Thursday, November 26, 2015

fabulous friday : it's the most wonderful time of the year...

...but I thought I'd share this a day early, for thanksgiving purposes. hope everyone's has rocked!!
and another just for good measure...


46/52 (part two) - November 21st // to say 'hello' in this cafe

I'm a train fan. sorta. like, if it weren't for most of their lyrical content I would listen to like, all of their songs... as it is I only listen to like five. but a good five.


anyway, after taking family pictures for those amazing children I used to babysit (plus their parents - whom I never babysat,) we went and got coffee & my sisters studied... I just hung out on pinterest until it was time to go. 

If I ever get the nerve to say hello in this cafe
say you will

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

46/52 (part one) - November 19th // something unexpected...

I'm sure you never would have imagined this showing up in your news feed, but here it is. my baby sister wearing a poodle skirt and a tutu watching my dad push leaves off the pool cover (they rot.) Exciting stuff, right? She's one creative girl...

Friday, November 20, 2015

fabulous friday // miscellaneous {gathered} thoughts

In preparation of writing this post, I headed over to pinterest, thinking maybe I'd do a update on fun things from pinterest/around the interweb... To look at my pins is all fine and dandy, but more often I find that I click on my likes to see what's up, instead.
Why?
Well, something you should know is that my likes are a little bit like drafts or my pinterest queue - things I'm going to pin but haven't yet (usually due to an abundance of those types of pins and wanting a little more variety, sometimes due to being the wrong season.) But sometimes I have pins that I like - like, really like - but just don't totally fit with the rest of my pinterest persona/boards. So sometimes they just sit, for me to see, to read, watch... and while I was scrolling through my feed I was asking myself what I wanted this blog post to be about and the thought popped into my head, well, life has been pretty good lately. hard as heck, sure, but right now, it's okay, right? and I was kinda thinking about those together. If someone asked me right now, I would honestly tell them, life is good. and that's totally true -- but a couple other billion people could say that right now and not one other person is going through the same stuff I am... So I guess there's more to it than that... Which brings me -- unceremoniously *snicker -- to my more or less point...

Sometimes to find out how life is you have to look at what wasn't said, rather than what was.

Possibly one of my favorite songs right now is Andrew Mcmahon's song All Our Lives. The song is seriously so pretty, but I guess it's really that there's this one verse (below) that touches me right in the feels...

I thought if I could tell her something
I would tell her this
there's only two mistakes that I have made
Is running from the people who could love me best
and trying to fix the world that I can't change


Note to self: be wise when picking friends... and not just when to let go, but also when to hold on... also, whatever your parents warn you/advice you about who to hang with... Just listen to them -- in the end, they can see farther than you can.


for a fun thing for any photographer out there: Tips for Outdoor Photography (but mostly for the graphic yuss)

and I'm sure I've shared this before, but here's something nice from pinterest...

and one last thing? Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thursday, November 19, 2015

45/52 (part two) - November 14th // another winter comes


Ever heard that sting song, ghost story? The lyrical quality is amazing. The verses start one talking about the cold and winter and then in the next his love life (comparing it to a trial) and the parallels... As the song (and story) continues each verse becomes more and more interwoven with the other subject until at the end and he confesses in the mock trial in his head to loving her all along.

All in all, not only is the language beautiful, the song is, too. It's really amazing. Go give it a listen.




Tuesday, November 17, 2015

45/52 (part one) - November 12th // tea & scones

So after my sister's mac broke down (while my grandparents were here - alas, timing!) -- the one she is required to have for her major, as in, the major she is in right now with classes/inter-ing from 9:30 - 7:00 four days a week -- my dad got serious about backing things up. (fun thing: most RAW files are supported by amazon cloud -- so if you have prime, like we do, unlimited space for all your RAW files. all 5000+ of them. win? I think yes.)

All that to say, now I'm really, really seriously considering what to keep/what to trash. Because if I have two very similar pictures and can't decide which is better -- will I want both in ten years? mm, no. So delete one... if not both. I mean, do I really want my mug of chai and scone x 10 different angles in ten years? good question. probably I won't want that tomorrow, right? So let's not waste time backing up stuff I'm only saying "adequate" about. 
But in all seriousness, this has got to be the best picture to showcase a typical morning at our house. maybe minus the scones and tea. I guess you'd have to say we lean toward night owls. ha.

Friday, November 13, 2015

fabulous friday // my, my, time flies


 ^ Taken August 1st & August 26th of 2014.
Taken October 23rd, 2015.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

44/52 (part two) - November 6th // Coloring

I have this (super awesome) coloring book. It's a Rip Van Winkle story with big pictures to color in. It's pretty sweet. So that's how I spend my time in between schoolwork doing. Coloring, yep.

