My dad’s birthday is February 15th. (Mom’s birthday is February 13th of the same year – crazy!) I swear he is IMPOSSIBLE to please when it comes to gifts but he does have a sweet tooth, which is probably where I got that from. I gave him a box of Godiva chocolates for his birthday and they have not been touched. Every time I see the unopened box I get a little sad… because I want to eat some of course!!

Me: Dad, why haven’t you opened the box of chocolates?
Dad: Oh, it isn’t opened yet? *takes it out and starts to open it*
Mom: What kind of chocolates are inside?
Dad: We’re about to find out… *lifts the lid, chooses a chocolate* MMMM. WOW. Good choice, Fern. Mmmmm. Wow, it’s so good. MMMMMMM.

… and he continued like that for at LEAST a minute, about 5 times longer than the average person would gush about a chocolate. LOL.

I felt awkward because it was so obvious that he wanted to show his appreciation for this birthday gift from over two months ago. I began to walk out of the kitchen.

Dad: Wait!!!
Me: What?
Dad: I thought you were going to share these with me…
Me: *stops walking and turns around* hmmm… OKAY! ^___^

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Ryan: Alex, stop shifting into 2nd gear so fast. Don’t jam it in like that, you have to ease into it slowly. This is why cars have girls’ names. Cars are like women; they are fickle beasts.
Me: ARE YOU CALLING ME A FICKLE BEAST…?
Ryan and Alex: YOU ARE.

Hahahaha yeah, it’s true.

Ryan was SUPPOSED to get dinner with me and my friend but he ended up not joining us. >:(

Me: thanks for bailing -______-
Ryan: I love you =[
Ryan: I would have gone if you asked one more time
Me: omg...
Me: i totally should have
Ryan: It was a test to see how much you wanted me to go
Ryan: =]
Me: i’m not as persistent/clingy/desperate as you are!!!!
Ryan: Yeah i know
Me: at least you admit it =]

I’ve been blogging a lot on my photography site. Nothing too interesting, just a lot of photos… come say hi!

www.fernlee.com

I really am.

Lately I have been failing at small talk. I was never one to hate on it (well I still don’t have anything against it) but the flow of conversation just doesn’t come as naturally as it used to.

I get nervous when I’m talking to people. Even one-on-one, depending on who the other person is. If it’s an authority figure or someone I greatly admire, it has a physical effect on my whole body. My heart races, my cheeks start to hurt as I strain to keep smiling, and my temperature rises… making me feel flushed and sweaty. Yeah, not cool.

It’s no wonder I have TERRIBLE stage fright.

This evening at my church’s Good Friday service I was sitting in the kitchen eating a fantastic sandwich. There were several people bustling around the kitchen but the only two people sitting at the counter were me and the pastor.

This isn’t going where you think it might be going because I don’t get nervous talking to him, thank goodness. He’s a laid back, middle-aged Chinese man who I see more as an uncle than a religious authority. My brother is also dating his youngest daughter, so who knows, we might be related someday…??!?!?!

Given that we were the only two sitting down, he began to initiate conversation. It went something like this:

“So I heard your business is doing well,” he said.
“Yeah, it’s keeping me busy.” *forced smile*
“Are you getting a lot of clients?”
“Yeah, I am.”
“That’s good. I see your photos all over facebook!”
“Haha, yeah…”

I knew I should say more, elaborate on my answers, make an effort to keep the conversation going… but I was drawing a blank. I couldn’t think of anything interesting to report about anything. In the end I felt bad for not saying more. Then again, it could have been because I was hungry and stuffing my face while he was trying to talk to me… lol.

Speaking of stage fright, soon after that I had to go on stage and play the violin in front of the entire church. My dad led worship and my mom played keyboard. If my brother was home we could have been a complete family band… he plays the drums and bass guitar. I’m happy to report that I survived the experience! Okay I should get to bed, family photo session at 9 am. Good night.

This came out of nowhere while we were eating sandwiches at Bagel Street Cafe.

Ryan: What do you think our first child’s first word will be?
Me: … What makes you think we’re going to have children?
Ryan:
Me:

I said the kid’s first word would probably be “mommy”. His response: “WANNA BET??!?!? I’ll just say ‘papi’ constantly until the baby says it too.”

… right, because Ryan is TOTALLY hispanic.

As a baby… what was your first word?
(I don’t even know what mine was. I know my brother’s first word was Duke – the name of my aunt’s dog.)

The days have been flying by. Last week I had photo shoots almost every day of the week. At times I feel like I’ve caught up on my workload and I can relax a little… but there are also times when I sit and think about how I’m letting life carry me along in the current. More on that later.

I have a billion photos to post and two billion topics to blog about. Let’s start with this.

Earlier this month I attended the birthday party of the year – THE VAN PHAM BIRTHDAY. I only knew two people – Van and Junshien, both of whom I met through Xanga. Yay!

The party started with dinner, cake and games. I was really quiet in the beginning and kept to myself… but they dragged me into their game of charades. AND MY TEAM WON!!! That made me a little less shy. I didn’t bother taking out my camera at that time. It’s nice to have a break every once in a while.

But there are also times when I know I will want to capture memories.. and I also know that nobody else’s camera can do the job like mine. I’m not trying to brag, it’s just that… when I want to take photos… it’s go big or go home. I don’t use point-and-shoots.

1. Van was gracious enough to beautify all of her guests. (Fyi, she’s a professional make up artist.) I LOVE getting my make up done by her!!!

