Hello, it's been a while.

Hopefully you're not tired of hearing that! I'm sorry, it's again been a really busy past few weeks. You know what though? I've learned throughout these years that busy doesn't necessarily mean bad. When things get busy I've noticed that it often serves as a time to test my dedication to my family by making time to do housework, taking care of the chinchillas, and making meals etc. It also serves as a test of my dedication to my Heavenly Father, who understands what my own life entails at the moment and trusts me to do my best in serving His children (particularly at the moment my role is in working with the young women of my local church).

So uh, going back to the fact that I'm back on the blog I'd like to share with you some photos of my first Quincenera that I got to attend. The celebration was for one of my beautiful young women from my church. Boy did I feel special to be invited to such a great event in her life. The place was decorated so nicely, and she looked just like a princess, in all honesty! Her tiara and dress were such a accentuation to her beauty. I want to tell you though, that what's more beautiful about her is what's within, there is a beautiful soul within her. She is such a sweet, kind, fun-loving girl! Lucky me to be able to work with her :)

For her celebration for turning 15 I got to see her and many other men and women dance many fun routines. Very quickly it also became time for us to dance. For those who know me, I LOVE dancing. That night I had some nice friends teach me new kinds of dances, many to be used for Hispanic songs. It was so much fun, I wish I could have stayed all night.

Celebrations are a beautiful thing. It honors an individual, for her life lived so far, for her accomplishments, for who she has become and who is she is continuing to become. That night, a few Saturdays ago many people gathered together to to throw a celebration for my young woman, to honor her, to feel so happy for her and to cheer her on to her future. :) I hope when my next celebration comes around (probably my birthday) I can think about what else besides my progression in age is can celebrated about me.

I'm not really an event photographer, and I almost never take pictures in our church cultural halls but I thought I'd like to take a few shots to remember this day. Here are a few of the pictures that I'd like to share with you.

Beautiful girl. :))

Loved the decor.

And beautiful cake.

This looks like this party was held for them, huh? Caught a good moment for these two.

See you soon, promise!?

Masumi

Read more »

Last Saturday, outside of one of my favorite markets Target, I experienced something that had me crying on the drive home.

It happened last Saturday, at around 5:00P.M.. I had driven over to Target after first visiting my go-to Japanese market Marukai. I was planning to hurry through Target to get home on time to prepare dinner. While driving up to the parking lot, I noticed a young man standing in the middle of it with a box. In my subconscious I knew that there was chocolate in that box, and I very much knew he was trying to raise money with it. I drove a little farther than usual to park somewhere that was farther off from the young teen. After parking, I realized what I had done: I had purposefully avoided him so I didn't have to give him money. Guilt immediately followed, along with a fond memory of several scriptural verses that I read from the Bible and Book of Mormon. The verses asked to give to those who ask, to those who are in need without worrying about yourself. Through several experiences of practicing my faith in those verses in the past, I remembered that God had always provided for me when I give to someone in need. So the thought immediately followed, "What am I doing?" After that occurrence in the car, I stepped out and approached him myself to see how much his chocolates cost. He said $2.99. Having only $2 in my wallet at the time, I walked away with a promise that I'll buy a chocolate after doing my grocery shopping in the store.

Sure enough, after walking out of Target he was still there, selling the chocolate. I went to him and bought one chocolate bar for $2.99, the one he recommended. As I interacted with him during our chocolate sales transaction I noticed that his manner of speech was a little different, maybe a little slow. I sensed his nervousness as he looked away from me a lot. Something about him and the situation he was in made an impression on me.

Earlier that morning, as I scrolled through different photos online I asked myself, "What kind of photography do I want to show?" I knew while walking away from him, that this was something I wanted to show the world. With each step taken toward my car, a sense of relief came over me as I remembered that my camera was in the car that day. Before heading out to the markets I told myself to bring my camera because oftentimes I would see something that I wanted to capture but would feel disappointed because my camera was not with me, so that time I had brought it.

