My Mismatched Socks

Spent a good 5 days in Bali a short while back, and it was great to have been able to finally kick back, relax, and not think about work (as much as I normally do). Adding another set of photos to my growing backlog, but hopefully I get to these a little sooner!

Anyway, just wanted to share one of my favorite photos from the trip—not exactly screaming “BALI!”, as it was shot in a Starbucks, but it just embodied some of the moments in my life that I enjoy the most.

This was actually a spontaneous photo shoot of sorts, as we decided to do it right then and there. If these two look familiar, they’re the first couple I ever had an engagement shoot for, Troy & Jessica. They’re my Starbucks couple, and the Balinese store design was too pretty to pass up! Elevated floor with just cushions for seats? Yes please!

The spontaneity of the shoot was a refreshing change from work, and I missed the thrill of finding new places to shoot at. It was a good thing that the baristas were very friendly, and had no qualms at all about us taking photos like this in the store (unlike here in Manila, unfortunately). If only I could take more photos of lovely people (willing models!) at coffee shops, I’d be a happy camper!

I knew making visuals out of my college notes would come in handy. So stoked for tomorrow’s class! (This is a slide from my Keynote, lecture, by the way.)

If I haven’t mentioned it here on my blog yet, I’m teaching college kids in Ateneo this summer. Specifically, I’m teaching them the basics of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. We’ve just started on InDesign, and I can’t bring myself to teach them just the program without adding in some lessons on good design. I’ve already taught them about the Principles of Design a few sessions ago, and I had my teaching assistant Kat do the lecture on grids and master pages. Now that my kids have a grasp of grids and their importance, I feel it’s time for them to meet AIDA.

I think it’s pretty clear that I’m enjoying myself! Teaching how-tos is fine and all, but I can never find it in myself to just stop at the technical stuff and withhold all this precious information from them. They’ll be using the programs to design anyway, so why teach them technical skills without teaching them how to use them properly for design, right?

More than getting paid to teach what I love to do, I honestly enjoy sharing what I know in my field. I love seeing their eyes light up with realizations that you could do this to achieve that. I really hope that I’m doing a good job. There’s no greater feeling when your student puts what you teach them to good use and garners great success from it.

Engagement: James + Nicole

Of course, being my forgetful self, I completely forgot to post a set of photos from James & Nicole’s engagement shoot! I owe special thanks to Kiks & Misha (whom we all miss terribly!) who were at the shoot with me. :)

Favorite from the set! I just love the negative space with this one.

Washington DC: The Capitol

I’m almost one year delayed with my US posts — I haven’t even gotten to my San Francisco photos yet!! Shame on me. But now that I have a tiny bit of time on my hands, a new post from my US trip last August 2012.

So as promised in my last post (way back in February!!!), pictures from our visit to the Capitol! This place is so grand. When I was a kid, this building stuck to my young mind so much that I thought it was the white house (kind of like how I thought that the Chrysler building was the Empire State). LOL but I now know better!

We were told not to refer to the Capitol as “the Capitol building”, because it’s redundant — “Capitol” already meant “building”, apparently. My young mind also believed that it was actually called the Capital because…it was in the capital of the US.

Check out that ceiling! It was spectacular. I can’t even begin to explain how amazing it is. If you look at the first photo in this blog post, this is actually the inside of the domed part. WHAT!!! It looks like it’s your normal high ceiling, but believe me. It isn’t. Not even CLOSE. High ceiling is an understatement.

I tried photographing it from a different angle just to see if I could capture its height, but I failed. You just have to visit it yourself; it’s worth the trip, I promise you! And did I mention that we were underground? HOW INSANE IS THAT

This place would have been wonderful to photograph had there been no people, but that’s just impossible (unless I worked there) so please bear with the greatly distorted images of people in these pictures.

Anyway, this was one of my favorite parts of the Capitol. It was so elegant, that I could imagine a ball happening in here. Everything looked so regal, what with the gold and maroon hues. For a place that housed statues of former US presidents, of course you wouldn’t want it to be anything short of grand.

Our tour guide showed us a neat little architectural trick in this room. She faced the floor, and whispered through cupped hands, saying that if any of us could hear what she was saying that we approach the area she was in. IT WAS SO COOL. It reminded me of the episode Natural History from HIMYM where Ted kept whispering things from one area that could be heard on the other side of the room. I didn’t think it was possible, but there we go! This wasn’t the Natural History museum, but it’s the same thing.

I have a tendency to stray away from the large tour group to take photos, LOL. It was a delight to have Tricia’s Canon 10-22mm UWA lens with me (thanks for lending it to me, Trin! ILY), as I wouldn’t have been able to capture the beauty and largeness of this place with just my Pancake!

