quail botanical gardens

I went to Quail Botanical Gardens with my sister last weekend. I didn't want to go alone, so i dragged her along with me. We got lost for a little bit, but when we got there, we were relieved that we found it. My favorite picture that I took is the first picture of the human plant. It reminded me of a chia pet, but life size. My sister wanted me to take a picture with it, but I told her that would be embarrassing. The whole trip, my sister kept telling me to take pictures of purple flowers. Not surprisingly, most of the pictures that came out well were of purple flowers. The reason she kept telling me to take pictures of purple flowers is because purple is her favorite color. You would think that because she is already 24, she would grow up and let me take the pictures I wanted, but she wasn't. The last flower is my favorite flower that I took a picture of, because it reminded me of my childhood. When we first moved into my house that I live in, there were 3 groups of plants just like that in the front yard. I remember how crispy the plant felt, and it made me think of little paper flowers. I really like the picture of the cactus, because the layout of the spikes looked really unique. It was like a bunch of prickly stars on a cactus. Most cactus that I see aren't little balls, so I thought I would take a picture of it. After a while, my sister started getting cranky, because she was hungry. I took a couple more pictures and then we left to go eat out. This field trip was fun, but I think it wasn't my favorite field trip. I think that because this is my first field trip that no one from our class came on with me at the same time, I wasn't as interested in it. When I went to Rainbow and the Wild Animal park, I felt more comfortable in what I was doing, because I was with people who were doing the same thing.

photographers

Michael Ray

Michael Ray is a Food photographer. The way each food is set and the lighting is just amazing. I wish i had looked at his work before we went to Rainbow. I think the way you plan how photos are taken of food can really make food look so much more delicious than if you did not plan it out at all.

My favorite picture on his site is the orange.

Seeing the water splash off the orange slice is amazing to me. I don't know how he did it, how many tries it took, but it looks perfect. I really like the reflection of the orange in the water. You can see all the water droplets and how the water can be manipulated and change different shapes.

This picture reminds me of Rainbow with the sandwich and beans. Seeing this makes me wish I tried more different ways to capture the food at Rainbow.

Lois Greenfield

Lois Greenfield is a movement photographer. I think all of her photographs are insane (in a good way)! The placement of the clothing material and body positions are perfect in each picture. I wonder how many times it took her to get each photograph just right. Taking pictures of dance is hard, because the position has to be technically right or it will be ruined. I think the last picture was my favorite. Her body is almost perfectly vertical, but her clothing that is hung out on the left side is spread out really nice. The reason I really like her work is because it takes a lot of patience and a lot of hard work and dedication to get pictures to turn out this good.

Rainbow

I left early morning to go to Rainbow, because I was afraid I'd get lost. On my way there, I ended up gettin a speeding ticket and I was not in a good mood any more. I made about 3 U-Turns, because I thought I was going the wrong way. When I arrived, I was the first one there from our class. I went inside to see the other class had already started cooking. Watching them cook looked really good. I was very hungry watching them, because I didn't have breakfast. We shared slices of banana bread to calm our grumbling stomaches. Watching them cook, I was really amazed. Everything that was made looked so good.

When we put in the lights next to the table, the pictures ended up turning out way better than just using the daylight outside from the window. My favorite was probably the cactus salad. It was very salsa like with a nice little kick to it. It went really well with the taco shell. My next favorite would probably be a tie between the chia lemonade and strawberries. Those strawberries were so good! You could really taste the difference between the strawberries you buy at the store and the ones from Tierra Miguel. I probably ate one bowl on my own; 4 or 5 big strawberries. I really liked the fish too. It was cooked to perfection and was really good with all the vegetables on the top.

It was fun trying to lay out all the food so that it complimented each other. We tried our best to keep the white covered, because, Deborah was right, the white stands out and becomes distracting.

