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Jena + Ashkan : Engagement – Part1

November 25th, 2011

Oh, I’m so very excited about this one! Not only because we captured some fun photos, but also because my friend is getting married and I get to capture it all. Here is the story of how I met Ashkan. It was the first day of grade 10 in the new school. The first class was history. I was sitting at the front desk, middle row, he was right behind me. Like any first day of school, we got to play the ‘Find someone who…” game. Naturally, I turned around. I think my name went into the box “Find someone who doesn’t know who Martha Stewart is.” Don’t ask… Over the following years we shared a number of classes together, mainly English related. We did ridiculous group projects that involved Ash being dressed as a woman with stuffed animals for … ahem bosoms. [I still have the tapes, blackmail?]; built crazy mountains; drew ridiculous pie charts (twice) in each others yearbooks, and had all sorts of fun. Then, as it usually happens after highschool, we all moved to different places and lost touch for a bit.

While I was gallivanting here and there, Ashkan moved to Vancouver where he met, oh so gorgeous, Jena. What can I say, these two are just perfect together! Without being overly cheese-ball-ish, I’ll just say that you can feel the love when you’re around them! Here is the first part of their engagement photos, to be followed with more after.

Jena and Ashkan wanted to incorporate their son’s favourite toy into the photos. Too adorable!

Random Wednesday – Stickers and cold

November 23rd, 2011

Who doesn’t like pretty stickers?!? I know I do, but it is so painful to decide where to place them. I think I have ‘sticker’ commitment issues. I literally walk around with a sticker in my hand and look into all the notebooks, folders, boards, papers and try to think where to place it. Not being able to settle on anything, I stockpile them. Yes, hoarders style, one day you’ll find me under all the pretty papers and stickers because I couldn’t commit on any of them.

Last week, I published a review of the CottonCarrier vest and their Lite system over at the 500px blog. Instead of double posting it here, head on over if you’re interested in reading about my mini adventure with their products. I even used my brother as a model, making him famous one picture at a time! … or so I’d like to think. 

Lastly, I got a cold! It took me out for couple of days, but it’s getting better. And I thought that all of you should know, well not really! I’m more interested in finding out how YOU fight your colds, in natural ways that is. For the past few days I’ve been drinking a lot of herbal teas with real ginger, lemon, and mint in it.  Liquid green vitamins, oregano oil, and even iron was thrown into the mix. But at the end of the night I still took NyQuil so I’d be able to sleep. And sleep I did, for 11 hours straight, three days in a row. I would like to replace NyQuil with something more natural though. Any ideas?

 

Kevin

November 10th, 2011

I love photographing men. Everytime I get to work with guys it’s different. I even get slightly anxious, since it’s not my regular girly photoshoot. I don’t have the comfort of going through my regular poses, playing with jewellery, photographing shoes or other details. I can’t just ask a guy to twirl around! Photographing men makes me think differently. It’s a case of  “if I were a boy, how would I want to look”? Confident, strong, a bit mischevious or maybe a ‘guy next door’ look. Different scenarios, angles and light choices play out in my head. But, I’m not a guy, and I can never predict how the photoshoot will go. Which is great in itself, because it’s always fresh and exciting. I’m always pleasantly surprised when men reveal their personalities for the camera almost immediately. With ladies it takes a bit of time for them to get comfortable in front of the lens, to which I can completely relate. But with guys, they just bring it and I LOVE it!

I met with Kevin at UofT campus which he calls ‘home’ on a Sunday afternoon as any proper PhD candidate working in a lab would. Ahhh that brought memories of endless pipeting, centrifuges, protein assays and of good ol’ genetics days. I missed it, but not enough to return to the lab.  Kevin needed a few headshots and a number of other photos for different purposes, so we combined everything into one photo session. He brought forth so much ‘handsome’ that it was ridiculous! I was looking at the camera screen and thinking GQ and 007 at the same time, that boy has style! That’s what I mean when I say that I LOVE photographing men. Thanks Kevin for spending some time with me. You rock!

Random Wednesday – a bit of everything

November 9th, 2011

It’s been a while since I wrote a random update, so it’s about time to let you know about random randomness that goes on in my life.

Let’s start with RAM. I upgraded to 8GB all by myself. Impressed? My mother was! Cleaned all the dust bunnies from inside of my lappy, and had a sneeze fest while at it! Mental note: clean computer more often than once every three years. Thanks to the new RAM, we’re running more smoothly now.

