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Best of 2011: Personal Posts

Anna — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:24:23 +0000

2011 was a lovely year filled with little surprises. I was lucky enough to fill my days with travel, photography, and even yogurtland and ballet. Oh, and I even managed to read 36 books (thank you iPad). And I blogged and blogged through it all. Below, I share some of my personal posts reflecting on my adventures along the way.

Places

In 2011, I found myself in Las Vegas three times in a row and Los Angeles six times during the year. I had amazing clients who flew me to Atlanta, Washington D.C., Arizona, and upstate New York. And then there was our epic roadtrip up the West Coast from San Francisco to Vancouver. Below are my various adventures, arranged roughly thematically: Bay Area, Las Vegas trips, other destinations, and the Cascadia Road Trip.

The City \| San Francisco	Sausalito	SF Vignettes	Falling in Love with San Francisco	A Lifetime Ago \| Oakland	Sailing in the Bay
All of the Lights \| Vegas	Out in the Desert \| Vegas	Neon Museum \| Vegas	Ice Waterfall in the Desert \| Vegas	Pyramid Lake	With Etiquette
A Single Snow Day \| Tahoe	Staying in Awe \| Duke	The Beauty of Night \| Atlanta	Stone Mountain & Rhodes Hall \| Atlanta	Nogales & Tubac, Arizona	Washington D.C.
Cascadia Road Trip	Crater Lake	Portland, Oregon	Tacoma, Washington	Seattle, Washington	Vancouver, British Columbia

Personal Reflections

I’m sometimes not sure how I let such personal thoughts travel from my mind out into the wild world of the internet. But I believe strongly in the power of personal expression, and whilst I found myself seeking inspiration on more than one occasion this year, I had this little hope that perhaps my words could somehow contribute to others finding inspiration as well. Below, some of my personal musings from this past year.

Happy New Year!

Anna — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:40:38 +0000

Happy Holidays! Infographics style! (Click to view the full size!)

Like me on Facebook! Stalk me on Twitter!

Sailing in the Bay

Anna — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:34:02 +0000

It was a gorgeous Saturday morning– sunny and seventies– and it was perfect for sitting in a boat in the middle of the Bay. The irony was, the air was so nice, warm. and calm that there was zero no wind for sailing. Undeterred, we slowly motored along from San Francisco’s Pier 40 toward Angel Island.

The three pirates: Arvind, Jon, and our captain HD.

As we quickly learned, it’s very easy to underestimate distances over water. What looked like a five minute stretch took us about three hours by boat, while a blimp circled around the bay overhead, as if taunting us with its speedy air travel capabilities.

Right off the bat, we saw a cluster of seagulls fighting a sea lion for fish. Later, we saw a dolphin frolicking about.

Passing under the Bay Bridge, and our boat docked at Angel Island. We did make it there by motor after several hours, and after a brief lunch break on the island, we had to circle back around before we would be sucked out to sea by the currents.

Passing by Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge

The ferry building on our return journey. We got plenty of wind on our way back in, but it was counterbalanced by the going against the tide.

The water looked unreal, like it was made of metals instead of water.

We passed the city right as the sun was going down

And finally, back at the pier.

I will never look at the Bay in the same way again, and I mean that in the best possible way. Spending a day on the water has transformed it from just some blank interstitial space between the land into infinite little sailboat route possibilities in my mind. I can see why people like sailing so much. I would definitely go again!

Technical note: All of the images above were shot on Mistubishi Super MX 200 film (a random cheap film I picked up) and processed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab. I quite like the turquoise of the water on this film.

Vancouver, BC | Cascadia Road Trip, Part 5

Anna — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:50:43 +0000

It was the only rainy day of our road trip, but luckily the rain went away and left only lingering gray skies once we crossed the border into Canada. Vancouver was our northernmost destination on the road trip, and it was the perfect finale to our amazing week.

First, some views from Stanley Park which spans the entire edge of a peninsula.

It was funny how we really didn’t expect Canada to really be like a foreign country (I mean, it’s Canada. They don’t even stamp your passport!) But then the little things kept getting to us. One, we couldn’t use our cell phones. Two, we actually had to get some Canadian money, even though the exchange rate is basically even. Three, what in the world are blinking green lights? In fact, what are all of the strange street signs, like the sign that looks like three gold bars? And why would you ever have an intersection in which one direction has traffic lights and the other has a stop sign? We sat there at the stop sign loudly pronouncing, “But when is it our turn!?!” But we loved Vancouver anyway.

