TULIP SERIES

FLOWERS AND LIGHT: ROSES

Just a colorful study in roses. Some of them have the most intoxicating scents.

I can't quite get over reds/pinks contrasted with blues. I've been into this color combination for as long as I can remember.

Good as new

My front door is a charming shade of teal that with minimal editing can appear like a nice shade of robin egg's blue or a more deeper turquoise.



After a packed weekend of documenting two back to back weddings, I'm now relaxing and waiting to feel good as new as again.

Flowers and Light - Tulips and Tea

It happens to me once a year. The time when I drink too many ginger lemon teas to try fight off this cold. Nothing new, just different imagery tying back to the natural remedies post exactly a year back.

And you know what helps while trying to ward off this cold? Tulips of course.

And some new updates!

(1) I changed the blog layout just slightly but the thing I'm most excited for is this sweet new logo designed by the super talented and sweet Natalie of La Designerie. I instantly fell in love with it the moment I saw it.
(2) I'm quietly launching my portfolio! It's been a long time coming and I never quite felt ready for it.


 Hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead! xx

Flowers and Light - Tulips

I took these still life photos when we first moved into our place. I was testing the light in different rooms and I was pleasantly surprised when I found my dining room to have the kind of light I needed. It's a giant soft box really with three (THREE!) walls that are completely bare to bounce off light coming in from the windows. 

It's now turned into my studio where I take on product & food photography projects. However, to have to take down the studio and shift the dining table back into its place becomes a daily ordeal. So if I have two shoots in a row, my husband and I opt to dinner on the living room floor. It's not that bad...it's kind of like having a picnic on the regular! :P

So I'm curious to know, what does your photo set up look like?

Flowers and Light: Peonies in B&W II

I know what you are thinking. Peonies, again?! The internet is full of them! But here we are. :) These flowers were a vibrant pink color as seen here. They were lovely and different from the usual peonies I take home and I appreciated the many differences between them.

If you were wondering why this is labeled "II", it's because I did a post  similar to this last year. This time around I wanted to see how the mood changed if I used a white backdrop. Which do you prefer? Do you like black and white edits? They seem almost timeless to me. Anyway, one of my friends asked if I could turn the photo below into a shirt. I wasn't sure if he was serious or not so I uploaded it on Society 6. Turns out, he was! Anyway, if you would also like this in a shirt, or anything else, you can get it here. Please note that any purchase made come with hundreds of virtual hugs from me. 

In other news, my husband and I are moving to LA this weekend! We've been living on the border of LA and Orange County for far too long now and it was always hard to explain how close we are to the city but how far we were at the same time. I'm a little nervous about this change but then I'm reminded that life begins at the edge of our comfort zone. That's the quote by Robert Frost right? :)

Lastly, I shared a little personal post on being vegetarian on Natalie's lovely blog, La Designerie. Check it out for more peony love but more for her beautiful blog!

Okay wow! That was a lot of information to take in for one post! Anyway, I hope you have a lovely week and weekend ahead! Do you have any upcoming travel plans? We're heading out on a road trip next month and couldn't be more excited (and stressed!) for it. 

Rosy Instaxes

Is it silly that I'm just now posting these images that were taken in February? Okay maybe a little bit but I finally organized and streamlined my process for editing photos. Teaching myself Lightroom a couple of years ago seemed okay at the time but quite disastrous once I found out how to actually organize files using catalogs! Gone are the days of using one catalog for every single shoot. LOL.

I almost always use Lightroom now and Photoshop only if there's something extra I need to photoshop out of an image. Why? Because...

• you can edit photos in batches
• you can use a  preset for one photos and use the same edits for other images
• you can export images in batches with a numerical order (for example: if I wanted to save these two photos, I simply export them and LR automatically numbers them in order of export)

What about you? What editing software do you use and how do you organize your files?

Flowers and Light: Mixed

Looks like I caught a cold from being out in the sun too much! I'm definitely implementing the advice offered on this post a while back. Thank you thank you! If I feel better within the next 24 hours, it is all because of you. And now to these flowers that graced my dining table a couple of weeks ago.

 

I loved that this arrangement from Trader Joe's had one stem of eucalyptus popping out. While everything else wilted pretty fast, this stem is still standing tall. 

What are your weekend plans? I'm second shooting a wedding tomorrow and then relaxing most of Sunday. Hope you have a lovely one! x

Arrangements, Coveted

Hey friends! Oh boy oh boy what a whirlwind the past few weeks have been. Definitely struggling to find a balance in everything. Hope it's all well worth it in the long run. :)

Anyway, enough about that! Let's get to some peaceful and calming things like...these floral arrangements!

These florals were coveted from Brandon and Katrina's wedding. If you haven't already, check out their work, they are AMAZING! The floral arrangements are the creations of Amanda from Fantasy Floral Designs. Aren't they gorgeous??

These lovelies made an hour long trek to our home, maintained their shape AND they lasted quite awhile. Sure, there were a few scraps that fell along the way but I didn't even waste these for they were just way to gorgeous to pass.

So while I catch up with all the things, I'm curious to know how you find balance in everything?

Flowers and Light II

Almost a year ago, I started a series here called Flowers and Light to learn more about how to use light paired with flowers as the subject. It's been fun bringing home different kinds of blooms and experimenting with compositions, colors, black and whites, instaxes and backdrops to show different moods.

