How to take better pictures

1. Use your camera- I mostly use my iPhone6 to take photos, however, If I happened to take an amazing photo on my DSLR, I email to myself and download to my phone and post on FB or Instagram.

2. Get up early or stay up late.
When I was in Taiwan, I stayed in an airbnb next to rice field. The beauty of sunrise constantly amazes me.

Then there was the time we stayed until sunset in Kaohsiung harbor. Dusk is a magical time to capture photographs. The colorful sky will form a backdrop to your photo and create a different mood than what you would achieve in bright sunlight.

3. Focus-
Play around with focus and feature the subject. The spider in the middle of this park really stands out.

4. Texture
There was a student in my final portfolio class that focuses on wall textures. When they were enlarged, it looked like a painting.

5. Framing-
Using something fun or interesting to frame your image is a great way to see your subject in a new light. In this case, it's the sunmoon observatory building that frames the boy.

6. Negative space-

Relating to the space around your subject, it's a key element or artistic composition. Having my feet minimal surrounded by fishes ensures more attention to the water.

7. Perspective

Telling your viewers where to look is a clever way to draw them into your photograph. Using yellow color to make the cabs stand out is a fun way of expressing this point.

8. Sense of Place

Look around to see what can be incorporated alongside your subject to help tell the story of the destination.

9. Use editing apps

Changing a photograph to B/W or using different filters gives a different mood all together.

10. Always ask- don't be afraid to ask people if you can take photo of them

11. Composition- Depending on the photo, use the rule of third can be helpful but not always.

12. Shoot straight- don't worry, you can correct it later, especially the horizons.

13. Get into nature and choose your background wisely- One of my passion nowadays is travel, it doesn't even need to be too far from where you live, taking a photo with the environment around you can tell a story.

14. Get higher or lower- My mother told me in this recent trip to LA that I'm like a little kid again running all over the place.

15. Lighting is the key- I always shoot natural light and avoid using flash, you can always brighten it later.

16. Practice, practice, practice- When I first took photography class, one of the requirement is to enter a contest. So I entered Filoli call to artist contest. That year, I didn't got juried in, but the person who is incharge of the event told me never give up and keep learning. Last year, I tried again and got juried in the show!

17. Challenging yourself to a project (i.e. 365 day project.)

The Last Bookstore

Going to LA to see my parents is a vacation for me as well as for them. Since they usually don't drive outside of their comfort zone. I researched ahead and knew that I wanted to visit The Last Bookstore during this trip, we arrived there around 10:30am. Find a valet parking lot underneath a hotel for $6.
Here is what it looks like from outside.

We immediately liked the architecture of the building. I later find out that this place used to be a bank.
Here is inside the vault.

There are two floors to the Last Bookstore. Here is a photo of downstairs from above.

The flying books upstairs is really cool!

There were art galleries upstairs, here is my parents posing :)

 Christmas garlands made out of medicine bottles!

 Pennies on the floor.

Tunnel of books is one of the must visit place in this bookstore.

I enjoyed visiting this one of a kind bookstore.