Wedding Singer

So I sang at a wedding last Saturday, and the photos are out! Jill does a fabulous job at capturing the beautiful moments. Refer to her other work or contact her here. Meanwhile, my contorted lips will tell the story.

Today, I find myself in Winona, MN. About to pick apples - pictures to follow. But first, I call my muhma in Malaysia to wish her the best of birthdays! She is an absolutely adorable, amazing and power-packed lady! She has grown me to be the person that I am today and sacrificed much to see me through university. Love you both, ma and da.

Happy birthday again, muhma.

What your cats do when you leave....

...is use your workstation, of course. And then they proceed to hoard. Translation.

15 Years Ago Vs. Today

Summing up: So, You Want to be a Food Photographer?

The very notion of having photography as a vocation, especially in this day and age, is more commonly associated to specific areas – e.g. for print news or magazines, or weddings. With the don of the Internet era in the 90s, we have since diluted the “sacredness” (if you will) of photography. The number of people who actually do not own cameras of their own are a minority today. This also results in the dimming down of values and effort that goes toward the beauty of capturing “a moment”. Everybody has a device, and hopes for their sudden chance at coming across something amazing. So not very much thought is ever put into taking a picture.(Especially now, when all cameras come with an “auto” setting.) So when reading an article like “So, You Want to be a Food Photographer?”, it was hard not to approach the subject without feeling a tinge of indifference.

I was sorely mistaken. People still do have a high regard for photography, let alone food photography. It is literally other-worldly. Almost a science. The amount of effort put behind-the-scenes for food to actually look good through the lens, surpasses anything a typical photographer would need to do to achieve good results. I was amused when the featured food photographer, Iris Richardson said, “It was educating my clients.” She goes on to explain that most of them arrive with lots of food hoping to be done with 20 photographs at a go. They do not quite realize that setups for each dish can take up to 3 or 4 hours each.

I believe it is important to note that a food photographer needs to work with a good food stylist (or be one themselves). In the article, food stylist, Katrina Tekavec, also discusses about the tools of her trade. She arrives to a typical photo-shoot with her car filled with boxes carrying her much needed tools, props, sprays, coloring and etcetera. These were definite eye openers for me, especially when the list included, blowtorches, soldering irons and a meat glue called, “Zap-a-Gap”.

It is not a glamorous climb to the top for food photographers, unfortunately. It took Richardson 5 years to get established as one. It is a lot of apprenticing, shadowing, observing, and working as low-paid assistants to food photography experts to understand what is required of you in the field. The goal is to make food appetizing, and the methods used are not apparent and may even seem counterintuitive. For example, perfectly angled and spaced grill marks on a piece of chicken are applied at measured intervals with a skewer that was heated up with a blowtorch and then, painted over with browning sauce. Another unusual example would be in creating steam (to make food more inviting) by soaking a tampon in water, microwaving it until hot and then positioned with tongs. It does not make food sound as tantalizing, reading what makes or breaks a great food-photograph – however, it is amazing how the little details and “formulas” makes a huge impact in every shot. A note-worthy mention, is the fact that we would need three stylists for a typical burger-chain shoot; one for the bun, one for the lettuce and tomato and one for the burger.

Why would anyone want to delve in something so painstaking? Richardson admits that one would need to be a little crazy to do something crazy. Nevertheless, she is mostly motivated by the challenge and knowing she would be able to see her pictures on magazines and packaging. Great incentives for a great art.

Soldier - Gavin DeGraw

Why Netflix is splitting itself in two

The Oatmeal, Yeah!!!!

Dark Horses - Switchfoot

Cat Vs. Internet

The Oatmeal, YEAHHHHH!

Making Fiends

So I'm a child.

At heart.

I used to follow this geek of a flash cartoonist online, when Making Fiends was just kind of a fun side project made entirely on Adobe Flash. Into the sixth web episode, Nickelodeon discovered her!

Her humble beginnings.

Now, she's my hero! XD

Check out the characters of Making Fiends here!

Oh, and "she" is Amy Winfrey. Check out her other works too.

Google.

And yes, I'm quite the child.

At heart.

PES Films

You know I've shared this before, but I love stop-motion film. It is just the best side project to ever be involved in regardless of the time-consuming factor.

PES Films happens to be a favorite and just a reference point because he sets the bar so high for quality stop-motion. I want to do one soon. Real bad.

And when i do it, it is definitely going into my portfolio! FOR SHO'!

Finished product

Heritage panel - Persian Council of Princes

Panels design : Complete!

