Stars and Stripes

This is one of the many flags that Surround the Washingtion Monument. I was inspired to take this kind of picture from my old roomate Tim who I saw took a similar picture during our trip to Washingtion DC. It is very windy up near the washingtion Monument which seems to make the flags up there always waving. I took many artistic shots of the flags up there trying to catch a great shot of the flag, or sets of flaggs, waving in the wind. I really enjoy the outcome of this picture though with the sun captured behind the flag, illuminating it and making it shine brighter. 

Weathered Chain vs Rock

This I think is one of my favoriate pictures taken in DC. Like the Last image of the Rocks, this image is a macro shot that gives no indication of its context. However, when I look at this I can almost feel the everpresent pull of the chain on the rock and the forces of the rock pulling back. The weatherd appearence of the chain seemes to indicate how long this battle has been going on with no clear winner. I will leave the decision of the winner up to you guys since I can't find one myself. 

Rocks in a line

So...after spending 5 days in Washingtion DC and taking over 2650 pictures...I decided to use this picture as the first one that I put up online. Despite the fact that this picture shows no context to the place it was taken and probably brings no thought of DC to mind, I still decided that this will be the first image to go up. This was taked in Dumbarton Oaks, a very beautiful private garden in DC that had a very interesting inlaid rock garden that was originally a tennis court. I don't have that much to say about this image so I will leave the rest of photo observations up to you guys to handle. 

My Newest Model

I have to go back and retake this picture using a tripod but I will let you guys see it just to get an idea of it. The actual length of the bridge is 2.5 inches long as a scale refrence. Also, from the front of the model to behind the cliff in the distance is just 12 inches. I made this model for my studio class as part of our planting design project. The concept of my design is based off of a trail system in a state park located somethere in southeastern Missouri. 

I LOVE SUSHI!!

This is my version of a food Blog. I like eating the food the most so I will give you all this. My stack is the center on with 17 plates. I definatly won this one since Reiko's Stack (left) only has 11. This was the last dinner I had in Japan and I think this was one of my favorite...(except for all the other dinners where I had tons of sushi and other stuff I like...but who's counting) This May I will try to go to another sushi-convayerbelt like and beat my previous record. It will be a compitition between Ethan and me and only fate will decide the winner... 

Beautiful Fukuoka City

Hey this is a picture I took while on top of Fukuoka Tower in Fukuoka City. Almost every large city in Japan has some sort of tower thats sole purpose is to look cool and act as an observation tower. Well from up here we can see a typical Japanese Highway...Something quite different from American Highways. The first thing you may notics is that it is only a 4 lane highway. the reason for this is that almost every highway in Japan has a toll on it (hence the toll booths on the exit ramp). By charging a toll to drive on the highway it promotes people to use alternative forms of transportation which REALLY helps the transportation infrastructure of a City. It causes less people to croud the highway by spreading out the commuter traffic over multiple systems like Light rail, busses, and bikeing. Also, almost every road I saw in Japan was kept in very nice condition. All the lines were very brightly painted on the road and traffic signs were very clear and easy to read. After I came back from Japan, American roads looked so blank with their fading lines and old pavement and no signs.
I know none of what I talked about has to do with the picture but it is just my observation of what I saw in Japan. I really enjoyed visiting Fukuoka this day since it was a beautiful clear day in the middle of May. Well writing about this is making me excited about getting to go back to japan this summer so I will leave you at that and let you enjoy following the highway along the Beach. 

Woodchip Garden

This is a nice close up image of the woodchips that lie under my miniture bamboo grove that I have up here at studio. I cleaned out a lot of the leaves that were on top so that I had a better view of the short Bamboo stalks from my desk chair. I decided to take some pictures after I finished and found this close up image kind of nice. I think I like it because I normally don't get time to look at the little things that are around us....that or I would like others to see the kinds of things that they never take the time to look at. Anyways, here are some woodships to look at so enjoy. 

Watercolor

Hey, this is a watercolor painting that I did last year in my design graphics class. Unfortunatly I havent really kept up with anything like this but if I try and take the time I could start doing water colors again. Maybe this summer when I have a job that lets me leave studio I will start doing a lot more things like drawing and painting and photography. I am so excited now about this summer and all it's free time that it has motivated me to work harder now....I think....maybe it just makes me spend more time thinking of this summer instead of working to get me there. 

My portfoliio cover

Hey Everyone, I have spent the past weekend making my portfolio. This is the Cover that I came up with that I thought best represented my style. This is a picture of the first model I ever created at this college and I thought that this look into the Japanese courtyard looked really cool. I think the best part about it is that the real height of what is in the image is like 3 inches. The little sticks that make up the doors are 1/32" square! and the best part about them all is that those little doors really slide!! well that was a fun model to make I think 

Binder Cover 2 of 2

Well I finaly got around to allocating some of my time to updating my blog. I have taken a lot of pictures lately but unfortunatly most of them aren't composed images. This picture is from Castlewood State Park near my house in St. Louis. The part I love the most about this park is that it is a linear park that sits atop the bluffs that overlook the meramac River. I am taking the idea of bluffs along a river and applying it to my next studio project. I felt this picture fitting for the cover to my construction binder since the bluffs show how much nature constructs itself.