Wow. What a crazy busy fun filled weekend. A lot of adjectives to describe the weekend, I know. I am exhausted from the weekend, but all is well when it ends well, right? (Did I get the expression right?) I had to be at our district’s soccer tournament on Saturday because my student council kiddos were in charge of selling refreshment. I am so proud of them. On Thursday we organized a wonderful,fancy family spaghetti dinner, and on Saturday we sold refreshments. And the best part was, our 4th/5th grade boys, and 6th grade boys teams won the district championship!!! WOOHOO!! Several of my students were in the soccer team. I am so proud of them. All their hardwork, and dedication paid off. At the end of the day, I was so exhausted, but I went to bed all happy because we raised pretty decent amount of money, and our teams are the champions, again.

Sunday turned out to be super busy, but super fun too. Even though I had to work early in the morning, I got to see my favorite showiteers. I can’t explain how amazing these people are. They are genuinely good people, very giving and supportive. My business is only getting better and stronger because of their support. I am more confident, and happier because of their support. And the best part is, I booked 2 weddings on Sunday! I am stoked. And the better than the best part is, both of the brides are super fun, and AMAZING! I am not exaggerating.

Blog on my Vegas trip is coming soon.

During my Vegas ShowitUnited trip, I realized that there are a couple of facts about me I need to share with everyone before I am categorized as the “weirdo”. Trust me, I won’t be surprised if I’ve already earned that reputation.

* A lot of time, I don’t finish my sentences. I repeat, I don’t even realize that I haven’t completed my sentences, and I get this look on the listeners face which means, ‘..so…then….are you going to finish…?’

* I am brilliant at using the wrong phrases at wrong time. I should win the Olympic Gold Medal for this. I do know the correct phrases FYI

* I am so good with plants that I killed a cactus. Keep plants away from me because they just stop living.

* I think I’ve embarassed myself enough for the month. Now, I love the smell of Burburry Weekend. My favorite perfume.

* Not sure if I’ve shared this already or not, but I LOVE chocolate especially dark chocolate. Anything that involves chocolate, I will eat it, and keep telling myself that I will go to the gym tomorrow. Do I? Good question.

I’ve been “packing” for the past week and a half. I basically started packing almost my entire wardrobe, but like I said before, I prefer to travel with a few items, and with only one bag. So, I really thought about what I will be doing there and what I will need. I’ve decided to take 2/3 complete outfits, necessary items, and a few pieces of clothings that I can mix and match based on my mood. Dark wash jeans, black pencil skirt, a black dress, a black top and a black cardigan can always help with mixing and matching. Have a few other colorful items too, so that the look doesn’t get all black and boring.  Here are a few examples.

I will wear one of the above outfits to our highly anticipated showiteer dinner Sunday night. The other one can be worn Monday night, and still not sure what I am doing Monday night. Hopefully I won’t be ready for bed by 9 as usual.

I can wear the first 2 to the classes. I like to be comfortable and still dress up a little. And I really don’t want to go anywhere with my favorite gray coat.

Last but not least, I am packing a few tops/sweaters and my comfy black pencil skirt to mix and match. I can’t wait !

My room still a disaster zone. I will share the last part tomorrow morning before I leave. Have a wonderful 3 day weekend everyone!

Less than 2 more days, and I will be in Vegas for 2 more days. I shouldn’t say that I am going to WPPI since I haven’t registered for WPPI. I am going more for showitunited this year. I mean affordable room with cool rommates, meeting much of awesome people, taking free classes offered by fabulous photographers. What else do I need right? I started kind of packing a couple of days ago, and now I am living in kind of a disaster zone right now. Usually I am never the kind of girl that packs everything before going on a trip. I can go on a week long trip with a small carry on bag, but I am really having a hard time with figuring out which shoes to take with me to Vegas. I still haven’t finalized my clothes, but I can’t stop thinking abour shoes. I mean I kind of have to especially after going through such horrible planter fascitis experience. These are the ones that I am think of taking with me.

I really don’t feel like bringing my shapeups. I mean we are talking about Vegas even though I am not planning on going to any party. Hopefully the pain won’t be back. And now that I am looking at my shoes, the colors are so depressing. Believe me, I am not nearly as depressing as the color of my shoes !

After my first year of teaching, I realized the importance of teaching appreciation, and how to say, “Thank you” to my students. I had students constantly demanding things from me, and rarely said, “Thank you.” This year, I’ve decided to make it a classroom rule. I have 10 classroom rules right now, and most of the rules were added throughout the year. Rule #5 is ‘Say Thank You’. I am proud of my students now because 90% of the time, they say thank you even if I give them something as small as a piece of paper or their tests. The journey wasn’t so easy and smooth though. Most of my students came from various different backgrounds and family dynamics. I used to be pretty harsh. Yes, I am one of those teachers that sets up a high standard, and no matter what, always stick to my standards. Since this is a classroom rule, the students have to say thank you everytime they get something. I used to take things away from them just because they failed to say thank you. I took cookies away from them and gifts too. Yes, I felt bad for being so harsh, but think about the big picture. Such a harsh experience would leave an everlasting impression on them, and now it’s a part of them. They say thank you to their parents, to other teachers and even to other students. I’ve received a lot of thank yous from several parents because they’ve noticed the difference in their own children. I am proud of my 4th graders for the most part even though somedays they make me think, “Why did I want to become a teacher? What was I thinking?”

