also a convertible, which is pretty nifty. That's about it for the car.

Today I actually packed for college! So far, I've filled 5 luggage and I have yet to pack my comforter and pillows. Most of the stuff in the packed bags is clothes, which I know I'm bringing way too much of, but it's better to have too much then not enough!

Screw It

After 6 years of aching pains in my mouth and this is what I get?

No, just kidding. That's just the implant I got a while ago. Actually, I can't even remember how many oral surgeries I've had because I lost count after the 8th. I think I had 11, but it could have been just 10? Why so many, you wonder? Well it started in 6th grade when I got braces. Then, in either 8th grade, one of my teeth wouldn't come down from the gums so I had my first surgery to attach a chain to my tooth to pull it down. After the third attempt in a year or two (meaning I had 2 more surgeries to pull the tooth down), we decided to change dentists because we felt like the one we had at the time had no idea what he was doing. So I switched dentists and orthodontists and added a bunch of new doctors to the family.

Of my understanding, this is basically what all of the procedures ended up doing when they found out that the tooth was rotten in the middle: pulling down the tooth, taking the tooth out, cutting out the gums in the area to create space, building bone in the space where the tooth was (during multiple procedures), a root canal on the tooth beside it, realizing the root canal didn't work because the other tooth was rotting from the inside, cutting that tooth off, taking the root out, inserting an implant with a screw, screwing the teeth onto the screw, cutting and elevating my gum line, and whitening my teeth. That's basically the outline of what was done in the last few years. Intense eh? I believe so. My teeth and gums are so incredibly tender and sensitive that eating anything hard, cold, or hot will definitely be a little painful. So that's pretty much every day. But now, my teeth are COMPLETELY FINISHED!!!! At the dentist today when I was leaving, the dentist took pictures of me and my new perfected smile, along with jumping into a few photos with me just for fun. I'm so ecstatic that I'm done with all of those appointments!!!

Let's get some shoes!

I finally started packing today, or at least getting ready to pack. I started by pulling everything out of my closet that I thought about taking and my maid helped me fold all my clothes. I then got out my shoes, and I'm pretty sure I'll be bringing too many pairs, but that's the fun of it! After choosing and folding, I went to run some errands, returning a few things I won't be needing, and buying a new bronzer brush. Once again, I bought more then I needed, but at least I'm satisfied with my purchases. I got make up brushes, make up, 3 shirts, sweatpants, leggings, sunglasses, spandex, and some headbands. I've realized that I've become almost obsessed with the color purple. Almost everything I've been buying ends up being purple, including my eyeshadow, lipgloss, shirts, sweatpants, dresses, duvet for my bed, and a headband. I also have a purple pair of shoes that I'm bringing, and a purple ski jacket. Oh well, at least I know the answer to "What's your favorite color?" because I've never had a straight answer for that.

WOW...Luby's

This would be my awesome step-sister Mary Grace. She's a junior in high school and I've only known her for like 3 years or so which is pretty interesting. She lives with my dad and step-mom in a huge 3 story house like 15 minutes from my mom's house, which is where I live full time (until this Saturday of course). As you can probably not understand, she is spelling "WOW" with her fingers and mouth because she is such a cool kid. We have a ritual where when we go to dinner, which only happens like once every 3 months, we go to a restaurant called Luby's, which is basically an old person cafeteria, but we still enjoy it!

Boogie Woogie

I was woken up this morning at 11:00 by a phone call from my dad inviting me over for brunch. He said Dominique Sachse (a family friend and the Channel 2 news anchor), so I decided to go since I hadn't seen her in a while and she was the one who got my Yao Ming picture on the news a few nights ago! Her son, Stiles (featured in the picture) was also there, but I hadn't seen him since he was less than a year old, so seeing him as a 5 year old scared me a bit. He was pretty obsessed with my dad's two dogs, Boogie and Woogie (also featured in picture) so I decided to take a picture of them because it was a pretty cute shot.

I also met with 3 other girls from the Houston area that are going to DU! We ate dinner at The Cheesecake Factory tonight and chatted for 3 hours! It was definitely a good idea to set up this dinner, so I'm glad I did! I actually learned a lot about Denver and rushing for sorority so I feel a lot more comfortable going into rush.

