Catching The Sun

Looking back on 2009... I kept late hours and almost stayed at home. I think I had a lazy year. Next year, I try to go out more. Catch the sun! And I want to go abroad...

By the way I just want to know the secret of being an early riser. I really like watching the late-night TV program... awwww

New Years Week

This week's theme: New Years! If you have a new years resolution, try to represent it in a photograph. If you don't have a resolution, take a picture that represents or commemorates your year. If you take photos of fireworks or New Years parties, feel free to show them this or next week.




My year has been an excessively tough one. Filled with trials and challenges. Drama and dispute. Polar opposites of emotions, from extremely sad, to very happy. Most of all, this year has been one of transition for me. New university, new friends... new place to call home. Thus, this is my home. I call it The Gables. I've learned to call this place home. I'm still learning. But it is home, and I feel that this is where I belong for now. I've grown by moving out of my childhood home. In a good way, I have grown. This house has been the predominant factor in my life all year. It only seems fitting that this is my last wish for the year, that this home will indeed be one worth my time.

ornament

Here is an ornament on my Christmas tree. We have all these glass balls filled with tinsel from my father's childhood. Most have broken but we still have a good 15 or so left. They look so pretty with the Christmas lights behind them.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas! Mine was swell, it snowed all day and the day before. I watched an abundance of Christmas movies and had my Christmas playlist on repeat during the last week or so leading up to yesterday. I've also decided to embrace the 12 days of Christmas and continue to celebrate the birth of Jesus. And to do so, I went Boxing Day shopping with my friend Taylor! Tonight I'm going to watch Home Alone (again!).

How was your guys' Christmases? (:

mele kalikimaka

these photos are unfortunately in reverse order because of the upload!

this year my family and i travelled to oahu for christmas, instead of being home and exchanging gifts for a white christmas celebration. i'm bummed that i have to miss the first white christmas of my life, but hawaii is such an amazing place too. we've been eating haupia, plate lunch, and luau food for the whole week, and we all weigh about 5,000 pounds apiece now! every morning we watch the sunrise at 7, then go out on the beach for a few hours, then go out driving, shopping, eating, visiting my mom's and grandparent's old digs, and anything else that comes to mind.

today, somewhat of a storm rolled in, and the waves around most of the island got to about 40 feet high! so, instead of spending the day on the beach, we headed out and took pictures and videos at every beach. i have never seen such amazing waves! unfortunately my pictures didn't turn out so well, but maybe i'll get a chance to upload my videos to vimeo.

i hope you've all had a wonderful day. don't lose the christmas spirit just because it isn't christmas any more!
endless love! endless peace! endless good tidings! and love love love!
aloha <3

Christmas Wish

This Santa Claus doll is displayed in our neighborhood every Christmas season. I like this!
In Japan, Christmas is not holiday. But tomorrow 23th Dec is national holiday (the emperor's birthday). I think most of Japanese will have a christmas party tomorrow. But I would not, I'm going to go to Kobe for seeing a french new wave film 'Paris Vu Par...'. It's my favorite film.

Now I'm listening to NRBQ'S 'Christmas Wish'. So, I decided today's title to 'Christmas Wish'.

Happy Christmas!

Happy Winter Solstice

This week's theme: Take a photo representing the holiday celebrations of Christmas, Hanukkah, or any other!


Today is the Winter Solstice. :D Celebration! And next, Christmas. Excitement ensues.

Mahalia

This beauty is my god sister, Mahalia. There was a bus strike on Friday, so we had to walk for about 30 minutes to get to a friends christmas party. Sydney is famous for its hot christmas weather, but somehow it was really cold and rainy when this picture was taken.

oh, fall

Sorry this is from a month ago! Clearly I've been so busy - at 4:something today I finished with my first semester at uni. Now I have a month off before I have to go back! I plan on finishing the first draft of my novel during this time, and maybe teach myself how to sew (again) or knit (again).

Anyway, this is my favourite shot from my shoot with my friend Taylor for his senior photos. I love the duck swimming in the water. (: Ah, that weather was perfect! It's been pretty mild around here over the past couple of days - in the upper teens - after a week of 5 degrees. Not the strongest winter yet though - come on Minnesota, bring it!!

p.s. I'm all ready with my photo for next week....oh, I have the day after Christmas don't I? That's dumb.

num-numz

every friday i bake goodies for my music class and we have a huge party with jamming and rappin' and improvising. it's really a lot of fun! yesterday i stayed home sick, so i had enough time to bake about 80 cookies, and some other treats. everyone really enjoyed all my christmas goodies. we also had a secret santa exchange and sang carols. i am so in the mood for the holidays now! on sunday i'm going to hawaii for two weeks, so hopefully i'll have lots of fun photos to show on christmas day.

if you'd like the recipe for these melt-in-your-mouth sugar cookies, just let me know! also, check out my latest blog post for a recipe i wrote for these really great chocolate crunch candies :) they are absolutely delicious and everyone who ate it fell in love. needless to say i'm addicted!

my mom and I were experimenting with a new cookie dough recipe. this was the result. isn't she wonderful? haha, I thought I'd go ahead and give a preview of my Christmas pictures :)

The First Shooting

At last, I could take photos with my new camera, Vivitar V3800N. And I used ferrania solaris film again.
Sadly it was cloudy, still cloudy. No more cloudy! I really miss the clear blue sky.
... But I like this camera very much.

05:18

Next week - NOT THIS WEEK - but next week, beginning next Monday (21 December), we'll be having another theme week! There will be ANOTHER theme week after that (28 Decemeber)!

