My Mismatched Socks

1 Right after arriving from Bali at 5:30 in the morning, I...

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:36:41 +0800

1 Right after arriving from Bali at 5:30 in the morning, I went straight to class!

2 Wedding digs for Elbert + Lorra’s wedding next weekend! <3

3 Pictures with my class! Boo, Kat, my the photo you took was so dark! D:

4 Chill night with Kiks, who was learning how to play Dumb Ways to Die on the ukelele.

5 Esty’s panda Instax Mini 7s!!!

6 Had a shoot just last Friday with this view!

7 Dinner with my high school lovelies! Hello, Bei!

8 Bought a book at Fully Booked, and I am so inspired now to have a fantastic studio office! One day.

9 Yummy Eats then Jamba Juice double date with Kiks’s sister Iyay and her boyfriend Edward. I GOT THE RED GUMMI BEAR DRINK FROM THE SECRET MENU, IT REALLY DOES TASTE LIKE RED GUMMI BEARS!

Completely forgot to post this! Composed this while I was away...

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:08:12 +0800

Completely forgot to post this! Composed this while I was away on vacation, but I had limited access to WiFi. Anywho! May 5 to 11 Instagram diary. :D

1 Mine & Kiks’s teaching assistants, Esty & Kat, are such dolls and incredibly funny! They changed the desktop wallpaper on our iMac in the classroom, HAHAHA!

2 I was going to depend on my college notes for one of my lectures, but it turned out that I had to define terms on my own. The test of my knowledge!

3 My godmother bought me new Revlon lipstick, Wine with Everything! So pretty, I love it!

4 Pika-pancakes with friends at Slappy Cakes, Eastwood!

5 Finally complete, after sooooo long! I love you allll <3

6 Early morning kalokohan with Kiks at McDonald’s over breakfast. :))

7 Kicking it old school with my nautical blue Chucks on Friday, as I was leaving for Bali that afternoon!

8 Nephew Tripp, who couldn’t fall asleep in the van on the way to the airport! He must have been excited. :D

9 Baby Tripp with his mommy Kat! Adorable.

At the Ateneo Fine Arts Department, everyone’s a (Might...

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:58:42 +0800

At the Ateneo Fine Arts Department, everyone’s a (Might Morphin’!) Power Ranger!

Spent a good 5 days in Bali a short while back, and it was great...

Thu, 16 May 2013 23:10:31 +0800

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...

Wed, 08 May 2013 23:43:00 +0800

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

Wed, 08 May 2013 11:40:00 +0800

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

Tue, 07 May 2013 21:28:30 +0800

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...

Tue, 07 May 2013 13:55:00 +0800

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’...

Sun, 05 May 2013 23:39:29 +0800

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.)

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!

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 19:14:21 +0800

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 &...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 22:44:00 +0800

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

Engagement: Justin + Gilainne

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:40:00 +0800

Design work and teaching are what have been keeping me busy these past weeks, that I sorely miss taking photos. I’ve barely picked up my camera this summer which is a little depressing, but thankfully I have Tricia as a friend! I’ve been spending the past couple of weeks in her company helping her out with her blog photos, but perhaps my favorite “collaboration” with her—if you can call it that—was taking engagement photos of her cousin Gilainne & her fiancé Justin!

They were such a delight to shoot; they were naturals! Tricia and I couldn’t help but feel all giddy every now and then. You could tell there really is strong chemistry between them. A lot of my shots are actually candid, like the first photo here!

You can’t help but fall in love with these two if you were there with us taking photos of them. You can clearly see that the love is really there.

I honestly can’t get over how lovely these photos turned out. I guess it helps when everything is genuine—not just the love, but even how they smile and how they touch. Nothing felt posed, which is one thing I absolutely love in shoots like this.

We were lucky to have had cooperative weather, as well. LOOK AT THAT GORGEOUS SUNLIGHT!

While it was a refreshing change of pace to be shooting people, I think it’s time for me to return to my food photography. As much as I do enjoy doing shoots like this, I can never forget what I love the most.