5 more days. Wow!

Girls Night

My aunt, uncle, and 2 cousins drove down from Austin this weekend to go watch the Texans play the Cowboys (Texans won!) Earlier this month, my cousin Daniel turned 12, so as a birthday present, my mom got him, his dad (my uncle), my grandfather, herself, and her fiance tickets to the game. So with my lack of invitation, I decided to stay with my aunt, 9 year old cousin Kendall, and my grandmother for the evening. Around 5:30, we went to get our nails done. My grandmother got a manicure, but the rest of us got pedicures. I personally think manicures are annoying and I don't have the patience to sit through them without being able to use my hands to text or itch my nose because it always gets itchy when I have to stay still. I chose to purple on my toes, my aunt got a red/orange, and my cousin got bright orange (featured in the photo above). It was only 6:30 when we finished with our nails so we decided to go shopping at Kohls. I ended up getting a few long sleeve t-shirts and a pair of leggings for when Denver actually gets chilly! After paying, we got in the car and weren't sure what to do. My aunt suggested getting frozen yogurt (my favorite thing in the world), so we headed to Swirll, my favorite store! I usually get a big cup and eat half and take the rest home for the next day, so that's just what I did. :)

When the family left, I had to say my "College Goodbyes," because they're different then regular old "see ya in a couple months" goodbyes.

One week left. It almost seems real now.

Back to high school

A week until I leave for college and I ended up back in high school.

Senior year, I took a photography class and I loved taking pictures outside of the assignment range. My teacher, who was also head of the newspaper, gave me a field pass to take pictures at football games all of last season. Since I'm still friends with my teacher and the year just began, she needed students to take pictures at the game tonight so I offered my free night for some fun work. I took just over 1025 pictures at the game, but I wasn't as satisfied as I usually am with how most of my pictures turn out. Many were blurry and none were as good as I had hoped, but I still had fun shooting. Other than students, parents and other photographers are able to get field passes, and for some reason tonight there were way too many for our side to shoot. That's another reason I wasn't able to get too many good shots; there were too many people in the way!

I got to see some of my friends who haven't graduated, so that was pretty fun getting all those hugs and "Why the heck are you still here?" looks. During the 4th quarter, the stadium lights went out for like 20 minutes so the game was postponed for that time. A lot of the crowd left since we were ahead by 34 and there was no way we could lose.

Anyways, like I said, my photos weren't so perfect so this is just one of the ones that I liked.

Montrose & Gelato

Why is it that every time I go shopping for one thing, I end up buying something else and not what I needed? It's a curse.

Today, I saw my friend Anna for the first time since graduation! I picked her up at the Houston Galleria where she worked at a Gelato store her family bought recently. We started the day off going to shop in Montrose, a very interesting part of town. It's full of thrift stores, tattoo shops, and people with very different style. It's fun to go to every once in a while, but not for too long because I feel like it starts to get a bit weird. I planned on getting a bunch of clothes at a store called American Apparel, but I didn't buy anything after trying on like 12 items. We walked a few stores down to a Japanese owned store, and I bought 2 random headbands and a necklace. We drove back to the Galleria and ate, but Anna had to go back to work so I shopped alone for a few hours after. No worries though, I had to buy her a birthday present anyways without her seeing so it worked out well. Of course, I ended up spending too much on myself rather than her gift (I still got her something cool though). So I bought myself 2 pairs of jeans and a coat, along with a necklace and some earrings for my sister, and Anna's gift which was a booze-cake book and a necklace with a glasses charm on it which reminded me of her because she has glasses.... yeah so cool, right?

That was pretty much my afternoon/evening. I didn't see anyone famous today, and I wasn't on the news (not that I know of at least). But the day was fun! 8 days until I leave for Denver :)

Oh, and this photo is from the Gelato store that Anna works at!

YAO MING

YAO MING, YAO MING YAO MING YAO MING, YAO MING, YAO MING.

I'm very short, 5'1 to be exact. Yao Ming is very tall, 7'6 to be precise. So there's no way I'm going to miss him walking around Best Buy on a Wednesday afternoon.

