le 20 avril 2005
This is the ad I designed for the advertising blitz Carolyn and I unleashed to promote the last meeting of the Penn State Mac User Group. The last meeting of the year was one of our best of the year! There was as much energy and enthusiasm at this last meeting as there was at the very first one.
Last night was our final meeting of the year. We ended the year on a high note with record turn out, delicious cuisine, and memorable banter. Though still in its infancy, the MUG has already grown into something beyond our wildest imagination. I'm looking forward to growing the group into something even greater with the MUG team!
The ad was pretty successful, we seemed to have a record turn out for the meeting and many new faces. I would hope so, Carolyn and I spent three hours on foot plastering the campus with these ads a couple nights before the meeting.
le 11 avril 2005
Another NYC photo: This photo will forever remind me of my friends Carolyn and Rebecca, who I had an awesome time with in Greenwich Village. After Carolyn and I visited Soho, we got ahold of Carolyn's friend Rebecca who studies at NYU and lives in the city. Rebecca was charming, and took us to an equally charming restaurant just a block or two away from Washington Square Park on MacDougal Street. Caffe Reggio has been around for nearly a century and its cappuccino machine is over 100 years old. They make a mean milkshake too. It was a very warm, cozy place. Inside was dark and aged, with a load of personality and baroque paintings on the walls à la Caravaggio.
I took this one at night. This was the neon sign they had in the window. Disabled the flash, and propped the camera against something solid to make this this shot didn't come out blurry.
le 10 avril 2005
Last weekend, I took a spur of the moment day trip to New York City! It was midnight, and I was trying to start studying for a French exam. I got an instant message out of the blue from my friend Jeff. He said "any chance you want to go to nyc tomorrow for $8? We're leaving in 6 hrs." Six hours later I was on a bus with a bunch of film majors heading for the Big Apple.
I spent quite a bit of time in Central Park with my friend Carolyn, who threw caution to the wind and agreed to come on this trip with me. She had never been to my second favorite city, and I give her a lot of credit sticking by my side while I scoured the park looking for this castle. Yeah, how 'bout that: there's a castle in the middle of Central Park. It's called Belvedere. I don't know much about its history, but it overlooks a huge pond and some open fields in the park. It's a great view, and you can see the piercing NYC cityscape in all directions from Belvedere's towers.
I snapped this shot from one of the forward towers on the second or third outdoor level of the castle. What's shown here is the highest structure on top of the castle. There's a lot more to it than this. It's a pretty imposing feature of the park, check it out if you're ever there!
le 7 avril 2005
Again with the Spring photos: here we have another nature scene from the Bluecourse golf course behind the remote University Park campus. It was difficult to get a shot that did not include golfers, sand, or golfcarts.
I posted this photo because I like the way the trees create a sense of perspective. Even the grass is vivid, especially with the shadows falling across it in the background. The contour of this landscape is emphasized by the angle I captured this shot from. It's not dramatic or anything, but I like it.
le 6 avril 2005
Spring has arrived at Penn State! It was snowing last week, now I'm wearing shorts and short sleeves. I took advantage of the weather and went for a long bike ride on the western outskirts of campus and I brought my camera along. I found some very beautiful things. I can't wait until the trees have their leaves again. That'll be a real sight. University Park only offers bare trees through most of the school year.
This small flower was about a centimeter wide. I got down and dirty in some of the foliage beside the bike trail I was riding to snap some macroshots of the flowers and plants. These flower were so small that I almost missed them. I caught this flower during "magic hour" when the sun is a little lower in the sky, which makes for perfect photos. The way the sunlight seems to shine through the leaves and flower petals is very striking. The stems and bush beneath the flower make for an interesting texture, and I'm a fan of the highlights off in the distance.