Macarons

There's nothing better than homemade desserts delivered to your front door! I ordered some homemade macarons from a friend of mine a few weeks ago. Diana and I have a few things in common. We went to the same high school, we both love macarons and we both have this on going battle with USPS. This batch was perfect! I would have taken a photo of the other box but I don't want you to see how much I've eaten since opening it. You can check her out on instagram to see about placing orders.

Sully and Marley

You've likely seen this little one all over my blog and Instagram. For the last two years (well almost two) I tagged along Holly to their swimming lessons, art class or at My Gym. Yeah, I was that childless bald asian guy hanging around My Gym. About two weeks ago, Sully became a big sister and a really sweet one!

It's time for everyone to meet Marley Mae.

If you personally know Holly then you've probably seen videos of Sully adoring Marley. It's real, she really does talk to her little sister.

Second Roll

So after the 5th call within two days I finally got the answer that my film was processed and ready to be picked up. I got to the counter and was told that not all photos came out and didn't know why. My film was inside the machine when it broke down and most of the images were damaged. At least they were able to save some of them.

This is one of my favorite shots from that day. We were walking around the market in Chinatown and saw this kid was playing inside a box. He took a peek, hid back inside and started crawling away when he noticed that I saw him. He crawled a couple of feet more and checked to see if he was in the clear. I snapped a photo right when he lifted the box. I wish I was a bit closer for this shot but I didn't want to be creepy and his family was only a couple of feet away.

Playing with the shutter speed. Train and Amado, again.

We made our way to Hollywood and Highland where you can barely see the Hollywood sign.

My attempt at double exposure. Obviously I did it wrong. I have to check again how to do it. Good thing the seller sent the manual.

Here's one of the photos they tried to save. It's clear that the machine damaged the image. I just need to find another lab that I can work with or may be even process my own film. I've been watching videos online and it seems pretty easy. 

Pentax Spotmatic II

For the last couple of months I've been scouring through eBay and other online stores for the right film camera. I've read as much articles as I could, joined and lurked plenty of photography forums and watched countless YouTube videos but the selection was just really overwhelming. When I saw the listing for this Pentax Spotmatic II, I knew I didn't want anyone else to have it. Great condition and it was dirt cheap!


I'll try not to geek out too much here.

Having learned everything I know on a digital camera, I got used to having unlimited amount of shots I can have in a single memory card. There's always that thought of "take one more just in case". Where at times that saved my butt from shots where someone blinked or an unwanted passerby getting in the way, it also spoiled me and even held me back from learning more about the process. Since I picked up my very first DSLR camera, I've only shot on manual mode. Yes, it took a while and a lot of deleted files but I forced myself to never rely on Full Automatic mode or P mode. I'm still working on getting to a point where I can look at a scenario and say to myself, "I'm going to shoot this at ISO 400, f/2.8 at 1/1000th." and be spot on without monkeying around and fiddling with the settings.

For my first roll of film, I just went with the cheapest and readily available pack I could find (Fuji X-TRA 400). I'm saving the good ones for another time. I wanted to check if the camera's metering is accurate. The battery for this camera has been discontinued and there really isn't an official replacement. Others suggested using 1.55v batteries that they sell at electronic stores but I read somewhere that it can cause incorrect metering which could either result to having under/overexposed images depending on which battery type you end up using. So far everything is good and it doesn't appear to have any light leaks except for the first photo I took of Amado.

Yes, he's eating salad from a huge metal bowl. All for him.

And yes, he really dresses in Japanese robes with matching pants/shorts when we're at home.

I know, harsh shadows! Again, this was my test roll so let it slide just this once.

Some people on the train heading to Anime Expo. We took some friend from out of town all over DTLA and Hollywood. My legs are still sore.

I'm still waiting on my 2nd roll to be processed. The lab's machine broke down after they processed my first roll. Anyway I like having to wait until the film is processed to see how the photos turned out. It's like opening gifts on Christmas day. There's no guarantee to what you're getting. Which isn't really completely accurate for me because I just check our bank statements to see if Amado bought anything during the holidays and my birthday. But so far I'm enjoying the process.

Pat and Kevin - Proposal

It was all Kevin could think about for the last couple of months, how was he going to propose to Pat? Kevin arrived from Miami the night before and drove out to Manhattan Beach at 6 in the morning so we can go over how he was going to do the proposal. We've talked about it before the big day but I though it would help if we actually saw the place to help calm his nerves and have less things to worry about. Pat flew in from Singapore 2 hours later and he went straight to the airport to pick her up.

Kevin told Pat that they were going to have brunch with me and Amado since we're close by and because we might not be able see her for the rest of her stay here. They walked towards the shore under the pier, Pat still very much clueless on what was happening. Amado and I found a nice lady to join in on the plan. She walked over to the couple and handed to Kevin a scrapbook he made titled "Why you should marry Kevin". Along with some of the photos they've taken since they've been together, he took photos of each family members (her family and his) holding a piece of paper where we wrote our answers to the question/title of the scrapbook.

What seemed to have been seconds for them looking through the book were long minutes for us and the rest of the people that started to gather around them. The rush of the moment finally kicked in when Kevin got down on one knee with the ring and popped the question.

Obviously she said yes!

Congrats Kevin and Pat!