Texas Wildflowers

Last weekend I headed back to my hometown of Sugar Land, Texas to visit my family and had the unique opportunity to capture shots of one of Texas' famous spring beauties: the bluebonnet.

Its funny, after growing up there for 13 years, this is the first time I had ever pulled out my camera and snapped a picture of the famous state flower.

I guess some things aren't really appreciated until you leave them, right?

Anyway, here's some of my shots.

Holi holi holi

All during my undergraduate years at GW I always wanted to go the awesome, colorful event known as Holi. However, being a student athlete in season, I never had the chance to play around in the colors... until this year!

See, this is why more people should graduate early. You get the benefits of being a student without paying the tuition or dealing with homework and classes. #winning

Anyway...

For those who don't know what Holi is, it is the Hindu spring festival of colors, but many other cultures have adopted it recently in addition to the Hindu community. The GW student community hosts a Holi event every year, and this time, I got to jump into the color rush.

My lovely friend Rachael Burton let me put down the camera for the day and step into the frame, and she captured these amazing shots! Seriously-- I was blown away at how awesome these pictures were! Photographer in the making? I think so!

Oh and it was my birthday too.  :)

Pillow Fight!

A few weeks ago, when I trekked down to the national mall to shoot the cherry blossoms, I also snapped a few great shots of the giant pillow fight going on at the national mall.

Before getting wacked in the head, I managed to snag some pretty great shots!

Here's a sample:

Cherry blossom time

You would think that after living in DC for almost four years, I would have gone out to see the cherry blossoms on the National Mall at least once, right? Blame it on college athletics, homework, or laziness, but this year was the first year that I actually decided to trek down to the national mall and see the blossoms for myself. Now, they aren't quite out yet, but still... they were quite lovely. Here's some of my best shots:

Oh... and a spatula.

The beginning of baseball season

Its the most wonderful time of the year folks: baseball season is back!

I fully predict a summer chalk full of afternoon games, $10 cheap seats, and Sunday series closers in my near future. Sunshine, foot-longs and cute baseball players... what's not to love?

Although I grew up playing softball, I spent a lot of my free time with my family watching baseball. Mainly, the Houston Astros. Now, I know the good ole 'Stros aren't too great of a team (minus the awesome seasons they had in '04 and '05), but they were a lot of fun to watch as a kid. From watching them play at the Astrodome to seeing them today in Minute Maid Park, they were a great team to follow as a budding fan.

However, now that I'm based in D.C. and have no sense of loyality when it comes to baseball teams, my baseball-loving heart has been captured by my awesome, fantastic Washington Nationals. Oh the Nats. I'm so glad you're back.

Anyway, the reason for my little baseball rant is this awesome piece I got to edit together for one of the Washington Post's video journalists. Its a sweet piece about opening day at Nationals Park. Check it out!

Videos, videos, videos

I know, I know. Its been too long. Really, way too long. What can I say? I've been a little busy doing work, creating awesome video projects, sorting through all my Myanmar material, and living my life as a young professional.

I'll try not to neglect you, dear readers, for so long again.

During my blogging hiatus, however, I did make quite a few awesome video projects for my internship at the Washington Post and I thought I would share a few of my favorite projects. Here's my favorite 2 so far:

I made this video mashing up State of the Union rebuttals from the past ten years the week before President Obama gave is speech. It was quite a bit of work going through all those speeches and picking them apart, but I did learn a lot in the process. I even got to sneak a few clips Michelle Bachman's 2011 response in there!
I just finished this sweet little kicker piece this week about a VCGU basketball fan video, "Dunk City," that went viral over the past few days. It's a fun little piece!

I'm really learning a lot from the video team at the post-- web video is a really exciting field to

Day 8 in Yangon, Myanmar & the Yangon, Singapore, Hong Kong, and San Francisco airports

NOTE: This blog post is meant as a more informational account of my trip-- look out for some social commentary/analysis posts to come when I get back.

Well. Its over.

Right now I'm sitting in the comfort of the San Francisco airport, half awake, waiting for my red-eye flight back to DC, writing this post and thinking about all the different airports I visited today.

Its hard to believe that less than 24 hours ago I was waking up in, of all places, Yangon, Myanmar.

I still can't believe I had the opportunity to travel to Myanmar at such an interesting point in its changing history. Not many people have had the chance to go and I feel quite lucky that I was able to make my first visit at such a young age.

Anyways, I'm not going to attempt to write anymore. I'm not even sure if I'm making much sense through the jetlag and fogginess (I know my text messages make 0 sense right now-- shout out to my family and friends for putting up with me). However, I will leave you with something I don't normally share-- photos of myself. In Myanmar.

Enjoy!