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! :)