lisa's

Once in January and once in February, I drove up to Napa to shoot Heritage Culinary Antiques for Gilt Taste.

Instead of shooting at the antique shop like I expected, I shot everything from the owner, Lisa's, backyard. The weather was perfect, if only a bit chilly. Throughout my work days, Lisa brought the best snacks: crackers with aged gouda and triple-cream cow's milk cheeses, dried figs from Greece (amazing), dill pickles, fresh bread, spicy-garlicky-rapini, homemade sparkling water.

As I make my way into the world of freelance photography, I'll always remember this photo shoot-- this milestone. I'll always remember Lisa's kindness, her beautiful Napa home, and the best snacks a girl could dream of.

camera heaven

Sort of along the themes of "school ending" and "graduation," I wanted to post a photo from the digital photography class I took this quarter.

Before this April I had never taken a photography class ever. After saving up my work money from freshmen through senior years of high school, I finally bought an SLR and fell in love. Since then it's traveled the world with me, it's been snuck into concerts, and it's my constant companion in the kitchen. (My brother-in-law also likes to refer to it as my "G14 Classified").

Up until this course most of my photos were taken with my vague knowledge of how a camera really functions. From my own experience, I knew that I hated flash, I adjusted shutter speed when needed, and I rarely ever changed things in Photoshop. While I still prefer not to post-process, this course (and an amazing day assisting Rachel Thurston) has taught me to really embrace manual settings to make my photos truly my own.

This photo is one from our "Night & Color" Assignment where one of the requirements was to paint with light. I just loved how this one turned out-- it's like each wisp of light is a little halo over each camera. My own personal camera heaven.*

*Cameras from my small antique camera collection.
** Click here to see my class portfolio.

weekend

This weekend was filled with a lot of firsts: croquet, lipstick, niçoise, and capturing droplets of water in a photograph. Even though I've been "taking photos" for a few years, this new digital photography class is teaching me a lot of things I would never have known otherwise. I've gotten to used to using my camera the same way for the past four years and it's really amazing to see that there are a ton of things it can do that I never realized.

I spent so much time alone this weekend. Some people might see this as a bad thing, but having that time to myself has been refreshing. I got to work on my photos at my own pace, read for fun, and spend more time with my ukulele. As much as I love being with friends and family, sometimes, it's just nice to sit back and feel yourself grow.

make up as art

These are some of the close ups from the fashion show I shot a few weeks ago. The make up (by my friend Yanran Lu) is amazingly well done. The colors work perfectly with each model's skin tone. I like to think of it as having a kind of "cosmic" look with stardust and fantastic colors. So bold and delicate all at the same time.

the feathered womb

Once upon a time I mentioned a photoshoot I had one weekend in Santa Cruz, but never posted the photos. These vintage finds belong to an adorable shop called The Feathered Womb. My friend, Rachael, owns the shop and after weeks of being on opposite sides of California, we finally found ourselves in the same city at the same time one weekend in January. We headed to the Evergreen Cemetery to snap a few photos and I'm really happy with how everything turned out-- especially since this was my first time really working with a model!

Visit Rachael's shop here for all kinds of lovely vintage finds, including the prairie skirt and the high-waisted plaid skirt photographed above.*

*The first white blouse and the black velvet dress are coming soon!

my own little shop

as i was decorating my room last year with some of my photos from greece, i thought that it would be nice to one day open a little shop where i could share and sell prints of my favorite things while traveling. one year later, post-greece and post-7 months abroad, my little dream is coming true.

i'd like to introduce you to my etsy shop of travel photography!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/extracelestial

these images are some of my most prized possessions and i hold them very dear to my heart. right now i have 9 images in the shop, but in the near future i'm hoping to sell sets of photos from different regions that i've visited (tuscany, paris, etc.). in honor of my shop's opening, i'm offering an extra print (of the same, or another photo) for free to every customer for the next two weeks.

if there's a photo on the blog but not in the shop that you'd like, just let me know and i can print that up for you as well. thanks for all of your support and happy weekend!

padova

true to my wanderlust, i couldn't resist a little day trip to padova this weekend and enjoyed the sunshine. i guess in english you would call this city "padua," but i think "padova" is much nicer to say so i'm going to stick with that. padova is a quaint little town in the veneto region (it's close to venice) and it houses one of the oldest universities in italy (after bologna, of course).

other than the basilica di san antonio, i didn't have a lot on my agenda. the church is gigantic and beautiful. not only is the nave beautiful, but there are several courtyards that glowed with sunlight. i think that a lot of catholics come to this basilica to pray to san antonio, the patron saint of lost things. along with reliquaries and reminants of his tunic from the 13th century, there were altars where people left prayers and photos of loved ones. i'm not catholic, but seeing people's hope and prayers is always touching.

this normally quiet town was particularly quiet because it was a sunday and most everything was closed. the city, however, is cute enough to enjoy just walking around and appreciating its sleepiness.

windsor

a couple of weeks ago some students took a day trip to windsor to visit the castle. i couldn't take photos inside the castle, but i managed to get these film photos just walking around outside. i love film.

cardigan bay

after carreg cennen castle, we drove to cardigan bay to stay at this sea cliff hotel for the night. we didn't have a lot of time here since we needed to leave for st. david's cathedral in the morning, but we had enough time to explore the cliffs just before dinner.

it was so nice being here, too.

i've missed the ocean.