2006: A Year in Photos

It's been quite a year with me and my camera. Prior to this year, I shared a film SLR camera with my family and really used it as a glorified point-and-shoot camera. It all changed this past February when I committed to buying a new camera and actually learning how to use it. On 6 February, I took a deep breath, plunked down the money (virtually with a click), a lot of money, and got a digital SLR with a fixed 30mm/1.4 lens. I couldn't believe I paid so much for a camera that didn't zoom. In retrospect, it was well worth it as I've learned so much and really found an outlet that brought many good times. So, on to the year in photos...

February 2006: Chinese New Year and Touristy Things in SF
This was my first spin out with the camera after reading the camera manual and a short tutorial I printed out from the Web on the flight out to the west coast. From what I remember, I was still mentally debating the "rule of thirds" (i.e. put the subject of the photo in the left or right third of the photo to make things more interesting). The rule makes sense for a lot of things, but I can't justify calling it a rule. Maybe it's just my science and engineering background, but "rule" is a strong word.






March 2006: Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin in DC
This was the first time I realized I was going to be a real photo fanatic. I got up at 4:30 AM two days in the same week to catch the first morning train downtown to get pictures with good light before and during sunrise and with few people in the way. If anyone's been to DC during Cherry Blossom (tourist) season, the place is packed by 7:00 AM. Oh, and then going to work for a regular workday afterwards.








May 2006: Bay to Breakers in SF
My sis and I split the cost of a new 24-70mm zoom lens that we could share between my digital SLR and the film SLR she was using. Zoom lenses are great for event photography when people are moving around and there isn't a whole lot of time to change lenses. I first tried the lens out in SF at Bay to Breakers, a costumed 12K where I got right in the middle of it all. I learned that access to location and action is key to getting good photos—rarely do good photos come from the sidelines. I try not to be too much of a jerk about getting in peoples' way though. Check out the wedding photos my sis took on film with the same lens and my story on the runaway brides photo.







May 2006: Joshua Tree National Park
My vacation for 2006 was backpacking through the Mojave Desert in what looked a lot like the setting for the road runner and coyote cartoons. (I couldn't find a road runner, but I did hear coyotes at night.) It was a grueling hike with a 50 pound backpack, but I felt a definite sense of accomplishment by the end of the 25 miles (although my feet disagreed at the time). I learned a few things about photography on this trip: (1) getting even just one or two photos that captures the essence of the trip feels really rewarding (see joshua tree at twilight and resting on boulder below), (2) when afternoon sun blasts all the color out of the photo, try going black and white (my friend's B&W shot), and (3) taking good photos requires one to be relaxed enough to look all around oneself for all the possibilities but focused enough to pick one possibility and go for it. And it also helps to have friends who are patient and understanding when I break away, sometimes often, to take a photograph (or to catch a breath or any spot of shade in the desert).







July 2006: Eastern Market in DC
I found the Washington Photography Meetup group and decided to give one of their events a try. It was a great day out Eastern Market: met some people who are just as interested in photography as I am, tried out my new wide-angle lens that I saved up for, and got some nice shots out of it. The wide-angle lens forced me to get up really close to objects and people—within inches—to get the payoff.






July 2006: Gazuza (UVA Alumni Club Happy Hour) in DC
Although my original intent was to take photos in the streets of DC before and after the happy hour, I couldn't help but try taking some photos during the happy hour. Gazuza has a westward facing patio that lets sunlight in as the sun lowers in the afternoon sky. Not enough to light the whole place, but at least a portion of it. This is where I figured out the photos of people standing in natural light looked a lot better in the photos than the ones who were subject to my on-camera flash.






July 2006: Dupont Circle at Night in DC
After the happy hour, I wanted to try taking some photos at night of things in motion without a tripod. Ok, so I saw the band on the street first and then tried taking photos from within their sidewalk "stage". I learned a lot about depth-of-field (how shallow it is when light is low), street lighting, and that annoying lens flare can happen at night.







August–October 2006: Fall Protests and Festivals in DC and VA
By fall, my camera and I were inseparable. DC is really at its best as the season transitions to fall. Cool, crisp weather, clear and colorful skies, turning leaves, and enough daylight to enjoy it all. You wouldn't figure DC as a festival kind of town, but come August, there's something interesting going on every single weekend in town or a little outside of town until the weather gets cold. This year, I ended up at a beer festival, cultural festivals, music festivals, and community festivals. Still much more to check out next year :)







August–October 2006: Random Wandering in DC and VA
Even if there isn't a festival happening on any particular day in the fall, the weather is so nice it's hard not to get out and enjoy it. And why not bring a camera along? There's another favorite weather day that I relish in spring and fall—windy days right before a storm. The clouds are low and race across the sky, wind ruffles the jacket—it's like it's carrying all my worries away. I didn't get a picture this fall that captured a day like this—all I have is one of Capitol Hill (above) in the spring. I did write an article about bokeh and lens flare in the fall though...