CHRISTMAS! Winter Solstice! Noël! Navidad! クリスマス! Weihnachten! What have you, it's that time of year again. The colourful lights are alight, the holiday decorations are set up, the cold (or hot) weather has finally settled in, and holiday cheer is all around. A time for coming together, a time for fun, presents, reverence, and all around happy times. Christmas is by far my most favourite holiday, and I look forward to it every single year with great eagerness. No surprise then that I would want to orchestrate another theme week. :P

And it's an ever-so easy one. Next week, CHRISTMAS themed! We'll be taking pictures of something festive: Christmas trees, Christmas lights, presents under the tree, family dinners/reunions, what have you. I have a feeling all of us at the 7DAC celebrate Christmas. But if you partake in the Solstice/Hannakah/Kwanza, or any other winter-time holiday instead of Christmas, represent it! We'd be happy to see. Feel free to upload 5 photos this week! :]

The week after Christmas is a big time, as it is the beginning of the New Year! When that roles around, we will have another theme week. New Years is a time for recollection of the past 365 days, and a christening of the next 365 to come. Therefore, New Years week, we will be taking photos with another theme in mind. Our theme will be "Resolutions" and "Last Wishes." If you start your new year by making yourself a resolution of a task to complete by the end of the year, try and represent it with a photo! If you don't really like resolutions (like me), take a photo that commemorates your life of one whole year. Feel free to do both, if you'd like! And, feel free to upload 5 photos this week too. Show some fireworks if you go see them!

I'm scheduling these right now because, while the holidays are a lot of fun, I also know they can get pretty hectic. This gives you plenty of time to dream up what you'd like to do for your photos. Make us proud. :]

________________________________


My photo today is a I took for Suzy Wimbourne (suzypuzz on Flickr) at five in the morning. She's doing this project called the "One Day" project, where essentially, she has been organizing folks together to take one picture at a certain time of day, one picture per photographer. When she compiles all these photos together, she'll end up with one photo for every 15 minutes, which will represent a full 24 hours in a day. I think this'll be really neat! There are a few spots still open if you all would be interested in joining. Check out Suzy's project on Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/suzypuzz/4101321599/

purple

I'm sorry this picture is so boring, I have been so busy lately! School ends in two days, so after that I should be taking a lot more photographs.

Harriet Island

Just a couple weekends ago, the weather looked like this. A mild 35 degrees, no need for coats. Now it's 8 degrees everyday with half a foot of snow. I kind of miss the fall weather, but heccckkk I look damn sexy in winter clothes. I have no idea why, but I've had more men winking, waving, honking at me, hitting on me, etc. over the past few days than I have all year.

Anyway, back to photography...I took this when I was out taking my friend Taylor's (pictured) senior photos. They turned out wonderfully, this was the setting.

p.s. I ditched my old final project idea. I'm doing shoes.

it snowed this past weekend in DC! on saturday i stood in the freezing rain literally for an hour so i could go to a portfolio review downtown. thankfully, a nice girl let me under her umbrella. later on i played in the snow with my boyfriend and brother, and then we warmed up with hot cocoa. i went out for a walk in the falling snow and it was gorgeous (more photos on flickr). it was icy but beautiful out the next day (sunday), when i took this photo.

the latest: it's almost christmas break! in one week i'm leaving for hawaii for two solid weeks. it will be a nice opportunity to spend time with my family in the balmy weather. also, tomorrow is my first anniversary with my boyfriend. such exciting things are going on otherwise, but i'll have to save those stories for another day :)

Fall in December

This is one of the many photos from this past weekend. There will be more on flickr soon. :)

Tinged With Red

At my favourite cafe. I had a lunch there.
I took this photo with "Ferrania Solaris(ISO800). I did film-scan without revise, the result it this... All photos were tinged with red. It's very interesting film. But I think this film is good to use for toy cameras. I'll try again using LOMO or my cheap twin-lens reflex.

Busy

Things are happening.

lazy

 Just a picture of my window sill. I didn't get around to taking many pictures this week. 

shoes

yes, I realize I'm very sloppy in the darkroom. And even sloppier with the scanner. I'm sorry. This wasn't a shot I was turning in, so I didn't make sure the enlarger was perfect. On the bright side, everyone in my class loved this shot and tried to convince me to do my final series on shoes. Persuasion is not my classmates' strongest point. My series will be brilliant, but not about shoes. (My topic is a secret!)

broke the rules

iknowiknowiknow. i'm not supposed to put up two pictures. but i promise this is the last time, i just felt bad for not sharing my family or anything i'm thankful for last week.

the first is a brie en croute i made on thanksgiving day, by covering the brie in puff pastry and hand cutting all the lacey details, covering the whole thing in egg wash and baking it. unfortunately it isn't around any more. fortunately, it was delicious.
i'm really thankful for my natural bent towards little details and creative things like that. and for the fact that i almost always have good results from working in the kitchen! lucky me.

the second picture isn't a good one, but it's sorta funny, i think- which portrays my mood this week; i have not been feeling/acting serious in the least! anyway, this is my dog, dixie, in a collar i made myself out of scrap faux fur and black satin ribbon. it's supposed to be worn around the neck, and it almost looks chanel-esque with a black coat, pearls, and curly hair. i don't think dixie did it right, but don't tell her or else her feelings might be hurt.

Shiwasu

At last December comes... 'shiwasu(師走)' means December in Japanese.
Whenever December comes, somehow I feel I'm being pressed.
Almost Japanese does general house cleaning, writes New Year's cards and has some party which is called 'bounen-kai(忘年会)' in this month. Of course, Christmas party too!

I have a lot of disused articles. I hope I'll throw away them completely within this year. Maybe I will not though.. I guess I'll escape from reality!
I wonder if the foreign people does general house cleaning as well?