they're up!

i had my client email me some photos of my window illustrations that went up last month at crocker galleria in san francisco until i can shoot some myself. here's 1 of 2...hopefully i can get more this weekend. i might join the bidding process to design their new website which would be pretty exciting as well. the fun part is that i'm friends w/the agents listed - i just took photos of jen's new baby the other weekend.

jannina

images from last weeks photoshoot. more on my photo blog.

sneak preview

our 1st anniversary is coming up tomorrow, and jan arranged a surprise weekend for me. here's a hint. the rest will come tomorrow night because i have a shoot to edit and work all day tomorrow. hope everyone had a good weekend!

printing tomorrow

it's 12:30 am and i just finished uploading these pics for j for our anniversary (the 28th). there are a few more, but i don't want to spoil the whole suprise on the off chance (like 1/1,000) that he looks at the blog tomorrow. i'll have him pick his fav's of the 7 or so and then frame them. they are all from places we went together this last year. he's currently cuddling a pillow instead of me, so i better get to bed!

sincere request

does anyone have a working polaroid camera that they don't use anymore that they want to give/sell to me? i promise to take one really cool image of you with it and frame it for posterity. i will pay for shipping if you are far away. please, pretty please? {photo found here}

preview

super grainy photo, but that's the secret preview of my test round.

time

i have no time lately. why is it so hard to find a balance in life between the things i want to do, and things i am physically able to do. i am not busier than the next person work-wise. 30 hrs average at pb, and then 10+ hrs either shooting or editing/processing a shoot each week. sleeping an average of 7 hrs/night. it's just all those other things that i have to add in. blogging. grocery shopping. making dinners, eating dinners. emailing friends/clients & working on my website. re-designing my business cards & site so i can be an official bender, picking up photos from the printer, ordering camera supplies off amazon, cleaning the house, running misc. errands, spending time with friends, spending time with jan, calling friends back, paying bills, etc. here's what is currently being neglected: my etsy shop, my modele press book shop, exercising, filing old receipts, doing something with my wedding photos like, i don't know, framing them and making an album?, reading leisure books, writing in my journal, going to the beach, visiting my grandma, marketing myself for corporate photography/design knitting, sewing, & crafting.

well, now that i've spent 20 minutes writing this while trying to print sample business cards i'm going to break and eat some pie with chong & jan who is working on a 15 page paper.

why are all my recent posts about food?

eunnie's brother chong is staying w/us for a few days while he attends a nearby conference for work. we don't have a tv, but we do have good food. after dinner last night, we walked down to our new favorite froz yogurt place, yogiyo. it's korean (of course), and i must say if i dare, that i think it's better than pinkberry. i had the most amazing pink grapefruit frozen yogurt, topped with mochi, fruity pebbles and strawberries. if any of you haven't tried the latest asian craze (and you must top it with a similar crunchy, chewy, & fruity topping to get the best result), you must immediately buy a ticket and come visit us. it's that good.

if this were a drug, i'd be hooked

j&i were starting to forget what the fresh blackberries tasted like the other weekend, so i pulled some out of the freezer and made a pie. lucky for us, it was better than we remembered. pie is definitely a better choice than cobbler, and i added whole wheat flour to the berries since they were so juicy and lemon zest, and it was delish. we even collected a half cup of juice to drink on the side. i always forget to brush the top of the crust w/milk and sprinkle it w/sugar, so hopefully i remember next time. don't some of you wish you lived closer?

look out for this one

i've been friends with isabel since i was 2. she went to london to study fashion. yesterday, she sends me video of her final show and i am blown away. just a few years in london and her clothes are gorgeous. just wanted to share! see more of her work here.

summary of last weekend

we went blackberry picking

i made a cobbler with the berries (there's even whole wheat in there)

did a walk through of the lark creek inn with alanna and brendan for their wedding on the 2nd. i can't wait to shoot this, it's going to be gorgeous. and there's a perfect woods across the street.

ate thai and gelato with my second familythe rest of the weekend was spent running errands, trying to catch up on sleep, working on jan's paper, and starting to edit my baby shoot, along w/spending time w/m&d. it's only mid july and i feel like i'm out of summer. i haven't launched modele press again. no gocco. my sewing machine is still in the cabinet, and i have a heap of clothes still left to put away. i would love to say that for all this, i am tan, relaxed and have a new pedicure, but alas, that is not the case. i'm going to go eat some fresh blackberries for dessert and think about all this life stuff. :)

bad blogger

long weekend + long drives + photoshoots + returning to work 3 full days in a row = no time for blogging! tonight i promise to post some pics from my fun but busy weekend. including blackberry picking and my homemade cobbler - yum! i did post some for the parents to my photo blog so that can tickle your eyes in the meantime.

