Counting Beans Till I Fell In Love

When I was young, I remember I'd draw all the time.  They weren't great drawings, of course, because I'm not a natural artist when it comes to drawing with my hands.  I'm just not.  My friends try to be nice and tell me I do fine, but I  know the truth...and I don't mind it.  And for the longest time, I thought I was a natural accountant.  Meticulous, analytical, ordered, detailed...you name it.  But as I got older, get to know myself a little better, and start to not be afraid of failure and what other people thought of me as much, I started to accept that I am indeed not a good accountant.

Don't get me wrong, I do my job well.  I think I'm a hard worker and my parents have taught me great work ethics.  But I'm not a natural at crunching numbers.  In fact, most of the time when I open up an excel sheet, my mind goes blank for a second and my eyes go like this 0_0.  I know I need to focus hard to get my job done right and it's just what I've learned to adapt to for the last 10 years of my professional working career.

What I believe I'm truly good at is looking at the big picture.  I like to come up with ideas and put those ideas in place.  I vibe off of people and connect with them easily.  I LOVE spending time with people, catching up, getting to know about their lives.  And I think that's why I value the blogging world so much.  But it was not until recently that I realized what I've been doing all my professional life is not what I was meant to do.  I believe realizing this doesn't mean I'm going to quit, or that my last 10 years as an accountant was a waste.  I am thankful for my experience and will continue to stay in this career for as long as I need to.  I just came to terms with reality...and my true love.

My true love is photography and capturing moments in people's lives.  The energy and joy I get out of holding my camera with a couple that are in love is indescribable.  Well, I can't convey it in words, but for those that's reading this and also live their life for their passion, you know exactly how I feel.  :)  I went back to my very first post I blogged and this is a direct copy and paste:

"Photography is something I fell in love with after I met Chris. He’s an artsy accounting auditor which I didn’t think existed but apparently they do! I’m currently not very good at it but have invested in a great Canon 7D to start perfecting this skill. I will definitely be sharing with ya’ll some great pics if I get the chance to catch some."

Looking back at my year of blogging, I've come full circle I guess.  :)

Happy Thursday!

My Second Home and an Award

I'm sure every one of us that work a full time job feels, sometimes at least, that our desk at work is our second home.  It sure feels that way to me, especially this week.  It's financial closing at work, which means long hours.  But I'm not complaining because my company and coworkers are awesome and as long as you're hanging out with people you like, it doesn't feel like work!

Yep...if we compared cubes to our homes, my cube would be a New York City studio!  It's small and my desk is the size of a typical door, but that's all the space I need right?  I'm efficient I guess!  :)

Lisa of Confessions of a Call Center Gal awarded me with the Versatile Bloggie Award today.  I'm very flattered and I think I'm supposed to state 7 things about myself.  You all know a lot about m e already, but I'll try my best to come up with something good:

1. I LOVE Chipotle and can eat it every night for dinner.  My order of choice: chicken salad with rice, black beans, mild and hot salsa, corn salsa, sour cream and guac!

2. I don't like the taste of mint!  Not real mint, but the artificial kind.  As such, I hate to chew gum.  But for brushing teeth, I prefer the mint toothpaste.  Weird, I know!

3. I was born left handed but was forced to become right handed when I was a kid.  Being a leftie in China was a no no!

4. Oftentimes with kids that are left handed, they stammered.  And so did I!  But it stopped after I moved to the US and learned English.

5. I baby talk to my cat and dog.  I know..sad right?

6. When I get nervous, my twitch is I peel the skin of my thumb.  It sounds gross, but most of the time I don't even know I'm doing it.

7. In the last 10 years of my life, I've moved more than 10 times to either different apartments or different cities.  It may seem I'm a commitment phobe when it comes to settling down, but that's not really the case.  It just so happens that I HAD to move for whatever reason.  :)

There!  Interesting?  No?  Hehe...either way, this was fun.  Thank you, Lisa for selecting me.  Have a wonderful hump day eve!

FAQ: Outdoor Lighting

Recently I've been getting a few questions regarding one of the most important aspects in photography...lighting. And I'm going to try to address it the best way I know how here.  I still struggle with natural light and always have to remind myself to think about the use of light and light reflectors.  I'm going to go out on a limb to say that as soon as you start thinking about effectively using light when you're taking photos, you've elevated to the next level of photography...whatever that level might be.

