Hello again! I hope everybody is staying well and productive. I’ve been really lazy these days unfortunately. -_-;;

I wanted to share another photo that I took of Chloe. This picture was taken in San Marcos before we took a trip to San Antonio. The reason I’m showcasing this work is because I’ve recently been studying a lot of different techniques in Photoshop that can really take my photography to the next level. The style of photos that you see in the covers of magazines and publications is what I’m trying to shoot for here. I want to try and create a more artistic look, as if the photo were to be painted onto a canvas. I’m now practicing on improving facial features of the subject too. One thing I refuse to do is change the shape or body of a subject. God blessed each of us with our bodies and gave each of us our own distinct look. One thing that I don’t believe he exactly blessed us with are temporary dermatological defects such as acne, scars, rashes, etc. Features like these don’t help a photo, which is why I’m more than willing to remove them. Amazingly enough, Chloe has incredibly clear skin and I did not need to retouch it. The only thing I did was darken her makeup to make it appear more bold, made her lips slightly more pink, and gave her hair a brown tint to match her outfit. Basically it was just a play on colors. There’s no way that I could make her more vibrant than she already is and I love it! It took an extremely long time to clean up the cement and give it a uniform look, but the result speaks for itself. Hopefully my pictures will continue to improve over time, so cross your fingers!! Tell me what you think! ;)

The title of this picture is called “Exit.” Sometimes I feel that my life can be somewhat of a maze from time to time. Whenever I get stuck in a situation, it can be hard to find a solution or the proper way out. Nonetheless, if I stay strong and keep telling myself to work hard enough, I will eventually find the proper exit out of it. With this photo in mind, I hope that everybody can find the solutions to the problems that they have in life, so that they can find their proper way out. :)

Can you believe the weather here in Texas these days? We’re reaching lows of 19 degrees! How is that even possible? My fingers freeze within ten seconds of walking outside, it’s crazy!!

Ack, I’ve been away from my blog for quite some time. For the past few days I’ve been thinking about all kinds of things I want to write about but I’ve just been so lazy. Keep checking back though!

Okay, so this time I just wanted to share something small that I found recently. I regained access to my old Photobucket account and found a lot of old pictures that I took of my workstation over the years. I liked taking pictures of my workstation the same way MySpace users obsessed over taking hundreds of pictures of themselves just to upload a decent profile picture. I’m glad I did, because now I get to see how much I’ve progressed over the years along with how much money I’ve blown. :( So yeah, not really the most interesting thing in the world but take a gander at it if you’re curious. They are in order from oldest to newest and there’s descriptions on each picture. I don’t have accurate timestamps of every photo but I know the earliest was taken no earlier than 2005.

Stay warm!!

This is Jennifer. She is my one and only 누나, noona, or big sister in Korean. I look up to Jennifer because she reached out to me in high school and changed me for the best. Not that I was a bad kid or anything at the time, but she inspired me to attend church and be a more outgoing person. Her personality is one to envy and if it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be as outgoing to others the same way she’s been outgoing to me.

High school has long passed since then and we don’t ever get the chance to see each other as often as we used to. She stays in the great San An and I take it easy here at home. We only get the chance to see each other a few times a year, whenever she comes down to visit. It’s always great to play catch-up whenever I get the chance to see her. After eating dinner, we decided try a small photoshoot. I’ve always known that Jennifer is the photogenic type. She always has the right attitude when taking photos. We took a great amount of photos within an hour and I have to say, they came out really excellent. Here’s a small gallery of finalized photos that I’ve been working on for roughly about two hours. Please enjoy them and if you want, critique them!

I won’t be able to see Jennifer, as well as many others until next year. I hope that everybody will continue enjoy what’s left of 2009 and stay safe into the new year. :)

I remember when mom bought this artificial house tree years ago. I was in the third grade and we had just moved back into the house that she and I were forced to leave when I was no more than five years old. I thought nothing of the tree at the time, but when Christmas came, she bought some Christmas lights and threw them on there. I didn’t like it. I wanted a real Christmas tree. I wanted a tree that I could decorate with bright lights and top off with a trumpeting angel. I wanted the same type of tree that you find only in magazines and fancy TV commercials. But no, all we had was this… house tree.

As more Christmas seasons passed over the years, I cared less and less about how the tree was decorated. As my sister Eunice and I started to grow as teenagers, we eventually stopped decorating the tree because we didn’t care. We don’t place presents under the tree anymore, we simply give them to each other on Christmas day. Christmas never died in our house. Just the tree.

It was earlier one evening and I had just woken up from a nap. To my surprise, I caught Eunice hanging lights and ornaments on the house tree. I didn’t understand her motive, but then again, did I really need to? Christmas is nearing. She must’ve felt that this was the thing to do. But seriously? Why this tree? Why not just drive to the store and buy a real Christmas tree? We’re much older now. I have the money. It’s not a big deal, so why not? Well because… after all this time, I’ve come to realize that… this is our Christmas tree. This is the Christmas tree that Eunice and I grew up with during our youth and I think we’ll continue to do so, except this time I won’t be complaining anymore.

It’s still pretty ghetto though…