off for the weekend

{group photo taken by rick}
tomorrow am we wake up at 6:30am to pickup a rental car at 7, drop it off at home while i take the tahoe to work. when jan gets off work we will pack & drive 6 hrs home to tiburon to see the folks. the tahoe is ridic on gas, so we have to rent cars for long trips until my car makes it out to california. i have a newborn shoot friday am, meet with a client about her wedding in august friday pm, and hopefully get to go on a good hike and check out heath ceramics in sausalito. they have amazing pottery and dinnerware, and i've wanted to check them out for some time. the photo above was over spring break when j & i went hiking w/r, a & kai. i do miss that little guy. note that jan is mr. ambitious, trying to conquer the mountain while we happily got distracted taking tons of photos.

pick your nose

i've seen these before, and they're hilarous. now they're on sale. for $4.99, it would take your party from 'nice' to 'awesome.'

cup-a-cake

i picked up a few of these on clearance (plus my discount) last week in red from williams-sonoma. at just over $1 each, they are perfect for transporting cupcakes or muffins for j & i to take to work! my friend caroline makes a mean bran muffin - add some apple or pear chunks to her recipe and voila, the perfect 10 am treat. you can't get quite the steal online, so check the store for the sale colors.

what we've been up to part 2

I promised J no fireworks this year so we headed to Angeles National Forest, about 40 min's NE of here on the 4th. We stopped at REI to get directions and passed on the map, thinking we would get a free one at the entrance. Only, there was no entrance. So we just picked a route and drove all over, ending up by a pretty creek. The spider hole on the right occupied a good 20 min's of j's time, trying to catch small flies that were hovering all over us and casting them in the web. 1/10 worked.

Sat. night we went on a hike up Pacific Palisades with noz & scott to see the view of the whole area and ocean. We went up at 6pm to avoid the heat and it was tiring but so pretty. After church on sun, we went to a sweet & savory crepe dinner at rachel's. Yum!

what we've been up to

1st, nozomi turned 29. Then, last thurs. night we went to the beach hawaiian free concert! i'm going back next week to shoot more of the beach. i love how the pier looks at night, and when there are concerts, tons of abandoned beach cruisers are chained up all over. left by their owners, under streetlights, if there are no poles, just chained to eachother...i dig it.

happy 4th!

Our day will consist of homemade waffles, a day trip to the closest national park, and a bike ride perhaps to the beach. We're trying to keep it local to not deal w/traffic and using up too much gas. Last night we drove 15 min's to santa monica pier to sit on the sand, eat noz's homemade hawaiian chicken, macaroni salad, hawaiian chips, and mochi custard and watch...One Hawai'i with Keali'i Reichel, Na Leo, Weldon Kekauoha and Hula Halau!! They were great and it was nice to eat and relax after work with friends right on the beach. enjoy your independence!

Pics for Pesos 2008

Brought here from my brother's non-profit, Help One Future. Please read this, pass the link on and spread the word. I am going to try to be one of the first teachers to start the project off and we need your help! Email me or the org. if you have an old camera or know of someone who does.

Can you remember the first digital camera you saw? The magic of seeing the picture you took seconds before appearing on the screen right before your eyes? Often as we have traveled to schools for distributions we have been able to capture the students with our point-and-shoot or digital SLR cameras - and then instantly create entertainment for the students by replaying the shots for them. For many of the children, this is the first opportunity they have had to be close to a camera.

These experiences spawned the idea for our next fundraiser, Pics for Pesos 2008. We are looking for your donations of used, but functional, digital cameras (our goal is 50!). Volunteer photographers will spend several hours teaching children the basics of photography, after which the children will be free to set their creativity free and capture images of themselves and their surroundings. A selection of their photos will then be printed and auctioned off to raise funding that will support the goals of Help One Future - to provide necessary school supplies to these and other needy children that will allow them to take full advantage of their academic experience.

Details are still in the works, but in the meantime please spread the word. Dig out your dusty 3 and 4 megapixel beasts (or better) and get ready to drop them in the mail. Drop boxes will be hosted in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Salt Lake City, Hong Kong, and Manila. Also, if you don't have an old camera, but would still like to help specifically with Pics for Pesos 2008, you can specify that your donation should be directed towards the Pics for Pesos 2008 project when you donate. Please send us an email with any questions.