Birds have begun to fly south

Friday night.

Vien takes me to a ramen joint deep down in the recesses of Alphabet City.

It was sooo good but it oddly reminded of La Paz Batchoy,

which is NOT a bad thing at all.

9:00 am Saturday Morning at Carl Shurz Park

Waaaay up at the Upper East Side for the early morning shoot for Koyuki.

Midday coffee break with Mica

Monday morning madness with Santi.

Dressing him up is like playing with dolls.

He's such a hottie in this denim shirt.

Taco gets silly and rolls around on the sidewalk.

So not even a day into my Creative Experiment (a.k.a. no more Facebook until I do something semi-magical), Ifang messages me to schedule Koyuki's photo shoot this weekend. I haven't been commissioned for a shoot since Kyle asked me to take a new set of headshots, photos of which I haven't uploaded to my photo blog or website. Add that to the list of things I didn't do because of a certain social network.

Quick refresher, Ifang was the pregnant woman I shot a year and a half ago. Koyuki is her now 20-month old daughter, whose adorable elbow dimples can be seen here when she was only 3 months old. She needs photos of Koyuki to submit to an agency. Hopefully I capture photos good enough to get her noticed. I've been searching for children's portraits online to get ideas. The weather this coming Saturday should be ideal for portraits unless mother nature decides to go schizo on NYC again.

Off to more photo researching...

Been sick since last week. I was actually down with a bad fever last Tuesday and had to call in sick from work. Despite having the day off I still had to to go down, do laundry, shop for food and make my own chicken soup before finally collapsing in bed by 8pm.

The day before that (Monday), I finally made time to take photos of Kendra, who's been asking for headshots from me for months. 

Armed with clamp lights from Home Depot and a shoot through umbrella from B&H strapped to a tripod with velcro and Mica holding a gold reflector, we managed to take good photos of Kendra by the window despite the gloomy rainy weather outside that provided us with no sunlight whatsoever.

Given the cheap equipment and poor light source, I'm pretty pleased with the outcome and am inspired to do another one soon. Now if only Caitlin will let me photograph her. She says she afraid of cameras but I will soon change that.

Joe and Tito Ans are back in NYC after their three month trip to the Philippines. Joe called me up as soon as they got back to remind me of my promise to take him to Coney Island before they head back to Syracuse. I was still sick but obliged. I was supposed to take both Joe and Omar out on Sunday but it turned out to be one big family trip since Tito Ans, Nana, Tito Chon, Tito Mo, Ana, Poy and Santi decided to join us and we all hopped on two cars and ventured out to Coney Island. Of course, the rest of the party came just to eat hotdogs and sit by the boardwalk while me and the two boys went in the amusement parks. They went on a few rides and I joined them for the famous Cyclone roller coaster. I personally love coasters but that was one of the scariest rides I've ever been one. It's an old wooden ride and the entire time it shook and rattled and felt like nails would come loose and send us flying in the air. I was sent slamming from one end of my car to the next with every turn since I sat by myself. Joe and Omar had each other to cushion themselves every time the train took a mad, sharp turn.

Today, I took Santi's 5th month photos and compared to past few months when he never cooperated and I never really got good smiling photos, today I had the hardest time whittling down images since he was smiling or laughing in 95% of the shots. He was totally adorable today.

Complete albums from all the photo sets featured here can be seen on my Facebook as usual.

This weekend has been an alcohol filled weekend. Me and my ladies, Mica and Caitlin have been drinking since Thursday night. Work has been terribly exhausting and frustrating that I find myself needing a drink every night after work. One time we went to Ulysses and while we were on our way there, I was saying that I wished that no guys would bother us like that 22-year old the last time. I semi got my wish. No 22-year old did bothered us, but in turn, every other older dude tried to catch our attention. One 38-year old named Eugene in particular would not stop coming over and talking to me. He bought me two rounds of drinks (and Mica too) and came and went three times just to try to get my contact information. I gave him nothing and humored him until it was time to catch a cab home.

Friday night was spent hanging out with Dustin (our soon to be ex-subletter) at L'asso Pizza in the lower east side. He works there every weekend until 4am so Mica, Cait and I came over and had pizza and drinks with him. The pizza was amazing. I will have to take Louiie there when she comes.

