tracey + ellen

This past weekend, one of our family friends hosted our annual mass gathering of Asians. It's exactly what it sounds like, all our Asian family friends rent out a nearby park for a picnic. The BBQ is going all afternoon, so lunch and dinner and snacks in between are covered and there's always a supply of bubble tea (the quintessential Asian food) and mango jello. It's pretty awesome.

So, I was hanging out next to my friend's dad who's a total camera nerd like me. I was practically drooling over his very sexy L-series lens, you know, the white Canon ones. I started talking about how I was saving up for the 50mm 1.8 since it was relatively cheap and all and suddenly, the man pulls out a lens from his bag. "I have the 35mm 1.4 if you want to try it out for a while."

Before you could say "Holy shit", the lens was on my camera and I was gone.

I grabbed these two half Asian sisters, Tracey and Ellen, and headed into the woods. I absolutely love how these turned out. I'm still not used to having a DSLR yet, much less shooting with 1.8's or 1.4, so seeing these pictures are still kinda unreal. I still get that reaction of "Oh, these are really really good. Oh, I took these? No way." whenever I see these. It's such a far cry from the S5 I was shooting with until last month.

They are so ridiculously pretty, in a vaguely exotic way that's hard to place if you didn't know they had Asian blood in them. We always joke that they look full white; usually halfies have the eyes to show for it. I remember the first time I met one of them, Ellen was in 6th grade, calling home to get a ride and suddenly Chinese starts spewing out of this white girl's mouth. QUOI? Haha, I assumed that she was adopted for the longest time. These two girls are amazing to work with, not camera shy at all (except for the occasional bout of self esteem issues about braces :D) and willing to do anything I asked them to do. And completely crazy and happy people too. <3

One of my favorite pictures of Ellen from that day, perfect lighting and expression.

Mai current desktop background. Bahaha, ima total creeper.

Very experimental editing with this one but I absolutely loved how it turned out.

Bleh, the focus on this one irks me.

ASIAN BABY. anomnomnomnom

Julia edited this one. Gah, I love the 1.4

My little forest spirit. <3

trace, you are gorgeoussss.

Some behind the scenes stuff. sooc

they are so close, i'm jealous. :D

trace is so giggly. hehe. she burst out into giggles almost all the time. cutie.

our adopted little brother for the day, what a cutie.

the photog and her models.

They are adorable. :D

And of course for bigger versions, go on my flickr.