Indian Wedding

The Breakdown

-huge ordeal of 7 hours of straight shooting. and that's just the reception. The whole wedding is over a span of three to four days.

-delicious food and beautiful people with even more beautiful henna and sari (sp?).

-snobby guests with prosumer DSLRs. Do not want! I saw someone shooting with a Nikon D300 and complimented how his camera is better than mine (I was using a backup Nikon D5000 at the time), to which he replied "My lens is more expensive than your camera. Did you know that?" His infuriatingly condescending comment only drives me to make the statement "it's the photographer not the camera" true. Also, he had an external flash on his camera with only an omnibounce and used a zoom lens. If he could afford it and actually knew about image quality he would have had off axis lighting and a prime lens.

-weddings are the graveyards of batteries.

-I look forward to the next one.

-Seriously considering switching to Nikon.

random goings-on

My nightclub photographer gig has definitely made me more social and dare I say it... flirty? I really need my own business card so these random people I chat up will call me for photography services. I also kind of get my ego stroked by semi drunk men who flatter my appearance. It's as Dmitry always say, there are no ugly girls, just not enough vodka. In my defense, they weren't all drunk!

I went to an Indian wedding earlier today to gain more experience as a wedding photographer, and omg, Indians with glue-green eyes are like the most gorgeous people EVER.

In other news, I've started putting on makeup. It's just good business practice. Yay conforming to societal standards? x.x

style

This sounds like I'm a narcissist, but recently I have thought a lot about myself and more specifically my expression style. As a writer, my school essays were succinct and perhaps overtly argumentative. As a photographer, I tend to favor tight crops and go straight for head shots instead of full body ones. The rare times when I socialize, I say mean and awkward things that people usually laugh off. I strongly believe I am able to look things in the eye and see them for exactly what they are, but in a negative and cynical light.

There's a Chinese adage that goes 退一步海阔天空, which literally translates to "take a step back, to the vast ocean and the expansive sky", and I aim to keep this in mind from now on. I need to look at the bigger picture, write with more context, photograph environmental portraits, and refrain from disagreeable social behavior.

I wish to become more positive. I want moderation and control and positivity.

Sigh.

recent readings

I'm reading the Omnivore's Dilemma rather slowly (46 pages so far), but what little I have read bothers me, first in a humans-suck-we-should-have-died-off sort of way, but then more so in a I-don't-think-this-is-completely-true sort of way.

The author attempts to provide insight to the rise of cheap corn, dubbed a miracle crop that's actually the stem of many agricultural afflictions in disguise. One such affliction is corn's demand for fossil fuels. Because the Haber-Bosch process of fixing nitrogen and thus fertilizer requires burning of fossil fuels, corn basically transforms nonrenewable energy, water, and sunlight into food. And that's a bad thing? I mean I get that we're addicted to oil and it's bad environmentally, but ultimately more food can't be all that bad, even if the food is subsidized to death and sometimes wasted and mostly fed to livestock. Maybe the issue isn't corn, but PEOPLE and how people treat corn and livestock. And then there's a whole spiel about the food industry and how it transforms corn into "food-like" substances. I don't mind all that much that 1/4 of groceries comprise of corn products. I don't think the author has ever been poor enough to starve and not be able to pick what to eat. Perhaps my mind will change once I finish the book and ignore the fuzzy logic. But for now corn has my good graces.

When my brain refuses to handle The Omnivore's Dilemma, I read more entertaining books. I finished Speaker for the Dead, second book of Ender's Game saga, in one day. It was that good! I'm currently enjoying the next book of the series, Xenocide, which contains some interesting philosophy about the nature of existence. I can't wait to finish it, even though there's an asian character with some pretty butchered asian cultures.

I have also started the elegant Dune series.

It is safe to conlude that I truly enjoy apocalyptic/dystopia/sci-fi.

Weekend in New Orleans

Cops are useless.

Fine I knew that before, but now I have a prime example to share. So I was driving down the 70 mph speed limited I-10 West at a respectable 75 mph in Louisiana when I noticed a rogue truck. The driver must have been drunk or asleep, he swerved so much into the other lane that the a car had to brake and drive on the feeder to avoid it. I kept my distance for a little while, but ultimately decided to pass the truck and avoid it as much as possible. I sped up to about 82 mph and attuned all my attention to the task. Right after I passed it alive and well, I noticed this cop car hiding beneath a bridge, so I thought yay a cop, maybe he'll catch that truck. And sure enough, the cop's light came on, much to Yue's and my rejoice at what should have been justice. Little did I know, the cop went straight past that stupid truck and right after me. So I pulled over and ended up with a speeding ticket from freaking Louisiana. Maybe I should have explained the situation, but I doubt it would have justified the speeding. But still.

Also in the messed up swamp called Louisiana is Tiger Truck Stop. We sort of stumbled upon it when I had to use the restroom. Right outside the gas station under the blistering heat was this live adult tiger cramped in a cage no bigger than my living room. Apparently the truck stop has been keeping and more importantly BREEDING tigers for years. SERIOUSLY?! At a gas station?! Only in United States do we see this sort of idiot cruelty.

Ultimately the trip was full of win. I had some seriously juicy but perfectly golden and breaded fried chicken. I never knew white meat could be so... tender.

Cafe du Monde rocks. Beignets dipped in cafe au lait is.... indescribably orgasmic. It's kind of like Chinese oil sticks dipped in hot soy milk but sweeter and with coffee instead. Although, the beignets are a little overrated because not everyone knows about 油条.

And maybe someday I'll be drunk enough to appreciate Bourbon street and cabarets, but not this time.