December 2006: National Zoo
My last trip to the zoo was with the photography meetup. The subject of the day was supposed to be the animals on the Asia Trail. They were interesting, but thanks to a good suggestion, the Reptile House because the supporting actor that overshadowed the featured star. Tip: the Reptile House is a warm place to check out on a cold day at the zoo.






I've taken 3,472 photos this year so far, but that's nowhere near enough to capture an accurate picture of my 2006. No doubt there will be some more photos before the year officially ends and many more as 2007. So much to see, so much to learn, so much to be found. Reminds me of something the late Peter Jennings said at the very beginning of his career, "I'm fascinated by everything. There's just too much going on in too many places that I just daren't miss."

Next post: things I've learned in 2006 without my camera.

one space or two?

Working on a collaborative writing project for class, one of my teammates called me out (in a friendly way) on using two spaces after each sentence. I'm not that old, but I first learned how to type on Bank Street Writer (produced by the same people who brought us the Voyage of the Mimi) and AppleWorks (screenshot of the old Apple II version) in the computer labs at school and then WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS on my first PC. (Remember to hit F10 to save, then F7 to exit.) All dot matrix printer fonts and even early laser printer fonts back then looked like typewriter output. The computer was merely an enhanced typewriter where drafts could be saved and printed and hitting the Backspace key didn't involve the use of correcting ribbon. With typewriter (monospaced) fonts, each character had the same width. A letter "I" took up as much width as a letter "M", which both took up as much width as a space character. Two spaces after each sentence was completely necessary to give some sort of visual distinction between sentences.

Keep in mind what the printing process was before today's laser printers. Typewriters were used to write drafts and final manuscripts. The manuscripts would then be marked up for a typesetter (a person) to align lead type on a printing press for publication. The typesetter aligned the lead blocks knowing that two spaces on the manuscript was just for clarity in reading the manuscript, but would not show up in the final output on the printing press. Hence, if you look at any printed book, old or new, there is only one space between sentences.

Coming back to the computer age, ink jet and laser printers became prevalent, and the computers started to support proportional fonts. Microsoft Word (some primitive version I can't even remember) was the first WYSIWYG word processor I used that supported proportional fonts (Arial and Times New Roman). This meant that characters have varying widths—a letter "I" is much more narrow than a letter "M". The need for inserting two spaces after a sentence was gone as proportional fonts and laser printers replaced the typesetter and printing press (sort of, but not totally). Of course, it's near impossible to unlearn something, so I kept on tapping the space bar with my thumb twice after each sentence.

I read Robin Williams's book on computer typography (the graphic designer/author, not the comedian) a while ago and learned that only one space is necessary after a sentence when using proportional fonts like Times Roman and Arial. Only when using a typewriter-like monospace font like Courier does one need to insert two spaces after a sentence. The copyeditors at the Chicago Manual of Style agree. But I still haven't been able to break the habit. To complicate the matter, I write half of my documents in a word processor using proportional fonts (only one space necessary) and the other half in a text editor (e.g. commenting code) using monospaced fonts (two spaces are necessary).

Why should I keep all of this in my head though? Why doesn't the computer know how to handle this? When I write in this blog, or in any HTML document, the browser automatically ignores extra spaces. I can put two or three spaces after each sentence when I write this blog entry, but when you read it, you only see one space after the sentence. Microsoft Word really needs to do the same. It doesn't really matter too much if you use one space or two after a sentence in Word until multiple people start contributing to a document. Nothing looks worse than inconsistency. Imagine my teammate, looking through our 20 page document to check the end of every single sentence to make sure there is no more than one space after the period. So much for computers automating the tedious and mundane.

An aside: The quality of computer typography still has yet to catch up with the quality of traditional printing press typography. If you don't believe me, read some Edward Tufte or go to the Special Collections room at your local university library. Only one typesetting program on the computer comes close—TeX by Don Knuth. It's no WYSIWYG program. Rather, it involves writing a manuscript in a text file, marking it up (electronically), and then running it through the typesetting program. And yes, extra spaces after a period are automatically removed just like the old typesetter would.

A plea: Full justification in Microsoft Word makes the document unbearable to read with rivers of random spacing between words and sentences. Your reading audience will hate you. If you like your documents fully justified, you must turn Hyphenation (Tools → Hyphenation) on. Open any printed book or newspaper and you will see how they get their type fully justified. Words are broken at the end of a line at a convenient syllable and a hyphen is added to continue the word on the next line. This allows for tiny bits of spacing to be inserted between words instead of huge rivers of spaces. Yes, "rivers of spacing" is in fact the technical typesetting term.

happy holidays 2006

A quick post to wish all of my readers (how many of you are left out there??) a very enjoyable 2006 holiday season. It's a brief one for me this year as I'll be back to the grindstone tomorrow, but it is still nice to have a day or two to semi-relax, think of family and friends, remember good times past and think of good times yet to come.