Today is my day off and decided (by default) to stay in and make something out of whatever I found in the kitchen. I ended up making vanilla-vanilla cupcakes and had Ikea meatballs with buttered veggies and mashed potatoes for dinner. 

Working a double tomorrow so I better hit the sack.

Ps: I found this on Neil Gaiman's blog. A photo he took of Amanda Palmer kissing her exboyfriend Blake sometime around August 17 during her stay in Boston.

and then here's a photo I took on August 13 in Provincetown

Guess the human statue took a fast ferry from Boston to Provincetown for the weekend.

I ended up not leaving Brooklyn today despite previous plans of heading out by Hudson River Park and sunning myself. Decided to take advantage of Brooklyn's own beautiful lawns by the east river. I headed over to the Brooklyn Bridge Park where I laid down on grass, lathered up on sunblock and enjoyed the soft breeze blowing from the river. I will have to make regular habit of this. I had such a nice, quiet time that I fell asleep without realizing it.

I made another round of the ginger scallion noodles for dinner (because they were really that good) and I sat down with Caitlin and Michael and we watched Layer Cake in the living room.

Michael's got a membership at 24 hour Fitness and he's trying to get me to use his complementary month pass to try it out. I haven't gone to the gym since staying with Kate in California so I'm worried my body can't handle it. I am, however, attempting to quit smoking as part of my 2010 goals so having that out my life might help.

Oh, and E just uploaded his photos from last Sunday! You can view them here. I rarely like having my photos taken but he actually took really nice ones of me so I'm very happy. And, yes, I got fat, you don't need to tell me. That's what happens when life is (kinda) good, you get fat.

They would be Niki, Awie, Chris and my faithful camera.

I spent my day indoors in bed watching the Lost series finale (finally!) and cried my eyes out. I shall not explain this further. Only Lost fans can empathize with me on this one.

The rest of the afternoon was spent chatting with Niki on Yahoo, Chris (Mazo!) on Facebook and semi-bantering with Awie on my FB wall. When all three decided it was time for them to go to bed, I headed out with one goal in mind: head over to Billy's Bakery and indulge in fabulous cupcakes! After that I headed towards Chelsea High Line park and armed with my trusty old rebel baby, captured some really nice photos from the park. I miss going out with my camera. When E asked me the other day how often I go out with my camera, I was ashamed to say I haven't done so in a while. Taking more photos being part of my goal for 2010, I plan to go on more photo walking trips over the next couple of months. The weather should be great from here on, with summer looming over the horizon.

Some of my favorite images from today:

This was such a candid moment that I stealthily had to take it.

After several shots of the plants with the sun behind me, I tried out using the light to outline the plants and they turned out wonderfully.

When the sun began to set, I headed up to Rann and Oli's apartment and hung out for a bit before heading home and making myself a crispy chicken salad for a late dinner.

Tomorrow is another day! If the sun is high, I shall head back to the west side and sun myself by the Hudson River Park and maybe grab an afternoon beer at Frying Pan.

I LOVE NYC.

With Michael being in the house as our official temporary honorary roomie, a.k.a. he's crashing in the living room for a month before he sublets Mica's room when she leaves for Tennessee for 6 weeks starting June, being vegan due to his allergy to anything dairy, we've been doing much less regular cooking in the house and I've been mindful of reading ingredient labels on items I bring home so I don't accidentally try to kill him by offering him toast (true story).

I had an all vegan dinner at momofuku a few days ago with that jar-of-pickles+shiitake-buns+ginger-scallion-noodle combo and it was fabulous.

Today, I've managed to recreate two of me and Mica's favorite dishes. The anchovy plate from Prune and the ginger scallion noodle from Momofuku. Did I succeed? Oh yes. Good enough for me to not need to venture out to the city when I'm craving for both. Now, if only Scott Bryan had his recipe for the organic roasted chicken online(along with everything else in his delicious yet expensive menu). I haven't had the opportunity to go back to Apiary yet. Lately I've been trying to cut back on the expensive meals. The man's a genius but a every time I eat there I spend no less than $50 for dinner. Meals in my own kitchen will have to be sufficient for now.