This was probably my favorite field trip, because I think it was very easy going and more getting to know each other more. I really liked the talk we had as we ate too. It made me feel like what I was actually doing made a difference within the native american community.

funes art competition

Indian Rock (Pictures are in reverse order)

I arrived at school to meet up with everyone I carpool with. When everyone was ready to go, I offered to drive and we left to go to Indian Rock. When we got there, we were kind of confused. We were expecting to end up in the country or a more isolated area, but we stopped at a residential area. At first we thought we were at the wrong place, but we saw Deborah's car. We walked through the gates to see some of our classmates. We walked around for awhile and took pictures until everyone got there. The first thing that I saw was the big rock at the very top of the hill. I went around the rock to find a mix of oil pictograms and spray painted tagging from the Vista Home Boyz. It's a shame that people vandalize other people's property, especially when what they're destroying is part of a culture's history.
The view was really beautiful from the top of the hill. You could see all of Vista from that hill. Right before we started our tour, I saw a butterfly and I took about 4 pictures of it. The best one was the last one, because its wings opened up. Later, when we moved towards the top of the hill. Our tour guide told us about these berries that all the birds come to eat. He said there would be at least 5 birds on one branch trying to get its share of berries. Those berries are the same berries that me and my sister used to throw at each other when we were little. After the tour ended, we were let loose to take pictures. I got a really good picture of two lizards: one was black and the other was brown. What I really liked about the black lizard, besides the fact that it is rare that you see a black lizard, is that you can see the blue spotted scales on it. This is the closest picture of a lizard I got all day and I felt like I achieved something big after that. We then ate a delicious lunch. The sandwich was so good I had to get a second one. They were really kind to us for preparing us food. Right before we left, I saw a hummingbird. I was rushing to delete pictures I didn't like, because I had no more room. I finally got a shot while it was in the air. I'm really happy I got this shot, because I really like hummingbirds.

Rincon

My carpool and I arrived at the Rincon reservation a little late. We all were confused on where to meet, because no one was there. We then found out that everyone already headed out to the back. When we got there, we all split up into separate groups. We decided where to put the plants and then we got our area approved so we could start digging and planting.











We decided that some people would dig and some would plant.

The first plant I did had thorns on them, and I didn't realize it until i got poked. I got a tiny cut but I was fine. We continued digging and planting until we finished. On my third plant, I couldn't get one of the plants out of the plastic container. Whitney told me to just pat the sit of the plastic so the soil becomes a little lose. I tried it and it worked. When we were done, we had to put a layer of mulch around the plant. My group was the first ones done, so we decided to get rocks and put them next to some of the plants. One of the people from Rincon said that these native plants really like rocks, so we did it. When we finished we cleaned up and stacked all of our containers. Deborah and half of the class left to walk down a trail. I ended up staying to help set up watering the plants. Everyone was done except for us, and I could tell that the girl who was poking the hose really wanted to do this. So, I helped and stayed until we got all of the plants we could in that section. At the end, we were rewarded a mug. I was really happy we got a mug, because my mom broke my other one last month. We all got back in the car and I felt really tired and dirty. I couldn't wait until I got home to shower and go rest. All in all, it was a good days work, and I felt very useful.

Pechanga

I arrived at school around 1:30 to carpool with my classmates. I showed up extra early to make sure I got a camera that day, because I forgot to reserve one. Luckily, I got one to check out. I called my friends I carpool with to find out where they were. It was my turn to drive, and I was kind of nervous I'd get lost. I figured, since it's in Temecula and I've been around there a lot, because my brother lives there, I most likely wouldn't get too lost. We got there without making any U-Turns and I was so happy that I didn't embarrass myself by getting us lost. When we got there, I went inside the gas station store to get snacks in case I get hungry. The police officer inside ended up asking me a bunch of questions about what we were all doing here, why, and who was giving us the tour, and so on. I started getting nervous because I felt like I was being interrogated. I know he didn't mean to freak me out, but I still tried to answer all his questions to the best of my ability. Later, we left to see the great oak tree. It's the biggest oak tree in the nation. When I first saw it from the outside, I was thinking, "Where is it? All I see is a big bush". We all got out of the bus and walked into the bush. There I saw the big trunk of the oak. I was really amazed to see how big it was and what was hiding underneath all those leaves. I saw roots that were so big I could sit on it like a horse! I felt so little compared to the tree, and I'm really glad we got to see it.


We got back on the bus and we drove to the little pond. There was a rock with markings on them. Deborah explained to the class that petroglyphs were drawings/writing engraved into rocks and pictograms were drawings/writing painted on rocks. I always thought they were the same thing, but I guess what they say is true: "You learn something new everyday."

We walked further down into the woods to see these big houses made of wood. It was really cool to see how all the sticks and branches were put together to make huts. Not to be stereotypical, but I thought, "Wow, this is really Indian now". It was interesting to see how spacious the small huts were, but I was even more astonished when I realized that that was there home. It was very small and all you can basically do is sleep in there. I think I wouldn't be able to survive if I was stuck in a small room with my sister and brothers every night.


