Found these photos while I was cleaning out my folders. At last year's (2011) lunar eclipse. It only took us a cool 30 minutes to rush to one of our girlfriend's house where the moon could clearly be photographed. Imagine the chaos when we embarked from the car. 3 girlfriends scrambling to set up tripods, cameras and lenses...

I'm a Nikon user but I wanted to try out my friend's Sony set up... coolness.

Allow me to share a couple of my shots...

I call this my 'Twilight' shot... hehehe

During the eclipse...

Well hello there...

The Nikon 70-210mm f/4-5.6 ...

Yes it's a relatively old lens (1993-2000) but it is one of the coolest (and sadly most "snubbed") lens in the market up to this day. Luckily I got the AF-D version. I believe I got the best deal for it. It holds up its own against some new expensive telephotos. Sharp, fast in focusing, very little distortions. I am indeed a happy camper.

Weight isn't really much of an issue with me but for all it's worth, the 70-210mm is surprisingly light and compact.

Cute the metal lens hood too...ahihihi. You will have to excuse me, Im just too giddy right now.

Sample shot.

Yeah...what else but the blings, right?

...creamy the bokeh...

Thank You Boss!

As you've seen in one previous post I had been tweaking my workflow with the post processing of portraits lately. Been having some really restless and confusing afternoons over those tutorials the past days. I'm still using my D90 with 50mm f1.4 lens for portraits. Yesterday I took some shots. Let's call this album: "What They Would Have Worn at the Ascot If They Have Gone..." hehehe...

I take my photos under natural available light. Sometimes with the help of a diffuser overhead in extreme cases. That's pretty much my gear for photoshoots.

Here are two samples from yesterday's shoot.

So it had been 2 weeks since I have treaded into "untried" territories. Hehehehe, seriously. The reason for this frantic and amusing adventure with cosmetics is this weekend's affair. One of the biggest in our lives. hehehe...(will be a different entry). I figured a time table of 2 weeks should be appropriate to make any difference.

As I mentioned in my previous entry I have long ditched my moisturizer which had actually been doing me good. I just wanted to try some new stuff. I bought the more expensive bottle in brown. With the pump. It cost me 5x more. The oil refinery? It didn't help. In fact, it made my face more oily. They said battle oil with more oil. So I did. Now I'm just plain wondering why I did.

In my previous entry, it was about the eye shadows. Now I have to mention I had to blot, blot, blot and blot our the oil from my face to get that photo. To give more emphasis on the eye make up, I had myself photographed in the best light available, with the usual paraphernalia, my bff's, the reflector/diffuser.

Wow, my eye make up is banging! But my complexion just wasnt up to par. I figured I needed to tweak something in the routine. Putting moisturizer all over my skin combined with the BB cream made my face shiny. The mineral powder did contour my face but added up to the shine. It was back to the drawing board.

Contrary to popular practice, I washed my face with plain simple anti-bacterial soap (although under normal circumstances I use a facial wash with golden pixie dust, hehehe). Dabbed on my trusty Pond's cream (below) on forehead, inner brow bones, corners of my nostrils, laugh line, upper lip, corners of the mouth and under the lower lip. Just to counter the over dryness due to the anti-bacterial soap. Dabbed on some Ever Bilena mousse concealer on the same areas I did the cream.

Put on the BB cream (in progression just to see which is appropriate for my type). Swooshed on the mineral powder and viola! But by viola, I don't mean the whole process took 5 minutes. A tedious process for my taste perhaps but I like the results. By viola, I meant I think I got what I wanted. Two hours later I checked on my face (that's the photo above). Nice.

I also ditched the powder above and replaced it with the one below. The one above had a flat one. Below, the rounded one we usually see being handled on those tv ads. The same ingredients. Maybe it was the kind of brushes used? I re-instated the Revlon using the round brush, applied it on the left side of my face. And on the right side, Maybelline. Which worked better? Well, the round brush did make the application more even I believe. Both powders gave me the same results. No one cheek was oiler than the other.

Guess that seals the deal then, huh?

Hehehe...

And here goes... it's just one backpack. Not too big coz that would make me look like a "backpacker". hehehe, no offense.
I'm sure I'd be able to fit these into it...



And of course, my gears. It's gonna take a lot of wrapping with my extra scarf and shirt...


Who needs 4 different shades of lipstick on a 24-hour city tour anyway?
All us ladies actually. HAHAHAHA...

BAM!!!

This is what hit me a few days ago.
Enough said...

Thank YOU.
Thank you for making this possible.
Thank you Joel!

Seriously.
I actually wouldn't wanna call it a bad weekend. Let's just call it a trying time. Challenging. A time relentlessly calling on my patience and sanity. Hehehe. Seriously.
Sunday. Last week.
Two days prior, the video card of my trusty and newly updated/upgraded desktop goes bonkers on me. Okay, I just didn't have to time to run off and get a new one installed. Was just too busy editing. I transferred all my files to Joel's laptop with a deadline snapping at my heels. And of course, with my luck, I put on too much graphics on it, an unknown virus and a trojan. So there! Emergency much?


Vista confuses me. XP is more friendly in my opinion. But I had no choice. Fixing about the problem could take more than a day. It was All Saints' Day. The next day was going to be a non-working holiday. Every technician was going to be on a holiday. Afterall, it was a long weekend. Running off to get a new video card and install it on my busted desktop proved to be the quickest solution. So off to the mall the whole family went. Joel and the kids go off to errands and for some snacks while I sit on the shop waiting for the CPU. What a weekend ha? Hehehehe. I knew it was going to be alright. I'd be back editing on my desktop that night for the self-imposed deadline on Wednesday. Every problem's got to have solutions. And a lesson learned.
LESSON 1: Just because the monitor prompts you that your usb is full and image could no longer be saved, it does NOT mean that you cannot try your OTHER usb over there just sitting pretty on the table. HAHAHAHAHA! Coz when your laptop suddenly shuts down with the CS3 running, the destination folder you were about to save your edited image into WILL BE DELETED and CANNOT be found anywhere in your system!!! Believe me! HAHAHAHA. So constantly save externally.
YIPEEEEEEE! New video card! I was back in business! In fact, I finished the project a day before my deadline.
LESSON 2: check your gears at least 24 hours before schedule.
What do I find the night before a scheduled shoot at noon the next day? Dead battery. What to do? Drag your husband/benefactor to the only opened camera shop in town with tears almost falling from your beautiful eyes. HAHAHAHAHA!!!
That's Joel holding my old busted battery.



All's well that ends well.
I actually looked up to the heavens and said, "Ah come on..."
I meant it to be a joke of course. I knew the BOSS would never forsake me. I had to shake away hard my habit of panicking and going blank in the brain. As Jimmy Neutron would say,"Think...think...think."
Thank you BOSS for the hurdles. For helping me think of the solutions. For not panicking. Hehehe. Well, I was almost in tears. I did go blank for a bunch of minutes. Hehehe. I even passed on coffee. Did I? Oh, no I didnt. HAHAHAHA!
Thank YOU for the lessons learned. I needed them really.
Any silver lining ahead? Yep. A new phone from our cellphone network provider. Free. You know, that retention reward thing. This phone I chose:



Red was my priority. Makes it easier to locate in my bag. They only have blue available. Suits me just perfectly, the blue one. Two weeks more. I'm hoping I'll have it sooner though. Simple phone is just A-OK for me.
Biggie thanks to Joel!
Biggie thanks to YOU, BOSS.
May everyone have a solution for their problems. May everything run smoothly.
World peace.
HEHEHEHE.
Seriously.