He wasn't too excited about everyone taking pictures of him, so I snuck this one. Also unfortunately, he didn't want to take pictures with anyone, so I wasn't able to get a picture standing next to him. Though if I did, I would have only reached to his elbow, if I was lucky. I've seen him before up close, but that was only on the basketball court when I sat in the floor seats. But considering there were so many other giants around him, well I still felt short, but the tall guys looked short too!

My favorite part about this picture is just the fact that he's playing a video game. Just imagine how small the controller would be in his monstrous hands! And it was pretty funny how whatever isle he walked down, you could see everything from his shoulders up right over the top of each shelf!

While walking out, I saw him get into his car which was just a normal SUV, but his wife was driving because he was sitting in the front seat with his feet on the floor and his knees reaching up to the window! He's such a giant.

THIS JUST IN::: this picture was just shown on Houston's channel 2 news with photo credit to me :) thank you Dominique Sachse

Streetlight

I've looked at that light for 18 years; it hasn't seemed to change. I have never lived anywhere else, and I'm about to move out to college for at least 4 years, and then who knows where I'll go? Yeah, I'll miss my home, but when I come back I know that light will still be there every night.

This light has been through some rough nights. To mention the most memorable: Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, and especially Hurricane Ike. This street was covered with fallen trees, but the pole seemed to stand throughout each storm. And Hurricane Ike was the only time I can remember that the light didn't shine. But when that light turned back on, it symbolized that it was time for life to begin again, even with all the tragedy in the area. So maybe it's just a big pole with a light bulb, but it definitely plays a role on the street.

Rain, rain, come and stay!

Do not drive and shoot. That's my advice for the day.

I've always been a fan of bad weather. Hurricane season is fun to sit through, even though it is completely dangerous and usually ruins a lot of houses. But each year, I'm always outside watching.

Today, I had just told my friend that I wouldn't mind a heavy rain storm, and lucky for me, that's just what I got this evening. I had been working out on an elliptical, staring outside the window for an hour watching the sky get darker when finally, the storm hit. For another 30 minutes, the rain fell, and the lightning struck. I was entertained.

As I left the Houstonian, the rain stopped falling, but the sky still looked pretty dark and full. Lightning had struck some of the stoplights in the area so there was a bunch of traffic on the way home. So this picture was taken on my iPhone, through the windshield of my mom's Smart car, in the middle of traffic, on a wet road. I do not recommend trying to capture the moment while in this situation, but I had to.

Albert

This is Albert. I just named him for this post because I realized he needed some recognition and I felt that the name Albert seemed appropriate. I almost stepped on him at the park, but he moved out of the way. He didn't go far though, so I started taking pictures of him and he was very cooperative as you can tell. This was one of the first days I've been outside this summer in the Texas sun. For the hour I was outside, I got a really nice tan line on my neck from my t-shirt. What an exciting day... sweating and taking pictures of a squirrel! I don't think I've ever been so close to a squirrel without it running away. I guess it was just my camera-lucky day in the eventful city of Houston, Texas. How many more days until Colorado...?

Good 'ol Texas

Finally, it's almost time for college where I get to leave Houston, Texas, my home of 18 years. To be honest, I don't remember ever seeing a sunset like this from anywhere in H-town. That's because I drove up to Austin for the weekend to meet some fellow Pioneers and this photo was taken atop a hill in a friend's backyard. Pretty different from home where all I can see in the sky is a bunch of clouds or fog most of the time. So I find this picture to be pretty special since I won't be seeing any more Texas sunsets, though I do assume that Colorado sunsets are just as beautiful. And I hardly ever use the word "beautiful" in a comment about Texas; I've never really liked the state. It's too hot. So, with that, let's get this show on the road! Denver here I come!!!

Personal Histories of Photography

I'm not sure that I've always had a passion for photography. Actually, at one point I believe I despised it because I couldn't get through a family trip without my dad stopping every few minutes to take pictures of me and my sisters or the scenery. But when I started taking pictures, I realized that taking pictures is more exciting then being in them. So for the last few years, I've enjoyed being behind the camera instead of in front of it. I'm excited to say that the first college class I've signed up for is indeed a photography class. I'll be either majoring or minoring in art with a focus in photography at the University of Denver, so this class is a perfect jump start to my college future.