#computer
Fantastic day today. Aunt Kun and Uncle Mike came to pick me up to go to Felton to ride their steam train through the old-growth redwoods. Honestly it didn't feel much different from all my walks through UCSC campus, but I understand it was a great experience for my aunt and uncle. Took some photos at the Camp and we headed down the road straight into Santa Cruz's downtown. We got a couple sandwiches (their Reuben corned beef on rye still hits like a mfer) and a salad from Zoccoli's, and then got some coffee later. Had a very illuminating conversation at Santa Cruz Coffee Roasters — talked about how my roommates were doing by the end of the school year, people's tolerances and individual variability for caffeine, a bit of nutrition, and the Santa Cruz housing market with them. Walked down to the beach and the Wharf, looked out at the water with all the seagulls and fish, saw a whale come up four or five times. Got some ice cream from Coldstone on the way back to the parking lot and started to head back home. Took a couple of wrong turns, but we made it back on Highway 17 to San Jose / Milpitas (is this new news? I've already admitted to living in Santa Cruz). Took TONS of pictures, really stretched my manual focusing skills. Seems my biggest barrier to photography is proximity, rather than any gear — filling up the frame on 50mm and 24mm (and soon to be 35mm) is critical for great photos. Composition seems to "slide" forms and perspectives around within a frame. Absolutely critical, but parallel to the need for a strong and coherent sense of depth. And that's the open technical problem in photography, because it's not just a technical problem, because it occurs right where you combine technical prowess with visual semantics.