This year has been going so well in terms of what I do, how I do and how I like it! Relationship is going waaaay much better than last year. Vincent doesn't go out at nights too much anymore and instead spends time with me in the evening. I'm doing more photography than writing (though writing is still going on but it is not the major part of my income so far. And with all the positive moods and doing the things that I like doing, I feel like having more quality life!

That includes having muffins and a big cup of green tea in the morning.

That includes allowing Vincent to buy Wii (he has wanted to buy Wii since he moved here, but I was not in agreement before when we needed to save up for other things in life). Now with the Wii here, I sometimes play my Fitness Wii and do Yoga or other types of exercises. Vincent invited Jerome last weekend to play Wii and they were sooo funny. Of course Vincent won almost everything since he was the real gamer. But then again, even I won against Jerome in Mario Kart.

That also includes taking/making photos everyday, whatever theme it is. I try to stick into one certain project at a time, but it has been proven a challenge with my ever so fluctuating interests. And my interest at the moment is to combine photography and my favourite quotes so that they look and feel more meaningful as you can see some in my previous post. This is another one that I want to share with you.

This post could be summarized in one sentence: I'm happy. :)

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My Etsy shop

Bali home photography quotes

12:21 pm

OK, I signed up yesterday on Etsy (thank you Shierly for the encouragement). It does give me more and more motivation to make photos every day. Valentine is approaching and I am in the mood of flowers and pink. Oh, I am also in the mood of motivation quotes. So I went to the florist and bought these three cute roses of red, pink and white and half a meter of pink tissue paper that I would use as my background. I also bought some rambutans at the traditional market to continue my personal project on fruits (check here).

Here are what I came up with (I haven't done still life photography for the longest time that I can remember, but I'm pretty happy with the result):

One rose says more than a dozen

Bersatu kita teguh, bercerai kita runtuh

There is a charm about the forbidden
that makes it unspeakably desirable

And these are the ones that I put on my Etsy shop (called Lens and Eye).

Hope is the dream of a soul awake

Learn from yesterday, live for today,
hope for tomorrow

Now to get someone to buy them and leave me awesome feedbacks so that I would draw more art appreciators.... It would also do a mention on your blog, my friends, about this new shop. Would appreciate it!

In fact I'm gonna give an opening shop giveaway right now! Leave a comment on this blog with your favourite quote(s), and I'm going to choose one winner to get one FREE piece of any prints I list on my Etsy Shop. Spread the word and I look forward to your submissions! This giveaway will be closed on 14 February 2011.

photography

5:09 pm

Life is so weird. When I was dedicated to photography (the business) last year, it didn't seem to work out that well. When I was ready to let it go and be more rational and steady with my earning on other things that I do well, order by order creep back in.

Not saying that as a bad thing, as I love photography and always will. Just that it's weird.

Anyway, I've got several paid photography projects in January, all of which are of hotel/villa shots. That meant I needed a wider lens since I kind of broke my 18-55mm lens kit (sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't; and I don't want to look unprofessional in front of the client when it chooses not to work). Thinking ahead of how a new lens could make money in the future, I ordered this sweet prime lens Canon EF 28mm f/2.8. It is not the widest but definitely wider than 35mm and it is in my budget range for now. What I didn't know is that my camera (EOS 400D) was a cropped camera. So although the lens is called a wide-angle lens, it is not THAT wide for EOS 400D. If you put this very same lens to an EOS 5D, you will get a MUCH wider view. So yeah, given that the hotel I was shooting had very narrow angles, it was hard to produce a wide-angle photo. But on the quality side, I'm pretty happy with it. It produces almost as awesome shots as my nifty-fifty EF 50mm f/1.8. Luckily the other project I am about to do is of a villa that has more shooting space. So my present EF 28mm f/2.8 will definitely do.

And another good side of having a new toy is that I can't get away from it. I take daily photos, which I have stopped doing for a crazy long while, and experiment in a lot of ways. I browse and learn more from online tutorials of how to make the best of my new lens. And this excites me a LOT. I'm feeling very happy that I almost neglect my writing job(s). :P

Anyway, here's a thought for today.

And here's an awesome link that inspires me lately. It also inspires me to open a shop at Etsy. Carol once suggested me to do it, but I had doubts. But then again, why not try it and see if it does have a market? :)

photography

7:05 am