Hi, mom & dad! My siblings and I are so lucky to be able to travel, thanks to the combined powers of our parents. Forever grateful. They deserve a photo with Martin Luther King Jr.!

After our quick tour of the Capitol, we found this little nook somewhere on the grounds. It had a water fountain where my sister could refill her tumbler of water.

I should really bring a travel-friendly tripod next time.

1 Monday night cooking resulted in okonomiyaki! Kiks was obviously still high on his recent Japan trip (which I envy with every bone in my body!), haha!

2 Tuesday morning means I have to leave the house extra early if my brother uses his car, because the one I use is coding for the day. I had a few minutes to spare by the time I got to Katipunan, so I swung by McDonald’s to grab some breakfast. Early mornings here take me back to high school days, even if the place looks very different from 8 years ago (NEARLY A DECADE ALREADY SINCE I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL???)!

3 And speaking of high school days, I found our old binder full of letters! This particular entry dated back to March 9, 2005 — we were a 4-day old couple, LOL. We started writing back in January 2005, I think?

4 I spend many an afternoon at Caffé Bene with Tricia for our work dates! I got there early, so I had the entire second floor to myself, ohohoho.

5 Make up brush set from Hot Shop by Kat Roxas-Gomez! I super appreciate this gift, as I don’t need to buy a set anymore, as I’m all, uh, set! Hahaha! A million thanks for this, as I can now indulge my girly side even further!

6 ThePowerpuff Girls! :)) Tricia, Kim, and I at Red Mango in Eastwood. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup due to our hair colors + outfits! My pink top, Tricia’s blue nails (haha!), and Kim’s green pants! So much love. :))

7 As I count down the weeks with this Instagram diary, the closer I get to saying au revoir to Kiks for two years, as he’ll be leaving for the States to take his masters. (Sad face!) So we’ve been spending every day after school together (as if we don’t do that already), as well as on the weekends, if schedules permit.

8 FCBD last Saturday! Of course, we were in attendance. I didn’t get anything for myself as I’m strapped for cash, so instead here is a photo of my dinner at P.F. Chang’s. GOOD STUFF, GUYS.

9 Aaron at FCBD! Sorry na, may table na. Haha, nice seeing you, Aaron!

Rehashed my old logo a bit while working on my students’ final project for Illustrator. I’m pretty happy with it now! I kind of need to reestablish its use, because as you can see, it is pretty much non-existent on my website.

Laughing quietly to myself every time I look at the letter M. Reminds me of McDonald’s, LOL. I should change that, maybe. (Or not.)

Anonymous asked: hey there :) may I ask how you take on storing your photographs? :) And do you process all pictures you take or do you sort them out, like, only the ones you're going to post/for clients? Thanks for answering!

Hallo! If by storing, you mean keeping/organizing my files, I use an external hard drive. I always shoot in RAW, so those files are too huge to keep on a laptop. I keep active projects on my laptop, while finished projects are moved to my external.

As for post-processing, I usually have clients pick the photos they want to use and edit those. For non-client photos like the ones I take while travelling, I normally edit all the nice ones, but pick the best ones to post. The rest are uploaded on Facebook to share with my family and friends. :)

Finally, posting this on time!

1 Attended Justin & Gilainne’s wedding, and I was once again adopted by the Gosingtian family for the day. It was a beautiful ceremony!

2 Monday, my teaching assistant Kat & I coincidentally brought our Instax Minis to school!!! Her Instax Mini 8 is pretty awesome, it has a sensor that tells you which light mode to use!

3 I spent an afternoon with Kiks working on a Gundam model kit we’ve had since forever, but never found the time to work on.

4 After hours of painting, panel lining, putting together parts, and watching an Evangelion movie on my laptop, my Gundam Arios is complete! SO PRETTY

5 While Kat’s blue Instax Mini 8 is pretty awesome, I decided to prettify my 7S with the strawberry decals it came with. MINE IS PRETTIER NOW

6 Spent the evening with Kiks, Kim, and RG at Eastwood! We weren’t able to buy tickets to see Iron Man 3, because the theaters were packed! We settled on dinner and coffee after. I was lucky enough to get a Customer Voice receipt, yay!

7 Lunch at Krazy Garlic in Greenbelt with my siblings, two of my cousins, Kiks, and my uncle Edward who was visiting from San Francisco!

8 Today, while the aunties and uncles went to watch Iron Man, my cousin JC and I decided to catch Iron Man as well in Eastwood! Cousin date!

9 Obligatory Instax photo with my uncle! I gave it to him, because I am his favorite niece MWAHAHAHA