Valentines

Jacob is gone to Toronto for the week and has been sad that he can't call me over the phone because of roaming charges.  He's been emailing me how much he's missing me.  This is only day one.  Clearly, I am not the romantic in this relationship.  I am very lucky to have someone who tries to express to me in many different ways that he loves me.  And sometimes I still don't get it.

This is how I spent my Valentine's evening.  I was excited to get my copy of the Sunday newspaper, so I was completely pre-occupied clipping away my coupons, while Jacob was busily working on his V-day project downstairs.  When I was finally allowed to go down, I saw the dining room table candle lit and Wall-e holding onto my card and gift. (Wall-e's been part of a lot of our special moments, and I have a feeling he'll also have a part in the wedding.)



The meal consisted of a mixed greens salad in my favorite poppyseed dressing and then a marinated pork over corn & rice.  The rice was was shaped like a heart... maybe because I dropped the hint one too many times about how one of my gf's fiance had put together this elaborate dinner with flower shaped salmon etc etc etc.  haha  I do know he put a lot of TLC into it... and the fact that he cooks every other day out of the week for me is what counts most.  There's no longer so much emphasis on one day out of the year to be a romantic (which is what I least like about V-day)... but it's like that every day.  Relationships are always hard work, but I'm grateful to know he's always trying to love me better each day.

Happy Birthday to me!

Roller skating is not what I remember from childhood.  My memories were of the hockey pockey and the limbo, but when we went Friday, it was practically a club for little kids where they were skating and dancing to 'sexual seduction'.  It was too funny when we requested an 80s songs and the dice game for nostalgia's sake, pretty much everyone else cleared the floor.  The big kids' turns to take center stage!!  It was a lot of fun. :)  I don't remember the last time I went, but I definitely wouldn't mind going again.







I have to remind myself that the best days are not behind me, but are always ahead of me.



Thanks everyone who came out to celebrate with me (and also to those who weren't able to come but were there in spirit)! :)  Will post more on facebook.

Slowing down for what matters & 365:32-40.

I have to admit that these days with work and wedding planning, it's easy to get self-absorbed and be too busy for anything else.  After going through the Purpose Driven Life with my small group (more about that on another blog), I feel the need to make some changes in my day-to-day.

I love the quote "it's all the tiny decisions you make daily that make up your character."  Or "your life is the sum result of all the choices you make."  I can't keep making excuses with my "busyness" and push certain things off until after the wedding.  Changes never happen overnight, and if I keep waiting, I may never run out of excuses.

At the end of the day, it's not about finishing X amount of tasks that day.  I want to be able to know that I've been a good friend, a good fiancee, a good daughter, and a good neighbor.  I guess sometimes I need someone to tell me to slow down and just be available. :)

"Busyness is a great enemy of relationships.  We become preoccupied with making a living, doing our work, paying bils, and accomplishing goals as if these tasks are the point of life.  They are not.  The point of life is learning to love - God and people." - Purpose Driven Life.

And speaking of 2010 resolutions and 30 before 30 goals, it's really embarrassing to see that I haven't maintained or achieved much out of my list (I'll have to have a separate blog post of my progress there).

At the very least, I started p90x all over again and we are keeping up with the 365 project for 2010 resolutions... but we do have to work on posting them up to date.  Here are the next set for the 365 photo a day for 2010.  Just 32-40 this time (see previous here).  We decided for the month of February, we'd do something different and have vertical/portrait photos.

02.01.10 Snacks straight from Japan!  CVS.  I have no creative caption for you.



02.02.10 Organizing is not my nature, but I can stack!  Dinosaurs are so much more fun to eat.



02.03.10 Yane's engagement ring and cute card from Ben.  Late-night tennis... in freezing weather!



02.04.10 Fortune or advice.  Still temporary business cards.



02.05.10  After and before.  I made the alfredo sauce (for the recipe).  It's great when recipes say quick and easy.  Jacob cooked the rest.



02.06.10  Yane and Ben's e-session.



02.07.10 Brainstorming ideas with a florist.  Superbowl Sunday.



02.08.10  My inspiration wall.  Saegye: our inspiration to grow plants!



02.09.10  One of my girls trying on my bridesmaid dress.  Praying for Haiti.

Purple is not an easy color!

Here's an update on my wedding planning.  If you're here to see my recent work, please use the links to the right to navigate through the site.

I first looked for bridesmaid dresses at David's Bridal since they have a fairly large collection in various styles and colors that you can try on the spot.  I loved the Lapis color they had, but I didn't quite like any of the styles.  I was so excited, though.  I found the color that I wanted and I began building a complete color scheme with flowers and other details all around it.   Then I browsed through all the department stores looking through at all the special occasions dresses hoping to find that color, but to no avail.   I was bummed since I put so much effort into collecting ideas just to complement that color, but I learned in the end that it's good to stay flexible.