Later, we saw another wooden house. This house looked cooler than the other houses. Our tour guide mentioned that the logs were put together and held by adobe. It was much more spacious then the other huts, but I still wouldn't want to live in it. We weren't allowed to go inside and sit in there, because it was unstable at the time. It was really intriguing though.

Later, our tour guide showed us how Indians use deer grass for basket weaving. We got back on the bus and rode to the nursery. It was our last stop and it was freezing! The best part of the nursery was going into this white house with the heater running inside. It was really warm in there, but only 10 people could fit in it. I was one of the lucky 10. We walked around the nursery as our tour guide showed us the plants that were placed in neat rows. There was so many baby plants that had just sprouted.

The thing I remembered most was that it was really, really cold, but I really enjoyed coming out and getting a taste of how Native Americans lived.

Wild Animal Park

It was Friday morning, and I wasn't used to waking up so early, because I usually don't have school. It was 9 o'clock and I was running late of schedule thinking I would be late arriving to the Wild Animal Park. As I was driving alone, I was worried I was driving the wrong way, but each time I saw a sign that said, "Wild Animal Park", it would calm my nerves a little. I arrived at the park, and I only saw one person from class there. I was thinking, "If I'm late, at least I'm not the only one". It turns out that I was actually early. I sat down in fron

t of the entrance while everyone came. When everyone arrived, we began walking all the way to the back where the Native plants were in the park.

When we got there, I looked around for awhile thinking, "Wow, this place is really nice, and it doesn't stink like animals." After the short presentation, we began the short tour.

We came across some cacti that I have never seen before. I usually pictured cacti as a big green prickly thing sticking out of the ground with one or two arms. This

one, on the other hand, reminded me of a funnel cake. It began to make me really hungry. I really liked the way cacti weave in and out and twist around each other. It looks very unique and extremely intricate.

This picture of the plant arching over the fence and curling at the end is beautiful to me. I think the way I took this picture was perfect, because coincidently, there is another cactus in the middle of the arch. I really like the color of the sky and clouds in this picture too. The blue sky and plant landscape gives you so much of the beauty within th

e area. Where as the partly gray clouds and the idea of cactus poking you, reminds you of the danger or some kind of caution. Thus, it gives me the idea that something so beautiful as native plants are being replaced, but why would you want to see something so pretty go away?

We then passed this weird looking plant that was really intriguing to me. The top green leaves were similar to how a palm tree looks like. The bottom part was what really caught my eye. To me, it looked like legs in stockings, but upside down. Right when I saw this plant, I knew I had to take a picture of it.

This picture of a bird on the cactus is one of my favorite pictures. I liked it because it was different from all the other pictures. It was a silouette of the bird and the cactus, against a background of white puffy clouds and a blue sky.

When I was going through my pictures, I was surprised that I was the one who took it, because the setting just looked so unreal. It was as if the bird and cactus and everything was put into place to make this picture.

After the tour, I went on the ride, "Journey to Africa", with 5 other people. It was really fun, but really cold as well. Seeing cute dirty smelly animals was a GREAT way to end the trip.

movie- Sally Mann

I think Sally Mann's work is very unique. I liked hearing the whole story about her and her father. She seems to admire him a great deal. A quote I can not forget that was stated of her father, was that he was not afraid of death. The pictures she took of her children were very interesting. I really liked the way they turned out, because it really did give a sense of hope to close the death gallery. The pictures of death is something I believe everyone should deal with. She stated that the corpse is nothing but a body, and the soul is what "you" really are. When you pass away, so does your soul and the corpse is left. It is something that we need to let go of, and what better way to help people understand that than through pictures. A negative aspect about society and art today is that it is all about money. If it doesn't make money, it is extremely hard to get your work up. I think showing this issue during the movie was a great highlight. It helped show reality in the world. I am glad she got the chance to display her work in a gallery in the end. I can actually feel the excitement she does when I watched that part. 

What I really liked about the face portraits and the kind of camera she used is its uniqueness. When you take pictures, it usually only take one second. The camera she uses requires you to stay still for a certain amount of minutes. I don't think I could ever model for those kinds of cameras, because I move too much. 

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