Cups in a Cake

Let's be honest here, I've had many discussions about red velvet cake and either people love it or hate it. And usually they hate it because they're annoyingly unadventurous and haven't even tried the cake. (Not that eating red velvet cake requires an adventurous personality). So if you're one of those people out there who haven't tried this comfort cake, then seriously, take a step back and listen to the sobs of your poor taste buds!

And if you're one of those people who DO NOT KNOW what red velvet cake is, then READ THIS IMMEDIATELY...  Red velvet cake is, surprisingly, a Southern chocolate cake indulged in blood-red food coloring. Beet root was actually used instead back in the days to enhance the color of the cake, but I heard it still tastes good...! The cake is usually topped with roux icing (fluffy french icing), buttercream frosting, or more commonly, cream cheese frosting. 

For real, man-to-man talk now, eat some red velvet cake. It's delicious. 

These pictures were one of the first I took with a new 50mm lens I got. This lens is perfect for taking people pictures and the beauty of this lens is that it focuses on one subject and makes everything else blurry. This lens is a work of aperture and depth of field. 

In case you didn't know, this is not what red velvet cake looks like. My sister wanted to make red velvet cupcakes but didn't put enough food coloring, which is why it looks pink! Silly sister... but the cupcakes tasted as good as hot fudge brownies with ice cream, or raspberry cheesecake, or warm pumpkin spice pie, or even some s'mores. So good!

Hope I got you craving for some sugar and sweet and keep an eye out for some food photography!

A Pic in a Pic

I can't say this is a picture in a picture, it's more like taking a picture of a camera taking a picture but I never took a picture on that camera, I just captured a picture of the camera that's pretending to take a picture... jkjk! Sorry for the confusion (even though I know what I'm saying through all the poor writing), but thats just mumbo jumbo, sorta like this picture...

There's so much going on... the camera, the screen on the camera, the roses, the sunlight, the window, the outdoors, the table, and all the other space-fillers. 

 I deem this picture to be far simpler and easy-going, agreed? I bet if this picture could transform into any animal, it would choose to become a humpback whale... cause a humpback and this picture has a a calm demeanor, but still powerful. Just stare at the picture... so domestic and serene... 

And the picture above? Phew, that would become the most-attention-seeking crow in the photographic world. I bet it's so loud, the movie world could hear it cawing, all like "Cawww cawww I need more light, cawwww get more flowers and focus on my beak!" 

Haha just kidding, I like these pictures a ton and even though it's not what I visioned them to be, I'm glad to have checked off "a pic in a pic"!

Painting Colors

What happens if all color disappeared? Scientifically, I think that's impossible, but photographically, of course anything can happen. Here's a world where all the color vanishes and only paintbrushes can generate color. 

This is what you call the "most powerful paintbrush" in the world. Why? Because it has the power to bring color to America, starting off with the state that could be it's own country, California!!

Back in 6th grade, our english teacher assigned us something called a "what if", every Friday. The assignment was to write at least 8 sentences about "what if" something isn't the way it is today.

 While writing this post, I remembered I wrote something about no color, and happens to be, I wrote about colors not mixing. Here it is word for word, way back from 6th grade:

"What if colors wouldn't mix? If colors wouldn't mix, everything would be red, yellow, and blue. Paintings and clothes wouldn't be colorful. Kids would not have the chance to be colorful with colors. Art class would become drawing class. The unusual things would become very usual without different colors. People would try to find ways to make colors mix together. Rainbows wouldn't exist anymore. Instead, there would be re-yel-blu-bows. The world will soon look colorless after a while. People would start to get bored of these three colors." -Sayuri 12/2/2011 

Thanks to a little technology and photo-editing, I made these pictures black-and-white, and then erased the layer to expose the color underneath. Ironically, I wrote a "what if…" about technology not existing as well…

The Drive Past the Farm

In the pasture,

The mighty pasture, 

The grass grows tall tonight.

In the pasture,

The mighty pasture,

The grass grows tall tonight .

Oooooooooo…

In the meadow,

The mighty meadow, 

The breeze chills us tonight. 

In the meadow, 

The mighty meadow, 

The breeze chills us tonight…

Oooooooo…

Old MacDonald had a farm,

ee-i-ee-i-o.

And on that farm there was a barn,

ee-i-ee-i-oo.

He grew food here,

He raised animals there,

Here some food, there animals,

Everywhere he went, oh!

Old MacDonald had a farm,

ee-i-ee-i-oo.

Old MacDonald left his farm,

ee-i-ee-i-oo.