Also happy birthday to my sister! double digits rock, hon!

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

44/52 (part one) - November 5th // outside the window

For the past year or so the screen has been out of our bedroom window (it's in our closet, fyi.) It makes star-gazing wonderful. Like for when Cecilia and the Satellite Sky comes on the radio and the air is so fresh and the stars are so beautiful.

Anyway, now that it's autumn and the bugs are all gone, when we have a warm day it's just the perfectest thing.



Friday, November 6, 2015

fabulous friday // why I blog


This all started as a tag on to my "photography journey" post, but it got too long and I thought, hey, man, this is quickly departing from my original thesis and dude, this could take on a whole 'nother blog post of it's own. So here it is.

Also, I have a special request: Please choose your words very carefully when commenting. Contrary to popular believe, words do hurt. Very much. Please use them with caution. A little can go a long way... But that's another blog post. ;)

First off, I am extremely self-conscious about my photos. I don't know if I will ever get over it, but a lot of times I feel like I edited to much, I didn't pay enough attention to the light, I payed too much attention to the light and not enough to the smile, or pose, or whatever... Mostly I feel like I have kludgy editing techniques. But whatever my insecurity is, it adds up to it being dang hard for me to share my photos. So here I am, somewhat anonymously, sharing my photos with total strangers, because I'm too shy to share them with my family.

Part of that is the response, too. My family thinks my work is lovely. But they're my family. I find myself often excusing their kind (and well-meant) words with a, "They don't have enough exposure to the world of photography," (pun definitely intended.) "And besides, my family is naturally happy with everything I do... Not to mention they have similar style, so..."

Maybe I'm a negative person. I honestly don't feel like one, but it's possible. I do remember the first (and one of the only - I don't eves drop) times I heard one of my sisters bragging on me and I just about cried. I was like, you -- me -- think -- whaattt? d'awww. *wipes tear

Mostly, though, I'm just shy and the possibility of someone not liking it, or liking it and putting me in the (heaven forbid) awkward position of having to receive a compliment - yikes! - kills me.

So I started a blog. Mostly to help me keep on top of my editing, but other things that went hand-and-hand with it: My writing skills can always use improvement, my photos slipped when no one was watching, and I had questions, like; how would people take my work? Was it possible that *gasp* I had something to share with the world? 

I had no plan when I started... Other than to post my photos and stay on top of editing, but after the first three posts, I wanted something more... So I created fabulous friday where I could share a little more each week, without overwhelming myself or running out of content (which I have genuinely been afraid of!)

I've found a pretty good balance, I think. I'm not on all the social media platforms (twitter, anyone?) I'd like to be, I haven't yet mastered the art of getting posts out of time, staying on top of editing (haha,) and quiet a list of other things... but I once heard Mark Cuban say,

 "Perfection is the enemy of profitability. You can try to make everything perfect, but you're losing opportunity somewhere else."


and, hey, it's fun. and I get something out there. and I'm making a name for myself. So, hey man. Let the rest take care of itself, for now, I'm having fun!

also, big, big, thank you to everyone who has followed my crazy-rant-y posts! You guys are the best!! ♥

Thursday, November 5, 2015

43/52 (part two) - October 31st // "studying"

yeah, so we've never done halloween, so we hunkered down in our basement and watched a(n extremely cheesy & supposedly scary) movie from the 50s. We had seen it years and years ago, back in san jose, and I remember liking it... but then, I wasn't even in double digits, so pfft to that.

what the movie was lacking in plot we made up with commentary. I swear we could have our own tv show.

But anyway, saturday afternoon found my sister and me studying downtown. We even got a comment on us being good kids and we were like haha, yeah, no we've only been talking.

My sister was trying to memorize the somethings of something else in chemistry and had me hold up her flash cards... She was having the most trouble with whether they were positive or not, so I made a sad face or a happy face and the barista was totally laughing at us. oh, well. it was a nice laughing. I think.



Have an awesome mid-week guys!! and hey, tell me something crazy from this week, I need hear it.
(also congrats to the royals! You earned it!!)

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

44/52 (part one) - October 29th // hiking

some days are good photography days and some are bad photography days... this day was definitely a bad photography day. I had just gotten over being sick, it was chilly, the lighting was harsh, and also I wasn't using my 50mm lens which didn't go as planned. oh, well. I have what I have.




and here's a cute picture of a turtle. have a great week!