Update on last post...

You may have realized that there were not very many pictures in the August 2/ Chapter 6 album... That was due to the fact that my external hard drive and Fotki weren't getting along. Ms. External was a little too hyper and Mr. Fotki was too tired to deal with her at one o'clock in the morning.

Anyway, you may check back now, by clicking *here*, and find more.
I'm not sure I mentioned in the last post or not, but this was the first day having the Pentax, so I kind of went picture crazy.

China Saga- Chapters 5 -6

I'm combining chapters 5 and 6 because I neglected the journal these two days. I know I wasn't really busy on the first, but it was the day that I finally was able to rest and ice my knee(after 3days without, tisk tisk..) So basically I guess I just hung out with on of my best friends, Ting. She and I are pretty good friends and were counting down the days until I left Chicago. So if I remember correctly, we watched movies that day.

08.01.07

First Day in Langfang and I basically just hung out.

Lydia's kisses fix all.
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Ok, to explain the last line- Lydia is one of the foster kids with OI. She is about 18months old and the cutest, most photogenic, little girl ever(meaning, you'll see many shots of her). Her thing is blowing kisses. Blowing kisses to everyone, all the time! It's Adorable! Even after she gets in trouble she blows kisses as if it'll fix what she just did. All through my trip I was reminded that kisses fix everything, at least at that age.. lol

Chapter 5 shots *here*

08.02.07
Craft Day for the kids of the families who run the foster homes.
The team went to the Agape Family Life House, while I stayed in the Wyse's house with Ting and Lydia.
Today was cool. Ben and Han are here, so it was cool seeing them.

~~~

Okay, more last line explanations. Ben(my brother) is dating a girl from Shanghai named Han. He was in Shanghai earlier this year to meet her and went back while we were in Beijing, then met up with us in LangFang. She is going to be bringing one of the foster girls to Chicago in September to have surgery at Shriners Hospital. It was my first time meeting her in Lang Fang and I enjoyed it very much. She's really a sweet girl. I'll talk about her a little more later.


(Unedited) Chapter 6 shots *here*

Door and Crank

While we were in Milwaukee a few weeks ago we went to a Scandinavian furniture store. I happened to have brought the Pentax with and took a few cool shots.... I told Don at Slackwater, earlier, that I would respond to his "Handle" post today with another handle. Don, this one about is it, but I think it reminds me a little more of Otto K... The one below reminds me much more of you, as soon as I saw it I thought, "I should take one of this, it's very "Don"" :)
The truth is, when I shoot, I'm always thinking of one of my photoblogger friends, whether it be Justin Gaynor when I'm shooting the beach, Jyoti when I'm shooting scenes downtown, or Don when I'm shooting mechanical things or flowers in the wind, or even Otto K. when I'm shooting abandoned parking lots. I'm always thinking and striving to be better, to be a great photographer. Thank you all for setting the standard (VERY HIGH, mind you)! I enjoy challenging myself as I try to meet that standard.

Tic-Tac-Toes

I've been so busy lately with everything I feel guilty not posting so I'm taking a minute before I head off to sleep to post.

I was revisiting my China pictures in search of feet shots (yes, I said feet, but more on that later.) and found this -
- it is from a photo walk I took with my friend Ting, another aspiring photographer, the first day I had Ben's camera.

P.S.
I've also decided to finish posting the Journal entries and corresponding chapter shots/albums sans processing (as much as I don't want to, there are just too many.) When I find the time, I will post them.

Joyeaux- Model Extraordinaire

Lately I've been dabbling in portrait shoots. I've had about 2 or 3 real, full on, photo shoots with "clients"( more like family members who were looking to expand their Myspace portfolios). I'm looking at it as practice and experience. This shot is from a shoot I did with my little sister's at Illinois Beach near Zion, IL. Joyeaux is, by far, the most photogenic little person I've ever shot. She has natural model instincts- I shot her all day and she had SO many different shots and poses it was crazy, AND I didn't even have to coach her, she knew exactly what to do.

Encased #2

Another version of the last shot. This one is a little more to the right allowing more of a reflection of the shoreline. The wind had created a ripple which was the reason for the last one to not have this same type of reflection.

Encased

Taking a short break from posting China entries (I'm bored, sorry) to post a shot I took while walking around the local bike path/reservoir. It makes me so happy, and it literally blew Yassine away when I showed him. I'm curious to know your reactions. If you click it, a larger version will pop up.
To me it's like being encased in clouds, and the sun is really awesome, but I'm not exactly sure why there is a long strip of white in the middle(suggestions anyone?). I can't stop thinking of how cool it would have been to have fisheye lens to use that day(hint hint, Ben, lol). Anyway enjoy, and let me know what you think.


PS. Thank you all so much for the comments on the last post! I'm flattered that you all have been enjoying those shots. Oh, and there was a mention of the eclipse shots that I took last week(at 4:30am, God, is that early!)- I will post them, probably during this break. I've had a lot of "shoots" lately, and there are TONS of pictures to post, so it's probably a good thing that my brother took back his camera for his trip to Aspen.