Paper Stars

August 9th, 2014

Landscape / cityscape tips

I typically tell people I specialize in 3 types of photography: photoshoots, event, and landscapes. I’d like to write entries giving tips on each type, and I figured I’d start with landscapes. Landscape photography is actually what made me interested in photography to begin with, and these are some things I’ve learned along the way! (A couple are specific to DSLRs, but not all of them are.)

Golden Hour

This really applies to any type of photography, but lighting is one of the most important aspects. The golden hour is one of the best times of day for outdoor photography, and there are two of these in a day. They are the first and last hour of sunlight, basically sunrise and sunset. During this time, the lighting is very soft and often have pleasing colors in the sky.

Sunset is the easier of the two to catch:

Shipwreck Beach (Kauai, HI) at sunset

I’ve been asked whether it’s worth waking up early to catch a sunrise shot, and my answer is yes:

Shipwreck Beach (Kauai, HI) at sunrise

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15 · Posted in Photography, Photography, Tips / Recommends

July 3rd, 2014

London recap

Alright, here’s the entry about my London trip that I mentioned last time! If you’ve been following me for a while, you might remember my business trip to Las Vegas a couple years ago where I was an exhibitor for Interop. There’s one in London this time, so I was sent again. Like last time, my husband and I decided to make a trip out of it and stay a couple extra days.

london_small

This is going to be a long post with a ton of photos since I didn’t feel like splitting it up. Instead of writing about each day, I’m grouping them into categories. They’re not necessarily the order that I visited/viewed them in, and I only visited a couple things per day.

My brief thoughts on London

London is probably the most multicultural city I’ve visited. I haven’t heard so many different accents and languages in one place before. It felt kind of odd because it didn’t feel like I left the country. Everything is still in English of course, but it was mostly because many parts reminded me of New York City. The tube system was also very similar to the NYC subway system.

Compared to where I live (Austin), London was a very expensive city. I’m pretty sure everything I saw was more expensive than what I would pay in Austin. The exchange rate and foreign transaction fees didn’t help either.

Overall though, I thought London was a pleasant city with great public transportation and a lot of interesting architecture.

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16 · Posted in Vacation

June 18th, 2014

Game recommends – E3 response

There were many games revealed during E3 last week that I’m excited for, and there’s 3 in particular that I’m really looking forward to because I liked their predecessors. Well, “liked” is an understatement. I absolutely love them and they’re on my list of favorites. So, here’s 3 of my favorite games and my thoughts on their upcoming sequels!

Assassin's Creed 2 Assassin’s Creed 2 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)

Sypnosis: Desmond relives the memories of his ancestor, Ezio Auditore da Firenze during the 15th century in Italy. Ezio’s family is caught in a political plot, and he witnesses his father and brother hanged. He then trains as an assassin while discovering who is behind it all.

My thoughts: …on the Assassin’s Creed series: I hated 1, loved 2, enjoyed Brotherhood, thought Revelations was ok, was disappointed in 3, and haven’t played 4 yet. AC1 had the right idea with the climbing around, blending in to escape guards, and assassination missions. It failed in its repetitive quests, clunky combat, an assassin who can’t swim, and guards that think running is a crime punishable by death.

Assassin’s Creed 2 is my favorite of the series because it kept the good parts of AC1 and fixed everything else. The combat was smoothed out, while keeping the nice climbing and guard escape elements. The pacing of the game felt good as it gradually introduced new assassination elements, and there was a balance of main and side quests. Basically, everything about AC2 just felt right, and I haven’t felt that way about the AC series since.

Thoughts on Assassin’s Creed Unity: Seeing an AC game set in Europe again with its nice tall buildings (YES BUILDINGS, NO MORE TREES) reminded me of AC2, and I think that’s why it immediately caught my attention. I’m also excited for the co-op since my husband plays the AC series as well. I think it’ll open up new and fun possibilities. [View E3 trailer]

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10 · Posted in Gaming, Gaming, Tips / Recommends

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