Letters to Our Daughter, Feb. 2013

Letters to Our Daughter, Feb. 2013

25 February 2013

"Mommy, thank you for giving me so much love. I love it when you are silly, funny, when you cuddle me. There is no other mommy in the whole wide world like you." 

"How do you know there's no other mommy like me? Perhaps Sharon's mom is also funny and silly." 

"I know Sharon's mom is kind too. But I don't know if she is silly. You are silly and funny might be an opinion (to others.) But to me, it is a fact." 

Dear Jo, 

You always make my heart swells and smiles with happiness with all the things you say. And the little things that you do always give me a warm fuzzy feeling. 

You make me smile every time you quietly walk into the kitchen and hug me when I am doing the dishes. You make me feel important when you ask me to sing you "You Are My Sunshine" in the morning while getting dress for school. 

You make me feel special when you wrap your little arms around me so that we can walk a little closer to each other. You make me laugh so hard when you said that I make you happy when I am mad at papa, but not at you. 

You made me proud when you came home yesterday and announced with your radiant face that your class won the winter reading competition, and to top it off, you were in the top three students who read most books! It's such an enjoyment watching you retelling the story and seeing that happy feeling both on your face and your eyes. 

You make my world completes. And like a like a perfect circle, I will always fall in love with you over and over and over. Head over heels. 

You.are.my.sunshine. 
Bunda

Next in the circle is Kirsty Larmour of Kirsty Larmour Photography. Her work is just beautiful and her daughter are so sweet! I can't wait to read her letter and enjoy her pics.

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{Hawaii}

{Hawaii}

23 February 2013

I said that we are visiting grandmas and grandpas this year and will probably go to Yogyakarta as well.

She said, "Yay. But I want to go to Bali or Hawaii."

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{Monday is a Holiday!}

{Monday is a Holiday!}

18 February 2013

How we spent our Monday...

• Late brunch at Digg In in Union Square. Cute place, average food. It's kinda too healthy for us that we left the place still feeling hungry.
• Stopping by at farmer's market to grab a half dozen of apple cider donuts and gobbled them right away.
• Reading the 3rd book of Diary of A Wimpy Kid
• Practicing composition with her camera.
• Wondering when four of her teeth will grow?
• Visiting Beads world. So much colors and sparkles!
• Strolling around Union Square and walked down (or up?) to Astoria Place

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{CourtneyCourtney}

{CourtneyCourtney}

16 February 2013

I was ecstatic when CourtneyCourtney contacted me to shoot one of her lovely dresses. 

I am quite conservative when it comes to matching and mixing colors and patterns. Courtney's design immediately erases those kind of fear. I love her style in terms of mixing colors, patterns, and prints. Her design is bold, vivid, colorful, fun and fearless (but still cute), cheerful, playful, all the words that perfectly describe a beautiful childhood. 

The dress that I received is perfect for layering. What I love about this dress is that the front pattern is different than the back, and I think it's pretty cool. Jo loves her new dress too and embraced the cold weather for this shot! 

Be sure to follow Courtney's work on Facebook. Join her mailing list and get notified on her new designs. You can also purchase her dress through her online shop, CourtneyCourtney. 

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{12 Feelings | Love}

{12 Feelings | Love}

12 February 2013

In the last few years, my family has been going through many things.

Since the stroke left my father paralyzed 10 years ago, my mom has been taking care of him. Wholeheartedly. This involves cooking a special diet meal for him, feeding him, bathing him, shaving him, cleaning him up, and lots of long nights.

This affects not only her emotion, but also her health. She's been in and out of the hospital in the last few months and the doctor finally decided that she needs a pacemaker.

As an individual raised with faith, I tried to accept and understand all of these. However, I am not going to lie, that life is subject to so many changes there are many times when I question the relevance of faith in what's happening in life and the limit one can take in dwelling on what we can not change.

For a long time, the tunnel seems too dark for me. I keep searching for answers from the above, but none came.

Then I realized. All the friends who lent their hands when the flood hit our home last month. All the friends and families who've always been there in the last 10 years, offering their prayers and any kind of supports. All of these make me believe, that even when the tunnel seems the darkest, a little light, no matter how small that is, keeps us going. That humanity still exists. 

We are truly blessed that in our darkest time, many people remind us what LOVE is. And we are blessed that we are LOVED.



Please continue on the circle by visiting one of my favorite photographers, Sabrina Koogler of Sabrina K Photography. 

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{Texture Work Tutorial: Before and After}

{Texture Work Tutorial: Before and After}

10 February 2013

I love working with textures. Textures can really transform pictures in a different way, allowing so much creativity and freedom when playing with them. I am a texture junkie and I do have textures from different artists. In this post, I am using textures from Flypaper Textures and French Kiss Textures. Using them in different blending opacity, you can achieve dreamy, painterly, or even vivid and grungy effects on your photos. 

This is the SOOC of a tulip shot that I took two years ago. I use a solid color paper as the background and shot it by standing up. I used natural light that came through the window on my left hand side. Setting at ISO 100, f/2, 1/400 using 50mm f/1.8 lens.

 

Then I used the following textures to process the picture: 

• Gelato Ice from Flypaper Texture Spring Painterly at 70% Overlay (mask off from center of the tulip) 
• Peacock from Flypaper Texture Spring Painterly at 48% Soft Light (mask off from center of the tulip) 
• Sirocco from French Kiss Tableaux Set at 34% Pin Light (mask off from selective areas) 
• Bring down brightness in selective area using Curve 
• Copy background at 42% Screen (move this layer to the very top, mask off from selective areas) 

From the screen shot below, you'll be able to see the order of the textures that I used and the mask off areas.

 

Here's the edited version. Hope you find this useful and have a lovely Sunday.

  

If you'd like to try using textures but not ready to invest, there are plenty of free textures that you can use. Just google "Free Textures" and there will be plenty you can download. Just be sure you credit the artists when you are using their textures. 

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