a bunch of lemons

I kept getting lemons while creating a DVD at work. Technical issues can be so frustrating for me, and unfortunately, a bit wasteful.

At least I got to get creative with these lemon-of-a-dvds. Before I threw them out, I took these pictures to memorialize this experience. If you click on the picture, you get to see a snippet of what I was thinking each time the dvd didn't work. I remember feeling a little growly. rar.

a big guy's lil thang

On my drive home today, I saw this big guy on his lil blue vespa and I couldn't resist taking a picture.

while everyone else is lookin

I planted a watermelon plant - two, in fact! By the time it matures, it'll be soo past the season that they'll be in high demand. That's when we'll get to enjoy delicious watermelon while others have to patiently wait until next summer for some watermelon goodies.

We also have some bell peppers, tomatoes, armenian cucumbers, jalepenos, and squash gettin all CUTE and BIG (well, not yet).

dogs of the bay - santa cruz

Meet Jared.

i made a hu(g)e decision

Picking the paint color ended up being deeper than I had expected. It turned out to be more about making a commitment. But, I picked one and am relatively pleased with the outcome. I spent a total of 10 hours prepping and painting every crevice in my room. The room feels dramatically different - fresh, clean, bigger, newer, and a lil funkier. I have to give props to my landlord, who provided me with all of the supplies and paint. Next up: the dingy bathroom gets a make-over. Which hue of green will it be?

it's like a clicking exploration

That's exactly what it is. I click click click around and press fancy action buttons and see what everything does, and with this and that combination...I get -- whoa! Yeah, stuff like this:

















I'm starting to like post-processing more; but I can see it becoming an obsessive type of activity. I don't think my hands, eyes, back, (uh, whole body) can take that.

So the picture is of my colleague Terika, who let me practice photography on her. Posing, lighting, blahbity-blah. It was the day I had to improv that we walked around downtown Redwood City.

Let me get your opinion: What are your thoughts on photo editing?

[insert clown music here]

doot doot dootoo dootoo doot doot doooot toot.


































We were looking for bikes at Mike's and this was the first one I tried out. Everything after this didn't quite compare.

fuming + 5 hours

The TSA lady at SFO was a total jerk to me.












Late March, I got to SFO a little later then I should have to catch my early am flight to San Diego. (Thanks again Nyam for that ride!) So, while everyone at Virgin America was trying to be helpful to get my on my flight, the TSA lady took her time to get me through security. I kid you not; whe was intentionally slowing things down. 3 other people behind me missed their flight because of her.

So, anyway, I was fuming because I missed my flight by about 7 seconds. (I am not exaggerating. I ran like a crazy-aunt-trying-to-see-her-baby-niece down the corridor when I saw the cabin door shut AND SEAL). It made me so mad, I started crying. And I can reassure you, they were not tears of sadness...they were tears of anger.












And there, I began my 5 hour wait until I'd be able to catch the next flight to San Diego. Me, SFO, my laptop, camera, and a lot of hours in between.

















What did I do? I spent the first hour writing an intense letter to SFO, letting them know about TSA agent 62456 - (I made that up) - and her inappropriate conduct. (Un)fortunately, I never sent it. I just needed to vent my growls. You can imagine why though. B/c I was so sad I couldn't spend those hours snuggling with this lil THANG.

take a joy day.

...seriously....take a joy day.
HopeLab has been given July 3rd off as a day to engage in something JOYFUL. The associated homework was that we'd have to share what we did. That's the best homework assignment I've ever gotten, EVER in my life!

the girl that cried spider

The apple genius thought I was messing around when I said that I think there's a spider in my computer. The first time I mentioned it, he just gave me a smirk sort of indicating, "uh, yeah right." I just thought...I guess he doesn't think it's really a big deal. I mentioned it again, and asked him if he thought maybe that's why my computer was freaking out occasionally. He gave me that same vibe again. "Hmm... Yeah, I guess he doesn't think that a spider inside my portable is what's causing the screen to pixelate and go berserk."

Finally, when I explained the entire story about how I saw a spider crawl out from the vents and sneak back in, he finally said..."OH! It's a real spider you're referring to?!"

"Uh, yeah..." I thought to myself.

He thought I was just using the spider analogy for what my computer was doing when it was freaking out on me.

Anyway, he shipped it off to get repaired. That means, I won't have my compy on me for over a week! This is a bit of a shock for my system since I use it pretty much every single day.

What am I going to do about posting pictures you ask? WELL -- I think I'll probably post pics that are pretty raw and then share a short anecdote about it.










Like this picture.

I took this at a wedding that I assisted at. Uh, and I use that term "assisted" loosely. I went to watch Scott in action at a wedding. (I like to argue that I worked pretty hard, but I did indeed enjoy coffee, cake, the dinner, and all of that, whereas Scott was running around capturing the wedding). After the ceremony, we went to the reception area to get our polaroid taken. We took one to put in the guest book, then took 3 more so that each of us could keep one. But, ended up taking 5 because every time we'd take one, we didn't like how one aspect turned out. She probably thought we were a bunch of nutty photographers who expected perfection from a polariod. "We" being Bandele, me, and Scott.

improv

Needed to improvise. This was the only thing around that would make me a little bit taller.

you guessed it

It was a sunrise in SF a couple weeks ago. With a little lightroom here and a little photoshop there, I was able to get the previous image into the post below!

sun rise or sunset?

unexpected, part II

It's amazing how trash can be a beautiful thing.


















