Motherly Love

Read this article, Gorilla Mother Refuses to Give Up Dead Baby, a few days ago.  Makes your heart breaks.

(pictures from the AP).

Music and Associations…

Don’t you love youtube!

Stumbled across these two Wham! music clips on youtube. I have heard these two songs many times, but have never watched the videos – too funny! Usually when I watch movies/MTV etc, I may get inspired for my photography. Fear not, I don’t think I’ll photoshop my images into 80’s style!

I was still in Hong Kong when I first heard these two songs – I was about to leave for Australia, and my best friend from 7th and 8th grade made me a cassette tape with some of her favorite English songs. Yes, cassette tape… I am dating myself here! These two songs were on the tape, so when I hear them, I automatically associated them with her, and our time together. That was 17 years ago. I think I still have the tape with me somewhere, when I packed to come to the US. However, I no longer have a cassette tape player!

Careless Whisper

Wake Me Up, Before You Go-Go

Ummm… found another clip from another phase of my life – high school in Australia. Caligula was an Australian band, which a friend introduced me to, along with Pearl Jam (ha, more tapes!)… I remember really liking one of their songs, “Tears of a Clown”, but I can’t find it on youtube. Found this other song though, “Before”, which was also on the tape.

You know, when you listen to a certain song, you’ll always associate it with something or someone?

Everytime I hear Gangsta’s Paradise (Coolio) I thought of this friend from uni/college in Melbourne. And everything I hear it, I feel sad. Because this song was popular around the time he passed away (not because he was a ganster, I don’t think!) and I heard it on the radio often after I heard the news – to this day, I still don’t know if it was an accident or suicide, as he was hit by a train. I wasn’t even that close to him, but his death was the first I’d experienced of someone close to my age. Someone who was still young and carefree. It was one of those “critical moments” of my life. I went to his Hindu (I think) funeral at his house. I had never met his family before. To this date, I still clearly remember the expressionless face of his dad – expressionless not because he didn’t care, but expressionless because he was too in too much pain. He just had this blank look on his face, like he wasn’t there. His younger sister kept crying his name in a high pitch voice, over and over and over again. I looked around, saw his text books on the bookshelf – the pink biology textbook that we used in the class we shared. I broke down.

I don’t want to end this post on a depressing note. Another song I love is Right Here Waiting by Richard Marx. It was another song on the tape my Hong Kong best friend made (see above, Wham!) so I had always liked this song back then. Years later, I met Justin (husband) and he was visiting me in Melbourne (we were in a long distance relationship for 5 years – he was in MN, I was in Australia). Now, Justin is into 80’s rock like Def Lepard, Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath. One day, Right Here Waiting came on the radio while we were talking in the living room. He interrupted me, and told me to listen to this song. I was like, okay? What about it? He told me then he likes this song, which surprised me since it wasn’t really his type of music. He asked me to listen to the lyrics- it really described our situation… “ocean apart, day after day, and I slowly go insane…” That was then I told him I have always liked this song too (but hadn’t told him before) and in fact, when I heard it, I thought of him. This is how this became “our song”.

I found out that Richard Marx will be coming to Rochester MN next May (5/8/09) as part of the Riverside Concert! Ha, Air Supply will be here on 2/8/09 (their songs were on the Wham! tape mentioned above).

Almost made me want to go get a tape recorder to listen to my old tapes Though I fear they will be wrecked. My oldest tape was when I first started learning to talk… no videos, just tapes and photos then. My parents said my favourite tape back then was Boney M! This is the song I remember the most – Daddy Cool:

The Red Hat Ladies

I was walking back to the office from the library today and I saw a group of 8-10 ladies, all dressing in purples and reds – typically a purple top and a red hat with some purple flowers. I was curious and started talking to two of them to see if they have a special occasion – turned out the are the Red Hat Ladies

They are so cute, I guess they meet once a month for coffee and talk about what field trip and lunch they can go to. Like today, their destination was the Rochester Public Library (as “we are trying to learn more about the town we live”) and then lunch at the University Center. One of the ladies I talked to had worked at Mayo for 41 years as a surgery nurse educator, so she wants these field trips to be educational as well, and not just meet for lunch. What a wonderful idea!