I like to keep things simple, so lets just start by talking about THE one thing you should avoid when taking outdoor photos.  Yes...and that's right people...one thing to avoid is direct sunlight.  What???  I know...it's totally counter intuitive to what we've all been doing this whole time.  But I'm sure everyone's had that situation when using a point and shoot with friends...you have them stand...take the shot and find that your friends are totally black.  So...what do we do?  We instinctively tell them to turn around towards the sun while you run around them to take the shot.  They, naturally, squint because they're now facing the sun...but you've got them in the photo...nice and clear.  Right?

Well, if you really studied the photo, you'll not only notice that they're squinting, but you'll notice harsh shadows from their noses, eye sockets and lips on their faces caused from the sun beaming on them.  This is really something a lot of people struggle with and if you take away only one thing from this blog, let it be to always face your subjects away from the sun.  To avoid them becoming dark, do what is also counter intuitive to you.  And that is to use your flash...even though it's bright daylight.  On a point and shoot this is an easy way to avoid harsh lighting.    On a DSLR, you can also use your on camera pop-up flash but for serious photographers, consider a higher end hot shoe flash.

The optimal lighting, in my opinion, is a slightly overcast day, which is not a problem here at all in Seattle.  When the sun is behind clouds, the light from it is perfectly diffused, creating a HUGE shadowed area everywhere you go.  On these days, regardless of how you pose your subjects, there won't be any harsh shadows on their faces.

On a sunny day, if you can control your environment and subject, try to find a shaded area to position your subject.  Below Jill was standing in between two sculptures that created a nice area of shade but I made sure I positioned her close to the end of the sculptures, near where the sunlight would appear, so she gets enough light reflected back onto her.

This photo below is a perfect example of harsher sun.  If you look closely, you'll see that Josh is squinting just a little bit and there are some shadows on both of their faces.  Not only that, their skin is a little over exposed, washing both of them out slightly.

To solve this, we simply went on the other side of them and had them turn around towards us slightly.  During this time of day, the light was to our camera right, which is why Josh's forehead is still a little bit over exposed due to the sun since he was looking towards the right a little more than Karen was.  But Karen's face is perfectly shadow free and beautiful.  Also, the sunlight gave her hair a wonderful shine to it.

In the below photo, again, the sunlight was hitting us on our camera right.  We wanted to include the water in our picture, so we made sure we faced Karen away from the sun and Josh slightly side lit.  To help a bit more with lighting bouncing back onto them, we also used a reflector which I was holding while Chris took this shot.

Now with all that said, I do have to say one of the best times to shoot IN the sun would be an hour or two before sunset.  When the sun is back lit behind your subjects at this time creates such a romantic setting, it's much too hard to describe in this entry.  I'll do a separate special post about it at a later time.

I understand you can't always be in the shade or have it be an overcast day when you're taking photos.  But learning how to position your subjects in a strategic way can help take your photos up another level.  The next time you're out with friends, try incorporating the use of light and play around positioning and hopefully you'll see a difference in your pics!

Engagement Slideshow: Wai+Tats

Less than two weeks and counting until Wai+Tats tie the knot.  As their Matron of Honor, I'm super excited and also really giddy to be sharing their engagement slideshow with you all.  Make sure to have the music turned on while you're viewing!


Wai+Tats from Chris Jocson on Vimeo.

A Saturday In The Park

Weekends are always treasured over here in my Simply Cindi life and when it's a weekend full of sunshine, you bet I'm going to take advantage of it.  This past Saturday, spring decided to peek through the rain clouds to show itself to the world.  The hubs and I, along with Jill and Justin (sister and brother-in-laws), decided we'd take a stroll in the park at the Washington Arboretum and Seattle's Sculpture Park.

Beautiful family eh?  Jill and her two older brothers.

I may be biased, but my hubby is the funniest man I know.  I'm literally the happiest girl on earth because he makes me laugh...hard...everyday!

I met Jill when she was 15 and now she's grown into a lovely young woman.  She's going to really go places and I'm excited to see that journey!