Since I’m a health conscious freakazoid, I bought all natural Cilantro Mint toothpaste. No triclosan or fluoride! Seriously, what IS wrong with me? Cilantro Mint?  It’s… interesting, but good interesting. Also found a healthier mascara since my MAC one ran out and was causing all sorts of reactions anyway. It’s from Mineral Fusion and the only ‘iffy’ ingredients are phenoxyenthanol  (mild irritant) and iron oxide (irritant, but it’s a black colour for mascara). So far it works wonderfully, not a puffy eye in sight. Also, I owe you an update on Chinese Herbs that I’ve tried for my sinuses. They work! However, as I suspected they didn’t eliminate the problem completely. I also discovered that black tea and caffeine make sinuses a lot worse, same goes for citrus fruit.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim! Need I say more? I’m very excited about this one. It’s been 5 years since the release of Oblivion and this new game is coming out on Friday. Many things have changed in the past five years. I don’t even own a PC anymore, but I might just have to get one in order to play this. I mean… nooo, I don’t waste time on video games *shifty eyes*. Ok, but I swear this is the only one that I love. I’ve been with it since Morrowind days and yesterday I tried playing Oblivion on my Mac (MAC!!! Desperate much?)… I forgot all the keys and moved like a complete gaming noob.

I finally got back to my reading list. The number of books that piled up over the summer whispering “READ ME” every time I’d pass by the shelf is incredible. I started with Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his “Love in the Time of Cholera“. Oh wow, I LOVE his writing style, attention to detail, and multidimensional characters. Not a huge fan of never ending chapters, but it’s a very enjoyable read. If you have any recommendations for ‘must read‘ books leave a comment, and I’ll add them to my list.

Nikkor 85mm f/1.4

November 8th, 2011

The ever so elusive 85mm is miiiiine. [inset evil laugh here]. Ahem.. I mean… nothing. I had it for a little while now, but never got a chance to write about this gorgeous lens. This was THE lens that I was hunting for a long time, and ever since it came out it went into an out-of-stock mode. I guess I wasn’t the only one craving for it. I’ve already took the lens for a spin during a wedding and a couple of engagement sessions, and it performed wonderfully, especially wide open. It’s very smooth with amazing bokeh, just like all the reviews mentioned. But purchasing three lenses in a row, and thus completing my lens kit, didn’t exactly give me time to appreciate each one of them separately. I just stuffed them into my bag and went to work. On what possibly was the last decent day of 2011, I went for a walk, camera in hand with the 85mm. That’s right! When no one wants to come out to the park with me, I take my next best friend and we have tonnes of geeky fun. Photographing people with the 85mm is amazing, but focusing on details is a bit more challenging. I usually border on a ‘macro’ side of things, so the large minimum focusing distance of the 85mm came as a bit of a surprise and needed some getting used to. Most of these were shot at f/1.4.

Visual Memory

November 2nd, 2011

I opened my inbox just to find this photo, a good friend of mine sent. Always a pleasant way to start ones’ morning! It was taken in August of 2004 with a film camera and a double exposure. Surprise surprise, I’m playing with my glorious 2.2mpix Kodak digital camera. Aahhh those were the days of experimenting with a new technology and taking fantastically crappy photos.

For some, memories are brought forth by music, others scent, for me it’s anything visual. I find it fascinating when someone mentions, “Hey that song played during this and that. Remember?” Umm… no, not at all. But with pictures it’s different. I can view just a snippet of a moment in time, and I’m able to recall everything. That day in August we walked around Allan Gardens, then took a streetcar to the Mod Club to see the Weakerthans play. I remember the art work at the Mod Club, but for the life of me I can’t recall what the band sounded like. Brains work in funny ways… That’s why I always mess up Jaws music, but can recall maps with clarity. What are your memories triggered by? And if you tell me that you remember the song that played during your first dance with a boy (or a girl) that you liked, I will get slightly jealous. But I can sure tell you what that boy was wearing.

500px for iPad

October 22nd, 2011

Last week in the midsts of the Exposure Show, the guys from 500px released their first official iPad app. It had already made rounds on the interwebs and got some great reviews from places like TechCrunch and GigaOm. It so happened that this week I also got my hands on an iPad, so yaaay! [Don't tell my dad, that I steal his birthday present when he's not looking! ] After upgrading the OS, installing all the games, and other apps that were requested, I snuck the 500px app on there as well.  Double points for it being free!

If you haven’t seen it, you SHOULD. That thing is gorgeous! It has all the photo browsing categories as on the website, but the simplicity of the design and focus that it brings to the photos makes you want to flip through them all day long. I’m not even kidding. I must have spent hours just browsing through photos and ♥ them.