We also took a little side trip out to Capilano bridge, a nice Indiana Jones style suspension bridge in the woods. And then we headed into the city!

Left: a reflection of the steam clock in Gastown. Right: the boys had a lot of fun in this denim shop. I never knew Young knew so much about denim.

We also managed to walk through what must be the two worst blocks of Vancouver– between Gastown and Chinatown. There were just tons of people openly doing cocaine on the sidewalks and arguing with each other. This was also only two blocks from the police station It was quite bizarre.

Finally, we headed back to Richmond (the very, very Asian suburb of Vancouver) for the best Taiwanese beef noodle soup ever. It might not look like much in my cameraphone rendition below, but it was amazing and quite possibly the best meal of the entire trip, which is saying a lot, considering we spent the entire trip eating really good food.

The end! And then we went back to Seattle and each flew away to our respective cities. Check the related links below to see the other parts of our road trip. Thanks to Howard, Vince, and Young for an epic adventure! What shall the next one be?

Technical note: as with many of my latest posts, this has been a mix of real film photos processed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab and digital images processed with VSCO Film. Check up on my “Shooting Film” series if you’re interested in reading more about my explorations in film vs. digital.

Seattle, Washington | Cascadia Road Trip, Part 4

Anna — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 21:24:55 +0000

You would think we had planned it, the way we were greeted by colorful autumn leaves and perfect weather everywhere we went along our road trip. In reality, we were just really lucky. After our stops in Crater Lake, Portland, and a brief stop in Tacoma, We arrived in Seattle to bright sunny skies in the mid-sixties. Our first stop, Gas Works Park.

Autumn! Young, Howard, and Vince.

Love this leaf pile.

We stayed at our friend Jennie’s ridiculously awesome place. This is the view of the Seattle Space Needle out her window.

On day two, we walked through the Olympic Sculpture Park to get to Pike Place.

Love the Calder against the sea and skies.

Seattle Center– Space Needle and the Experience Music Project.

Lynn and Young– we met up with Lynn for lunch at Paseo.

And then the most amazing oyster happy hour at The Walrus and the Carpenter. Best $1 oysters ever. Vince models by the entrance.

And Young too.

Finally, one last shot from Jennie’s bedroom window on the morning we left for Vancouver– the only non-sunny day of our entire trip.

Lovely as always, Seattle! Next up, Vancouver.

Tacoma, Washington | Cascadia Road Trip, Part 3

Anna — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:51:56 +0000

Day three of our epic road trip up the west coast: on our way from Portland to Seattle, we made a little pit stop in Tacoma, Washington. On a friend’s suggestion (thanks Margaret!), I wanted to check out Tacoma’s Museum of Glass. We didn’t actually go inside, but we just scoped out the Chihuly Bridge of Glass and some of the sculptures outside. It made for a nice photo op.

Next stop: Seattle!

Portland, Oregon | Cascadia Road Trip, Part 2

Anna — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 05:01:22 +0000

Portland is just as green as its reputation suggests. Green in the scenery, green in its hipster eco-friendliness. It’s a small, small town packed to the gills with bicycles and coffee shops. Charming. This was the first city we visited (after a stop at Crater Lake) on our epic Pacific coast road trip. We arrived on Sunday night and headed out Monday morning to explore the city.

Our first stop: Pine State Biscuits. Delicious.

Just down the street, Stumptown Coffee.

Vince fits right in to Portland except that he’s really New-York-paced.

I am unfortunately not a coffee drinker, but now I know all three boys’ coffee orders: Vince- espresso, Young- iced coffee, and below, Howard and his latte.

After breakfast, we drove out east to Multnomah falls.

Sigh. Nature.

Back in downtown Portland, we visited Powell’s City of Books, the largest bookstore in the U.S. It’s a multi-story maze of books.

So many books. Love. Even though I just read everything on my iPad now.

Food carts. Sad story: Howard spent so long looking at the menu for Brunchbox that they closed up shop right as he went to order.

Portland by night.

Gorgeous.

Breakfast at Jam on Hawthorne the next morning.

“The Bizness.” An excellent way to start the day.

And then we were off to Washington!