My reflection paper on the project:

IT 3499 – Exhibit Design

September 19, 2011

Panel Fabric Designs

I. Task 1 - 5 fabric 4 x 8 panel designs

The five designs I finally came up with were fostered from a series of motifs I innovated from lines and patterns I researched from the Internet. After I exhausted all possible ideas, I began to toy around with the idea of taking what is known and distorting it into something unfamiliar. My final product was inspired by the element of water and the changing seasons in Bemidji. Hence four climates and different displays of the element.
As I began developing my ideas, I realize that the fabric panels would be far more dynamic, and “active” if I shuffled around the orientation of the panels. The flow of the dew covered branches and underwater current transitioning into waves of a river and dancing fish; and then into a storm ridden ocean. The two separate mini panels are close-ups of ripples caused by the rain lines in the panel below it. It was arranged this way to fashion rhythm into what otherwise is a 2-dimensional impression of water.
I chose the blue hues after experimenting with a wide range of colors, mostly bright and ridiculous. It definitely added much zest to my designs - however, it was also distracting. I finally decided to return to the blues and grays as I did not want to take away from the design. It was more so identifying the lesser evil and being assertive with that decision. This series was meant to forge movement in what could otherwise be a dull gray or blue space and is also designed to calm and relax the viewer.  

II. Task II - Heritage fabric 8 x 8 swatch design

I took a long time narrowing things down for my heritage fabric swatch. The ideas that were born from my ideation sketches were not satisfactory and seemed way too complacent. I tend to be very unmotivated to invest time into designs that don’t make sense to me. After reading the story of Queen Esther and watching a film rendition of it (several times now, I should add), titled “One Night with the King”, I was truly inspired to create a motif based on the setting of Ancient Persia. The costumes, the culture, the emblems, color and monarchy - hugely intrigued me. In that era, the Greeks had just achieved democracy and philosophers were born. Therefore, initially, this design was to be called “The Persian Philosopher’s Quilt”. As it slowly began to take shape, I realized it had greater potential to reflect the Persian monarchy instead. I have now named it “The Persian Council of Princes”.
Art in Ancient Persia used natural dyes and colors tended to be muted and gaudy. The limitations set by our instructor for this task were four colors - hence, the final product you see now. This is meant to invoke a sense of ancient intrigue of the past, and add a stroke of nobility wherever it is displayed.

Fall Retreat.

Just found out today that I will be joining and singing at a BSU Intervarsity camp called Fall retreat, at Blue Water! Huzzah! Mini road trip!

What I am working on this morning.

My heritage fabric swatch cum panel, of course! Since my first post about my heritage swatch assignment, I have named this design, "The Persian Philosopher's Quilt", inspired by the movie, "One Night with the King" which is set in ancient Persian times, where everyone spoke in Farsi. So I listen to the movie's original soundtrack (sung in Farsi) whilst doing this. It keeps me inspired.

Here's an update:

This is what I started with (for those who have not followed):

I love Fridays.

I can actually begin tuning school out for the day. I work all day Friday at the International Program Center, so no pressure really - or rather, not the kind that pending assignments give you anyway. Haha.

Had a student leadership meeting with the staff of Intervarsity. Something else I do on campus, is sing and lead other students in bible studies. So yeah. We were just touching base and gearing up for what's in store this year.

After this, I'm just gonna go chill at home....

...and do homework.

Due!

My work in progress. Yet to make the hyperlinks uniform across the board. But otherwise, I'm done. Here's a preview of my mock Band website created on Ms Word. Glad to be done with it.

Music Technology Presentation

CAI software: Beneficial to Music Educators?

Music presentation this past Tuesday. Happy to say it went supremely well despite the lack of sleep.

Previous & Present Work

I LIKE RED. CAN YOU TELL?

Above is basically another website I made on Ms Word (before the band assignment). I'm kind of done with Word actually. It's limited, annoying and inconsistent. Meh.

If you're reading this, no more Ms Word Websites, Drew!!!!!!

What I'm working on presently for a heritage panel design:

I was inspired after watching One Night With The King. So persian motifs it is! Drop shadows there for a reason. So don't raise that critical hand just yet.

I hope I finish on time. I want more hours in a day. BLARRGHHH...

Production Day

So it's production day for Multimedia Processes I. Still working on this ultra complex Switchfoot website idea and trying to conform it to Ms Word.

Why didn't I stick to simplicity?

Sneak Peek. This is my splash page. Everything is a work in progress. (It's in a mess, so dim the expectations abit.)

This is fantastical.

More homework in progress.

