A happy weekend

We’re all long past measuring happiness by smiles… It was a quiet and a serious weekend, I was stressed – it was a happy weekend. I spent it with people dear to me, people who welcome me into their homes and who will always be welcome to mine. People whose company I enjoy, people I want to take care of. You win some, you lose some, but this weekend – win.

My parents came up to visit me in school for Junior Parents Weekend, and my dad’s cousin’s family joined us today. They have two bubbly girls, one whom I’ve seen mature a lot over the years. I’m not too into kids or family friends usually, but these two I am really fond of. I treat them like family – which they are, but rather arbitrarily and distantly – what relation is it when their mother is your father’s cousin? I also have a lot of respect for their parents – their mom actually uses her English first name when talking to me, which is interesting. She’s a good woman. The two of them, aside from being very intelligent, are also educated and aware, kind and not awkward. I don’t think generational and cultural clashes happen in that household to as large an extent as in others.

It was so nice to see my parents – both still looking good. I am growing a bit protective of them – yes, they are getting older, and they are starting to show those small signs I’ve seen in my grandparents in years past, signs that turns my mind onto a well-rehearsed route to compassion and pain. But the point is, I love them very much, and I was happy to be with them. I think they are learning to be proud of me in small ways, even if I’m not doing what they wish I were.

This girl. Loves the camera. I pull a lot of fake smiles around third graders, but she can really make me smile – maybe in exasperation, or just in disbelief at how energetic and unabashed she is. But an entertainer’s a entertainer, and makes them laugh however she can, and believe me she is an entertainer and knows it.

My cousins. Mine, mine, mine.

Unrelatedly, I have no self control when it comes to haw flakes.

Speed of technology

The speed of technology – my HTML days are over, it seems. I spent hours last semester designing a CS project (website), complete with programming and nice graphics and page transitions and integration. Today, I scrapped it all and switched to WordPress.
You have to get with the times, even if it means no more Fun with Stylesheets (and PHP). The dinky little website was really not going to get me anywhere.

Again: mxvisuals.tk
(the site might be down temporarily, so you can try hcs.harvard.edu/mxvisuals)

Chabad Chanukah

From difficult to extremely difficult. The Chanukah celebration was held in the basement of Tommy Doyle’s, and as most American restaurants go, it was all about dim lighting, but with an obnoxiously bright (to my camera, at least) set of Christmas lights hanging over the bar. I used a bit of flash, but only for posed group pictures, because flash is just never subtle and encourages discomfort. In the crowded room I already felt very bulky with a large camera pointed at people just trying to have a conversation. Extremely high ISO and aperture, and then extreme correction while editing photos. Definitely, definitely a difficult assignment. The room was almost black – I think the only lighting came from the Christmas lights and a television showing ESPN.

To praise: the energy in the room was great and the atmosphere was warm – it was fun capturing the interactions between people, and I bumped into a friend. Harvard Chabad is friendly and welcoming and even fed me and it was a pleasure working for them.

But here it is. On the to-do list: learn how to take pictures in the dark.

Sara & Paulsen

A big thanks to Shang for the referral!

I had been reading the blog of a film photographer who takes really lovely pictures of candid family moments (one of her pictures was featured on freshmilkphotos.com), and the one thing she stressed over everything else was lighting. It so happened that the weekend after that, I took on two photoshoots that both proved extremely challenging, and it had everything to do with light.

Sara and Paulsen had their photoshoot in the first week of real Boston winter – some predict the coldest winter Boston has seen in a long time. They were both such troopers for withstanding the cold with me (I felt like my fingers were going to freeze off, and Sara wasn’t even wearing gloves!). As we started at the Christian Science Museum (outdoors!) before moving quickly to the Boston Public Library for some indoor photography.

It’s a beautiful library, and it’s a shame we didn’t actually get books in the picture. Will definitely have to return sometime.

Coming up

A couple session and a holiday party. Previews below.

In other news, I think I’m becoming a Canon convert! I haven’t even tried it out that much; everyone around here owns Nikons.

This is all digital stuff. I keep telling myself I will get into film eventually (Minox? drool?) – but I can’t foresee having enough time to do that in the near future.