An is it a coincidence that today I had on a lavenda shirt, and the book I’d just borrowed from the library was bright red? Actually I didn’t even notice I had a purple shirt on (well okay, I’m not color blinded, just that after you have picked your outfit and put it on, you don’t think much more about it, or at least I don’t anyway), but that one of the red hat ladies pointed it out to me, and it was then I noticed I had a red book to match their purple/red outfit

Perhaps one day, I’ll have my own little Red Hat Ladies group In fact,  I did meet with a few female friends after work today at 300 First for happy hour (btw, their cream burlee was yummy!), we just didn’t have our red hats on

Hopefully I will bump into the Red Hat Ladies again – it is fun to see them having fun

PS – so of course I had to goggle the red hat ladies (that’s what goggle is for right?) and found this – the Red Hat Society. Haven’t heard of them before but apparently there are over 1.5 million members in the US and worldwide. Guess you learn something new everyday!

woohoo! WedComp results!

I mentioned in an earlier post about a wedding image competition, WedComp, which was judged by some of the industry’s best wedding photographers (Susan Stripling, Brooks Whittington, Garrett & Joy Nudd and  David Beckstead). A significant portion of the total entry fees went to Thirst Relief.

I just found out that I placed 7th in the portrait category!

This was my first competition and I only entered one image so I am very happy about that!

Here is the portrait of Jenny – one of my 2007 brides! It is definitely one of my favorite all time images. The first word that entered my mind when I first saw the image was ‘haunting’. It is one of Kevin’s (the groom) favorite too

There were 4 categories (getting ready, ceremony, reception and portrait) – there are some STUNNING images there so take a look here http://wedcomp.com/comp_winners.html

Congrats to all the other photographers!

PS – The next competition will likely start in September!

Mum-to-be: Charie

(okay I know I am spelling ‘mum’ with an U instead of an O – but hey i’d been spelling it this way all my life!)

My friend Charie is expecting! Quite a few of my friends overseas have kids already, but I wasn’t there when they were preggy, so it is quite exciting to see Charie ‘grows’ We went out to Douglas Trail one late afternoon so Charie can model for me – what a beautiful day! Love the lighting and the tall grass/weeds (not those kind of weeds :p) I have always admired wild flowers for their survival skills. I love seeing a field of wild flowers. Even dandelions(though our neighbours probably hope otherwise) – as annoying as they are, they are so unique looking (and make great photos!) and what kids don’t love blowing on them!

Anyway, here are some photos from her photo session. Thanks for putting up with me Charie!

Doesn’t she glow? I just realize the photos I picked to post here aren’t very smiley ones – but I assure you there were lots of those too – just difficult to pick a few to post here!

love this one – love the wall flower thingy (I am terrible with plant names) – Charie was a great spot and didn’t mind me telling her to walk through tall grassy stuff to get here this giant plant! This looks like an ad or something.

Told ya I love tall grass! Makes great props I haven’t been to Douglas Trial before, so it’s fun to explore new spots. Love the golden lighting before sunset.

She looked so relaxed even though I was sweating

Gotta include a fun one

All the best to you and F!

8/8 – 4 years & lesson learned: “sleep in the other side of the bed”

I read that there are 4 times as may people who got married on 8/8/08 – well, 8/8 happened to be our anniverary! (off track – did you read about that baby who was born on 8/8/08 at 8:08, weighing 8 lb 8oz, and her initials are HH – and H is the 8th alphabet?)

Since I am Chinese, people thought we picked 8/8 because 8 is a lucky number in Chinese – in Cantonese, 8 = rich/wealth. But hope, it was just a coincidence – (a) we had to marry within 90 days after I landed in the US from Australia per INS requirement (or whatever INS is called now), (b) the venue was that day, and (c) family was available that day (though our wedding was very small – 22 people!).

