Sunday, July 5, 2009

Reflection

I recently figured out how to link images in Blogger to Flickr, so I have an urge to use it liberally in this post. Here I will babble about some of my favorite pictures/memories from over the past 6.5 years (an abbreviated life story, if you will).

Doorway
That's my brother waiting for my slow ass to get out the door and drive us to swim practice after school. I thought this perspective was pretty cool - a silhouette in the bright doorway.

Window
This is a picture of a window in our home in Fairport, New York. During the winter, frost develops on this one window and totally covers it, and it doesn't go away until springtime comes.

Water Surface
This picture shows a view of the woods behind my friend's backyard in Fairport. I took this picture by holding the camera just above the water surface - a tip from my friends. The woods were all flooded (either because it just rained heavily or it's from the melted snow), and you needed a pair of waders to walk around without getting wet.

Bawls
We had some LAN parties during the early years of high school. Bawls kept us awake and tasted good at the same time...something that isn't quite true with beverages such as Red Bull.

LAN
...and here's an image from one LAN party.

Sunbeams
We had a tradition during high school where we amassed school papers during the year and burned them at the end in the woods. On a sunny day, sunbeams that shoot through the treetops reflect off of the smoke and dust in the air from burning papers, and the resulting scenery looks pretty cool.

The Castle
The morning after FHS junior prom, some friends and I went to Riki's for brunch. While waiting for our variously-filled pancakes (I think I ordered chocolate chip), one of us started building a castle out of whatever was available on the table. An intrigued senior citizen sitting at the table next to us walked up to us and proclaimed "the moment you stop playing, you grow old." That memorable quote sort of stuck with us.

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The summer before moving to Minnesota, I went on a bike ride along the Erie Canal path with two friends. We decided to stop by a small cliff. The previous autumn, a bunch of us biked there and climbed to the top to find a huge open field with short grass on which we set off some "Works bombs" (household cleaner + aluminum foil + empty soda bottles = loud harmless explosion). This particular summer day, we climbed to the top to find the grass on the field grown up to our shoulders. It was a pretty cool sight.

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Also from the summer before moving to Minnesota, during a camping trip in upstate New York with the usual group of Asians. This is one of my favorite sunset shots, with the reflection on Lake Ontario.

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Being at the right place at the right time helps with taking interesting pictures, but being with spontaneous people also helps. Neither of us planned this (I was sitting inside a van), but I like how this picture turned out - peering through the window. This was during my last outing with the Fairport Area Swim Team (USA Sectionals in Maryland...those were the days when I could actually swim) - less than one week later I would be in Minnesota.

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This is a close-up on my friend's scarf, while it was sitting on a table. I like the texture and color in this picture, and ended up using this picture as the background on the CSA membership card design for 2007-2008.

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It seems like my high school friends in Minnesota enjoy playing cards during breaks (specifically a game called 500), whereas my friends in Fairport enjoy doing random fun stuff like Works bombs and blowing up mountains of school papers in the woods. Whatever, it's all good fun either way.

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My favorite part of graduation parties is the food, and this is probably my favorite picture of food that I've taken.

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I miss garbage plates (sooooooo good). The next time I'm in Rochester I'm definitely going to pick up some garbage plate(s).

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This was taken during a flight home from Rochester the summer after high school (those are clouds down below). I like how the color turned out in this picture.

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Freshman year Dragon Day/snowstorm combo. Myra has a priceless expression on her face.

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I like this shot of the bird sitting on the signpost in the Badlands National Park.

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This is one of my first pictures taken with the white balance set to cloudy for a warmer feel. I like the greenness here.

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The Cornell Law School reading room.

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This picture could have been better (like less exposure), but it's quite difficult to time a shot of lightning perfectly. I still like this one though.

Fireworks Finale
Fireworks display during Maple Grove Days last summer. This was the first time that I tried taking pictures of fireworks.

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This is from fall break last year. I like the flows that I got here.

Rooftop At Night
This is what the Engineering Quad looks like at 2 AM. We were on the Thurston Hall rooftop testing CDGPS for CUSat until 4 AM because the Pre-Ship Review was at 8 AM the next day.

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