About a minute after this young lad says bye to me he sees me returning towards him. I wonder if that scared him at all, seeing this small Asian girl practically marching towards him. After explaining who I was and what I wanted to do, he, who we can call "J" allowed me to photograph him selling his chocolate bars. For the next 20 minutes or so, I saw how he would stand in front of Target, waiting, hoping that somebody would buy his chocolate. As this young teen stood there alone, I could only imagine the thoughts that ran through his head. "Would anybody really want to buy chocolate?" "Would they really care to help me raise money?" I were if he felt scared, if he felt lonely at all standing in the middle of a parking lot by himself. I saw many people walk purposefully away from J to avoid being approached by him. I also witnessed several people walk straight towards him to buy the chocolate, or even to just give him money. It was a pretty hot day; I felt the sweat on my body in the meager 20 minutes of standing around him. I don't know how long J had been there.

After getting the shots I wanted, I said thanks and goodbye to J. Then the drive home.

There was something about that situation that made me really want to photograph him, there with his box of chocolate. He made such a strong impression on me. On the road I thought about all the times I would hesitate to go out in the sun because I wouldn't want my skin color to darken. I remembered his skin color: dark brown. He must've been out there for hours. How foolish I am. I thought about how young he must be. I thought about how he was spending his Saturday working, working for his goal. He was learning the value of work that day. I thought about why he was in the organization. He must come from a situation that brought him to join that group. I thought about how I have always practically refused to work on Saturdays because I want it for either a date day or free day. He was willing to give up his weekend to sweat out in the sun selling chocolates to strangers in his vulnerable state, alone because he was trying to raise money to go to Six Flags with his group, his friends. I practically refuse to work on weekends because I want a free day. How foolish have I been. Having been working since my mid-teens, I've really come to value work because of all of the important life lessons I've learned from it. Many of us at his age may have had kind parents who would easily just give us the money to go to Six Flags. He worked for it. I could not help but think about how he felt, how he was battling fear with hope that day, hope that he can go to Six Flags. Tears welled up as I thought about the many life lessons he was learning that day, about the importance of working, interacting with people, about how to do business, about fighting fear with hope,

I used to be one of those individuals who would avoid giving money, feeling skeptic that the organization that I was giving to was fake, but that day I felt a little part of me change. Especially when it is a child who is clearly working for something, I felt that God will ensure that I'll be alright in financial terms even if I were in a financial pinch. I hope to be able to remember that short amount of time I've spent with J, because I saw something so beautiful that day. I learned something that Saturday. Maybe, hopefully I will remember those scriptures that gently brought to my remembrance the importance of giving back to God by serving his children when opportunities arise to practice what the scriptures ask me to do. It doesn't even need to be money that I give, but I know that giving what we have teaches me about the importance of life. I learned something invaluable that day, a piece of wisdom that you can't buy. But I guess for me it cost $2.99.

It was a pretty hot day. He stood there on the right for most of the time that I photographed him.

The parking lot.

$2.99. Two for $5.

Many times it seemed scary to approach the people.

 Many time they said no.

But sometimes they said yes. Maybe even more than yes.
This man approached him and asked, "You got change for a $10? I just wanna give you some money. I don't want chocolate."

I ended up learning so much from that short 20 minutes, and he was doing all of the work.

Thanks J.
I hope you can go to Six Flags with your buddies.

Masumi

Read more »

I, M Kat, am a huge breakfast person. I love to eat until full in the morning to fuel me for the rest of the day. Usually the meals need to good sustenance to provide enough energy too. Due to having busy mornings these past few months breakfasts have been quickly whipped up; I've been preparing foods such as cereal, hash browns and such, which are not bad, but not so satisfying. I last week I decided to make things that both tasted great and gave good nutrition. Here was the menu:

Monday: Homemade sourdough bread topped with corn (bread made by husband :))

Tuesday: Oatmeal with brown sugared strawberries and sour cream (a recipe from Martha Stewart) 

Wednesday: Mini gratins which had tomatoes, bell peppers, egg, Japanese sausages and mozzarella cheese 

Thursday: Smoothie made with 1/2 apple, orange, 1 banana, several frozen strawberries, 2 spoons of plain yogurt, & one spoonful of sugar

Friday & Sat: I can't remember!