Is marriage easy? I don’t think there is an easy answer about that – I think when 2 people living under one roof, there is always going to be moments of disagreements which is normal since we don’t always have the same view on every single thing. The important part is how you deal with the differences – do you compromise? Do you try to see it from another point of view? Do you always (not) get your way? Do you respect the differences? Do you learn from each other? I don’t claim to be an expert on marriage but we have agree not to go to bed mad at each other. Okay, I suggested that, since I couldn’t sleep otherwise :p

We have all heard about “walk in other peopl’s shoes” – my own little verion for couples would be “sleep in the other side of the bed”. Why? We have an Ikea platform bed with slates. One slate on Justin’s side broke, and he complained about it that it hurt his back. I told him to stop complaining about it – I mean, really, only one of the many slates broke right? It should still be supportive enough? He wouldn’t stop whinging (=US whining) about it so I got fed up and told him I’ll sleep on his side of the bed from now on instead.

What happened? I had a very sore back the next day. Served me right. I wouldn’t stop whinging about the sore back the whole day.

Our solution? Getting a new bed was out of question since we just bought a house, and we didn’t have time to go to Ikea to get new slates (it happened last summer so I was busy with photography most weekends), and we got a box spring instead (which usually isn’t needed for a platform bed). And the bed was actually more comfortable than before! Yes I still sleep on the broken side but don’t have a sore back anymore.

We haven’t really celebrated yet – I was very tired on Friday 8/8 as I was at work from 6:30am-5:30pm (at my Mayo job – Yes I do have 2 careers, which I plan to talk about in an upcoming post, a fact that most of my clients know), then on 8/9 I had to photograph a wedding so was gone from noon to 10pm, then today 8/10 I was at my friend’s baby shower from noon – 6pm (I’ll write more about that later). So it had been a very busy weekend. Justin did make ribs on Friday night though since we both love ribs, and he skipped his jujitsu class that night to spend more time with me (though I was sleepy the whole night!)

And of course, I had to look at our wedding photos again on our anniversary – I just don’t get sick of looking at time! (well apart from getting frustrated that I am not the same size anymore!!). We LOVE our photos – taken by the very talented Allegra from http://allegrasstudio.com/. So I hope all my clients would feel the same way – that when they look back at their wedding photos that I took for them, that they would relive those moments, and smile, and laugh.

My mum did my hair and I love my necklace! It is pewter and blue.

Something blue.

I love my long veil – it was given to me by a friend from Singapore, who wore that at her wedding and she generously gave it to me. The veil made me feel the most ‘bridal’ – to be honest, the reason I love viels aren’t really about what it is supposed to symbolize, but that they can look stunning in photographs (as you can see some flying veil shots that I took on my website!)

Ceremony – pretty rose petals on the short aisle. Justin is catholic, I don’t have a religion, and we have a Japanese monk officiating the ceremony. He’s such a sweet person! We wrote our own vows and he said he won’t change a thing because he wants our ceremony to be what we wanted.

Exchange of rings.

Chinese tea ceremony – my youngest sister had funky hair back then! My 2 sisters were my bridemaids/maids of honor (same title for both, hey I don’t play favorism! They wore tea length deep red dresses in different styles that flattered their body styles. I like being a little non-traditional

Tea ceremony to my parents – justin’s face is too funny. Our only musician was a violinist.

Bridemaid’s flowers with freeshia and hydragena. My bouqut (ummm I should find a picture of it) is very simple with a big white lily and some dangling greens.

Notice the deers picture in the background? Takes an observant photographer to catch that!

NOT posed!

High heels made me taller than I actually am…

I love pictures of hands. That’s about the only time I have long nails (yes real nails) because long nails bother me – I had piano lessons since I was little, and had to keep my nails short. And it’s just more practical for me now to have short nails too – with typing and photographing.

