The past few days, the sun has seeped through our vertical blinds, so I’m glad Jenni worked on putting up some curtains to keep our bedroom dark while we sleep. I’m pretty happy with the setup, the curtains are a nice deep red that blocks most of the sunlight on its own, and with our vertical blinds pulled over, our bedroom gets pretty dark.
At BridgeTown Swing 2005, Jennilyn and I won tickets to Reno Dance Sensation 2006 when we placed first in intermediate and novice jack & jill contests respectively. When I looked at the dates of Reno, I was pleasantly surprised that our first wedding anniversary was the same weekend. What better way to celebrate our first anniversary than to go dancing? How about dinner, dancing, and a show?
It’s hard to express the joy that God has brought into our first year of marriage. He provided for us financially, allowed us to grow to love each other for our strengths and weakness, and celebrate each day with a kiss. He blessed us with great friends and family who supported us as we got our bearings. He sang to us as we danced together. I’m also sure He smiled as He shared jokes with us.
We had the opportunity to photograph a wedding a few weeks back, and when Jennilyn did post-processing to the photos, I was struck by the elegance and simplicity of black and white. As she changed some of the photographs to black and white, they transformed from an “okay” photo to a great picture.
Experimenting with the monochrome theme, I took a few photos of flowers and changed them to black and white. I chose a specific color to filter for— generally a red color, so that the reds will become whites. I also boosted the shadows so that the only flower is visible and the background disappears to darkness.
Most of the flowers in the pictures are tulips outside my workplace. I waited until the rain stopped for a moment and captured the raindrops on the petals. Sunlight peeked through the clouds gave good lighting for my transition to black and white.
The rose in the collage was taken on my apartment dinner table. I included it because it was the first flower I used the aforementioned technique. The difference is that I blurred the edge of the pedals.
One of the fun things to inspire creativity is to come up with a theme for routine tasks. I’ve read from a variety of sources that photographers spice things up by setting up a theme on a photo hunt. I believe there are times for freeform and exploration, but a theme can give a purpose rather than aimless shooting.
The weather was fairly nice in Beaverton in the afternoon, so Jenni and I took a light stroll near the Beaverton library with cameras in hand. While she was getting better acquainted with my digital rebel, I took the opportunity to photograph some patterns around me.
This week I finished up two big projects. I had been working on a fairly complex web project at work that I launched as phase one. I’m quite proud of it as it has gone through several revisions based on feedback and requirements changing. It’s an online purchasing guide for Vernier Software & Technology. By far, it’s the most complex web app I’ve built for them.
Jenni and I spent President’s Day weekend in Sacramento attending the Capital Swing convention. I took my first shot at intermediate Jack & Jill since winning first in the novice division at BridgeTown Swing 2005. I graduated from being in novice for almost three years, and like moving up to middle school, the excitement of new opportunities and higher expectations rattled my stomach. I used to be at the top, and now, I’m back to the bottom. The best thing about being at the bottom is that there’s only one way to go—upwards.
For Christmas, Jennilyn got us a special gift to see Rebecca St. James live in concert. She remembered that I told her that I’ve never been to a live concert before and picked up two tickets to one of our favorite artists. It was a wonderful time of worship and listening to several artists’ stories on how God speaks into and through their lives.
In addition to seeing Rebecca, we got to listen to Jayden and the Barlow Girls. They were all very talented. The light show provided a fun opportunity to take some pictures and the music played loud. Thought-my-phone-was-vibrating loud.
One thing that tickled our funny bones was when the Barlow Girls asked everyone to take out their cellphones and make them glow. They called it modern-day fire-safe lighters.
Jenni and I received a card recently from a lady in Seattle. She also enclosed twenty dollars for us to celebrate Valentine’s Day. It was such as kind gesture, and we really appreciated the encouragement to continue dating during our marriage. Our benefactor is very generous and nice. A wonderful blessing.
A mystery too. She has always been extremely kind with me, even though I barely know her. She welcomes me warmly everytime I see her at dance conventions. She gave me a nice dance shirt one year I went to Easter Swing. Why the kindness? I wonder if it was because I overheard someone speak kindly of her and I asked her to dance at some point. If so, it amazes me what a little kindness can do.
My parents, Jenni, and I visited the Portland Convention Center to see the festivities for Chinese New Year. There were many performances with children, musicians, and martial arts experts. The children were amusing and entertaining as they performed routines in colorful costumes. The musicians played traditional Chinese instruments like the two-string cello instrument, Chinese zither, and mandolins. I enjoyed the martial arts toward the end because they were impressively fast and the weapons they showcased looked dangerous to wield.