2. Christina getting her hair done.

3. Isn’t she beautiful?!??! <3333

4. The XANGANS. Me, Junshien (who no longer uses Xanga… he’s too famous and powerful), and Christina. Also known as the sober dance crew because none of us had any alcohol that night.

5. I brought one lens to the club – my 50mm compact macro. It is my all time favorite lens. Yeah, it’s a tad too close for this setting… but hey, after a few tries, I can get the shot. (The photo is Van and her bf, who she ALSO met on Xanga!!!! w00t)

6. See? I got the two of them in the frame.

7. Sooo cute. They are a darling couple. Van I hope you don’t mind me saying that.

8. While Van and her man were dancing, I was having a blast with this group of new friends.

9. Haha, it was their idea to put us in a little picture frame.

10. SO pretty!!!! This almost makes me want to start working at a club as a photographer… but I don’t know if I could handle it. I don’t like it when people spill drinks on my feet.

11. Christina – taking a shower; Junshien is a girl; and Crystal is just plain gorgeous.

12. Junshien: Don’t move. If you come any closer.. I will kill you.

I had a BLAST. Happy (belated) birthday to Van!!!!

It has been a crazy fun, sleep deprived, XANGAN weekend!!!! Which is why I haven’t been posting as regularly. This will be a short and sweet post of my most recent head shot session with Nicki Sun.

1. I tried to imitate a b&w photo that I really like. It’s not the same at all.. but it turned out nice.

2. This is everyone’s favorite. Love the wind swept hair!

3. I could not get enough of these background colors. We shot these in front of a refurbished firehouse that was turned into an art center. Someday I am going to paint a room in my house that dark, subtle eggplant color.

4. I think this one captures Nicki’s personality most accurately. She’s really bubbly and energetic.

5. So hard to pick a favorite but if I HAD to… this would be it. We found a teal wall and purple flowers. I used to get teal and purple braces and I thought it was the coolest color combination in the world. In retrospect, it looked awful. I’ll see if I can find picture proof… lol.

The last photo was also my first time putting my big white reflector to use! I’ve had it for probably over a year but never brought it on any shoots… too much of a hassle to bring along. Well that’s also because I could never fold it up right. And because usually my clients don’t want to attract attention when we’re in a public place. It brought out the light in her eyes and I hope to use it again soon!

It’s not even 11 pm yet and I’m ready for bed. It has been a weekend of dancing and adventure. Can’t wait to post photos.

My face is breaking out EVERYWHERE!!! How did I not see this before??! I seriously just looked in the mirror and noticed about 10 pimples/blemishes. WTF it’s probably a result of the stress this week… T____T

/end immature rant

I had a rough night. Today wasn’t so great either.

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r: i hate how you beat yourself up constantly
r: you say that i need therapy but i really think you need it more than me
r: you have serious problems

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It’s true.

On Saturday I was the 2nd shooter for an intimate luncheon wedding at the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco. There were about 50 guests and the wedding was over by 3 pm. It made me realize that a wedding doesn’t have to last 10-12 hours, which is nice for the photographer!

The decor was pretty… but to me, nothing seemed to match. lol. It’s definitely possible to use a rainbow of colors but you have to tie them together.

Handmade edible flowers in yellow.

I’m not sure why it looks like the cake is toppling over… maybe it was the angle of the photo.

Very bright springtime colors – pink, green and blue.

While I was taking this I thought man, that napkin really ruins the picture… but it’s part of the place setting so I’ll leave it there. Bad move. I should’ve taken it out of the photo haha.

White roses and purple orchids I think? With lemons in the vase.

So far we’ve got yellow and green from the cake, pink blue and green from the table settings, and white and purple from the centerpieces.

Her bouquet was white and yellow.

Scolding myself for this because I took the exact same photo at another wedding (with the program next to flowers). Need to be more creative!!! The programs were a Tiffany blue.

The bridal party wore green and blue.

Cutie

I’m really happy with my ring shots… they were taken on a napkin featuring the yacht club logo. The menus also featured this logo so add red to the list of colors.

I couldn’t decide if I liked that diagonal line in the lower left corner. It adds dimension but it could be distracting… what do you think?

I have a lot more to say about the wedding but I won’t overload you with photos and stories.

Many of my friends ask me what a “typical day” is like for me and I find it hard to give a simple answer. This chart sums it up very nicely.

With that being said, here’s my list of things to tackle today.

- respond to client emails
- order wallet prints for Zane’s senior portraits
- order prints for Mew family
- upload John & Melody wedding photos
- upload Alma’s head shots
- cull John & Melody photos, burn CD for Sarah (main photographer)
- start editing Alma’s photos, upload to gallery
- design 10 more album spreads for Jon & Sunjin
- photograph sample float wraps at Carly’s house
- photograph new senior luxe cards
- finish and publish blog post on Daniel
- prepare blog post for tomorrow – before & after effects
- empty out memory cards
- deliver Sruthi’s print package
- deposit checks at bank

That’s about half of it and I’m already scaring myself. Better update later after this is done… lol.

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Ok I couldn’t help brainstorming more. Gotta write them down so I don’t forget. This will probably be updated throughout the day…

- follow up on advertising with dan brian
- design cd cover for Mackenzie & Steven
- look through Mattea & Eric’s photos (about 1000), choose 300 to show them
- print out cd cover for Baird family
- create testimonials page for website
- learn how to prepare photos for blog format (landscape orientation only)

And then there are the personal things I’d like to get done. Time to get to work… ready set GO! Oh wait it’s lunchtime. Food first then work.