This is the most sentimental camera I have or will ever own - because it is my dad's only ever camera! All through out my childhood every single picture that is ever taken of me was with this camera - somehow Josh found this with such a good discounted price and it came with a 50mm 1.4 lens, however for this shoot we used a 50mm 1.8 that has purchased me a while back and we both regretted and agreed to never use the lens again . . the pictures are not sharp enough and I don't think did this camera any justice - I am patiently waiting to see what 1.4 lens can create with this camera body on a new roll of film I am testing at the moment. We shot these the same day he bought the camera - after work we came home and straight went to the nearest shopping center while there was a bit of light left and finished the roll to test out the camera - I love the result and I cannot image what Portra 400 or Fuji Pro 400H will look with this camera on a 1.4 50mm lens.
These days during the week my new job is taking pretty much all of my energy, I am surrounded by completely new people in a role that is very different from my previous position so pretty much after work I am mentally drained to the point I cannot do much more than just a couple house chores. What I love about it is that I am able to get off work consistently at 5pm no matter how busy things are, which is very unlike my old job where I had to work weekends and overnight! While I am doing my best to learn as much I can and set up my routines, I have to move with the flow when it comes to my side hustles, hobbies or chores - one task at the time - this weekend was the laundry day - as soon as I ate breakfast on Sunday I started working on folding and sorting the laundries and organizing the closet till sunset which was about 6 to 7 hours long process. The backlog was more than a month overdue! I had literally a piles of clean clothes on one side of the bed that I didn't have time to fold and put away - I also finally used the steamer, and it was completely a game changer, lets just say pretty much anything I could de-wrinkle was introduced to the streamer today . . even though it took me all day to organize everything in the closet, I feel super productive and ready for the week with one less item on my to-do-list!
We visited Waco at the end of summer, most of our friends had gone to see Magnolia Market and we wanted to check it out for ourselves. We arrived there at lunch time and ate at the Table before heading to the Silos, where we got ourselves cupcakes, drinks and checked out the store. However, what caught my eyes the most during our trip was not the Magnolia establishments but just down the road on Webster Avenue I found an abandoned factory that took my heart away (see below) I immediately jumped off the car and went browsing the site. It was a charming red brick building with broken windows and tall ceiling that created unique lighting inside. I kept wishing I had my tripod and my favorite lens to take advantage of the opportunity. Hopefully one day I get to return to use this space or something similar for a photoshoot.
This was the first time I used Canon AE-1 and I have to say this shoot made me fall in love with this camera. I have bought this roll of Fujifilm Pro 400H for over 5 years when I first fell head over heels with medium format film camera combination with this film . . obviously since I couldn’t afford a medium format camera I oped out for something cheaper and Canon AE-1 was my first purchase - however it took me many years and actually 2X to shoot this film (the first time I didn’t properly put in the film so none of those pictures were saved). The camera itself is so easy to work with it, the metering was pretty spot on, my only issue with it is what I frame though the view finder while shooting is not quite the same with the final images, it seem to be giving more on the top the images than I intended - other than that I have absolutely no complaint about this camera! The film thought may have been expired because it came out much darker than I had hoped for . . I was dreaming of a light and airy finished when shooting these . . oh well . . I think I will use another roll to test out the color again.
Photo: JYang Photography | Photo: Kodak 400 TX on Nikon FM2 This labor day weekend slipped through as well - I had no idea it was coming . . I really want to slow down and simplify my life however with the wedding planning and the training for the new position at my day job and photography and makeup projects there is so little place left in my head for anything else. In the midst of all that somehow I had this wave of inspiration to study Jewelry making at the local college, they have a two year long Jewelry & Metal-Smithing Program that definitely appealed to me . . then I thought about it more and realized even if I take one class a semester - meeting at least twice a week with labs after work 6pm to 10pm, so I won’t be coming home probably till 11:00 pm and I have to be at work 7:30am sharp the next day and we are heading to winter when days are getting shorter so I decided last minute to forgo the idea.
Here is the example of how this weekend has gone by: On Saturday I had some technician issues with transferring the Fujifilm photos on lightroom so after hours of research trial and error I lost the edit on a set, but I was able to save another set - so I am happy about losing one set but that means I have one additional set to edit. On Sunday I had a wedding makeup gig, a bride and 4 bridesmaids makeup, they were the lovelies and most relaxed party, I really enjoyed doing their makeup and getting to know them. Right now I am getting ready to edit the elopement session I shot couple weeks back - we shot that session on 3 different cameras. Sony, Canon and Fujifilm so trying to make a smooth color transitions to make the final selection look all the same is the challenge for this set. Here they are my very first Portra 400 - I really wish I could do more portrait shot with this film, but this was a test shot roll on a 7:00am photowalk session, so hopefully next round I get to do a photoshoot maybe with this roll and see how it will do with close up portrait shots.
This beautiful park is less than 10 minutes away from our place and it is absolutely one of my favorites - that day I wanted to try a new lens (24mm) on Fujifilm XT2 so on our way out we stopped by to test out the lens.
This past Sunday we traveled with some friends to Son's Island in Seguin, - which is a tiny island created on a bed of a river with the tropical island vibe one hour south of Austin. We rented a day cabana, and spent the day eating, swimming in the river and relaxing on the hammock. The facility provides water activities for an additional cost, such as Kayak, Mat and SUP Board. I absolutely recommend it, in fact we had such a great time that we're currently in the process of arranging a family outing there again this month.
This is one dish I never thought I could do at home, in the span of 20 minutes I made these roasted bone marrow chunks thanks to the air fryer with just some salt and pepper and oil and it was super delicious!
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