That, This, Or That?

Nikon SB-600 AF Speedlight Unit (Price range: $180-240)

Nikon AF NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4D (Price range: $260-350)

Nikon AF NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8D (Price range: $100-130)

Yes. This is my dilemma. I still want to get the Nikon Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G AF DX Fish-Eye Lens, but too bad it’s almost $1,000, so no more. Goodbye fish-eye lens. It’ll just have to wait. Now, I’m gearing more towards the flash only because I already have two zoom lenses and no flash, but 50mm f/1.4 or f/1.8? Ahhhh! they’re just dying to be purchased (just like the D3, D3x/D4, and the D300)!! Hahah. Man, I need to stop looking at camera gear and whatnot (until the weekend, of course). : )

Spring Break, Day 4

I went to The Getty Center today and I have to say, it is my favorite museum! I still have to upload my pictures, so when I do, I will update about it. Until… bye!

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Kk. So I just finished uploading and editing the pictures from The Getty Center. I was supposed to go to the Arboretum today, but I decided not to since I’ll be going in May for the LA Garden Show. So, why did I like the Getty so much? First of all, location, location, location. It’s up in mountain/hill area, so I had to take a tram up to the museum entrance. The tram ride has a beautifulllllllll view of Los Angeles. I’m into landscapes and all that nature-y stuff, so I really enjoyed the ride. Then, when I walked into the museum, I literally said, “Wow.” Haha. It was very minimal, open and white, but I really liked it. I even thought, “If I get married, I could so totally imagine my wedding being serviced here.” Yes. I liked it that much. But anyway, I digress.

Surprisingly, there was an elementary school group at The Getty, but I wasn’t so annoyed this time because the museum was actually big enough that they didn’t manage to bump into or get in the way of me and what I was observing. Each pavilion connected to each other and had some kind of city scenery. Admission is free, but parking is $8.00. Worth it? I think so! If you haven’t been to The Getty, you need to go! It’s really close to UCLA, and you’re probably thinking, “Oh, trafffic”, BUT there’s an alternative route you can take to avoid all the crazy traffic! It’s something like … 210 W, 134 W, 101 N… and I forgot the rest. Haha.

The doors open in a cool way, too! Well, not really THAT cool. It’s a little different, though!

I fell in love with French and Italian furnishings.

They look like bouquets!

So prettyyyyyy!

They didn’t let me take pictures in the photography section, but luckily they had this banner of one of the photos I liked. This is a photograph (or photographs, I should say) by David Hockney. He inspired me for my next art assignment! : ) Google David Hockney on the Google Image Search to see more of his art!

Instead of trying to perfect the alignments and whatnot, I decided to mix in a little bit of David Hockney’s style to make this panoramic view.

P.S. One con! They don’t let you bring your tripod so if you plan to take pictures in the dark with 2 sec shutter speed, without flash, and while holding the camera to get a sharp image… good luck. : )

That is all. Good day.

Spring Break, Day 3

I woke up late again, but I still went to Griffith Observatory! I keep expecting these museums to be humongous, but they’re actually all pretty small. It’s always crowded, too. There was an elementary school group at Griffith today. Once again, I was sort of bummed out because I felt rushed and obligated to move if the kids were be near me, squirming to take a look at what I was looking at. Anyway, for $0, it was worth it. There’s also a beautiful scene of the city. Too bad we have so much pollution that you can’t really examine the details.

Planets!

Einstein.

A humongous telescope to see stars.

This was some plug they used to the telescope. You can see me smiling at the mirror side. : )

Compiled 4 images to get the table of elements.

I combined 4 pictures to make this panoramic cityscape. Yay!

That’s how close the Griffith is to the Hollywood sign.

Spring Break, Day 2

So I woke up too late to go to the Griffith Observatory today, but I still managed to visit Daniel at work! I still could have gone to Griffith, but I decided to skipped because I didn’t want to hit traffic and take 2+ hours to get home. But, I did manage to take a few interesting pictures in Korean Town!

When I was driving up Normandie, getting ready to turn on Whilshire, a bunch of sheriffs stopped my car and started putting cones around all four intersections. I waited there for a few minutes and all of a sudden a mob of people wearing purple t-shirts and holding bright, bold signs began to line up on the street. Yes, there was a strike going on and they were using the streets to strike on. I thought it was sort of weird that the sheriffs were involved in this strike. Don’t strikes normally just involve the employees with cops needing to shoo them away? Weird.

And then afterward, while I was driving back, there was another group of protesters, however protesting against something else. A lot of people have been protesting against this. It’s all over the news.

Two strikes in one day? Come on. I don’t understand why people can’t settle things on a more peaceful and humble manner. Yeah, I know they’re trying to get publicity to prove their point… but. Yeah. I’m should stop talking before I get in trouble.

If things work out and I wake up early, I will be going to Griffith Observatory and hopefully USC to visit my lovely Janet-o. Yay!

Loretta signing out. Good day.

Spring Break, Day 1

Monday, April 14, 2008

$15.95 for admission, $3.00 for parking (I used the meter, otherwise I would have paid $7)
Almost 80 miles of driving
About 1 1/2 hours of driving

So, did I think it was worth it? Mmmmm. No. Hahaah. I basically finished looking at everything and even taking pictures within 1 hour and 15 minutes. The place is so small! You can literally see the end of the building from the entrance. It’s two stories, but the second story is even smaller than the first. Mmmmhm. It is also a very bad place to take pictures because all the tanks are being lit up by a little peep of sunlight, so it’s fairly dark. I had to use 1 sec shutter speed for most of my photos, so a lot of them are blurry. Boooo. I think the fact that I also went on a day where 3 different elementary schools went also ruined my experience. All the kids were surrounding and touching the glass, leaving their OILY FINGER MARKS on them (if you know me well enough then you already know that I get annoyed when I see finger marks on glasses, glass, mirrors, etc)! Anyway, I thought they would have a lot of fun facts to learn, but it was mostly the fish and a plaque of description info stuck next to them.

The Jellyfish were my favorite. I just loved the color contrast between the them and the water.

Seals! They had otters, but the glass was disgusting so the pictures came out lame.

The one time there weren’t so many freaking kids running around.

Nemo, Dory, and co. : )

Tropical fish!

Tomorrow will be Griffith Observatory and visiting Daniel at worky for lunch. Good day!