Ginger Scallion Noodle with quick pickled cucumbers and baby bella mushrooms in grapeseed oilMarinated anchovies with celery hearts and toasted almonds

Last Sunday, despite gloomy skies, I went out for a quick photowalk by the Hudson River with someone-we-shall-now-refer-to-as E. So E and I met up at B&H photo since he wanted to buy a 50mm before the photo trip. I ended up purchasing a light umbrella and a 32" 5 in 1 reflector, the latter I've been meaning to buy, the former is something I thought I could use for my makeshift studio. We walked towards the Hudson River and walked down until we ended up in Frying Pan. The place is named after the lightship that's also docked by the pier. It's basically a boardwalk equipped with seating and a stage for bands who play at night. It's a great place to sit and drink beers by the water. Coincidentally, Michael told me about this place just two days before, since he went there with a couple of friends and they were dancing in the ship's boiler room. He insisted that we had to go there and that day, E tells me it's also one of his favorite places in the city.





Full photo album can be viewed on my facebook. Not my facebook friend? Tough.

Now excuse me as I watch the Lost series finale.

I made a different version of my usual meal, which would be chicken and potatoes for lunch.

Baked crusted chicken cutlets with garlic herb roasted potatoes and my usual veggies.

Such a small meal for one yet I ended up with an overflowing sink of dirty dishes.

Today I finally decided to patronize the nail salon downstairs. I've been living here for over a year and I never went in, choosing instead to pay $28 for a pedicure over in Union Square. I walked in and had my toesies done there for $10 less! And I didn't have to travel across the river to do it too! I was afraid at the kind of place it would be, thinking it would be dank and dingy. It was surprisingly clean, even cleaner than the other place on 6th avenue (and better massage chairs too). I may just go there every week now.

I went to Target today to buy toiletries but I made the mistake of first making a detour to DSW where I walked out with this in a camel color since it was on sale.

I was hungry when I got home and wanted something quick so I used some of Mica's olive bread to make bruschettas.
I'm trying to use up the slowly rotting produce before it really goes bad. I hate how basil goes bad so fast. I bought a bunch of them the other day and most of them have gone gray now. I had to pick through them to find a few good ones for this. And apparently, Mica had been buying produce to replace the ones of mine she's been using and here I was buying more stuff since I didn't want to use hers. So now we have double the number of tomatoes, green beans and bell peppers. A house of 4 people who love to eat will always have a pretty full fridge.


Benny also made a comment about him no longer having shelf space in the kitchen cabinets since I've monopolized one whole shelf solely for my baking supplies. So I decided to use up a bunch of them today by baking TWO UN-red velvet cakes. I didn't want to buy food coloring just for the sake of making it red hence the un-redness of it. I used my squeeze bottle to add an extra flair to cakes too just for the heck of it. If I find extra time tomorrow, I might tackle another batch of white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies again.

I have to be up early tomorrow and head out to Ana's to take photos of Santi. I believe he's turning one month old this week and I've volunteered to take photos. I might just make a monthly thing of this. Next week, I will head out to Ifang's to take photos of the apartment she and her husband are trying to sell/rent and also to take photos of their baby, Koyuki, who's 3 months old now. I can't believe it's been that long since I took these.

Benny's self-produced show is tomorrow night so I'm also skipping over to the lower east side to watch it. I'm not sure if I've posted this before but the postcard flyers that were distributed to promote the event were designed by yours truly. I cannot take credit for the image though, that was taken by Benny himself. This is only the second material I've made that have been handed around NYC so I'm mighty proud.

Crispy Chicken Sandwich

BBQ Steak Hero

Saigon Chicken Sandwich

Even if they weren't made from real meat?
HAHAHA!

I do work in a vegetarian place after all. I took photos of the sandwiches (obviously) to promote them. I will make a poster (a la Subway) to promote our sandwiches in the restaurant. Lily gave me cash to buy pretty produce just for this shoot. I only had my camera and had no lights so I had to improvise. I waited until mid-afternoon when the sun shone brightly at the back of the restaurant and taped table papers onto the windows to act as a giant softbox.

They might be all made from soy but they're good, promise!