I live in Los Angeles

Yes, I am alive.  Here are some photos of Los Angeles.

Who says L.A. is sprawling?

So I took some photos inside the Bradbury Building.

Just realized I forgot to watermark these.  Plz don’t infringe.  Thx.

Farewell NC Tour

Now that I’m done with the bar examination, I’m back to taking photos.

Since my wife and I are moving from NC in a few days, we’re taking some time to revisit some of our favorite spots in the Triangle. We went to a few places in Durham today.

The first couple shots were taken on Duke’s East Campus, where Trinity College was first located when it relocated to Durham.

 

We then stopped by Duke and took some more photos, mostly of the chapel. I know I’ve already posted a number of Duke chapel shots (see here, here, and here), but here are some more. Unlike the previous posts, I’ve included a number of shots taken from inside the chapel.

We also had lunch at one of our favorite local restaurants, Elmo’s.

How’s this for some comfort food? Chicken and dumplings, mashed potatoes, corn bread, apple sauce, and cole slaw. (Sorry for the low quality, the photo was taken with a cell phone.)

Duke Chapel (one last time)

Between studying for the bar exam and studying more for the bar exam, I haven’t had much time lately to do anything besides, well, study for the bar exam.

But I did get some night shots of Duke Chapel last week, which I had been meaning to do before moving West. Here’s what I came up with:

Duke Chapel Climb

In addition to winning national basketball championships and admitting rich undergrads, Duke has a tradition of letting graduating graduate and professional students climb the Duke Chapel tower. As a graduate and professional student who is graduating, I thought I should take advantage of this apparently once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (the tower is not open to the general public).

I had to wait in line for quite some time. They only let about 20 students in at a time, and each group took about 20-25 minutes to climb up, take photos, and climb down. Here are a few shots I took while waiting:

They call this a “climb” for a reason—you access the top of the tower by means of a narrow, steep, poorly lit spiral stairway. Not a good place for those who tend to get claustrophobic. Here’s a shot of the stairway (taken during my descent):

Imagine about 10 minutes of this. As you can see, I was appropriately decked out in flip-flops and baggy jeans.

Because they were trying to shuttle people in and out as quickly as possible, I only had about 5 minutes to snap photos from the top of the tower. I must admit that I went for quantity rather than quality—I just took as many photos as possible before being ushered back down the stairs. Fortunately, I walked away with a few photos that (with some editing) were halfway presentable. Here’s a handful:

Looking north, toward the Perkins/Bostock libraries and the medical buildings.

The roof of the divinity school and part of Perkins.

Divinity school, Perkins, etc.

Looking east, toward the entrance to the university (with downtown Durham off in the distance).

  As you can see, there was quite a line.

Here’s a nice vertical panoramic for ya.

And another panoramic (click to enlarge).

Facing south.

Some girl with the Duke statue.

The backside (i.e., the chapel itself).

Hearst Castle

Some shots from Hearst Castle, California.