civic center park, irvine.

Hello! Sorry for the lack of posts; I have been kind of busy these past couple of weeks! However, I do have pictures to post! Woohoo!

This was in the middle of October. One of the girls in my small group from last year took a photography class and she wanted me to teach her a few pointers. While she took photos for her class, I took photos around the park, too. I'm really glad she asked me, because at that time, I hadn't picked up my camera in awhile!

いち.

I've been putting this project off for awhile. I wasn't sure when or how I wanted to start it.

Thanksgiving weekend, my family and I went to a trail in San Gabriel Valley to take Christmas photos. While we were walking back to the car, we stopped to take some levitation photos. My brother and I were waiting, so I decided to take a picture of him. After snapping one, I thought, "Hey, I should start my project now..."

And that's how it started!

Project: Untitled (for now)
Mission:
As a photographer, our face is always behind the camera. With this project, I want to take away the barrier the camera has and create a photograph that shows the subject looking at me through the lens, while I do the same on the other side. Through this project, I want to be able to capture a bit of their story and who they are, because I believe everyone has a story to tell. In addition to that, I want to highlight them and who they are, who they are to me, etc.

This is a very tentative rough sketch of what I want to do, but we'll see how this develops!

This is my younger and only brother. People often say that we look the most alike, which I think is true. My sisters picked up my Mom's physical characteristics, while it seems like my brother and I picked up my Dad's. Even though my brother doesn't say too much, his mind is full of intellect and thoughts bouncing around in his head. We're not close, but I do appreciate the times he'd join me to watch dramas, joking around about random things, or hearing about what he wants to pursue after high school. I love you, bro! :)

(This one isn't a part of the project, but I thought I'd post it because I like it!)

soul.

I came upon this picture of my dog who passed away around five months ago. Whenever I stare at this picture, I feel as if she's looking at me through that picture and sees me. Perhaps it's because I have such an emotional connection to her, but although this picture is simple and there's nothing extremely extraordinary about it, it touches me in the deepest part of my heart.

Pictures like this make me want to delve deeper into photography and bring that kind of spirit into the photographs I take. I miss shooting a lot. Hopefully I'll start that project I've been meaning to start for awhile this weekend, or over winter break...

long beach adventure.

Wow. It's been awhile since I've posted anything. Even though I have more time on my hands, I haven't had the time to shoot for creativity's sake. I was talking to some friends tonight about how I wanted to do another photoshoot that was not of the ordinary, so I might take that up soon. We'll see...

Anyway, last month my friend and I were dropping off our other friend at the Long Beach Airport. Since we were in the area, we decided to cruise down the streets to find something to eat. Randomly, we passed by the pier, (I think), and went to the Farmer's Market. I saw on Yelp! that a coffee shop called Berlin was good, so we walked a few blocks down to there. Pretty good, but a teeny bit overpriced, I'd say.

 So cool! The coffee shop was had a book section, ample places to study, AND a music store. All in one! Woww! :) Dream come true, f'sure.

summer weekend.

A few months ago, I spent a weekend at my friend's beach house with another friend in Oxnard. We went there last summer with a few of our other friends, but they couldn't make it. The weekend consisted of eating lots of good food, getting to know our friend's family, painting nails, watching movies, shopping, and taking lots of pictures. Perfect girls weekend. ;)

black swan.

Ever since last summer, my friend and I have been talking about doing a high-end photoshoot with all the works: intense make-up, crazy equipment, specific wardrobe, and so forth. Since we don't exactly have high-end equipment, we used what we had. My friend Traci, who I did senior portraits for a few months ago, called me one night and asked if I was down to finally go through with the photoshoot. Of course I said yes, and the next day, we did it!

Michelle, who is an aspiring model on the side and who I shot last year ;), was so kind as to model for us! Traci did Michelle's make-up, inspired by Emma Watson's make-up from the Harry Potter premiere. The shoot overall was inspired by the movie Black Swan, which I personally haven't seen, and uhm...don't plan on seeing since I heard it was scary, heh. We decided to go to the James R. Armstrong Theater since there's a Japanese garden. Little did we know that there was a wedding reception being held there. ha. Instead, we walked around and found random places to take photos, which I think turned out pretty well.

Okay, that's enough of writing from me. :)