Kung Hei Fat Choi! | Seattle Street Photography

January 29, 2012January 14, 2016Leave a comment

I enjoyed the sights and sounds (and smells!) down in the International District today as everyone rang in the Lunar New Year of the Dragon. Going down there to see the Lion Dances, hear the firecrackers, watch martial arts displays, and buy cream buns at Uwajimaya, brings back many memories for me as a kid growing up in Hong Kong. Plus I love all the people watching. It was a chilly grey day and it tried to rain, but throngs of people showed up, along with hundreds of cameras and cell phones to take photos; it’s hard to get a shot without an arm in the way holding up an iPhone. I am betting that the Mayan calendar hoopla and Nostradamus are wrong and that the Year of the Dragon will be the auspicious year that is predicted, one of transformation and improvement. Unless a comet hitting the earth IS the improvement! I wish I could have taken more photos today but here are a few to share.

xo ~ K

Experience is the only prophecy of wise men. ~ Alphonse de Lamartine

Sharing Memories, Sunsets | Reflections

January 28, 2012January 14, 20167 Comments

I spent – well, my computer spent – half the evening doing registry cleanup and optimization on my computer, with the plan to get some time in to go through some photos from back in December. I still have yet to go through all the photos I took for my son Roman’s birthday party and for some reason, Photoshop Elements has decided this evening to not cooperate with me, so maybe tonight isn’t the night. The photos from his superhero-bonanza of a birthday will just have to wait; I just particularly want to share all the color and fun with family (in England); I hate that they miss our family celebrations here but I’m grateful that I can record it all with my camera and that the web makes it so easy to share memories.

I think many of us have forgotten what it was like back when we printed out photos and actually mailed them to family and friends. We share ourselves in such a different way these days…but I still love to actually feel real photographs in my hands. All that picture-taking with the infinite possibilities of digital photography make the process so different from analog; I float between digital and analog formats because the satisfaction that comes with each process is so different. My mum is requesting I catch up with sending ‘real’ photos to her from last year…isn’t that what makes the photo-taking so worthwhile? Isn’t it more satisfying to actually have a real copy of the photograph in your hands? There is something so special about getting a roll of film developed and not being completely sure what it is you will see once you get your prints back.

I am very behind on printing out photos for my own albums and I am vowing to myself that those memories get printed very soon. Kids especially love to look at themselves in photos; it was seeing my father’s constant photo-taking and the many albums he filled with photos from our childhood in Hong Kong that likely first inspired me to explore the medium myself. I also worry that should my memory fail one day, that if I don’t have real photos, those moments in time will fade too. Photos play a central role in our memory-keeping…the connection fascinates me.

I also didn’t get cat photos done today because of one thing or another; tomorrow I have every intention of getting photos at the Lunar New Year festivities and hopefully some of my feline friends. Hoping for less dashed plans this week; I have lots I want to get done!

Leaving you with a sunset photo from the other day; I enjoy getting the view of the Space Needle from a moving car on the freeway…as a passenger…

We do not remember days; we remember moments. ~Cesare Pavese, The Burning Brand

xo ~ K

Hello world!

January 24, 2012January 11, 2016Leave a comment

So here it is! I am setting myself up with a site and a blog so that I may share my photos and my thoughts with the world around me. I am chiefly motivated by my desire to do a couple of things:

~ to share my photography and to grow personally and creatively through it

~ to raise awareness about the issues that inspire my photography; animal welfare, rescue and adoption is at the heart of my volunteer cat photography (at Animal Talk Rescue here in Seattle)

~ to create some freelance work for myself; as mum of a preschooler, I’ve been kept very busy with my little boy for the last few years, but I’m needing to feed my creative soul and share my skills. I used to work hard in the crazy world of film production but the hours and investment are just not conducive to being a mama, and my health, energy and time are far better spent these days on smaller, more personal and soulful projects

~ to bear witness – with my camera – to all those fleeting moments in time, so fleeting that the best thing I know how to do, is to take a photo. I enjoy helping to catch other people’s moments, the moments that you want to commit to memory…the ones you want to share

It’s late and I must sign off before I eat too much Theo dark chocolate while I’m online.

Leaving the blogosphere with one of my favorite Diane Arbus quotes: