//Healthy Tea for Two//

We were in Orlando last week end attending a friend's son 3 days wedding venue. And just days before departed for  the trip I had a maternity session - since she is a repeat client,  I told her that I could send the edited images before I left for Florida. Little that I know I was under a panic attack because I had too many things to do and couldn't post the edited images to her on time. So thought that I could post it from Orlando the next day I arrived. And it was Friday.

So that Friday morning the hotel shuttle bus dropped me to the nearest post office.  And I was relieved that the package was on it's way to her in New Jersey.

I was not bother to call the hotel shuttle bus to pick me up, instead I decided to walk back to the hotel. To be honest - it is not a pleasant area to be walking around since there are not much to see in that small town called College Park but I decided to walk back anyway.

And that is when I saw the small restaurant called Infusion Tea. I was not that hungry but I walked in to check around thinking that I might want to come back the next day with my husband Steven. The waitress was very friendly to let me walked around the store and read the menu. I love what I was seeing; rows and rows of jars of loose tea  placed against the wall. And many small jars filled with loose tea sitting on the counter that each labelled with it's tea name. To me,  the whole scene is the prettiest. I can't wait to try some of the tea but said to my self,

 "not today - but will definitely come back tomorrow."

That night was the beginning of the wedding venue; the rehearsal dinner! During dinner I can't wait for morning to come so that I could come back to Infusion Tea restaurant.

The next day I dragged my husband to the restaurant for lunch. I knew he does not drink tea let a lone an organic vegetarian food. But he was kind enough to come with me.

With great excitement we ordered the combo - quiche with tea cucumber sand whiches for me and quiche with capresse sand which for Steven and both of us ordered Moroccan Mint ice tea.

I asked the head of the waitress if I could take a few pictures and she said yes. So while waiting for our lunch I took some pictures of the interior of the restaurant.

The Moroccan Mint ice tea was light, fresh, soothing  and delicious. The food that we ordered was incredibly tasty. Even Steven said it was good considered he usually do not like vegetarian food.

When we left the restaurant I kept on thinking that I wanted to come back the next morning to try other food and tea on the menu. But we did not have time left.

I was very tired from the 3 days wedding venue and lack of sleep. That's why I slept on the car on our way to our home in Delray Beach. I think I dreamt of entering a restaurant with rows of glass jars filled with loose tea sitting on a shelf against the wall.

If you happened to be in Orlando, Florida please check out this place. And if you like me who love 'tea' - I guarantee you will like this place (Infusion Tea), here.

 

Thank you so much for reading!

//Fall Maternity + a Little Boy at Central Park//

Photographed these loving and beautiful families could not be joyful.

And with the beautiful fall background as a backdrop no wonder this park is a photographer heaven to shoot anyone that comes and goes through her camera lens.

 

  

 

Thank you so much for stopping by!

//Boys Will Be Boys//

I was very excited when these two little boys finally at my door step. 

Holding their mother's arm slowly they walked down to my studio in the basement. It was not long to take them to feel comfortable. They were running around - looking around curiously as boys supposed to be in a new environment. And it was not long for them to sit on the bench where I had covered with the fury rug for them to sit on.

The older boy was very easy to photograph. He obediently followed his mother's instructions. Unlike the brother, the younger brother were not cooperated very well. They came a long with the mother's sister. Kelli the mother's name told me that they listens well to her sister.

Each time the aunt try to make the younger brother to sit still, she would pull out a few M&M candy near the bench so that he would sit there next to the brother. To my surprise it works very well.

But there is a down side to the M&M candy because he had chocolate saliva around his mouth on some of the images which took me a long time to edit.

Over all the shoot was very easy and fun for me at the same time. 

I love taking picture of children for their innocent expression - even whey they made a funny face. I must say children is one of my favorite subject to photograph.

And I could not be happier with my DIY back drop (here). I am looking forward to many photo shoots in front of this back drop. And I am thinking to create another one especially for maternity photography.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

//Nicole//

I think I found my true passion; photography.

Although I love very much the peacefulness of art and painting activity, what I love about photography is the interaction with people. To direct and give suggestion so that they will look natural and pretty on the picture. And above all to finally see the beautiful transformation of their pictures from my camera. To me, it is a another way of art and painting. My understanding of light has improved in photography and now with a camera in my hand I can paint  beautiful picture with light; it can be a natural light or artificial light. 

It takes a lot of practice to be able to see these lights through the camera lens and it takes years to master them.  One must take so many and if not thousands or ten thousands of pictures under different light conditions to be able to finally capture it's beauty. 

Once you are able to see and understand the light the sky is the limit, and you will enjoy photography even more. But there is another element you need to master as well - photo editing soft ware like Photoshop Lightroom or Photoshop CS. Beside mastering on how to use the application of these soft wares on to your pictures, you must understand the relationship of your raw picture to the warm and cool tone color in these soft wares. Again, this skill takes a lot of practice. I still have not mastered the use of Photoshop Lightroom but know enough to use the tools to edit all of my images.

The other part that I love about photography is styling. I seem to enjoy styling a person for a photo session. It can be a senior photo session or it can be a newborn session. Ideally I wanted to shoot a maternity and style the happy mom to be so she will look beautiful and radiant in front of the back drop I made. I love the process of choosing the right outfit and props that goes with it. Not only that, to get the right color of the outfit and it's props are equally important. I think I have a good eye to able to see the overall look first hand before it turned into  pictures.  The skin tone of a person also play an important role on how the over all look of the picture itself.  So even though I am 'the photographer' I always involve and must give a suggestion to my client to choose the right outfit and props. The other thing that come in handy in my photography venture is that I love doing a "DIY". I can sew - so I created or I will create more outfit like maternity sheer skirt as a prop along with other prop that she can wear a well. Although this is a craft I created or I will create - I do not want it to look 'crafty' on the final picture. My goal is that I wanted my client and their pictures to look like a fine art photography.

On below pictures, I found the dress through an internet search (here) and I created the flower crown for Nicole to wear.

I am not going to talk about that into detail but this is my first in door studio portrait photo shoot with my painted back drop. Although the back drop is not perfect, I know it will be better for the next shoot. Because I already know how to improve and what to fix.

Related topic on how I created this back drop is here.

Thank you so much for stopping by!