One day when I was casually browsing the Victoria's Secret website, I stumbled across the Ruched Convertible dress in purple shock and it was PERFECT... (well, almost perfect)!

I wanted each BM to wear the same color but in different styles.  I know it's a trend that some people have grown tired of, but I love having some diversity.  This was one dress that you can wear in many different ways.   It was easy.   I just had to purchase one dress and figure out what style looked best on each one of my girls.  The second big plus was I knew it was something they'd love and wear again after the wedding.



I knew going this direction, I would have to bend a little on the color scheme since it was a complete different shade of purple.  Lesson not yet learned, I began collecting ideas for the new shade of purple.

When the dresses finally did come in earlier this week, I realized the color from the photos online and the actual dress were WAY off.  I guess whenever you're purchasing anything online you run the risk of not knowing exactly what you're going to get.  The online photos were terribly deceiving though. 

Still, I was pretty excited to have one of my girls try it on.  Thankfully, the dress came with how-to-wear instructions.  It's confusing at first.  Here it's shown as:  Double-strap one-shoulder, strapless, cross-back, and twist-front halter.  We did a lot of experimentation with it, but these four were probably my favorites.



It's going to be harder to achieve the same look that I was originally going for, but I love the dress enough to keep it.  Hopefully, my florist (whom we hope to find in the next couple weeks), will give us some wonderful ideas to work with this dress, because I'm done doing the research on my own! ha

I was talking to some other brides about where they are purchasing their dresses, and I'm finding that Dessy has a great selection.  I'm also loving some of the BM dresses from Jim Hjelm Occasions, but I figured I should save my girls their money if I'm not paying for the dresses.  If I were to do it all over again, I would have probably checked them out before I decided to make my purchase.

Now, onto the guys and the ties.  I have a feeling it's going to be tough.  I found an interesting article about a study showing certain tie colors and designs are associated with certain types of people.  And purple ties scream arrogance and gaudiness and could rule someone out of a job before they've even sat down at the interview.  Read more here.

To do list for this month:

• Wedding Dress
• BM dresses
• Caterer
• Florist
• DJ
• Tux/suits
• Ties

365: 11-20.

Whoa, it's almost the 30th!  Time sure flies.  Guess we should catch up on the 365 posts where we take a photo a day for 365 days (first set here).  Again, if you are here for wedding/portrait work, please navigate using the links to the right.  Esther: left, Jacob: right.

11: Monday night bowling.



12: a) I love free Swiss Miss!  b) Bristow.



13: a) Guess who's picture showed up in Atlanta Weddings?  Mine.  b) Save ussssss!



14: a) Ben's headshots.  b) Maintenance needed.



15: a) Glass of wine a day keeps the doctor away. b) Hotel for the weekend.



16: a) Will you? b) Oh, nuts!



17: a) Carol's new bling.  b) Which of these things is not like the other?



18: a) New studio sample guestbook.  b) Home sweet home.



19: a) Mmm, charcoal.. tasty.  b) Hulk smash!



20: a) Spring Hall. b) Visitor at pre-marital counseling.

Re-igniting that passion for photography.

If you are on my blog to see wedding and portrait work, please use the links on the right hand side to navigate through the site. :)

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As glamorous as it seems to be a photographer that travels the world and shoots weddings, and as much as I do love and appreciate my job and the people I work with, sometimes work can become just work.  The majority of it really is sitting in front of a computer editing, which can become rather boring.  Running the business, doing all the business related stuff - IMHO since I'm not business savvy is absolutely no fun for me (but thank God I have someone by my side who is!).

Sometimes you just get busy and personal projects get pushed to the back burner, but I find them absolutely vital in keeping the soul of a photographer alive.  The more I am going through the 365 (it's only the end of the second week), the more I realize how important it is to take photos purely for yourself and your love of photography.

Of course it would be easy to take random photos.  There are random objects all around me that are dying to be photographed.  But for me, I wanted this project to have more purpose.  To force me to lug around my heavy camera waiting for a perfect photo opportunity.  To document the important details of my day to day.  To inspire me.  To remind me why I love what I do. :)

Although I would love to post a blog everyday, I realize it would be way too time consuming, and it would most likely interfere with my work-related photos and make the blog harder to navigate through.  This is why I decided I'm just going to combine them into one post weekly or bi-weekly (ten at a time).  If the site becomes too hard to navigate, I may set up a separate site just for these photos.  Tell me what you think.  Feedback would be much appreciated!

Again, mine are on the left.  Jacob's are on the right. :)  First one's a repeat.



