Day 2 of my favorite days of summer was my trip to Seattle with my mom, dad, and Hannah.

7/18/14
Daniel (my brother) and several of his friends drove up to Seattle for a DotA tournament: The International. For all you non-gamers out there, DotA stands for "The Defense of the Ancients" and is an online battle arena video game. It's getting pretty big, apparently, and something close to $10 million went to the winning team. Anyway, since my brother was going to Seattle, Hannah and I wanted to go too, remembering that the last time we went was sometime in middle school. My dad and I made a deal that if I drive there, he would drive back, so that Friday, armed with a cup of coffee and a recently made playlist, I start the engine of my Corolla, ready for the three hour drive. The drive there was pleasant for the most part. We ended up stopping by Carl's Jr. for a small meal about half way, then we went right back on the road again.

The traffic didn't hit us until we were on the outskirts of Seattle. After a couple aggressive lane changes, muttered curse words, and horn honks, we find out exit and make out way to the International District. Hannah heard of this Japanese restaurant called Tsukushinbo, that supposedly serves some of the most authentic ramen in Washington. People get in line an hour or so before the place opens in hopes of getting a bowl of ramen, since they make limited amounts each morning. We were lucky enough to get three bowls, along with chicken katsu and vegetable tempura. I really wish I had taken pictures of the restaurant and food, but even before they set the dishes on out table, the aroma of the broth invaded our senses and our thoughts were fixed purely on the food. I know for sure that we will be stopping by again the next time we visit Seattle.

After we ate ramen we stopped by Pike's market. The place was gorgeous, and they had so many shops! The roads were packed with people, lining up at various stores, such as the original Starbucks and different types of bakeries. We ended up buying around 7 pastries from a French, and I think Danish bakery, which we ate periodically throughout the day. Our last stop was the FRYE art museum, which was free admittance and surprised us by having three Bouguereau paintings. Bouguereau has been one of my favorite artists for quite some time now, so I was really happy to see some more of his paintings in person. After we looked through the museum and bought a couple post cards, we decided to drive back home. We had a really eventful day (with over 6 hours of it dedicated just to driving) and I'm so glad I brought my camera. Here are some of the shots I took:

 

 

Overall it was a super fun day, and I loved the quality time I got to spend with family. Hopefully the next time we go back won't be too far into the future! 

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.

First Post

Hello, and welcome to my personal blog! Recently I have been getting into photography and I made the decision to invest in an entry-level DSLR: a Nikon D3300. At this point, I'll mainly be using this blog as a way to track my progress as I experiment and learn more about photography. I'll also be using this as a journal of sorts. I guess an introduction is in order!

This is me:

My name is Sarrah Friesen, I'm half German and half Filipino. I'm starting my third year of pre-nursing at Oregon State University, majoring in nutrition. I love cats (I'm probably going to end up being that one crazy cat lady in the neighborhood), movies, drawing, and RPGs. My favorite movie I watched this summer is Guardians of the Galaxy, I highly recommend it. I've already watched it two times and I'm craving to see it a third time. If you don't like comic book/super hero movies, you should watch it solely for Chris Pratt. I'm also in the process of playing two games: Ni No Kuni and Bravely Default. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll be able to finish them before school starts due to my busy schedule. This summer I got a job at an organization called Affinity Home Care. I work with older people, doing anything from dishes, sweeping floors, cleaning counter tops, to giving showers, transferring from wheel chairs, assistance dressing, and providing transportation. The job can be emotionally stressful at times, but it is very rewarding. I didn't anticipate liking my job as much as I do, and it reassured me that I'm on the right path in regards to nursing.

I'm the youngest of three children in my family.

My brother Daniel is probably the smartest person I know. He reads Wikipedia articles for fun, so that should tell you something haha. He is also training to run a marathon in the fall. My sister, Hannah, is a fantastic artist, and she actually is the one who got me into art when we were younger. She goes to school in LA, so she was able to get an annual pass to Disneyland, which makes me super jealous. All three of us are huge fans of Disney and will be visiting there in about a week with a friend, so you will definitely see some pictures from there in the near future.

So that's some information about me! I look forward to posting more and learning about photography. If any of you have some helpful resources, please feel free to share in the comment section! :)