I had a lengthy talk with some really good friends tonight about work ethics, and I somehow realized I need to get back on my feet and just keep shooting (food!), regardless of the presence of client work. Staying active keeps me on my feet, meaning I’m continuously moving towards getting better at my craft, and keeps my brain churning them creative juices. I feel like I haven’t been as inspired as I used to, so I’m making a conscious effort to remedy that, and throwing myself back into the ocean that is food photography.

After all, if my love for photography is as genuine as the love Justin & Gilainne share, then I know that no matter what I do, it will always find me no matter how far I start to drift and pull me back.

Hi, Tracy! I absolutely love your blog, and I want to take shots as good as yours someday! I'm into taking photos though and I'm just curious, what lens do you usually use for your pictures and what programs do you use to post-process them? :) Thanks! More power!

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:51:16 +0800

Hi Hannah, thanks so much! Color me flattered, haha. :)

But anyway, these days, my 40mm f/2.8 pancake never leaves my camera. I use Photoshop to post-process! I made my own actions over the years, but I’m being convinced by several people to try Lightroom which they tell me is fantastic for batch processing. I actually tried it once before and…I gave up immediately. HAHA! But fine, I guess I’ll give it another go. I’m just so OC with editing, that I could never really batch process. Haha!

1 Kiks came back from Japan Sunday last week! One of his many...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:53:12 +0800

1 Kiks came back from Japan Sunday last week! One of his many things he got for me was an Instax Mini 7S! Our first Instax photo called for stamps on Line Cam.

2 Monday last week was our first day of teaching summer class in Ateneo! My class was assigned to 305 in Gonzaga, and this certain table was still alive with all the doodles! Hello to all my Ateneo ID friends!

3 Tender Blender had a meeting at Rockwell, and we bumped into Tricia! She hung out with us until RG arrived, right before our meeting started. :D

4 New case from Tricia!! It’s just like the dark gray one she gave me, except it’s a nice red!! Thank you, trin! <3

5 Nail date with Tricia after our work date earlier that day!

6 We were joined by Kiks & Kim later on for dinner at La Creperie! French toast with Nutella & strawberries? WHY YES

7 I finally bought the top from Arcobaleno in Greenhills!! YAY

8 Candy from Kiks from Japan! SO YUMMY AND SWEET

9 On the road with Kiks last Saturday, we saw this guy on the highway! Motorized scooter? On the Katipunan flyover?? HARDCORE!

Instagram Sundays turned into Instagram Whenever I Finally Find...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 23:11:09 +0800

Instagram Sundays turned into Instagram Whenever I Finally Find the Time To Do This Thing. Anywho, last week on Instagram!

1 Sunday with my cousins at Trinoma, and we met up at Starbucks. It forever baffles me how the barista got my name right on the first two cups, and suddenly decides my name was Leslie on the third. I ordered these all at the same time. I’m starting to feel like they’re getting names wrong on purpose!

2 Monday, I went to shoot with Tricia! She gave me my first pencil eyeliner in a long time!!! Thanks, Trin! ILY forever!

3 The next day, I helped her out with a shoot for her blog, and we met up at Starbucks, like always. I actually came in early to get some work done!

4 After the shoot, she treated me, RG, her brother Calel + his girlfriend Farrah, and her cousin Gilainne + her fiancé Justin to dinner at Borough in Podium! I finally know what our friend Kim feels like, being among couples, but it’s all good! Dinner was excellent, thanks, Tricia! <3

5 The next day, I went to Eastwood to work (where I briefly met with Tricia (again!)) for a while before RG picked her up. I roamed around a bit to relieve myself from all the stress I started to feel on my shoulders, and impulsively bought another pencil eyeliner from Prestige, which I heard was pretty awesome. WHICH IT IS

6 Churros at Xocolat after running some TBFD errands and while waiting for Karl so we could talk for a little bit about work and catch up.

7 Girlfriend duties by taking Kiks’s Mac Mini to the Apple service center. It died right before he left for Japan on the 6th (hence his absence in my Instagram feed this week, and the frequency of my hang out time with Tricia, hahaha). (I also met with Tricia that afternoon to spontaneously help out with stuff after reading a tweet she posted, LOL!)

