Creativity Burst - Ice Ice Baby

Feb 5, 2012

1600×1067 pixels – 253KB

Filename: pattern-2570.jpg
Camera: Canon
Model: Canon EOS REBEL T1i
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/80 sec
Aperture: 5.0
Focal Length: 100mm
Flash Used: No

This week's challenge is repetition and patterns in nature.  We happened to go to Crystal Mountain ski resort this weekend and I was looking for ideas and things to take for this assignment.  These icicles beautifully glittered under the sunshine right at the edge of the roof top was a little surprise on Sunday morning.  I was debating on flipping this to B&W but decided to keep the original color.  Since the shadow kinda manifest itself beautifully and I don't need more contrast.  The cold freezing ice over the moss has to be seen.  I still don't have tripod yet so definitely gonna fix that soon!

Side story,  I've got to read the assignment more carefully.  I didn't read the rule carefully that "No man made pattern" was this week's assignment. So during the trip I definitely took some that's pattern from man made structure but it happens to be next week's assignment! Before I take a better one, I'll share this here.

Feb 5, 2012

1600×1067 pixels – 124KB

Filename: _MG_2603.JPG
Camera: Canon
Model: Canon EOS REBEL T1i
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/160 sec
Aperture: 4.0
Focal Length: 55mm
Flash Used: No

Now couple of shots from my hubby's phone that we had a great day at Crystal Mountain.  It was super windy. The snow condition wasn't that great. Icy and crunchy mostly.  Not so great for snowboarders.  So we stayed on the groomed run mostly. But the view was absolutely fantastic. We could see Mount Rainier's breath taking view at the top of Crystal.  One memorable part was, at the last run of the day, a screw of my left binding fell off whilst we were at the backside of the mountain.   I was quite a trooper to board back with that compromised board.  Thank goodness it was fine.  But definitely time to send my Feather back in to do some serious tune up for Whistler!!!

Snow White Fever

Guess who would never walk into a tanning salon? I swear that I bought all these whitening products at different time and I was utterly surprised how eager I wanted to become "Snow White" when I saw them lining up at the same time. Hey I was the "Black Pearl" for my entire college era. I guess I was just subconsciously haunted by that. My favorite is the Kiehl's on the right. The sales lady told me that it was launched in Asia for a long time but FDA has more rigorous evaluation process which I highly support to let them launch in USA.  It's very affordable and I think it's effective in general. Oh well, we all know that I could never become a Snow White regardless of how many whitening product that I iterated through out so many years. But at least I'm doing something about it right? This is definitely one of the "初老症狀" (Early aging symptoms) from "我可能不會愛你" (A TV show called "In Time With You" in Taiwan.).

Creativity Burst - Fanny Blue

I recently joined an online photography group and there are weekly assignments to burst everyone's creativity and plainly a great way to pick up your camera to practice.  Last week's assignment was BLUE. So I climbed into, yes, literally "climbed" behind my hubby's giant computer and try to get something out of his BLUE LED packed system.  I have a Canon Rebel T1i and I started with my 18-55mm kit lens. After few shots I switched to 10-22mm wide angle lens to see if I could get something different.  In order to make my image stable, this is the first time I tried using mirror locked up and so I got a more clear image since crouching behind the computer, there was no support for the camera. I tried not to turn the ISO up and still shooting in low light, the shutter speed was fairly slow at that point too.  This one is my favorite. It was my first attempt. Hopefully I could be better for the follow on new assignments!

Jan 14, 2012

1600×1067 pixels – 89KB

Filename: _MG_2430.JPG
Camera: Canon
Model: Canon EOS REBEL T1i
ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/4 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Focal Length: 55mm
Flash Used: No

Fresh Start

Happy new year you all! After counting down with the world, I couldn't be more exhausted. But we really had a lot of good time celebrating it with our dear friends. We went to my high school friend - Alison's new house and then to Candace and Vinnie's later.  Lots of new year spirit everywhere.  A fresh start would be everyone's hope right? What's your new year resolution? I decided not to tell you mine since I might jinx it!  But I do have lots of things that I want to do as always. Not necessary because it's another new year, but I always hope that there are at least 48 hours per day so I could make the most of it! Wish you all the best and a wonderful 2012!! xoxo!

Dress: Giambattista Valli for Impulse
Heels: Giuseppe Zanotti Design

Thank you! 2011!

Yes yes yes! It's almost 2012! One more silly thing I'm doing is to count down with the world. That gives me a lot of new learning too! The first country and also the last to have new years is Samoa. I started from Apia, Samoa and then keep going west.  New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Taiwan... After 8am in the morning counting down with friends and family in Taiwan, I was so beat. Now after a good 5 hour sleep, I'm back on track to count down at Iran, Athens and now it's closer and closer to us!!!! Overall 2011 is really a great year! There was a lot of things going on. We're all hoping for a better life in a new year. Which makes everyone so excited. The concept of "tomorrow is better" definitely is giving people hope and energy! Thank you 2011! It's been a wonderful year! 2012, here we come!!!

Dress: Giambattista Valli for Impulse
Short Cardigan: Club Monaco

Happy Holidays

Ahhh... It's almost end of the year so it's been really "busy" for me to celebrate the holiday seasons. I'm not 100% sure what I've accomplished but overall I tried a lot of new different things and I got married (okay, that was the major accomplishment.) Work has been busy for a while but it's warming down as Christmas was around the corner.  What's gonna happen next year?? One major thing we're going to do is to have our sabbatical!! 8 weeks of vacation, we're planning to go to Europe!! It'd be "Amazing Race" style no kidding. We'll be hopping through cities.  My dear friend Jakey and his wife are in South France now so I couldn't wait to meet them there! It'd be a hell of an experience!! Although it's still too early to talk about next year's plan. There are 15 days to the end of the year and I have couple major things to do.  Celebrate my hubby's birthday, Christmas, send out all the wedding Thank You cards, oh and we just ordered our first holiday cards!! Hopefully they'll come in time for us to send them out. Life is full of joy in holiday season!!

Cashmere Top: BCBGSkirt: T by Alexander Wang
Ankle Boots: Kenneth Cole
Wallet: Samantha Thavasa  

Coat:Club Monaco

28 Degree. Winter is definitely here!

I know I'm not living in cities like NYC or Chicago and I have no rights to complain about cold weather. But I really have to say 28 degree is definitely already FREEZING for me!! It's probably great for the holiday season but there's no snow either!! I guess that's the only thing in winter that I'm looking forward to.  Although Intel factories here definitely creates its own climate.  Because the moisture that the fab produces, even it's completely dry somewhere else, if it's cold enough, we'd have "Intel Snow" in a mile range. It's actually really pretty. I have been noticing that it's not as festive this year as past few years.  Maybe because the economy is so low that stores and streets are not decorating excessively with holiday decors.  Christmas songs are definitely occupying the radios, but it's just not as joyful.  Hopefully the holiday spirit picks up a little bit.  I guess I could start from myself? Alright, that's a good motivation to send out our very first holiday card this year then.

Trench Coat: i.n.e.
Ankle Boots: Kenneth Cole
Purse: Black by Moussy
Sunglasses: Versace

stylish trench coat