What an exhausting week so far. Every night I came home, and was pretty much done for the night; however, I visited pinterest at least once before I crashed at 7 every night. Luckily, I was able to find a few pins that really made me laugh and are so true.

This is so true. I always think about changing my voicemail to, “please send me a text, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.” One time I had 9 voicemails waiting for me for over a month, and I really didn’t feel like checking it until I found out that one of them was a very important one.

Have you ever gotten those chain letters that if you don’t send it to 100 more people, something bad will happen to you? I am guilty of breaking the chain, and not forwarding the letters to anyone else. I guess that’s when Charlie Brown steps in into my life.

I really don’t enjoy post processing that much. It has been my goal, and still my goal to get my photos, as good as possible on camera to make my post processing life easier and more enjoyable. I am still not satisfied with the results that I am getting; however, I should be happy that I’ve come a long way. I would love to share some of my tricks and tips with you now, and hopefully you find these helpful.

This photo was straight out of camera, and was taken right before sunset during golden hour. It was in the backyard, and the swing had shade on top of it which made the golden hour not so golden anymore. I did take a few test shots as usual, and then used the following settings.

I did not use any flash. Sorry flash lovers, I enjoy natural light more than flash. I shoot everything in manual mode.

Nikon D300, 50mm f/1.4G at f 2. ISO 800, Shutter speed 1/80 sec with a +3 exposure bias. I had to lower my shutter speed because of a low lighting situation, and raised my exposure bias so that my shutter speed isn’t too low for me to handle. I do this a lot so that I don’t end up getting blurry pictures because of a lower shutter speed. I keep telling myself, if I start working out, I will not have this problem. My white balance was around Kalvin 5000. I shoot Kalvin everytime.

Here’s the shot after post processing.

First, I used lightroom, and then photoshop for finishing touches. In lightroom, raised the temperature to 6828, and contrast a little bit too. After raising the contrast a bit, I noticed that the exposure looked a little high. So I lowered the exposure to -.41 This is all in lightroom. Now it’s photoshop’s turn. In photoshop, I raised the contrast by +4, and there you go. It’s all done. The good thing about lightroom is I can do the same thing on several different photos at the same time as long as all of the photos are exposed the same with similar white balance.

Hopefully you enjoyed reading the post processing as much or almost as much as I enjoyed sharing it. Happy Tuesday everyone !

After myspace, facebook was super fun, but now sometimes I don’t feel like reading or writing anything. I know. How lazy can someone be? But no worries because pinterest to the rescue? Ok, I don’t just pin beautiful pictures, I also pin inspirations whether it’s positives in life, or photography inspiration. I found this pin yesterday, and immediately felt 10 times better. Not that I was feeling bad or anything. 

Just like how I sometimes think someone is weird, I am sure there are many people who thought the same about me at some point, but please, if you did then you should also know, “I am a limited edition.” Which makes me super special.

I was always compared to others most of my life, and I still sometimes compare myself, my success and failure to others. If you are in the same boat as I am, please stop comparing yourself to anyone. The best thing about you is YOU, so find you, and let it shine. Remember, we are limited editions, and comparing sucks the joy out of life.

The moment I saw this pin, I thought to myself, “Whether I am willing to or not, I am making a fool out of myself more often than I think. Something SUPER must be in store for me then.”

I mean if I make myself look anymore stupid than I already do, then there will be a big problem.

Last but not least, I thought this one might give you a good laugh. It made me laugh big time.

I can’t believe it’s February already. I mean didn’t 2012 start like, yesterday? Is the earth spinning faster and faster every day? I need to stay on top of my goals for 2012 so that I don’t start to procastinate. Let’s see how did I do so far. Let’s start with the positives.

I’ve been blogging regularly, or at least 5 times a week, and I am determined to keep it up. I am really glad to say that I’ve received a few sweet emails with comments regarding my blog. Thank you those of you that emailed me. Please feel free to leave a comment here as well, so that everyone believes me that I did get a few emails.

I am trying to stay on top of my facebook page, although I haven’t updated enough photos. I need to improve that.

I’ve improved my time management a little bit, and procastinating less; however, it’s not up to my expectations yet. I still have a long way to go. I’ve noticed that writing down a schedule for every 2/3 hours with some time to procastinate works like a charm. If you are like me that like to waste time, but can’t stand laziness (I know, right? What does that mean?) then try this technique, and let me know how it goes.

I did connect with at least 1 vendor each week, and determined to keep it up as well.

Now the negatives. I still haven’t been to the gym since I wrote my goals. I need help. Please help. I still need complete my new packages, and order brochures. This weekend ! And I still haven’t contacted one friend a week. I have a lot of work to do. Wish me luck ! Happy Wednesday everyone !