heart skips for:

ok.  I WANT TO BE A PHOTOGRAPHER and stylist.  It doesn't matter what I'm looking at - food, interiors, products, babies, weddings, animals...it all comes down to the photography and styling for me.

 

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[emersonmade, prettygoodmary, emyah, ohhellofriend, joylicious]

I love all the tiny details that others regard as silly but can actually *make* the shot.  Get off my back if I want my cupcake wrapper folded neatly down as a doily for my cupcake!  Save your comment if you're about to tell me that the blanket I'm about to drape over this chair is pointless.  Forget rolling your eyes at me as I position my favorite bowl in the background. Stand back yee negativitors! yes, i know that's not a word, spell check.

I NEED to make use of my cameras better.  Yes, I have more than one great camera.  But what is there to take pictures of?!  Bah, humbug - NOTHING!  Seriously!!!  I want to photograph things of mine, but I don't make/design/do anything.  I spend 95% my summer days browsing the blog-o-sphere, falling in love with what other people do.  Quite depressing.  So I'm starting a list; an A-Z list which I often use in my 3rd grade classroom :)  The theme is: "style-able".  Leaving it open to interpretation.  We'll see how that goes...with that big, broad theme...check back in a few days when I start shooting!

An easy "style-able" is food.  I love food styling as mentioned here.  I don't cook a lot though I enjoy it; I have been known to make something, just so I can style it and photograph it! 

[ hummingbird cake by yourstruly-100% film]

the print is STUNNING; ignore the scanned res. & too thin icing layer in the middle

 

It's the most accessible thing to me!  Food changes daily, has many components to it, it's colorful, straight from nature, and makes people salivate even if the photography isn't great.  Sharing a meal together is beautiful!  Preparing it - fun, a labor of love.  I do feel wonderful when someone says, "oh-my-god, this is soo good; the best you ever made".  Cooking is soo much easier to not mess up than decorating a room. :)

I love the feeling of giving something that I made, to somebody and bringing them some sort of happy sustenance. 

 If it's cooking, a gift, decorating, a wow picture of them, whatever! 

Food, is not my passion though; however I think that if I had more friends and threw more get-togethers as well as my $ out the window, it could possibly get high up there.  Anybody in?

Back to photography, I would REALLy like to stick with film because I want to KNOW the technicalities of a camera and know them well.  It will distinguish me from my friends who, are obviously great, but are editing their photos.  I want to not edit :D  Film slows me down to think about the shot instead of taking 100 nasty digital pictures to get one that's decent and manipulatable (sp:?).  However, I can't get past the convenience , free-ness (so easy to just delete), and speediness of a digital file...

[film master: Jonathan Canlas]

Thoughts, anybody?

Sorry for the semi-giddy with excitement yet debbie-downer post.  In the meantime, check out a friend from college who is working that camera!  I have quite a few photo talented friends like Jason Huang of Table4Photography and my bestie, Elaine :)  Joy though, she's something!  Check her out and bring a napkin to dab away your drool!

http://joylicious.net/

xoxo, isabel

photo of the day series

Dear 25 year old Isabel,

Today, it is Saturday, July 3, 2010 around 10:43 pm.  You just spent your 8th day in a row on your computer from rise-time to bed-time.  You were inspired, you liked a lot of things you perused, your heart strings got pulled on.  You pissed off your boyfriend by saying "coming from you who slept all day" when really you're just pissed at your own valiant efforts at wasting time and life.  Then you decided to vacuum cat fur off couches while revisiting a quote that said "A clean house is a sign of a wasted life", and said, "Damn it, I'm going to finish covering my kitchen chairs" to come back from buying staples to realize the staple gun's jammed and no efforts of will cure it.  So you got back on your lovely Macbook Pro and again were inspired, tugged on, decided to go comment crazy on Facebook to feel like you had a life and friends, found Joy "Jangles" Zhang doing awesome things and then you got majorly defeated. 

Well, you have 28 days before your summer ends with a trip to Hawaii!  You just made an A-Z list of things you'd like to style and photograph until that glorious trip to paradise.  Put the "non.cookie.cutter" interiors stuff on hold and pick up that camera.  You've got a daily project to wake up to now :)  Make paper flowers, pick up pretty tea cups and towels, order b/w film, wake up early to use daylight - you've got a photoshoot to style!

Don't forget to post your pictures to ffffound, tastespotting, http://foodgawker.com/, craftgawker, and weddinggawker

And then later, if you're REALLY conceptual, you can try a 365 self-portrait project like this amazing girl 7 years YOUNGER and better than you!  You really like her outfits and find her to be extremely gorge

xoxo, isabel

Mid-2o's Crisis!

Welcome to my blog!  I'm Isabel, a teacher by day and a couch potato dreamer by night.

So I've been doing some soul-searching for awhile now, feeling really lost as to who I am and what I want to accomplish with my life.  How and when will I feel successful with the life that I'm living?  I know "success" is different for everybody, so I guess success to me means being wanted for something only i can give. Or recognized for a specific talent that I can share to other people.  Sometimes, I measure success as simply having more than one strong friendship or really connecting with my students.  Ultimately, it comes down to my heart feeling like its missing some sort of connection.  Like my whole mind and body is off because something is missing.  I'm just lost.  And I strongly believe that I am keeping myself in this lost state.

Over the years, I have realized that I...
1) dream big
2) rarely follow through
3) have too many interests so I lack focus
4) talk myself out of too many things

Here's a good example:  I asked R. today if he was tired of me talking about photography all day.  He replied, "No. <pause> You'll just be talking about something else tomorrow." And he is so right!  See what I mean?

madebygirl
If I listed all the things I wanted to dapple in, it would look like this: (in no particular order)
- wedding photography
- lifestyle photography
- photo styling
- gardening
- cooking & baking
- interior designing
- graphic design
- magazines
- hosting


Funny enough, these are relatively the same thoughts I had when I was 8.  I used to say I would one day own a huge warehouse where it was split off into different sections and floors - one part for each of my loves. The sad part - I'm still dreaming about them, and not doing anything to get any results.  I read and know of so many people who are around my age or YOUNGER who have achieved creativity and are already successful.   I won't lie - jealousy strikes me hard while at the same time I get SO inspired and encouraged to just get off my ass and to go for it!  It's really strange; I feel rejuvenated yet dread.  There's like a pit in my stomach that tells me, "What's the point?  You don't have the personality to be successful in photographing people.  You don't have the "eye" for pulling rooms together.  Who is going to care about your straight-out-of-the-camera shots when everyone is going digital?"  It's quite a battle within.  I am keeping myself from living my life to the fullest!!!  ICK!!! 

So, I'm blogging and sharing my likes in hopes that one or two will turn into LOVES and will give me some clarity and passion.  Passionate things still take WORK, so here I am - working it :)  I would love for you to join me in the process!