As the Days Go On

Since I have a while till my trip to LA with Dan, Hannah, and Jeremy (my siblings and one of our close friends), I decided to summarize four of my favorite days of summer and post some of the pictures I took that day! I'll start with the 15th of July:

07/15/14
As I mentioned in my introductory post, Hannah is an artist (and quite an exceptional one at that, I'll share some of her work with you guys at some point) and has been wanting to sketch the animals at the zoo for some time now. At the Oregon Zoo,entrance fees are discounted on the first Tuesdays every month, so Hannah decided that today was the perfect day to go. With Hannah driving (she's 21 and doesn't have a driver's license, just so you know) and my dad in the passenger's seat, we arrive to our destination in tact, but right at the hottest time of day. Already wiping the sweat off our foreheads, we make our way to the front desk and request 3 tickets, only to find out that it was NOT the first Tuesday of the month (the 1st was the first Tuesday) and we end up paying for regular priced tickets. Of course this would happen. Not that paying the full price bothered us that much, but if you haven't figured it out yet, the Friesen family is terrible at planning.

The zoo was unexpectedly empty, which was refreshing, and probably because it was around 90 degrees at the time we arrived. However, they installed hoses throughout the zoo that released mist to help keep people cool, which we frequented as often as we could. Here are some of my favorite shots! I almost forgot to mention: I actually took all these before I got my DSLR, so all the pictures you're going to see were taken with a Nikon J2.

Funny that one of my favorite shots from the zoo ended up being a duck. Didn't need to go to the zoo for this...

These are some shots I took of my sister while she was drawing:

 I really love taking candid portraits, but I always find it hard when subjects move so fast. I definitely want to shoot more portraits, but the problem is finding willing subjects! Right now, all I am doing is taking pictures of family/friends when we are out doing things because I'm too shy to ask them for a session. I currently am doing some reading on composition and methods to take better pictures, so hopefully I can build up the courage sometime this school year and ask a friend or two.

That's all for now, I'll post about the other 3 highlight days of my summer within the week! In the meantime, I'll be trying to stay cool in this 95 degree weather.