The design is so slick it’s ridiculous! Adam, you did an incredible job with it. I love your attention to detail; I even noticed how a dashed arrow changed into a semi-circle one with a fade on its tail. Yes, little things make me happy, and I’m a sucker for smart design. But it’s this attention to detail that separates a good app from a great app. And this is definitely a great app! Ash, I know we haven’t personally met, but you deserve major props for the functionality of the whole thing. I love how large photos fly back into the tiled grid and how smooth the browsing is. You’re definitely making me stay on that couch longer, wasting my time looking at works of others rather than creating more of my own! Tsk tsk tsk!

My wish list includes portfolio section and ability to view all the photos from the same user, but I hear they are working on it already. Always a step ahead. From a business point of view, this app is great for showcasing your work to clients, especially once the portfolio sections will be available. For now, a modified user page can be used to do the same. This app is also a good source of inspiration and keeping in touch with other photographers. Love it!

Well done 500px!

Traditional vs. Conventional

October 20th, 2011

I watched in amazement when different herbs started to pile up in front of me, all weighted on a hand scale and equally separated into four neat portions. Out came moss, bark, willow, branches, and different grasses. One-by-one a new drawer was opened to reveal its contents. The table was starting to look more like my garden than anything else, and it smelled amazing!  All I asked for was a remedy for active sinuses. I think my sinuses got the ‘over-achieving’ part from my brain, since they are so close to each other… just saying. I’ve been bugged by my nose for years, and when I ask my doctor to send me to ear-nose-throat specialist she just gives me more nasal spray “Use it for a month, if it doesn’t work, I’ll refer you further” Really? Well, thanks… Of course it works, while used, but then everything returns to ‘normal’ once I stop. It also comes with a long list of possible side effects, including stunt growth. Um… no thanks, my nose seems to be better all of a sudden! Being a ‘health-freak’ and all, I decided to give Chinese Herbal Medicine a try. Yes, I realize that when herbs are boiled they release similar chemicals as the ones used in conventional medicine (with possible side effects), but somehow this pile of garden on a table seems a lot more natural than a plastic bottle. What are your thoughts on traditional versus conventional methods? Spray or feet in hot herbal water? I’ll let you know how it goes.

Exposure Show

October 17th, 2011

I woke up this morning and started running through the presentations in my head, eyes closed, nose into my pillow, just to realize that it’s already Monday and the Exposure Show was over.  Wow, what a whirlwind of a weekend it was! So appreciative for the amazing opportunity to present at the Exposure Show. Was overwhelmed by all the kind feedback. Thank you! Thank you all who attended the show and listened to me speak. Never had I thought that sharing my experiences would have such an effect. Thanks to the organizers of the show for all the hard work that went into making it happen.

I’m in a bit of disbelief that the weekend is actually done. I spent a lot of time anticipating it, not only because of the show, but it was also the end of a very busy season. It was a crazy build up to this mid-October weekend, and now that it’s all done and over with, I can settle back into my regular schedule. Lots of things need catching up on. I feel horribly bad for neglecting some, but there just wasn’t enough hours in a day, and something had to give. On the second day of the show, someone asked if I was still shooting with equipment that was listed on my 500px profile. Damn! I had completely blacked out on updating everything before the presentation. How ironic, especially since one of the talks was on Benefiting from your Failures.  I have no idea how I will benefit from this one yet, but lesson learnt: Update all portfolios, photos, and roll out new website BEFORE you do a major presentation! “Head meets Palm” once again. I have a long list of tasks that will have to be done in the near future before the destination wedding season starts. Expect more frequent blog updates, new work, and a new website.

If you’re wondering what I looked like during my presentations, a very nice young lady drew a picture of me on Sunday. It made my heart melt! Also found a photo of myself in The Epoch Times review of the Exposure Show. Thanks Matthew.

Gold Stars

October 11th, 2011

Being an over achiever and all, I love getting my reward stars. The 12-year-old in me craves for recognition of good work… So when I walked into Starbucks last week and saw black and gold “Your drink is on us!” sign, they had me. Like a proper sucker for amazing marketing I went on their website and tried to register a card, except… I didn’t have their card. I mean, I have one, a very pretty one, but I never did put money on it. My commitment issues with pre-paid things run deep. I don’t like gift cards either. The knowledge that I have money on a card that has an expiration date and the pressure to commit to buy something is daunting! But… I love my gold stars! I walked into Starbucks this morning, got my pretty card out, and said: Can I get $25 on it! And just like that, I have committed myself to 12.2 cups of Grande Awake tea. If it wasn’t for their incredibly smart marketing and a talented design team this would have never happened!