For sentimental and artistic reasons, here are my favorite photos from 2009.

A few weeks ago Jess and Cy came to visit on their spring break. It was great to hang out with them again, can’t believe it’s already been six months since I moved from Boston.

We decided to spend the weekend outdoors. On Saturday we drove down to Big Sur, stopping in Carmel to pick up a few sandwiches (from Bruno’s) for lunch. Unfortunately, all hiking trails east of Highway 1 were shut down because of a fire that swept through last year. We found a nice trail at Andrew Molera State Park (part of this trail), satisfying our thirst for adventure by crossing a shallow stream. Wrapped up the day with a fantastic dinner at Passionfish.

On Sunday we went sea kayaking in Monterey. We did a guided tour of the harbor, coming pretty close to some seals and sea lions (unfortunately, no sea otters).

A few more photos from the weekend.

My sister and I are separated by six years. Growing up I played the older-brother-as-caretaker role. Since our parents both worked, the two of us spent a lot of time together after school. I nudged her towards sharing some of my interests, like playing video games and basketball and taking care of rabbits. From an early age it was clear that she was a lot more talented artistically (musically and visually) than me; fortunately I was able to maintain my size advantage. We got along well throughout the years, only fighting occasionally.

It’s been hard for me to stop thinking of my little sister as little. A few milestones, like high school and college graduation, have helped me to shift my perspective. When I started at Endeca in 2007, I realized that some of my co-workers, fresh out of college, were exactly my sister’s age. That felt like a big deal.

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Big brothers are supposed to look out for their little sisters, especially when it comes to boyfriends. I think it was less important for me to get involved since my sister is 3-4″ taller than Cameron and can almost certainly keep him in line. Too bad he doesn’t have an older brother to help him out. My dad vouches for the fact that Cameron is a math genius, which is a nice bonus. It’s been great getting to know him and his family over the past few years. The Taketas are a sweet, loving, and generous family.

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Unfortunately, a huge storm swept through Honolulu on Friday night and lingered through Saturday morning. The wedding ceremony was moved indoors.

The Yungs, while not really known for their fashion sense (except for maybe Mom), clean up well. Wing Ning looked amazing in her dress and make-up (and without her glasses). It was amusing to tag along with the photographers, who posed the happy couple in all sorts of cheesy ways. The reception was full of personal touches – mini Rubik’s cubes as gifts, modular origami centerpieces, a wedding pie with a Lego wedding scene on top, and pi-decorated programs (all consistent with their wedding website). I was really impressed by the creativity and amount of work that they put into it – I’ve made a few of the origami balls and they take a hell of a long time (especially the one that consists of five intersecting tetrahedrons). Cameron’s hilarious Aunt Gwen mc’ed and repeatedly brought attention to the fact that most of the bridal party was single (and geeky).

My mom painted a picture, my dad picked out a Chinese poem to go along with it (and gave the commentary as part of his toast), and I put together a slideshow (they approved my selection of Weird Al’s White ‘n’ Nerdy for part of it). Each member of the bridal party made a toast with common themes around eating and playing board games.

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After the wedding, we went to the beach and had dinner. Wing Ning was back in her t-shirt and jeans, but wore a green orchid in her hair for the rest of the day. Every time I looked at it I thought to myself, “Oh right, she’s married now.”

Stopped by Baylands Nature Preserve again yesterday after having lunch with friends at Topix. Took my binoculars along this time too.

As I was leaving, I saw a ring-necked pheasant. It was quite skittish but also didn’t make any effort to get away from me. Quite striking in its coloring.

More photos.

We spent the past weekend in Sonoma to celebrate our friend’s completion of the California bar exam. Ten of us (Sloanies, significant others, and Meatball the dog) shared a fantastic house (back of the house, backyard view) in Guerneville.

Spent most of Saturday wine tasting, highlights included the beautiful gardens at Ferrari-Carano (I didn’t sample the wine there) and a few hours lounging around on the back patio of the Harvest Moon Winery. Harvest Moon, a tiny winery, was our favorite of the bunch – we all had a really pleasant time, got along well with our hosts, and bought several bottles of wine. We had brought along our own bread, prosciutto, and cheese, and also sampled their chocolate and olive oils.

On Sunday it was rainy but that didn’t stop a few of us from heading to the beach. We strolled along Goat Rock Beach, catching a break in the rain. We spent a lot of the day lazing around from the comfort of our house.

Of course, the eating was fantastic. We cooked one breakfast, one brunch, and three dinners together. Meal after meal, we all ate far beyond the point of being full. The nine of us fit comfortably around the dining room table. It was warm, cozy, and homey.

Congratulations, Amy!

Jen and I have been looking for outdoorsy places to visit; a few weeks ago I came across the Baylands Nature Preserve. It’s only a 5.5 mile bike ride from our place in Menlo Park. Today I went in between rainstorms. The marshlands are full of birds; next time I’m definitely bringing a pair of binoculars along with me.

On one of the pond shores, two groups of birds (one brown, one white) would suddenly take to the air every few minutes. Nature fans should have a look at these in high-res: 1, 2 (you can see why they were flying if you look on the right side of the image), 3.

Oh, and there was a rainbow too.

More photos.

It’s been raining a lot these past few weeks. Spotted these beautiful droplets while I was on today’s afternoon stroll.

On Saturday Jen and I visited the California Academy of Sciences. It was our second visit since becoming members; the first time it was so crowded that we didn’t get to see the rainforest exhibit, one of the centerpieces of the museum. It’s a glass-surfaced dome 90 feet in diameter. Small, colorful birds dart back and forth, and butterflies flutter about. There are lots of exhibits containing live reptiles, amphibians, and insects. In other words, an awesome place to spend a few hours.

A few photos.

Jen and I took advantage of the warm (50 deg F) California weather this weekend. Had a tasty lunch at the Flying Fish Grill and enjoyed a three-hour walk along the beach, catching the sunset before leaving.

More photos

Looking back, it was a pretty good 2008. Still shooting mostly with the Rebel XT and 28-105 that I got two years ago. Here’s my assessment of last year’s goals:

Get better at post-processing. I feel a lot more comfortable tweaking white balance and curves. One tip that I picked up from friend is to take multiple passes through a set of photos since your sense of the right white balance can slowly evolve as you go from photo to photo.
Work on composition. Definitely getting better at seeing things in 2D, and I’ve been active in repositioning distractions or myself to get a better shot.
Be more creative. Haven’t done anything too crazy lately, unfortunately.
Shoot more photos. The camera comes along with me everywhere, and having a bag that allows easy access to it makes a big difference.
Be in more pictures. When people offer to take a picture of me, I’m more likely to agree to it.

So, onto goals for this year.

Play around with lighting. It’s fun to read Strobist but hard to acquire all of the equipment. Also, as far as busting out extra flashes to shoot photos, it’s probably not something that’s going to happen all that regularly. Nevertheless, it would be fun to learn more and play around with my extra flash.
Get out more. The town scenery here isn’t as photo-worthy as Cambridge and Boston, but that’s no excuse. Hopefully I’ll find some favorite local spots to take photos.
Spend more time post-processing my best photos. All photos currently get about the same post-processing treatment; I’d like to spend more time with the best ones to make them really pop.
Read some books. I’ve been able to learn a good deal on my own from reading blogs and other online resources, but at this point I’d like to start learning more theory. To start down this path (and my first goal), my sister gave me Light: Science and Magic.
Get more involved in communities. Will try to blog more regularly, participate in photo contests, leave more comments, and encourage my friends (since a ton of them just got DSLRs) to post their pictures somewhere public.