It has bee a busy weekend, I spent most of the time editing over 1000 of wedding pictures from the last wedding we shot, so for this challenge I didn't get to have much time. I spent about 10 minute playing around with my house plant and a desk mirror and these images are the only ones that I end up liking from the series. 

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. 

I had one week before starting the new job so I focused to edit backed up photo sets as much as possible. Sadly I had been forced to neglect so many photo sets the past two years with the crazy work schedule I had with my previous job that I have pushed my own photos to the back burner as I desperately tried really hard to get clients and then collaboration images out first and never got a chance to edit my own travel or personal images edited out. 

I shot these while we were waiting for a model to meet up at this rooftop for a photoshoot, I used Fujifilm XT2 with 50mm 1.4 lens. I am still trying to figure out a better way for the self portrait set up for this camera, the remote assist through the app is not giving me enough control, so I need to play around with it more I think.

Photo Credit: jyangphoto.com

This is the new set up for Josh's camera, he recently moved to 85mm lens and asked me to be his test subject. I absolutely love the bokeh this lens provides, how it separates the subject from the background. We shot these images in back a coffeeshop building at sunset time, surprisingly for a winter the weather has been so nice that I could be in a skirt and without a heavy jacket. 
​

Photo Credit: Self-portrait with Tripod

This year the winter has been wonderful, it is not the cold that gets to me, but more the lack of sun. This years has been one of the sunniest weather and there is a nice balance between super cold days and 70 degree weather so I am a very happy girl! I took these self portrait on a tripod in our neighborhood park - I remember the weather had just started to get chilly in late November and I was so excited to feel the chilly weather and wear layers and warmer clothes. 

Photo Credit: Self-portrait with Tripod

Visiting a pumpkin patch during fall has been a dream! Fall has always been the busiest month for me, when I was in school I couldn't imagine doing anything else but to go to class and work on the weekend and find sometime to actually study and when I started working as a makeup artist and Photgrapher it got even more busy - with wedding season and family portrait and back to back events from Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas I never got a chance for the past 18 years that I have lived in Austin to check out a pumpkin patch field to get in the spirit of fall. But this year finally my long waited dream came true! I have been trying so hardly to slow down everything as my office job has definitely took over my life left very little room for anything else. One weekend in fall when Josh was traveling and sadly because of my job I couldn't travel with him so I decided to check out a pumpkin patch farm on my own! I packed my tripod and drove about a hour outside of the city to Barton Hill Farms in Bastrop, Texas! When I arrived I realized to my surprised the entrance tickets to the farm were all sold out, but since I was only one person I was able to get a ticket and get inside (note to self buy tickets ahead of time). Then I found myself in a heaven of fields of corn and pumpkins - the whole farm was set up as a photoshoot backdrop, sunflower section, hay rolls corner and my favorite corn field, not to mention couple antique cars and carriage decorated festive for the season. They sold food and snacks and had play grounds for kids, games all over the place and a small zoo with baby pigs and goats. I absolutely had a blast and  definitely hope that I can go back again every year. 

Photo Credit: Self-portrait with Tripod

I shot these on a Saturday early morning while location scouting for a photoshoot the next day. I rolled out of the bed at 6:30am and last minute decided to bring my tripod to test out some self portrait images - funniest thing is the minute I step outside the house it started raining! Somehow I decided I was still going to check the park out and by the time I arrived there it became sunny again! I am very happy that I didn't give up because not only I found some really nice locations on this walk, this self portrait was very helpful where I got try couple different features of the camera and get more comfortable with them. 

​I never thought standing infant of the camera could be this fun, thanks to our amazing photographer Angelica Carrette we were both relaxed and genuinely had so much fun during the the entire photoshoot. Angelica is absolutely amazing to work with, not only she is an expert in candid and in the moment shots, she is so quick in editing - we got these images back in less than a week! Truthfully, if this is what photoshoots are about I would be in front of cameras all day everyday!

The flower bouquet is a gift from Josh's sister, the bike is a recent purchase of mine from Target (I have been looking for a retro white bike for eternity and finally I own one!) My white outfit is actually a white bodysuit paired with a maxi chiffon skirt that I bought on Amazon and the green dress is a thrifted find.

Photo Credit: Angelica Carrete Photography

These beautiful images were taken by my talented photographer friend: Angelica Carrete  and I absolutely love them - we shot them by Barton Creek Trail against my all time favorite nature's green backdrop. This is actually a first year I took a portrait session on my birthday, and I think it is a lovely idea to capture myself frozen in time to have images to look back to recall the past. I see more people are reaching to me and requesting a birthday portrait and I truly hope it becomes a trend, I don't think we take time to focus on ourselves as much as we put everyone and everything else a priority in outlives.