This picture was taken on the edge of golden gate park.
Take a look at the first "unexpected" post here.

practice practice practice & a bday

After Scott's workshop, I've been looking at everything differently. I've noticed catch lights in people's eyes, and will get mezmorized by the light and shadows on faces, walls, clothes, etc. (Forgive me if we're having a conversation, and I look like I'm not listening....I am, but I'm also probably thinking about how I could take a picture of you). :)

























































So, when I went to Robyn's bday bbq on Saturday, I couldn't help but notice some amazing light under the trees we were resting under. I even had Mary do the seemingly ridiculous pose (in front of everyone). It's interesting to analyze images now, and think...."man! if only I had them x, y, z!" or "I forgot to...!" or "where are the catch lights?!" I'm determined to nail the shot.

Pri and Mary doing the pose. Chanell just laughing while I was trying to get her to pose.

self-portrait 5

It's already May of 2008. It's hard to believe that it's almost summer time because next thing we all know, we'll be saying happythanksgiving-merrychristmas-&-HAPPY NEW YEAR! But, it is still May -- so I'll try to stay present to the here and now. Which means one thing: it's time for my monthly self-portrait.

And, to tell you the truth...I got too lazy to come up with a creative self-portrait for this month (kinda like last month). Steph suggested I take a picture with Photo Booth, which I used for the first time 10 minutes ago, to take this lovely picture.













Actually, this shot is the best one of oh..about a dozen or so. Steph had to watch me make ridiculous faces and funny sound effects to match the look and shape of my mouth. She said something like, "uh, the pictures won't capture sound." YEAH, I KNOW STEPH -- THANKS FOR THE REMINDER. *growl*

Anyway, I was feeling really narcissistic taking all these pictures of me so I picked up any prop I could find near me to make me feel better. And, lucky me..my favorite mag finally came today and guess who the featured: Oh yeah.....The Big O. (It's interesting how similar they made this month's cover to a previous cover with Al Gore).

Doesn't Obama look handsome in this cover? I tried taking one of me giving him a kiss, but felt like it might be a bit inappropriate to post on this G-rated blog. So, you'll just have to imagine my kissy face, but o wait -- it probably looked just like that weird kissy face picture I posted above.

make love

...not war

5 days apart

Bianca and I met one of the first days of college at ucsc. We were placed in the same "multicultural" hall at Porter College. Fall of 2000, our lives intersected and there began our story of friendship.

Bianca's a pretty amazing person, and I don't say that lightly. Her authenticity and genuine love for people struck me immediately. In fact, she's left a deep impression on me for the last 8 years.

Though we've been in and out of contact, I feel like a unique depth still resonates between us. (hahha, I hope she feels the same way). But honestly, I think it's just because of who she is. or maybe it's because we were born only 5 days apart.

Let me tell you a story:
I crashed Bianca's new car. Sophomore year, she let me borrow her Honda CRV so I could go visit my sister in Berkeley. I dented it pretty badly and I remember driving back to Santa Cruz feeling extremely bad about the situation. I would've rather just died than faced what I did.

*knock knock* Bianca wasn't in her room.

So, I sat in front of her door until she came back. And when she did, she found me sitting on the ground quiet and unable to confess what I did. She sat there patiently for me to be ready to talk for at least an hour! And finally, when I could muster the courage to tell her what happened and to ask for forgiveness, she graciously and lovingly forgave me. She loved on me, when I was the one that messed things up! I remember that day experiencing God's love for me in a profoundly deep way.


This picture was taken his past Friday during a walk at golden gate park in SF. The tree looked so interesting, we decided to climb it.

we are now open.

I decided to open up my comments option. It was a very intentional decision to have them closed up until now, and it was similarly, a very intentional decision to open them up.

I confess, when I first started my blog, I decided I wanted it to become world famous so that I could become a stay-at-home & traveling blogger [yes, both at the same time]. Basically, I wanted to earn enough revenue off of ads, so that I would have the freedom to spend my days doing creative things, biking around, cooking, spending afternoons gardening, taking pictures, and traveling to interesting parts of this world. Internet’s helping me make this become a reality. Actually, it’s not (yet).

My source of inspiration for this crazy aspiration? Dooce. She apparently gets like over 3 million hits every month. No kidding. Her husband quit his day job so that they could manage her blog. And frankly, all it consists of are cool pictures, sarcasm and random anecdotes. I don’t know why people are so drawn to it. Take me for example. I check her blog every day!

In order to achieve this level of popularity in blogging, I had read early on that having “0 comments” was basically LAME. This blog marketer recommended that until my reader base grew significantly, I shouldn’t allow comments, even though I longed to see who would comment on what.

So, after 6 months of self-deprivation, comments are now open. Make my insides tingle!

dogs of the bay - san francisco

Here's one I caught this weekend while in the city. Check out the nose!

scott robert workshop, part VIII

Sometimes, I think the best shots come when you least expect. This was when Adam and Sona were just sitting around after I had them pose what I had hoped would be a "high-fashion" shot.

That image came out just fine (how could it not, this couple is hot stuff), but I love the emotion that was captured here far more. I think what I'm finding that I really enjoy capturing the in-betweens.

scott robert workshop, part VII

This one's one of my favorite shots from the entire cruise week. This guy was just standing there watching all of us.












One thing that struck me about being on the cruise were the people - the service people. The cruise employed people from over 70 different countries, some of which have been working there for many many years. Talk about diversity!!

Perhaps I went into the trip with some preconceived ideas, but for some reason I thought the workers would be unhappy and mistreated. (And they might be). But, they always presented themselves with what seemed to be a genuine joyfulness to serve us. I'm sure the cruise industry is much more complicated than I can even imagine. If you are familiar with this industry's social responsibility factor (or the lack thereof), I'd be interested to learn more. Either way, I'm still grateful for those interactions I had. These folks were probably the most beautiful....