Oh NO!

I haven't posted in so long. And now isn't really a great time because I have a 10-page paper due in approximately 9 hours... but I have been really struggling with my drawing class this semester and I think I am horrible at everything. So you can imagine my surprise when i got online and found out that my teacher had posted my drawing to the "wall".. The wall is where drawing teachers put pieces for all the drawing students to see. It was when we where talking about perspective and design in rooms. I posted it below so you could see it. I am so proud of it!

The Wonderful World Wide Web

Ok so I will admit at times I am caught looking like a mad women as I yell at my computer and curse the internet to a horrible death....But at times the internet fascinates me and makes me happy. One such encounter occurred today. I have been trying to find a vehicle for presenting my final body of work and while others have proven fruitless and time wasting, today I discovered Jalbums. It's this amazing site that lets you put together web galleries and I will literally be able to finish my final in about 5 minutes (once I take the pictures of course). How awesome is that? I made a little practice album to try it out and see if it as awesome as I thought it would be and it is :) Here is the link and I will get the real gallery on here in a few weeks when it is finished.

http://jessicaraephoto.jalbum.net/Seattle

Memorial Day Weekend

So for the lovely holiday weekend I packed it up and headed home with my roommate in tow. I was really missing home and needed a weekend to see the family and my roommate had never been to Seattle. We had a lot of fun even though we spent a third of the weekend driving; still totally worth it. We got in dead tired on Friday morning and spent the day being lazy and watching Dear John. I have got to say that movie is so incredible. Seeing as my boyfriend is in it I knew it would be awesome even before I saw it (I have a Channing Tatum obsession... don't judge me). Also, it came out on the best day ever (my birthday Feb 5th), so it was destined to be good. Saturday we went to the big city for some exploring. We of course picked up my friend Patty along the way and headed in. Luckily there was almost no traffic which was so surprising because Folklife was that same weekend. We explored the market and got Starbucks on Pike. It was Tia, my roommates, first Starbucks ever and she of course had to have it at the very first Starbucks. That is the worst thing about Idaho; NO STARBUCKS! I miss my Chai tea so bad. We then got some lunch down at the water at guess where... Ivar's of course. That is another major downfall of Idaho. There is absolutely no good seafood. Holy frijoles I have missed Seattle. We headed back to the market after lunch to do a bit of shopping like flowers for my mommy and then of course no trip to Seattle is complete without seeing the Space needle. We got the car and ended up parking illegally eight blocks away. I was really worried and told Patty that if my car got towed I was going to blame her. As we started to walk up the hill to the Needle we started to run into Folklife crowds and plenty of crazies. I think Tia was a little taken back by the crazy homeless people and even though we laughed about it I could tell she was a little scared. We took some pictures and went to go look at Seattle center entertainment. We saw the cutest little old couple at Folklife so I of course took a picture. We had a lot of fun and finished the day off with a little shopping. What a good weekend! I know this is super long and probably boring so I added some pics to make it more interesting.

Malad-Dragons

I had no idea what a Malad-Dragon was when I first encountered it. I was out taking some photos when I saw this really cool old bus. As you can see from the picture it said Malad-Dragon on the front. I giggled a little and when I got to editing them I thought that I might try to find out what it is. Well, after some research I found that there is a city in Idaho called Malad and their local high school mascot is the the dragons. The bus appeared to still be in working order but I wasn't sure what they used it for. I probably could go ask the owners of the home were I was trespassing to get the pics.... or not. ENJOY!!!

Bucket List

For a recent assignment my teacher asked us to pick something off our bucket list and photograph it. This is about when I realized that I don’t have a bucket list and most people do. So, drum roll please, her is my superfantasticalridonkulouslyawesome BUCKET LIST (in no particular order):

1. Travel throughout South America

2. Photograph for a major magazine

3. Go to Egypt with my mom / do what my art teacher did (he paid off the pyramid guards and hiked the pyramids at 3 in the morning)

4. Date a cowboy

5. Live in the city

6. a) buy cowboy boots

    b) wear said boots to rockin’ Taylor Swift concert

7. Roll down a green grassy hill in Ireland

8. Drive a Subaru WRX STI with a hood scoop and gold rims

9. Learn to longboard

10. Go elk hunting

11. Help people in Africa

12. Document a natural disaster (i.e. photography)

13. Finish every book on my To Read list

14. Offer my photography to help someone

15. Go surfing in Australia

16. Learn Italian

17. Kiss someone under the Eiffel Tower

18. Go fishing in/on  a cruise to Alaska

19. Eat drunken Noodles in Thailand

20. Spend a day learning how a farm works and working.

21. Ride a horse (for real though not the dinky let me guide the horse while you sit on it)

22. Visit the rest of the Mayan ruins ( I have already toured Chitchen Itza, Tulum is next)

There’s probably more but this was all that was coming to me and I figure it is a good start. I will add more later if I think of them. So the assignment was to pick something on your bucket list then find a way to photograph it where we are now.  I chose #12 and found and interesting little place to take some pictures. While I was photographing it reminded me about the earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami in Thailand, and the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. I thought about how others photography had  brought that crisis to me and many others and about how I want to do that. Some may think that a photographer isn't important right after a serious event and that the aid is more important but I feel that without putting a face to that crisis and showing it to people they would be less likely to want to help the people. I feel that a photographer is the worlds eyes focused on that one event and showing it people who can't see it.