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Beauty in the Ordinary: Alex, Grace & Krysta

My father was an avid photographer – the only one in the extended family when I was a child. Clad with a manual SLR, he captured some moments in the family that I think are very precious. Being the sentimental person that I am, I love the photos so much because dad simply captured our ordinary day – they are pictures of me falling asleep when I was doing my homework, my little brother giving my mom a kiss when he was 3 years old and little sister who made a face at the camera because dad was trying to take a shot of her eating.

So when Alex suggested to do a photo session with them at home doing ordinary stuff, I jumped right into it. I thought it would be different from the ones that we have done before and also, new ideas often excite me. Hehe.

I went in with the idea of shooting like how a Nat Geo photographer would shoot – photojournalistic. Some nice wide angles to give an idea of the environment, unstaged, raw and at the same time, contemporary. I thought about the shots that would simply tell a story of their everyday lives – the kind that would make the family feel nostalgic when they look at the shot 10, 20 years down the road.

The shoot turned out to be a very fun and satisfying one! Alex, Grace and Krysta were so natural in front of the camera as I pranced around them with a black piece of something (camera) on my face. I also kinda forgot that I was shooting my boss. I guess it’s a good thing because if I had that thought hovering around my head, I would have a lot of pressure!

I really do hope you like the photos, boss. Hehe.

Diane

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The Maze of Marrakech, Morocco

Within the fortified medina walls, lie little stories and hidden adventures at every turn. It is truly a maze, and if you are not careful, you’d easily find yourself walking in circles, trying desperately to navigate your way to someplace familiar. When I landed in Marrakech, my senses were just heightened. I love the energy of being in a country like Morocco. Reminds me of my travels to Egypt in the past.

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Looking at Google maps within these walls would be completely useless. It’s just a blob of emptiness…seemingly no roads, but in reality, there are hundreds of pathways leading down alleyways where some merchants try to sell fig, dates or bread.

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Honestly, I am not too big a fan of their tajine dishes… after a while, it started tasting alike to me. Krysta traveled with us, and she was a trooper!

On the first day, we were led through these pathways, through a small alleyway that was less than 6 feet in height. There were times when Alex had to duck his head because the ceiling was so low. But then, we came to this huge door that revealed a beautiful riad inside.

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Hola! Barcelona 2013

My first love has always been travel. I love creating images as I wander the streets, looking at life through my lens. When I travel, I like the idea of going off the beaten track, looking into the side lanes, hoping to glimpse something different. Honestly, I don’t really enjoy taking photos of buildings, but I get really excited when people are added to the equation. It makes me wonder… what are they thinking of at this moment? What are they doing, where are they going?

I came to Barcelona with my family to celebrate my brother’s 50th birthday. It was really wonderful being with family and his friends, just spending 2 weeks away from work for a while. I hope to rejuvenate and get some new inspiration as I travel. Currently, I am in Morocco, which is an amazing country, full of surprises every corner. More on that later… but for now, here are some shots from my travel in Barcelona.

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Welcome to Holland: Life with Down Syndrome

My first encounter with a Down Syndrome child happened while I was in Malacca, growing up as a teenager. I visited the Salvation Army frequently because of church. It was there that I met this boy… who seemed rather different. It’s sad to think that as a child, I was never educated about loving everyone equally, no matter how different they seem to me. Recently, I photographed a child with Down Syndrome, and honestly, I didn’t even realize it until her mom told me about the situation at the end of the session. She was still beautiful in my eyes. As a mom now, I felt an ache in my heart, and yet, I also wanted to pour out my love to this child… to tell her that she is very, very much loved.

This set of photos and story about Nella’s birth really touched my heart.

But the analogy below really stirred me. I never thought about it that way… it is so beautiful.

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WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by Emily Perl Kingsley.

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability – to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this……

When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting. After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland.”

“Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.”

But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met. It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around…. and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills….and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy… and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.”

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away… because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss. But… if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things … about Holland.

Fraser Island, Australia with the Panasonic GX7

Early this month, I was invited to Fraser Island, Australia to test out the new Panasonic Lumix GX7. The first time I laid eyes on it, I fell in love! It has a beautiful vintage look that will look good with any outfit I wear, plus, it fit my small hands perfectly. Over 2 days, I had the privilege of going around Fraser Island with this micro four thirds camera and a huge range of lenses. Thank God the camera and lenses were light, so lugging around 7 lenses in my sling bag was easy-peasy! I would definitely consider this camera as a travel buddy.

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The landscape at Fraser Island is just so raw and untouched. It is the largest sand island in the world, with the beach stretching over 123km in length. What was interesting to me was the fact that the beach is actually a designated highway so there are signs saying 80km/hr is the max you can go!

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Now can you imagine this landscape with a couple in the photo? Darn, I wish we had models to photograph!

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All the photos in this post were taken with the Lumix GX7 – minimally edited. I was really amazed at the quality and colour of the images. The curse of being a photographer is that sometimes, your photos never get to see the light of day because you’re always wanting to ‘edit’ your images before posting them online. I mean, I have been guilty of colour grading every single travel photo before posting it to Facebook! Since the images that come out of this camera look superb already, hopefully, it’ll cure me of this ‘editing’ disease that every photographer faces.

The 90-degree tiltable Live View Finder also made shooting interesting since I could see things from a different perspective. (Plus, it made me look cool – do refer to the first image in this post). One thing I had to get used to was learning to focus on the touch screen, but with the focus peaking feature, it gave me the confidence knowing that the highlighted edges in an image are the parts in focus.

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