E: My favorite two things to eat and sip on at Maum while I chat it up with my brides. :) J: Chloe's two front teeth.



E: Wall-e and our christmas tree that's still up.  J: Juiceboxes at an indonesian restaurant.



E: Taking my shiny, new bowling ball for it's first spin.  J: All the players.



E: My grandma = my favorite model.  So precious. J: New sign? at bwb.  Doesn't this look like an ad together?



We cheated and collaborated on this one.  It was late, but we decided to play around and paint with light.



E: Catching snow in my mittens! J: Nachhhoooooooooooo....



E: Omgoodness, the snow stuck!  J: friendly helper scouting locations for the proposal.



E: This is what the boys called a power hour after a long day of work.  J: What's my future?



E: I'm engaged! J: Hanging out with the girls.



Thank you for your interest in our day-to-day. ^^

XOXO,
Esther & Jacob

My turn - I'm engaged!

Thank you all for all the love on facebook and through calls and tweets.  We just got engaged yesterday afternoon.  I figure I would just blog the entire story with photos to give details of how it happened.  It's been quite a week (long and short all at the same time).

This is Jacob's version, while I may have added a little bit of my own commentary... in pink! ;)

Since Esther and I are doing a photo a day project, I wanted to take her to a park.  She wasn't really up for it since she was not feeling well and the temperature had dropped to freezing lately.  So instead, I told her my brother and his girlfriend wanted photog practice and we would only have to be there for a short while to give some pointers.  When she finally agreed, I picked her up to go to the park to meet with Josh and Vania.  I had to bring Josh a lens he left in my car (A telephoto lens with an adapter that made it 300mm, which I rarely would use unless I was shooting.... i don't know, maybe birds?  I was already getting suspicious at this point). Once we got there, we walked around to find them then walked a bit further.  We got to the spot where it was all supposed to go down and Josh ran out into a field telling me to take a picture of him with the lens.  Okay, so here's where you get the version of what was SUPPOSED to happen, and what ACTUALLY happened.  So give me some credit here.

Scenario 1: What was supposed to happen.

I panned over and said, "Hey, is that Carol & Bonar?" then hand her the camera to see, while I miss call them to cue the first group to hold up their signs.  She sees them, and once she gets the final one, it tells her to look over there --> so she pans over to find Andrew, Michael, and Liz holding more posters that pours out my heart.  The last one tells her to look over there --> again.  This then leads her to both of our parents holding up the final signs that read "Esther (Ju)Lee Will You... (turn around)" where I am then on one knee holding a sign that says "Marry Me? (cue the fireworks)"  This is then followed by an gasp and a YES and everyone is running in circles around us with sparklers. Then we live happily ever after.

Scenario 2: What actually happened.

I said "What is that over there?" and handed her the camera.  She thinks I'm looking at the tree so she tried to focus on the tree saying "I don't have my glasses/contacts.  It's too far away, I can't see!" I then follow with grabbing the camera and taking a picture of the first bunch and then showing her the picture trying to zoom in to see if she can read the sign.  Heavy lens - It's too blurry. 



So we start moving closer and you can see the groups are confused at this point.  Finally she's able to make out some of it and sees the 'look over there'. (The terrible vision worked to his advantage and disadvantage.  I didn't spot people in hiding, but I also couldn't see them when I was supposed to.  haha)



She follows up with a "look over where?"  I point her in the right direction.  Once again, she has a hard time seeing it and moves closer.



She finally gets to the last group of signs and is able to read it and I hear her mumbling "turn around?".



She slowly turns and sees me on my knee and says "are you serious??"



and I say "Yes, I am.  Will you Marry Me?"  She then softly says "Do I have to answer you now?" Everyone is slowly approaching and I get up to say "Yes, you do!" so she says "Uh... yea, sure!"  Whoo!  I got a 'Yea, Sure!' this is then followed by everyone scrambling to try to get their sparklers up.  Josh is the first to get his on and is running around.  You then hear Michael run by yelling "you can heaaaaar them!!!!" since you couldn't really see them in daylight.  THEN Carol drops a handful of lit Sparklers which started catching a patch of grass on fire, and we all had to start stomping on it to put it out.  Once the commotion dies down we all stand around looking at each other saying "Awwwkward.  So what should we do now?"  Yup!  Success! At least I was able to give her a proposal that was easy to capture on camera herself, and we were able to get the photos in the end.  And I know that's what counts the most to her.  :)

Thank you all for helping put it together and waiting with signs even though it was freezing outside!  You guys are amazzzzzzing.


Ring shots coming soon!  I wanted to do something more creative with them.

Brrrrr!

