Not every company observe the President's Day, but I got the day off.  Since I've been cooped up in the house enough lately, I was really hoping to get out and do something.  I've visited the Downtown before with the Sony NEX5, and have always wanted to go back again with the M9.  The day started kinda cloudy so I was pretty bummed, but it cleared up after lunch so I quickly packed up the M9 and the 28-50-90 setup and left the house.

First stop, Bradbury Building, the oldest commercial building remaining in Downtown and was famously featured in the movie Blade Runner.  Externally, it's not much to look at, but once you go in, it's glorious.  It's got a glass roof that light up the center court, and everything glows with the lights reflecting off the wood and red/orange color bricks and tiles.  On each floor, there are black ornate iron railings that wrap around the building and decorates the two open cage elevators.

Honestly, I could have stayed there all day, but I dragged myself out eventually.  One block up, there is the Angel's Flight, a funicular railway that was built in 1901.  Right next to it, is the Angel's Knoll, which contained the famous bench featured in the movie 500 Days of Summer.  The hilly park provides a nice resting area that overlook the busy streets down below.  I walked up the flight of stairs and spent some time sitting in the park just people watching and snapped some shots.

Not sure where else to go, I just wandered a bit.  I came across the entrance to the Museum of Modern Art (MOCA), and walked by the Walt Disney Concert Hall, before I decided to head back.  This is my first real "photowalk" since my previous attempts were disguised as a family outing, and I had a great time.  If you wish to see the whole set from this inaugural photowalk, it's in my personal gallery [HERE].

I saw a stock photo of a origami camera few weeks ago and I thought it looked awesome, and awesomely hard!  Well, I google'd around and finally found the step by step instruction on how to make it myself.  It took me about 30 minutes to finish this little guy, mostly because my fingers are clumsy and I'm not familiar with the origami terms like "valley" and "squash" :D  Download the attached PDF file if you want to give it a try!

Another stormy weekend and it's the Chinese New Year.  I was standing in the backyard this afternoon as the raining stopped for a few minutes and the sun broke through.  The clouds were moving briskly as another wave of rain is about to begin.  I saw this scene, with a sort of positive/negative effect.  The sun was shining on the clouds to the left so they were bright and cotton-like, and this other cloud was moving in from the right attempting to block the sun.  I ran inside to grab the camera and took what's left of that scene.

Clouds are easy targets, I feel.  You just need the right lights on them, convert to BW, and tweak up the contrast a bit (sometimes I add red-filter effect), then you get this dramatic looking photograph.  So, when you're lacking inspiration, just look up.

Quite a busy day, today.  It was Jayden's 5 year old birthday party, but it didn't start until 2pm.  The Discovery Science Center has just opened their new Indiana Jones exhibit, and since it's practically on the way, we decided to leave home early to check it out before lunch.

The exhibit featured a lot of props from the 4 movies and also expanded a little into archaeology and pyramids.

Since I knew it was going to be dark, I brought the fastest lens I own -- the 50'Lux.  At f/1.4 and ISO 800, I was able to capture everything I wanted.  It's funny, because I try to utilize all my lenses so I end up not using the 50'Lux that much, but everytime I come home and look at its files, I always think "Why don't I just shoot with this lens all the time?"

Later on, at Jayden's birthday party, I switched the 90mm Elmarit because I knew there'll be plenty of kids running around and I wanted to be able to shoot from afar.  If you would like to see the whole set, please visit the gallery page [HERE].