This is one of my favorites – it looks stunning in black and white, I just feel too lazy to convert it now. It was windy then. See why I love veils?

Love shadows too.

Another favorite. I should have this enlarged to hang on the wall. Our wedding was up in a B&B (Mountain View Inn) in the mountains in California, about half hour north of SF. We were planning on having some portraits done at the beach (bottom of the mountain) but it was foggy that day, so the coordinator at the inn said it’s best to go up to the mountains instead – what a great suggestion! Look at the clouds! At the bottom of our feet! Couldn’t have asked for a better backdrop (even though I am probably more of an ocean than mountain person!)

The clouds looked painted. Trust me, they weren’t digital/photoshop backdrop!

Love this one too – would look great as a panoramic. Want this one enlarged too. Look beautiful on metallic paper!

Sun set (veil again!)

I love the photos of just the 2 of us – that’s why I always suggest to my clients to give us some time between the ceremony and reception (if possible) to have some romantic portraits done when (i) you are both dress up! (ii) you just start your life as husband-wife (or husband-husband or wife-wife, whatever suits your situation). We actually had these shots done after the reception (it was very short with dinner and chatting… we can’t dance so we didn’t have any dancing!) but being a photo freak than I am (I hadn’t started my business back then) – I timed it so that the reception will finish early and we’ll have the right lighting for these portrait shots

Okay, I didn’t know that 4th Anniversary is a “fruit/flower” anniversy (British) or a “linen/silk” anniversary (US). Ummm… I did buy a plant for myself for the office that day (and bought some flowers for my administrative assistant since it was her birthday) and I did eat a pear and some pineapple. Does that count? I didn’t even know the British and the US versions are different! Oh well, you learn something new everyday (isn’t the internet great?!)

If you have made it to the end of this very long post – thank you for reading. This is more of a post for myself, as a reminder, that the wedding day is just the beginning.

Thank you Justin, for loving me for who I am and what I am.

Other’s Art: Days with my Father

Days with my Father

I saw the above website from another photographer’s blog.

Very touching. Especially since I haven’t been by my parent’s side for 4 years. Haven’t seen them for 4 years. Haven’t done what a daughter really should do for 4 years.

I hope they know I don’t love them any less because of the distance.

Book: All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House by David Giffels

About a year ago, Justin and I bought our first home. Even though it was an older home (40 years) it is still in very good condition (the inspector said so!) and the main changes we have to do are mostly cosmetic – though I have to say we have some rather stubborn wallpaper border that took me forever to take down in just one room (yes I tried everything from vinegar, fabric softner, DIF, paper tiger and steamer.) I swear when we buy our next house I won’t get anything with wallpaper/border!

When we were looking for our house, we were always drawn to the old houses, like 1920’s old. I love how much characeters they have. I love the dark wood trims and wood floors. There was one we really like in Solder Fields, with an usual layout and plaster wall – though our realtor saw that one of the plastor walls was buldging, and warned us about it so we didn’t end up getting that house. We saw another lovely old house that has lots of potential but as they say in real estate, location, location, location; that house wasn’t in the best location so we said no. Plus we both aren’t very handy, and this being our first house and all, we don’t want to get into a money pit (no I haven’t seen that movie…) knowing that we don’t have the funds or skills to restore anything. But still… It was said to see some of those old houses not being taken care of.

So when I stumbled across this book, All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House by David Giffels, I wanted to read it. I couldn’t imagine undertaking such a big house, and in such bad conditions! It is a pretty easy to read book and it does make me want to go get the rest of our house ready (no, the house is still not ready after a year, because there are more wallpaper borders to be taken down argh!) since well, what we have to do seems like almost nothing, compared to what David and his family had to do to get the house into living condition – pests, hole in ceiling (or rather, no ceiling in some parts), unstable bricks, water damage, no plumming, partial electricity… I wish they include more pictures in the books as I really want to see the “before & after’, as there are only like 4 partial pictures of the house. I did find some pictures online though

13 pictures here

Another 7 here

All the way home from amazon.