Brrrrr!  It is cold in here.  Atlanta has below freezing weather and nothing to show for it.  At least if it snows, it'd be winter wonderland.  I cannot wait till the weather warms up, or till I can have a nice weekend getaway somewhere warm.  I'm pretty sure I was meant to live somewhere tropical (and be tanned).

I was looking at some photos I took during winter '08 while I was living in Germany.  Snow does make for some fun photos.  :)  Good times.

But even though I can't get snow pictures, my photos can still be winter-esque.  I failed my autumn foliage photo mission this year.  I went at the tail end of the season when all the leaves were already falling off. :(  Missed it again!  I still managed a few photos, and now that I'm looking at them, they definitely look more appropriate for winter.  I'm really happy with them, I might even do prints!





Didn't miss the fall colors entirely.



I know these are long overdue.  I'm making it priority for this new year to post some more of my personal photo adventures.  And I'm making it a goal to blog post at least twice a week.  So there's two from the list of many, MANY resolutions.  I was looking over my resolutions list, and it's too ridiculously long and detailed to post, so I'll share tidbits of them here and there throughout the year.

Oh!  Also, we're not slacking on the 365.  The photos are still being taken everyday, but just not being blogged.  For the sake of keeping track of photos, making the numbers easy, and not interfering with work-related blogs, I'm planning on doing ten all at once.

Now, off to Maum, to get my favorite bread and sip on my iced coffee while I work behind my computer.  Whoa, Can't believe I have client meetings every day of this week.  Guess I will be living there this week. :)

Cheers to 2010!

First of all, since it is a new year, I wanted to start up another 365 (a photo a day for one year)...  not that any of my previous attempts were successful, but why not start off on a new slate and give it a go.  I've done random photos and portraits, and the furthest I've probably gone was a month or two.

This year, I was thinking about doing something different, perhaps more of a collaboration (maybe that can be 2011?) or a photo pairing where two people take a photo a day not knowing what the other is shooting, and then posting them side by side.

Not only is it good practice, but every photographer needs to have personal projects to spur creativity... and a little teamwork may help motivate me to keep it going longer.  So here's number 1!  Mine will show on the left, while Jacob's will be on the right.  Rest assured, no bunnies were killed to make the soup.  Click the photo to view a larger version.



Looking back at 2009, I can honestly say I feel like I've accomplished more in this one year than my entire life.  I hope I can say the same about 2010.  I revisited my entry on 2009 resolutions, and I'm surprised to see that I've achieved quite a few of them.  I visited two continents I've never been to: Europe and Africa.  Made a new friend from a completely different culture, language, etc.  Read more.  All sorts of books.  Even finished the bible twice.  Pretty good for not being a book person, yeah?  I've slowly learned to cook (easier dishes like green bean casserole, but cooking is still cooking).  And I may have never learned conversational German while I was in Germany, but I guess it's not that useful anymore now that I would have no one to speak German to.

I have grown A LOT...

personally. with photography. with owning a business.
peeled off another layer and gone a little deeper with God.
mended a lot of broken relationships with friends and family.
learned more about grace and forgiveness.
learned more of what/who love is and through that learned to love just a teeny bit more.

but I also know there's so much more growing to do.  (which is why it is taking me forever to put together my resolutions list or rather my S.M.A.R.T. goals which stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-sensitive.)  I'll have to post the resolutions later.

The growing sure is a lifelong journey.... but I'm looking forward to it.  Cheers to 2010! :)

Halloween 2009.

After all that running around to different targets, craft stores, and costume stores, I finally figured out what I wanted to be.



I was able to find a poofy enough top at the maternity section, and the leggings...  that color was tough to track down, but after checking various targets and walmarts, I found it!  Finding all the necessary tools was the hard part, but putting together the costume was fairly easy.  I am now a proud owner of a sewing machine.  Maybe, in the future I will be getting more crafty.

We ended up at two different halloween parties.  One of which, I did a little event photography for.  Minna hosted one of the best halloween parties where we met some great people, had some good food, and drank out of a skeleton shaped funnel.  What more can you ask for from a party?  haha  Here's Brad Pitt and Catwoman.  Catwoman, hands down, had the best costume.  (Tip:  if you ever want to have saggy boobs, birdseed in a stocking has the perfect consistency.)



The second place was q100's Big Wicked at compound.  It was completely packed.  We ended up heading there at 9:30, since parking goes up to $40 to $60 later on in the night.  Clubbing can be fun with good company, but it does lose it's novelty fast.  Even though we're all retired, we all had a blast since we hadn't been out in a while.  Although, now, I probably prefer house parties over going out to a club, but even for old(er) folks, I think going once a year can be doable.

Look what makes an awesome studio-esque backdrop.  The wall outside the bathrooms.



Bam-bam was already crafty enough to put together his own costume no problem... of course, with the help of my sewing machine.