[FP]: Photography.

Taking pictures has progressively grown to become one of my favorite hobbies to do. The idea that I can capture a moment, an expression, a feeling in a single moment in time and keep that moment in time in a picture has always caught my interest. At first it began as a casual thing. I received a Samsung SL202 point and shoot as my first camera. I would basically take pictures of each and everything I saw, even if they weren't interesting, I wanted to just start capturing everything and getting a feeling for using it. I even started carrying it around with me everyday because I started to do a self-photography project called Project 365, where you basically take a picture of something every single day for a full year. I ended up stopping around day 200 because the my days kept getting busier and I never had time to think of interesting concepts or compositions to take photos with. I would say that my knowledge and skills with a camera have increased dramatically over the period of a year. Over that time I've acquired a consumer level DSLR camera, which is what I currently shoot with. Through taking multimedia art in my junior year, and just experience on my own, my skills for post-processing pictures in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom have also become a useful skill. I hope to take my hobby further with the purchase of a couple lenses in the nearby future so I can take pictures of a better caliber.

A rather progressive sample of some pictures over time:

[FP]: Senior Life.

The top of the food chain, the upperclassmen, senior year has finally dawned itself upon us and it feels odd to be placed in this niche of highschool society. It's hard to believe that we've walked through the orange lined hallways for the past four years. Everything feels routine at this point, from knowing the best routes to get to classes, to knowing where to meet-up with friends during breaks. In addition to all the social perks of being a senior, there comes the ever-so daunting pressure from colleges looming over most of us.

This is where things start to feel a bit surreal for me. Knowing that by the end of this year, we'll have sent off our applications to admission officers to decide on our future based off 1000 words. It's a bit frightening to think about actually. The whole college admissions, SAT, etc. process has had a weird effect on me. I've found nostalgia creeping into my mood more frequently. Perhaps I feel as if I'm not mentally, or physically ready for college yet, or it could just be that I regret not spending more of my time in these past years doing more productive activities. Whatever the reason may be, the fact still remains that each day that passes by, is just another day closer 'til the end. I won't be seeing 95% of the faces that I see currently for the rest of my life. A walk across the stage, a diploma hanging on my wall, and a giant chapter of my life will suddenly come to an end just like that. I hope these next few months will honestly be one of the best times that I will have ever spent in Alameda High, because you only go through this once so you better make the most of it.