Crater Lake Oregon | Cascadia Road Trip, Part 1

Anna — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:54:53 +0000

I dozed off amidst in the vineyards, and I woke up in the evergreens. We had left at the crack of dawn, embarking on our road trip up the west coast. Our first destination was Crater Lake, Oregon.

All that I knew about Crater Lake beforehand was that it was somewhere between San Francsico and Portland and that it was a big lake. Between the long detour and getting stuck behind slow vehicles on the two-lane roads lined with impossibly tall and skinny trees, a tinge of skepticism may have nudged its way in. Were we going the right way? Hopefully this stop was going to be worth it.

Finally, we drove up the southwest side of the lake, pulled off at the first vista point, and hopped out of the car. Immediately it was obvious: it was definitely worth it. The lake so vividly spelled out for us the very definitions of Blue and Green.

Sigh. Nature. Crater Lake is formed from a volcano that caved in on itself, and it’s a lake with no tributaries– all that perfectly still blue water comes from rain and snow– and lots of it. Apparently Crater Lake has more snowfall than Tahoe, but we just happened to time our visit perfectly with basically no snow and amazing sunshine to boot.

Howard was the catalyst for the road trip. He was on a visit back to the states after having moved to Australia last year.

Young was hanging on the edge of the earth.

And Vince scrambled up some rocks to stand atop the earth.

Whee!

And thus began the road trip. More to come!

Technical note: some of these images were shot on 35mm Fuji 400H film. Thanks to Richard Photo Lab for the scans!

Washington D.C. | Fuji 400H | Shooting Film

Anna — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:12:22 +0000

These images bring back the humid embrace of summer, the ninety-some degrees weather and array of sunshine and rain storms. It’s been three months since I took these film images in Washington D.C. These are the perils of shooting film– tucking away the finished rolls in some corner and forgetting all about them for months. But then again, this is also the delightful surprise of shooting film and forgetting about the images for months!

Thanks to Richard Photo Lab for processing these images and scanning them to perfection. Being reunited with these images makes me fall in love with film all over again.

Mona and her amazing roof deck overlooking Dupont Circle.

We stopped by 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

And walked through the Smithsonian arts & crafts museum.

The day before, Steve and I hit up some of the iconic military monuments, Iwo Jima and the Air Force monument.

And a visit to the Vietnam War Memorial. The architect Maya Lin is kind of a personal hero of mine.

Thanks again, Mona for hosting me in DC! And Mayline for bringing us out there to shoot your wedding. And to everyone who hung out with me in the area (Steve, all the photogs who got together in Maryland, Debo, and anyone else I forgot.)

Technical note: all of the above images were shot on Canon EOS3 using 35mm Fuji 400h film.

Inspiration | A Lifetime Ago

Anna — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 04:56:02 +0000

The roads were familiar, but the specifics had escaped me. I had to guess at the turns more than once, always correctly in the end, but I hadn’t realized how much time, how much memory had already lapsed. Three years was a lifetime ago that I lived there. The pieces of that life were now only loosely pinned to me like little scraps of crepe paper trailing behind.

This was the first house that I lived in when I moved to California in 2008. I joined Oakland Teaching Fellows and lived in East Oakland with a bunch of other teachers, one batch for the summer, and a different batch for the school year. Every day we played “gunshots or fireworks?” except it wasn’t ever fireworks unless it was the Fourth of July. This either gave us street cred or just proved how privileged and naive we were.

Today, the house looked nicer than I thought it would. It was sunny. It was quiet except for a motorcycle that barreled down the hill. I snapped a couple photos. I remembered parties we threw, the relationships that we formed and that had dissipated since.

I headed up to the top of the hill, a vantage point overlooking the entire bay. Still breathtaking. There’s something about standing there suspended above it all that just feels different from the views from roof decks and fifth floor windows. It’s a bit removed, isolated, offering literal perspective.

In college, I used to go out on these sorts of photo expeditions unprompted. It’s a luxury, the freedom of being able to go wherever whenever with the intention to photograph whatever. But as sad as I am to admit it, it’s something I’ve begun to miss. Becoming a full time photographer has shifted my relationship to my camera. Bringing a camera isn’t second nature, it’s work. And there are so many different cameras and lenses to consider.

And yet, right here in arm’s reach I have the very thing I needed to know or see or remember… a little shower of crepe paper scraps, a sense of where I’ve been, and the wonder of where I am now.