Second panel out of 5 for Exhibit Design Project. It'll look a lot different, trust me. ;)

Work in progress.

Still working on my Exhibit Design 5 fabric panel assignment. What I did last night.

Guess what?

I've got homework.

Weekends are not as fun when you can't go outside, but working on Photoshop is pretty awesome nevertheless. Working on my exhibit design 5 fabric panel assignment. Sneak Peak? ;)

More tomorrow!

Today

My thumbnails, color roughs and site map is due for our Band website assignment....on Word.

I think I may have designed a wee too complex of a webpage for Ms Word. I'll probably talk to Drew about whether or not he thinks it's possible for something like this to be accomplished in Ms Word.

I forgot to scan a copy of my hand renderings. I should get into the habit of that. It could be really valuable documentation for future reference.

Oh, well. Drew is at my workstation now. Here goes.

One Night with the King

This movie came out in 2006. It was pretty cool. 

I think they rushed through the plot a little too quickly though. They played out the love story between Xerxes and Esther really dramatic and awesome-like. But I was left wanting at the end when she risked her life to save her people. It seemed that the banquet scene did not do the protagonists justice. The king is constantly portrayed as confused when he was rather strong willed, hence the banishment of Vashti for not attending to his drunkards and festivities one night. He was also never, as I recall from the Bible, ever suspicious or angered at Esther. The Bible actually portrays him even willing to give up to half his kingdom. Those kinds of things never get offered up easily without love being in the picture.

The wedding scene was stunningly beautiful, and how she entered the courts was great cinematography. Spectacular work.

The soundtrack however, was the gem of the whole experience. Kingdom of Love by Redford was just heart rendering, warm and inspirational. Reminds me of the Gladiator soundtrack. Definitely epic.

If for nothing else, be a spectator of the ancient truths played out in history about faith, trust and loyalty toward God, Esther and her people.

BLARRRGGGHHH

I missed class. Thanks for catching me up, Drew.

Broken bits in oven or not, I am going to class next time.

Tech Graphics Mania

So I completed 14 Tech Graphics exercises (actual sketches of random objects) from the worksheets photocopied by our instructor, Lee. Don't get me wrong, I completely love making hand renderings of technical drawings, but boy, is it time consuming. I get dizzy every time I lift my head/look away from facing the graph paper. And now, I look around the room and anything geometrically shaped, or if there is some geometrical extrusion of sorts, I catch myself saying, "Hey, I can draw that!"

I shared this with my roommate, and she has asked me to take a break from tech graphics.

I wish I could. But Labor Day is almost over and I have much to do yet.

Settlers of Catan

...is extremely fun. I really appreciate my roommates pulling me away from homework -  but man, the homework-taunter-midgets keep screaming in my head to get things done through my time of rest. Causing it to be very stressful. I felt like I didn't deserve to be taking time for myself all throughout the festivities last night. I have a feeling i'm going to be this way all throughout Labor Day weekend.

Meh. No weekend is a weekend for me. Anymore. Long or short.
I kind of hate that.

But I really need to change my attitude about time management. It doesn't help with the misery. Stephen Covey would say something around the lines of "get over yourself". And he's probably right.

Life needs to be more than school. Help me, God.

This is Spinal Tap

I know, right?

Here's the story: I take Music Technology with Greg Gaston, and he is great! Recently, in one of our classes, he said that he would give us a test based off the movie "This is Spinal Tap" the Tuesday after Labor Day. I hadn't even known the movie existed prior to this.

Looks like it's an 80's music satirical mockumentary. I told a friend this shortly after I found out about the test, and he humorously told me to make Gaston take a test on the taxonomy of Malaysian music history and culture. I laughed pretty hard at the thought.

But watching this movie, for making me sit through 83 minutes of mockery, I am almost okay with making Gaston sit for a Phoebe-customized Malaysian music exam. Haha!

Nevertheless, after all is said and done, I'm going to be pretty great at music technology related terminology - that's a given.

Birthdays

So I just moved into this house with two other girls, right?

Well, yesterday I found out that one of my roommates' birthday was in exactly a month from now. October 2nd.

I got pretty excited thinking of a surprise birthday party for her. I started decorating in this little room in my head -- deciding the theme, balloons and a gift....

And then, later the same day, I found out that she would be away in Milwaukee for her birthday.

Packed away the thought of a birthday party pretty quickly after that. Empty thought bubble now.


Bummer.

Quick Webpages on Ms Word

Here's what I came up with for an in-class assignment:

Ready for some Ps and Dw now. Ecstatic!