Words of encouragement

It's these comments that pushes me to create and do what I love because it makes me happy that others enjoy what I love to do.

Even if they get my name wrong XP I still thank each and every one who encourages artists to continue what they love to do either by compliments or purchasing their work (buying art or booking sessions).

After three years of doing what I love to do, I am finally getting paid to do what I love to do. I thank everyone who helped me get this far. You are all so amazing!!!

Bathroom Self Portraits

I have been doing self portraits for about two years.

I started when I was told that I was going through depression.

I didn't want depression to take over me completely so I decided to do what I loved the most.

Take/create photos.

In the beginning it was all about nature and the kids. Then the kids got tired of me and the camera and I realized that I couldn't fully express myself through models. I wasn't happy, I wasn't satisfied. So I spent a good few days online, surfing and exploring through Flickr, Facebook, and 500px. I saw so many beautiful self portraits and decided to challenge myself. I wanted to create something beautiful...with myself. To see the beauty within.

The first few were definitely experiments. The laptop I had at that time had also crashed and I had to restart it a couple times, therefore I lost those files. At that time, I didn't want to show any process or any photos. These self portraits were my visual diary. I felt very nervous whenever my siblings saw them or when someone asked me how I felt while I was creating. 

The photos are all taken with my Rebel EOS T1I, I absolutely love this camera. My first DSLR as my graduation gift. All the photos are also taken in the bathroom. With a blank canvas, I was able to experiment my feelings, add textures and colors to convey my feelings. I also decided that these self portraits would be a way for me to show my hair length.

I went through a lot of drama during the summer and decided that the best way for me to get through it was to get rid of all the things that reminded me of it. I had my hair permed in china (which was where I spent my summer) so I had a haircut a few weeks after I came back. I felt refreshed and renewed....for a few weeks and then I started missing my long hair. I've captured every moment with my hair, whether it be a good portrait through my DSLR or a small cell phone snapshot. I hope to put a little something together when my hair grows to the length I desire.

With these self portraits, I have grown and learned so much. Since I was never really comfortable in front of the camera and always avoided it, doing these self portrait sessions helped me overcome my fear of being in front of the camera. Also, I have learned to look at details and become a better photographer to my models. I am thankful for all that I have gone through and even more thankful to those who helped encourage me to start posting my work online. Because of them I have been given so much love and now have the confidence to do what I love to do. Whether it be myself or someone else.

The weekend

Ever have those moments where you're proud to say someone's your friend? During the little moments of break, I looked at the photos I took of Joylin. I knew that every damn photo was going to turn out beautiful and without a doubt, every photo did turn out so beautiful that I was so excited to start posting them up.

You can see her Model Mayhem Profile here: http://www.modelmayhem.com/2962461

You can see them here or here.

Joylin is such a beautiful and loving person to work with. She's incredible and amazing. She was such a natural, all I had to do was snap photos of her. She kept working her stuff and I just kept clicking away. She turned this session into such an enjoyable session that I can't wait to work with her and her boyfriend in two weeks. I am blessed to have such a lovely and beautiful friend.

Just had to have a post dedicated to her :)

This week

Enjoyed the outdoors this week with tons of nature photos that I have yet to combine and batch. I'm so excited for next week (technically Thursday) which is when I leave for a almost-a-week road trip with my sister and her family.

This week was all about enjoying the beautiful weather and my sister's birthday. Everything is starting to sprout like the flowers and such. I had such a time playing with my phone apps to get these pretty sweet results

Totally in love with the results and they are PINK so that's something new. Took photos of my babies whenever I could and yeah, my sisters birthday. She turned  35!!!

This weekend I have a photoshoot and lots of editing to do plus packing and getting ready for the road trip :) have a great weekend everyone.

Weekend Getaway

Grand Marais

The weekend consisted of about 24-28 hours getaway with a few of my friends. We drove up to Grand Marais and then on our way back home, we stopped at Duluth. Of course the whole time we took tons and tons of photos.

This was really honestly my first time capturing the sunset without adding more saturation to up the colors. Instead, I was able to capture everything with my camera without any added help (I am so proud of myself!) So I am really excited about these pictures because I was COMPLETELY in love with every single sunset photo I took.

Below are just some of my favorites taken from that evening. The colors were so beautiful, we ended up there longer than we had anticipated.

A little sum sum

Skyler Vang

I love taking photos of kids....until they hit that certain age where everything is hitting them at once and they start caring about how they look and avoid the camera altogether.

Having to be the youngest, I have always been surrounded with kids for as long as I can remember. I love kids and always will. That's just something that can't be changed. I realized today (more clearly than I have other days) that I love taking photos of kids. Especially when I capture them in their funny (and sometimes unflattering) moments.

This photo ----> to the right is my beautiful niece Skyler who I practically raised :P I love her with all my heart and she did use to be the baby girl I'd always snap photos of until she hit the age where she just got so tired of me shoving my camera in her face. I took this....yesterday evening before she went to her soccer practice and I'm absolutely in love with it because she isn't modeling for me or anything. It's her, natural, everything is just her....if that makes any sense.

Paxton Vang & Tachyon Lo

I love taking photos where you don't have to pose, where you can express everything that moment. I wish to take more photos like this. I guess the reason I'm talking about this now is because now that all my babies are growing older. They're going to hit that stage in their life when they're insecure about their looks (cause SOCIETY did this to them!!!!!!). I'm sad about it, I truly am. I wish to be stuck in the timeframe when they care nothing but the sun coming out so they can go outside.

Don't get me wrong, I love fashion photography and portrait photography, I do plenty of my own self portraits posed and such. I just realized though, unless you have perfect lighting, unless you have a model who knows how to control her laughter....I guess I just need more practice with lighting and such. I focused so much on getting the natural expressions and emotions that I feel as though if I do anything else, mine looks so wrong compared to others (which I know I shouldn't be comparing -_-").

Bubbles!

There's just something about bubbles that attracts babies. My niece Eden & nephew Tachyon had lots of fun blowing bubbles at me and the camera today. Of course I had fun too...trying to find the right focus on these darn bubbles.

As you all know, this is more of my personal blog. Where I reveal myself in ways that I shouldn't :P but I still do. This summer I will be spending most of my time shooting away because I am able to (thanks to my sister and her family for being so gracious as to let me join them in their journey this summer).

I will do my best to post up more daily photos of me, myself, and I (with my family of course)...but these will be more of my iphone/instagram/rando looking photos. The more 'professional' looking photos (or any random photo sessions) will be posted on my Photography blog (maivab.blogspot.com) & Facebook (which is more updated than ever).

Here's eden for you all. She's growing up so fast!! I swear she grew a bit taller. It's like they grow so fast overnight! Next thing you know she'll be asking me questions about make up and what-nots.

My baby girl is growing up so fast!!!! SLOW DOWN!!!

^just means I'm getting older -_-"

Anyways....Thank you all for being dedicated viewers. You are all amazing!!