Quarantine life is a good opportunity to get back into practicing product photography for me, so luckily some of my Photogrpaher fiend joined the challenge and for the first day we decided on tea or coffee set up. I did a quick flat lay with everything I could fine in the house and since it was a cloudy day I had to be strategic to have my cameras and set up ready for those few moment that sun peaked through the window to shoot. That's why I ended up with two sets, the first 3 pictures are with Canon 5D Mark II + 50mm 1.4 lens and the last 2 are with Fujifilm X-T2 + Film Marco Lens.
I was craving banana bread so before I went to the trip I left some banana to get old to make some. Josh didn’t know and ate two of the four bananas so when he realize he made me banana bread with the remaining left two bananas and it turned out delicious still - but we both agreed that next time it needed more than two bananas hehhe
This is the recipe he used: https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_bread/ INGREDIENTS
METHOD 1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C), and butter a your own pan and spread mix of sugar and Cinnamon around the pan. 2. In a mixing bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork until completely smooth. Stir the melted butter into the mashed bananas. 3. Mix in the baking soda and salt. Stir in the sugar, beaten egg, and vanilla extract. Mix in the flour. 4. Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour at 350°F (175°C), or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. 5. Remove from oven and let cool in the pan for a few minutes. Then remove the banana bread from the pan and let cool completely before serving. Slice and serve. (A bread knife helps to make slices that aren't crumbly.) It has been since the end of last year that the news of this Virus was released and we all knew with the mismanagement of Chinese government upon initial outbreak (threatening the Doctor that first tried to create the awareness who himself died of this disease later and the Government decision to not canceling the Luna Festival) it was only matter of time before the outbreak to reach the rest of the world. When the news of the official confirmation of patience in our city broke I was away on a 4 day business trip for training. Everyday after I got back to my hotel room I checked the news, and I could see more and more people were getting infected and the anxiety and worry of seeing it approaching our city next was very uncomfortable. Feeling helpless knowing we all are going to be exposed to this virus soon, not knowing if we are strong enough to battle this virus, specially for elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions. There was a time 4 years ago that my body's immune system was down as I was going through very stressful life events, at the same time I was on a very restrictive unhealthy diet, so my body was not receiving all the nutrients it needed. As a result I got sick with cold and flue back to back couple times that each lasted a longer than the last. Since it occurred during the Spring time not knowing if it was an allergy or a virus it led to many confusions and I still remember vividly how sick at one time I got that I was not able to stand on my own or walk, the sickness turned into an infection later in my nose and throat area with fevers that wouldn't stop, I was placed on antibiotic and forced by my medical doctor to break my diet and eat everything and slowly I got better but those days are still fresh in my mind.
This time at least we have time to prepare, I stored some basic cleaning supplies the first time I heard the disease hit the Europe, I knew then that it was matter of hours before hitting us in America. Next I bought about one month worth of food and basic necessities for when and if we need to quarantine ourselves if we get the virus to not spread the disease to others. My job has not offered a work from home option yet, but my team is very small and we are in a very small building with all of us having our own separated offices which is very helpful as we are all separated from each other. No one knows what future holds and how long it takes to take control of the situation. Now that the disease is here, I am planning to not check the news as often as I did before and control the only thing I can that is to stay relaxed, take my vitamins, eat healthy nutritious food and exercise at home, keep the house clean, take a shower and wash and sanitize my outfits I wear outside as soon as I get home, don't bring my shoes inside the house and work on tasks that I can complete at home to minimize my exposure to the outside world as much as possible. While I was on a business trip I got a red slip from the post office for the new lens that I had bought and no one was home to receive it! So Saturday morning I went to the post office to pick it up - it’s so sad that even though it’s spring and flowers are blooming we are under corona virus attack and we are minimizing our exposure to the outside world as much as possible! I have started to wear mask and disinfect all of my clothes as soon as I come home!! Sometimes I fear I will end up a true germaphobe at the end of this virus phase! Our city has had the first 2 confirmed cases yesterday and this is just a beginning, at some point no matter how careful, we all will get exposed to this virus one way or another!
The lens that I purchased is a canon 50mm 1.4 and my camera is definitely upgraded with this new lens, which I am very excited about! I have used a 1.8 all this time and 1.4 looks like a much better built. I can’t wait to shoot with it a bit more to get familiar with everything it has to offer. This was a 4 day and 3 nights business trip for a training through work. I found the training very helpful and absolutely loved the hotel we stayed in - it has many nice accommodations however due to the Corona virus craze I decided not to visit the gym although I took my gym clothes with me, So I worked out and did yoga in my room. Even with as much movement and stretches in tried to squeeze in this trip felt so hard on my body having to sit down all day through the conference with very little movements, as well as a 3 hours and half road trip each way and eating out all of my meals which do not typically sit very well with my body so now that I’m back home and settled back into my routine it’s time for cleansing diet !
These days with Chien Chien being out for medical reasons I am missing her so much! The void of a loving animal in the house, I found myself craving for adopting a cat, though sadly no matter how many visits I have made to the animal shelter none of the cats seem to love me back! They refuse to interact and most cases hiss at me, really not sure why! This cat in the picture today when I tried getting close to her hissed at me very aggressively with her paws attacking me twice! I really cherished the idea of adopting a cat from the shelter, but for some reason cats in the shelter are not liking me back!
Josh's Film camera had some issue with, the pictures were not coming out sharp enough . . so when we took it to get checked in we realized it was the lens that was damaged. Since the camera has a fixed lens there is no way to repair it. So sad!
Weddings and bridals portraits are one of my favorites to photograph, for this session I did trial hair and makeup and photographed a bridal portrait session of this beautiful bride. I then edited her bridal images fairly quickly as she needed them to be printed out for the preparations fo her wedding.
Three weeks later when I met her for her actual wedding makeup, she introduced me to this product by CLARINS called Base Comblante it was pretty much a makeup base prime and it worked really well with her dry skin type, we both really liked how it smoothed the skin before putting the makeup and the results turned out lovely. It's a great tip for those who are looking for a makeup primer for dry skin. After the jobs were completed I awarded myself with chicken wing and it was a pure happiness!!!! I shot a beautiful wedding on Saturday with Josh at Sage Hall in Texas old Town of Kyle. I met the bride and the groom the day before on Friday at the venue as they were living outside of Texas and planned the wedding from distance and it turned out such a beautiful event with amazing people,
We have started this lovely tradition of taking ourselves out to a nice dinner on Valentines day. I love all the thoughts and planning the restaurant's Chefs put into creating special menus for Valentine's Day, so I enjoy the experience as well as supporting local businesses in this way.
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