Lets say that last week my tummy was quite satisfied early on in the morning! I look forward to more nutritious, energizing breakfasts in the future :)

Here are a few photos of two of the breakfasts which I got to photograph from that menu. Enjoy!

Mondays's corn on sourdough bread.

Wednesday's Gratin. Yummmmm!

See you soon

Masumi

Read more »

So we are all back from our Memorial Day weekend huh? I hope everyone had an enjoyable one! 

When my husband and I go out on weekends, we like to try eating at unique & healthy restaurants. So last Friday night my husband took me to My Vegan, out in Pasadena. As you can tell, it is a vegan restaurant. In fact they are so vegan that they asked that customers do not bring in any non-vegan items from outside in the vicinity; I respect that (but I may have forgotten about the chocolate candy in my purse while eating there, sorry!). We didn't know exactly what to expect in regards to how the food would taste because we've never had vegan Thai food before, but the food blew us away. We've been fortunate to try many Thai restaurants, but none of them have ever topped our all-time favorite Thai place: Thai Corner, in Chino Hills. Allow me to tell you that the food that this vegan restaurant serves, ladies and gentlemen was up to par with Thai Corner. It was shockingly good. It may have possibly been because our expectation was not too high also, haha. I ordered Pad See Ew with soy chicken and Chadsen got Yellow Curry Noodle. Both of our dishes were so good. Personally I may have liked the Yellow Curry Noodle a tad bit more. This place was a humble little restaurant, not too fancy. You wouldn't imagine such delicious food being served here but ladies & gentlemen, do not judge a book by its cover. 

I can't wait to come back to this place! Let me know if you try it and what you think!

Masumi 

Read more »

Today I tried creating a type of picture that I've been noticing for the past few months on Flickr & other social media outlets: Double Exposure photos. Double Exposure photos have two (or more) photos or images enmeshed or layered together. So after this week of wanting a chance to try it, today was the day. I am the type of person who usually has an image of what I want especially when it comes to art. Usually I try to find a model for my personal experimental shoots, but for this double exposure experiment I saw myself as the model. 

Loving the music artist Nujabes, I was inspired to try a Double Exposure photo that looked like one of his album covers (which is a girl with birds & flowers, very beautiful!). So of course I went onto one of my favorite, easy sources of learning Youtube, to quickly learn how to make this work. Thank you to this site for teaching the audience quickly and simply. Another Youtube link that I would recommend to learn the art of creating a double exposure shot via Photoshop is this one. Although he talks for a few minutes on his own, I find how he discusses his "artsy fartsy"-ness pretty funny. He's very entertaining and definitely artsy-fartsy.

Without getting too deep into the details of how it works, this is how I made it work! 

So the first thing I did was take a photo of myself on a rather blank (white-ish) background. Thanks to my patient husband who dealt with my picky-ness, after several long minutes I got a workable photo of myself. The next step was to get it up on Photoshop, adjust it how I want (playing with Levels), then get another photo of something that I wanted on me. I am a nature-y person so I pulled up a recent photo I took of leaves. I set that photo on top of my picture, set it to screen, turned it around and pressed enter. After playing with several other Photoshop features such as Curves and Hue/Saturation and Color Fill and used the eraser here & there I got a result that got me excited! If you would like to try this yourself please click one of the two links I added in this blog, they are so helpful! If you would like the look on this picture and want to know exactly how this image was created feel free to comment or send me a msg :)

See you soon! Have a great Memorial Day weekend.

Masumi

Read more »

A few days ago I began falling in love with landscape photography, something that has never really struck a chord within me. My reunion with Stumbleupon has really got me to see the beauty of it! Today I tried my closest possible attempt to it and am hoping to travel to a few beautiful locations throughout this year to get a few landscape shots. Can't wait! Today has been a day of growth for me both personally and photography-wise. You may notice that my photography style is a bit different today, but I definitely am liking it :). I love trying new things and finding new things to love.

See you soon. :)

Masumi

Read more »