I've never met anyone as quiet as Justin.  But break that outer shell, and get a couple of shots in him, he'll end up screaming in your ear.  Along with Jill and Chris, he's one of the nicest people I know!  Runs in the family no? :)

Jill and Justin live together now, not too far from our house, and we're so glad that Justin's there to look after Jill as she completes her college career.

Everyone say, "AWWWWW"

Before I go on this beautiful Sunday afternoon, I'd just like to remind everyone that I'm hosting a giveaway here.  I'd also like to shout out to my girl, Kim over at Anthroholic who's posted a special entry today about this giveaway.  For those that don't know, I started this blog partly because I was inspired by Kim.  Her blog was one of the first blogs EVER that I followed and she was one of the first people that truly made me take a better look at my own sense of style.  I loved how I got to sit down and see a glimpse of her life over in Chicago, while I was in my little condo in Seattle.  The blogging world has brought nothing but a level of happiness in my life...so here's to blogging!  

Happy Sunday!

New Job Toys

I'm literally a zombie right now.  Many of you know this week I started my new job.  It's been great so far.  I've already learned a lot and my new coworkers all seem to be awesome people.  This job so far has given me the feel of accountability, challenge, and ownership that I was looking for from my last job.  And that's a great feeling.  There is one catch though...this job requires longer hours.  Not a lot more...but enough to make a difference.  I've said before that I'm not a morning person.  And let me tell you...waking up half an hour early has taken a toll on me.  I know...I know...I'm a wuss right?  I just need some time to adjust to the new schedule, then I'm good.  Next week is my first monthly close and in the accounting world, that means OVERTIME!  I will try to post as much as I can...but word has it that I'll be working at least 12 hours a day next week.  Eeeek!

In the meantime though, I've started to try to make my workplace as comfy as I can.  I hate the feeling of always using a paper cup for coffee everyday even though the company provides it, so I went and got some of these:

I got the "C" and "J" for home and the "X" for work because I loved the baby blue color and "X" is the first letter of my legal Chinese name.  I can't wait to carry this mug around into meeting rooms.  I bet it'll get a bunch of comments! :)

My last job didn't require me to get a laptop, but this one did.  So this also gave me the opportunity to get this:

This bag will comfortably fit my laptop no problem.  I love a good, stylish bag for a career woman.  And the mustard color is just so lovely.  

As you can tell, I've been pretty busy the last couple of days.  Busy SHOPPING!  :)  What have you all bought lately?  

One Year Blogiversary Surprise Giveaway!!!

Hello World!!!

That was my greeting to you, almost one year ago, when I started this little blog of mine.  I mentioned in my last post that I had a surprise celebration to share with everyone, and despite much speculation from my friends and followers, I'm sorry to report that I am not expecting!  :) 

I am, however, hosting a giveaway to celebrate my one year blogiversary.  If you've been following me for the last year, you already know a lot about me...and what a year I've had.  From getting married, to buying a new house, to starting my photography business, to changing jobs...I've documented it all on this blog.  I'm so thankful for my followers and those that comment.  You guys are the reasons why I keep going.  I seriously do not realize how many people out there follow this little blog and I know I take that for granted.  I'm always astonished when someone says they follow my life on here, and to that...I thank you.

This giveaway fuses my love of fashion and photography together and I'm so excited to share it with you all.  For those that want to enter, the prize will be an 8X10 printed canvas of your choice of one of the photos below.  You can choose to hang these anywhere...maybe in your closet or above your shoe collection!  Chris and I spent this whole weekend traveling all around the Seattle Puget Sound area to try to come up with the perfect photograph of my favorite pair of Anthro shoes, and we think we finally were able to capture it in two photos.  I couldn't pick between the two favorites, so I decided that the winner will choose.

So...now...to enter...I won't make it hard...simply:
1. Be a follower and comment in the comments area that you are following
2. For an additional entry, leave a comment and let me know which pair of shoes you own you can't live without.  (Obviously mine are the ones in the photographs)
3. For a bonus entry, blog about this giveaway on your blog and comment that you've done so

Entries will be accepted until 5pm PST on May 7th and I will announce the winner that night.  Thank you all for your support and your participation