it's a good feeling...

i started selling some of my photos on a stock photo website called iStockPhoto (www.iStockPhoto.com) a few months ago. their customers include graphic designers looking for the right photo for their project, companies looking for photos to use on their websites or advertisements, and magazines looking for photos to accompany their articles. granted, it doesn't pay much at all (depending on the file size purchased, i could be making only pennies), but over time and with enough sales, it'd all add up. besides, i thought it'd be pretty cool to one day see my pictures actually being used in public in a magazine, poster, or a website.

well, guess what?! i just found out that one of my photos sold is currently being used in a lifestyle magazine called Vivir Bien! my photo of an Aruba chapel is featured in their current issue in their article on tourism and visiting Aruba. i'm super excited to see one of my photos being used, so i just thought i'd share this with you all! :) here's the website, but it'll only show the current month's edition, and i'm in the August 2006 one: www.vivirbien.com/tourism.php

i don't know whether they actually sell this magazine in the States. i'm pretty certain they don't sell this in HK. could anyone back home look for this magazine edition and buy a copy for me?? i'll pay ya back! let me know... i'd love to save the magazine... and one day show my kids and say "look, one of mommy's pictures appeared in a magazine article!" :) haha!

in case you're curious as to what other pictures i've got selling in my small, but slowly growing portfolio, take a look at: http://www.istockphoto.com/file_search.php?action=file&userID=954676

what's wrong with this picture?

ok, can anyone tell me what wrong with the photo below??

does this picture look like it was taken by someone who knows what he's doing?
i don't think so.

correct me if i'm wrong, but if you visit the Statue of Liberty and someone asks you to take a picture for them, wouldn't you assume that they'd want the statue to be in the picture too, and NOT just the lower torso of the statue?? why in the world would anyone take a headless picture of the Statue of Liberty?!? and us girls are so far back in the background that you can barely see our faces. so what exactly is this picture focused on? what horrible composition! what was the dude thinking? he even took a second shot that looked exactly like the first one!

the funny thing was that i'd purposely seeked out this guy to take our picture for us because he was carrying a professional SLR camera... so i ASSUMED he'd know how to take a good photo! boy, was i wrong!

anyways, we asked someone else to take another picture for us.
much better! wouldn't you agree?

my new toy

i have a new camera to play with!
my wonderful husband just bought me a Nikon D200 (a digital SLR camera) for my belated birthday present. i have to say that it's undoubtedly the most expensive present i've ever received... thanks, dear!! he's so sweet because he told me that he likes my photography style and wants me to be able to take better quality photos with a more professional-quality camera.

i'm so excited to be taking pictures with it, especially on our upcoming Tibet trip. let's see how differently the photos turn out... meanwhile, i need to read the instruction manual and learn to use all of the options and features on the camera before we go. i've been spoiled by using point-and-shoot 35mm cameras and easy-to-use digital cameras all these years, where settings were pretty automatic or basic. it's been over 10 years (when i took photography in high school) since i've learned about aperture, ISO, white balance, and other technical photography terms, and now i'll have to re-learn everything so that i can shoot manually!

i can't wait!! :)

mystery man

ok, does anybody know who this guy is???!!

i took this picture of this guy back in early July when he was a special guest featured on the Good Morning America's Morning Show. i went to watch the live Mary J. Blige performance on the show that morning in Bryant Park in NYC. afterwards, girls were screaming for this guy's and taking pictures of him.

is he an actor? a model? a reality show star??
i admit, i don't know who he is, but i went ahead and took pictures of him and got his autograph anyway. (hey, he could be super famous someday! and he's cute!) i thought he reminded me of Jason Lewis (Smith from "Sex and the City"), who i think is really hot! but i know it's not him, because his voice sounded different. i couldn't decipher his autograph either, but i heard girls scream out "Nash" or something that sounded a lot like that. plus he seemed pretty nice in taking the time to take pictures and sign autographs with the girls who asked.

does ANYONE know who he is???

just one of those days

once in a while, you get one of those crappy days where everything seems to go wrong, and you think to yourself "ok, what next?!". you know what i'm talking about... like a really bad Monday, where you're probably better off staying at home and crawling back into bed.

today was one of those days.

i just flew back into Hong Kong last night. since HK is 15 hours ahead of California and i didn't sleep a wink on the 14-hour flight yesterday, my internal clock was all screwed up. i woke up several times in the middle of the night, eventually got up at 6:30am this morning because, for the life of me, i couldn't fall back to sleep.

there's a typhoon here, so it's been gusty and rainy all day. at times, it was pointless to carry an umbrella because the rain will come at you sideways and your umbrella will be blown inside out. broken umbrellas everywhere. as i'm typing this, the rain is so heavy now that everything's white outside my window!

naturally, today would've been the perfect day to stay indoors. but since we're taking a trip to Tibet in 2 weeks, it's essential to apply for my China visa TODAY.

first, i needed money from the ATM to pay for the visa. but when i got to the bank, not only did we NOT have any money left in the account, we were overdrawn! luckily, i called Larry and he quickly transferred some money in.

i then went to the travel agency to apply for a China visa. since i need the visa by Monday in order to process the Tibet visa, i have to pay an extra $50 US dollars for the next-day express service to get it processed by tomorrow! fine, i didn't have a choice. but THEN the travel agent told me that i didn't have any blank passport pages left to attach the China visa to. what?!

now i had to run over to the U.S. Consulate and request additional passport pages... except that the travel agent mentioned that it was closed this afternoon. WHAT?! i frantically called Larry. he looked up the hours , and assured me that they were closed for lunch and would re-open at 1:30pm. whew!

i rushed over to the U.S. Consulate, but i'm stopped by a guard. "Do you have an appointment?". WHAT?!?!? with heightened security, you now need to make an online appointment before you're allowed inside the building. couldn't i just call? i couldn't believe it, it was one obstacle after the next. luckily, it was Larry to the rescue (again), and he was able to make an online reservation for me for half an hour later. (thanks, dear!)

well, i guess it could've been worse. the Consulate could've been closed for the rest of the day, or i could've slipped in the rain and fallen into a muddy puddle... now THAT would've been bad.
alright, i feel much better already.