This week between Christmas and New Years is also a time for retrospect and reflection. Typical as most newspapers, magazines, and blogs are going to print ten best and ten worst lists for 2006. I don't want to be left out, so I'm going to post my own "2006: A Year in Photos" retrospective with narrative within the next week.

I have so much to write about in general too. I have pages of notes I've been jotting down in the past few months as I've been frantically busy, from the mundane to the insightful that I hope to crystalize into posts before 2007 comes to full steam.

Enjoy the holidays, and thanks for reading!

two semesters down, four more to go

Post-exam brain spin. I just wrapped up my second of two exams this week and my second of six semesters in this graduate program. So technically I am one-third finished with my program (Master of Software Engineering) now! It feels good to be done for the semester—glass of viognier in hand—and returning my attention to everything I've put aside for the past 14 weeks.

random reptiles

I wish I remembered or wrote down the names of these reptiles from the Reptile Discovery Center at the National Zoo.







And the rest...

pushy panda haiku

Stay Back From My Food


Ouch, That Really Hurt My Nose


Please May I Have Some?


These photos were taken behind a layer of glass and an even thicker layer of tourists.

french toast with lemon-ricotta filling

Well since I posted the recipe for the Fresh Citrus Compote, I might as well go all the way and post the recipe for the treaty french toast.

French Toast with Lemon-Ricotta Filling

Thy Tran
Executive Chef, CUESA

1/2 cup sheep's milk ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon grated lemon or orange zest
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
8 thick slices firm bread
1 cup heavy cream
4 large eggs
1/4 cup orange liqueur or fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Butter or oil
Powdered sugar, for garnish

Stir together the ricotta cheese, zest, and cinnamon until evenly blended.

With a paring knife, cut a pocket into one side of each bread slice. Gently fill the pockets with about two tablespoons of the ricotta filling. Set aside.

Whisk the cream, eggs, liqueur or juice, and vanilla until smooth.

Arrange the filled bread in a large baking pan. Drizzle the mixture over the bread and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or preferably overnight.

In the morning, turn the slices careful with a wide spatula to redistribute the egg batter. Let sit for a few minutes. In the meantime, heat a large, heavy skillet or preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cook the french toast with butter or oil, turning once, until golden brown on each side and just warm at the center. Transfer to warm serving plates and sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar.

Serve immediately with Citrus Compote.

Makes 4 servings.

My notes:

• Although it tastes great, I have no clue where to find sheep's milk ricotta around here, but I figure regular ricotta would work just as well.
• I'm not sure why, but powdered sugar is labeled as confectioner's sugar by Domino sugar.
• This goes well with a small side of scrambled eggs and peppered bacon.
• Chef Thy Tran mentioned that straining scrambled eggs before cooking them makes the resulting eggs super smooth. Straining the eggs removes the larger strands of protein, but of course, that's protein no longer being eaten.

fresh citrus compote

I found this recipe in a box next to my desk when a friend was asking me about french toast, which I love. So much so that another friend nicknamed me "french toast" after I was craving it post happy hour. I'm digitizing this recipe so it can be shared with the world and live on the Web forever, just in case I lose this scrap of paper.

Fresh Citrus Compote

Thy Tran
Executive Chef, CUESA

Serve this jeweled fruit compote over ginger ice cream, lemon pound cake or rich, buttery french toast. Try it also with other fruit, such as slightly warmed apples or just ripe peaches, or enliven the mixture by increasing the ratio of liqueur to juice.

5 to 6 navel or blood oranges
1/4 cup honey
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half, or two sprigs fresh rosemary
1/4 cup orange liqueur or fresh orange juice
2 red grapefruit
4 to 6 mandarin oranges
Mint leaves, optional for garnish

1. With one of the oranges, peel wide strips of zest and squeeze fresh juice. Combine the juice and zest with the honey, cinnamon stick, and liqueur or juice. Stir to blend well and set aside.
2. To prepare the citrus segments: Peel the remaining oranges and the grapefruit with a small knife, removing all the white pith. Holding the fruit over a bowl, cut and scrape away the segments from their surrounding membranes. Squeeze the membranes to remove as much juice as possible.
3. Add the citrus segments to the reserved juice and stir gently. Macerate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, preferably overnight.

My notes:

• Mandarin orange varieties are sometimes marketed as tangerines or clementines in the grocery store.
• If one does not have a citrus zester or a microplane, use a vegetable peeler to peel wide strips of zest off the orange. Then use a knife to cut the strips into narrow strips as necessary. (Tip courtesy of Jacques Pepin.)
• I don't think they do analogies on the SAT anymore, but
  macerate : fruit :: marinate : meat.

Below is a photo of Thy Tran, the chef in action, actually making the french toast that this compote accompanied.