Now I'm so used to having flowers around that it has become a non-negotiable to be without them. It's so strange to see how different the first set are to the ones I've taken recently and I look forward to what another year of this holds! Sooo can it be peony season already? 

White Kale: Flowers and Light

I got to take home some more blooms this past weekend! But to my surprise this wasn't a floraly bloom, it was a vegetable bloom! I couldn't believe it when they told me...it was white kale!

On Instagram, as the guesses came, one of my friends mentioned that it might not be what we were told it was. But then what could it be? So then I googled it and I'm happy to confirm (at least 90%) that it is indeed white kale. The ones pictured in the search are slightly greener and/or more pink but there are articles that suggest that during the early seasons, mixing kale with violas helps them come with colors like this. Maybe I should..taste it to make sure? They're just too pretty!

They've lasted 5 day so far and with only the outer petals giving away. I never thought a vegetable could be this gorgeous.

What are you upto this weekend? Lovely plans, I hope! Are we relaxing, traveling, a little bit of both? I think I might be relaxing mostly. Last weekend was a little intense with a trip to Vegas and then wedding photography the same day I got back! But like I said before...it's such a perk to take these lovelies home. :)

Flowers And Video Apps

This past weekend, I got to take home one of the hugest centerpieces of my life. It was definitely one of the loveliest perks of wedding photography (more on this later!) and basically I have a lot of flowers for days and seriously not enough vases. What a lovely problem to have. O:)

Besides catching a small cold, I stayed home making this video and caught up on Breaking Bad. I should've asked around what apps others used but I trial-and-error'ed only to find I wasted a couple of bucks on some really really bad apps.

Here are a couple of video-editing apps I've enjoyed, I hope it saves you time and energy!

1. PicFlow - $0.99 - to make a slideshow with music or a stop motion video like this. It's a dollar to remove the logo and it's so totally worth it. The design is intuitive and feels great to use.
2. iMovie - $4.99- After downloading other not-so-awesome apps I realized that imovie doesn't (1) slap on a logo during your video or asks you to upgrade to make it disappear (2) lets you add music (3) lets you edit video clips. Because it doesn't give you any of the aforementioned hassles, I decided the upfront cost was worth it.

Maybe I'll write another post for photo apps?

Roses in Black and White

Some time ago, I posted some photos of peonies in black and white. Since my hubby brought home these lovely white roses, I thought this would be a good time to do another floral black and white photo session. What I love most about b&w flora is that it's minimal, monochrome, quiet yet intense at the same time.

So how is your November looking? Making any holiday plans or travels? I think we'll be staying close to home this year and will definitely enjoy the abundance of hot chocolate and caffeine all around. Maybe with plenty of flora to go all around.

Tulips: Flowers and Light

From my tulip experience, I was under the impression that these would leave in a couple of days. By surprise, it stuck around for a whole week! I didn't feel too rushed this time since they looked healthy a majority of the time.

The marble board makes yet another appearance. I've grown really fond of it and only see it getting more popular. So what's been going on lately? I've been waking up extra early these days to do things that I otherwise wouldn't have "time" to do. Which includes artsy things, home things, and cooking! Just last week I cooked 2 new dishes that were edible and delicious! woo-hoo! I'm looking forward to making more dishes now. :)

I've never been a "morning" person so this is a HUGE change for me. It's like I'm changing my DNA to be an early bird and I'm really really excited for it. What about you? Are you an early bird or a night owl?

Dahlia Instaxes

Do you call the film used in Instax cameras "instaxes" or "polaroids"? I'm not sure which one to call them but for the past year I've referred to them as the former. Recently, I've acquired a lot of photo props that I'm just too excited about. Pictured above is a tiny porcelain vase. I wasn't expecting it to be so tiny but it's been quite the object of my affection.

I used the macro attachment on top of the camera to get some close shots of the dahlia. They worked extraordinarily well for the calla lilies but I've been having trouble focusing on them with these. I think I need to continue practicing and shooting in better light maybe?

Baby Roses: Flowers and Light

I just finished eating a bowl of noodle soup when I noticed the light was slowly leaving. I had a queue of various little trinkets and flowers I wanted to photograph but with very limited time.

I'm always in a state of urgency after work to rush through dinner, to rush through errands so that I can finally have the time to sit, photograph, document and experiment with things like these roses before the sun sets.

However, I've noticed that making the time is always worth it. There's a certain joy that's reserved for things like blogging, taking photos, documenting, sharing and relating to other bloggers online. :)

Would you agree? Feel the same way?

Found Light

Our apartment faces the east. Which means we get the most gorgeoussssss sunlight.... in the mornings. One morning, I noticed the light was exceptionally beautiful. The kind of light that demands attention.

So I did two things simultaneously (1) Put tea on the stove* and (2) I took out my camera and went on with my photo routine. I tried different compositions and combinations and played around with different colors and layers. I was definitely in my zone! Time stood still! Until...

I heard that dreadful noise sinking into my ears because.... my tea overflowed over the pan spilling into all the small crevices of the stove. 

Has this happened to you? Have you burned things because you were too busy taking photos? Please tell me I'm not the only one.


*Indian tea, sometimes with lemongrass, and a lot of masala