Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I am seriously feeling the tryptophan right now, and am probably going to knock out soon.
My mother went to China last week for her father’s funeral and brought home a picture of my great grandmother. She’s beautiful. She brought home also a picture of my grandfather in his twenties. He was extremely good-looking and intelligent and kind.
There are, also, pictures of the wake in our digital camera, and these are much more disturbing. The tradition is called “shou ling,” literally “hand holding,” where the deceased is accompanied by loved ones every hour of the day until the burial. My mother, experiencing this for the first time, took pictures of the room, the coffin, the body, the face.
In China, a tombstone is prepared for a family even while its members are still living, and the names (of the males only) are etched in grey. Once a member passes away, his name is gone over in gold.
I wish, so much, that I could have been there.

Thanks to Shang, I had the pleasure of photographing a couple session for Crystal and Guy. These two made my job so incredibly easy and fun, by being beautiful and hilarious models. Thanks to both of you, and have a great holiday in Paris!

I’d overlooked this picture in my first round of editing, but it caught my eye again today.

First: levels.

Then: curves, curves, curves.

A fun evening putting off work and “practicing” for next weekend. I put makeup on my pretty roommate.

First time in college I’m actually excited for Halloween! We know what (who) we’re dressing as. (It’s not that creative, actually, but definitely fun/ridiculous.) And, I haven’t legitimately gone out in maybe a month.

4:16am: Back to programming. (This is why.)

The view outside my window. I haven’t looked outside in a while. A wind is pulling leaves off of the tree in the courtyard. Every time I miss the moment when summer turns to fall, I feel the guilt of someone who sleeps at a funeral.

Meet some people.

Man, everything is color shifting before my eyes.

Who needs sleep?

Revisiting photos is fun indeed. So last year I did not know how to use a DSLR. Shutter speed, ISO, white balance–all that stuff I was too lazy to read up on. By luck, I still have some good photos, so it’s been gratifying revisiting them and doing a little artificial compensation.

I had some Photoshop fun at 5 in the morning. Why? Because nothing good happens after 2am, more so at 5am.

Original, featuring two friends. It’s too yellow, it’s blurry and not very focused.

Slap on some contrast and color correction and some color shift.

Better. But doesn’t everything look better in black and white film?

Maybe not. I think the film grain was overdone on that one. Oh well.

Actually I should sleep. Good night, everyone.

Shang Chen is an incredible photographer in the Boston area, not only because her pictures are beautiful, but she has the drive, the business sav, and the talent to be both a full time management consultant during the week and a professional event photographer (and business owner) during the weekends and nights. People like her amaze me just by how mind-blowingly driven and accomplished they are.

Oh, and she’s generous! Having built up her skills and business from scratch, she’s sparing other aspiring photographers the trouble (and it is really, really hard to start from nothing) by taking on assistants and second-shooters even though she really doesn’t need them. I am one of such lucky assistants, and I went on my first outing with Shang for one of her engagement shoots.

We started in the Square for the first hour, then took the T into Boston. I don’t think it’s courteous to Shang for me to post pictures of the couple, which is fine with me because I’m more concerned with what goes on behind-the-scenes. Plus, meta-photography tickles me.

Thanks so much Shang for letting me tag along! Check out her blog here. (Her pictures will probably appear soon.)

These pictures are taken on a Nikon D300 body, 18-200 Nikon lens.  Borrowed from the Crimson. First time shooting with something this good, honestly. ‘Twas fun! Then went back and properly edited (did I mention Shang was giving us tips in this area as well?). Click to read their captions.

Last year: Fried chicken with Peru SIP.

This year: Barbecue chicken with Mom (special recipe), sister, and sister’s 16-year-old friends in the backyard. At night, biking for backyard fireworks, then driving down Rt. 287 with fireworks on my left and my right, and then standing in the middle of Piscataway’s Hispanic population watching the township’s fireworks from the side of the road.

This year: Sister sleeping like a log, Mom too tired to go out. Feeling guilty telling my father to forget about driving around.

Right around 9 when the crackers started going off, I realized I really, really needed to see fireworks this year. I’ve never had to wait for anything, or look for anything–if I want to travel I pay money and I go, and if I want a new camera I buy it, and if I want a song I youtube it or download it. Fast access, instant gratification. You can even put a price on sunlight —  jetting to Puerto Rico is like paying for good weather. But fireworks are free, and you can never get it except one day of the year, and if you miss that half hour time frame when they’re being displayed, then you’re going to have to wait another year. Even if I’m standing on a busy road getting funny looks, where the cars drown out the popping and a telephone pole partially obscures the view, I’m just very glad I got there in time for the finale.