8 Decided my bed drawers needed some vacuuming, so I cleared them out. I dug up all these old paintings on giant illustration boards that Kiks gave me some years ago!! Made my heart melt to see them all again. This particular one was the painting he gave me for our first anniversary. :)

9 I got a new tube of MAC lipstick this week which is in the loveliest deep red shade. Wearing it makes me feel so pretty, and rather vain HAHAHA!

Hey! I wanted your opinion because I'm currently using a DSLR but I wanted something more compact. Do you know any good brand + model for a mirrorless cam? Or do you think a Powershot S110 would be okay already?

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:45:25 +0800

Hi there! I’ve seen some pretty awesome photos taken with the Canon EOS-M, their new mirrorless camera where you can attach EF lenses (though you’ll need a mount). I can’t really say much in terms of reviews though, as I don’t really know anyone who actually has one. I’ve heard some good things about the S100 and the newer S110, though, so this gets my thumbs up. :)

It really depends on what you want to take pictures of, I guess? If you’re trying to look for a sort of replacement for your DSLR, then I’d recommend the EOS-M, as you will still have the flexibility in terms of focal lengths and settings that you have on your DSLR. But if you want a more compact camera that you can take with you on casual days out that don’t really require you to use a DSLR, then the S110 would be okay, or even something as simple as their other Powershot or IXUS cameras. I have an IXUS 125 HS which is pretty good. :)

Hello Miss Tracy :) I'm sorry to bother you with my question but..I'm going to do an internship at a local design company, but I don't really have much knowledge about illustrator or indesign. (It's required for my course of studies). And now I want to kinda start dabbling a bit with it so I don't go there completely unprepared. any tips, please? :') (oh, btw, I'm not from the Philippines.. ;))

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 20:52:33 +0800

Hi there! One thing to remember is that Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign all have different purposes. If you’re familiar with Photoshop tools, then it shouldn’t be too hard to transition to the other two. Honestly, the best tip I can really give you is to practice using them! Oh, and don’t forget to make use of your grids/guides in InDesign!

Good luck with your internship! :)

Do you allow interns that are not "currently enrolled" in Tender Blender?

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 20:40:44 +0800

Hi there! I don’t really know what you mean, but we’ve already selected our interns for this summer, so I do apologize! We also had a deadline for applicants at the beginning of April, so we’ll have to turn down any further applications. So sorry! :(

I nearly forgot about last week’s Instagram diary! 1 Iced...

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:14:50 +0800

I nearly forgot about last week’s Instagram diary!

1 Iced Classic Chocolate with my cousins Kooky on Easter Sunday to beat the heat!

2 TORN BETWEEN TWO ICE CREAMS! Starbucks Java Chip Frappuccino ice cream vs. Ben & Jerry’s Karamel Sutra. Starbucks won this time, but Ben & Jerry’s is my sure pick next time!

3 I made pancakes for breakfast the next day!

4 Work + dinner + dessert date with Tricia!

5 Redyed my hair! Finally back to being my redhead self again.

6 Visited my nephew Tripp! Such a cutie pie!

7 Accompanied Tristan to Ateneo for his soccer training. :)

8 Cibo dinner with Kiks. <3

9 Starbucks lunch with Karl prior to a meeting!

It’s been such a stressful week so far, and we’re...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:39:28 +0800

It’s been such a stressful week so far, and we’re only half-way through it! I’m pretty close to burning myself out, but that’s not an option, so I de-stress by doing things unrelated to work.

Tricia invited me to come over and shoot with her just this Monday! We took pictures of her cousin Gilainne and her fiancé Justin who both live in Australia, but are having their wedding here in the Philippines! They were such a pleasure to shoot, they were both such naturals! And it goes without saying that they’re also a good-looking couple.

I was swamped with work and errands today, that I stopped working for a while and decided to start post-processing their photos. It was a breath of fresh air, that I wished I could just keep doing this until I finished everything!

While I was working on their pictures, I was thinking about the past few days. I hung out at Tricia’s last Monday and Tuesday, and a lot of what we talked about was weddings, couples, and love, due to the photography work that we’ve been doing.

I realized that at the end of the day, no matter how stressful the world seems, we just have to remember that in spite of all the things that could possibly lead to metaphorical spontaneous combustion, there’s a lot of love in the world as well, and it will always make you feel better, regardless of how it comes. Stress is temporary and fleeting, while love persists, all the time. <3