And he left his farm in a big hurry,

ee-i-ee-i-oo.

He left his farm here,

 He left his farm there,

Here he left, there he left

Everywhere he left, oh!

Old MacDonald left his farm,

ee-i-ee-i-oo.

And once he left… the grass stayed green…

eeeee-i-eeeee-i-ooooo

What a quick and musical post, and excuse my inability to make-up good lyrics!
 The first section was to the tune of "The Lion Sleeps tonight" and the second section was to the tune of "Old MacDonald had a Farm". These pictures were actually taken while I was on a bus, surprisingly it's not blurry or shaky.

Throw back to old songs!!!

Magical Light Powers

One night, a fairy light princess came through my window and gave me magical light powers. The next morning I woke up and I discovered I could emit light through my hand. 

Just kidding... this technique is what's called light graffiti or light writing. This happens when you over expose your camera over a period of time. To do this, all you need is a room, flashlight, a camera, and a camera stand. 

First find a room, and it can be well lit or dark, your choice. Then, set up your camera on the stand, set a timer, and stand in front of the camera with your flashlight. It's important to have your camera in the right mode... keep it in manual settings with a very low shutter speed (15-30 seconds). Play around with the shutter speed until you like your results. 

I had two flashlights in my hands, hence the two colors in the HI picture. It's a little difficult to draw letters in the air because you have to draw backwards, and you have to make sure you're not overlapping the letters. 

 Huh, are you confused? Are these real fireworks? You wonder, and I'll answer. My sister and I created these fireworks with two flashlights. I created the blue sparks while she created the center yellow dot, which happens to look a lot like a sun. 

These are outlines of my sister posing. She just stood in a pose, and I traced her out with the flashlight. I got around to naming her poses...

                  Name: Kate (looks like she's skating)       Name: Victor (victory pose)

    

Name: Bulk (she tried to look like the Hulk)

Here's a nice scene created by my sister and I. She took care of the "dreamy" work by creating the sun and clouds, while I did the "down-to-earth" work by creating the grass, trees, and birds. We did all this in a 30-second shutter speed. 

 Once again, our macho girl in the dark.There's my sister wishing she could be superwoman, and I drew the yellow lines behind her so that she can be visible.

And our last post for these light graffiti's. Bye!

Hope you enjoyed these easy and simple works of light. The next time I do light graffiti, I'll make sure to include visible objects instead of a black background.

 

Fib Master

I think I can sell this piece of artwork for a few hundred right? It's a 9x15 canvas, and phew it took a ton of time to paint. I used a technique I call, dry-brush, where you paint a portion and then smudge it out on the canvas. This was inspired by a picture I took at longwood gardens sometime ago. Let me know if you would like to purchase it!

Imagine you're on vacation and it's Fourth of July. You visited a huge cave attraction for the whole day. Your tour guide taught you so much about them, you were totally fascinated by the end of the day. As night was nearing and the caves were closing, you realized you left a bag way inside. You went to go get it, but when you came back, the exit was closed up. Oh no..you were locked inside... what were you going to do for the night?? All these thoughts were running through your mind until the fireworks interrupted you right above. Perfect spot right?

I found these delicious red berries on the dryest leaves ever. These dainty berries were as bright as a red rose in a pile of snow. It just stood out in the gray bush, I've never seen anything like it. 

P.s. I'm just kidding!! All of these pictures are edited on various editing software. The first picture was just edited with an artistic filter. The second picture was a combination of two pictures layered. And the third picture is a black/white picture and I just left the red berries in color. Haha, sorry if I fooled you, but this is the power of editing. 

Christmas Bracelets

Arts and crafts for you all! I've never posted a craft-piece I've made so far on this blog, so for the first time, here are a few Christmas bracelets I made this year. 

In all honesty, I had no idea how and where to put these bracelets. I just thought they should lay on something brown to contrast the color, but not on something flat. I looked around for a browny color, and the fur on the hood of my mom's coat did the job. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 bracelets hits the furry hood.

I love this picture a lot, it looks so dramatic and has a studio look. That's right, I took a photoshoot of these bracelets, not weird at all! I found a fancy book to pile the bracelets on, and started snapping! So these bracelets are I guess what you call "friendship bracelets". I used about five different colors of embroidery string, created mini strings, and braided them up. I think the mini strands gave the bracelet a lot of volume and colorfulness. These bracelets are very easy to make, yet I don't know why it was so difficult to find a setting for them. Think about where you would photoshoot them...?