At peace...

shhhh.......... :)

I'm back!!!

Just one day after my last final I'm back to what I {LOVE} - I'm shooting :) This one was taken by Dh - and was a crappy dark sooc but I saved it ;) LOL. This is my "HI" and please don't give up on me.... I will be posting a lot until the end of Jan.

Quick jump into the future.

I'm embarrassed to say that I sacrificed my hobby for the sake of a college diploma. I also went back to work. Result??? I haven't had a camera in my hands for 3 months - aaaaaaaa!!!! It hit me today. So in a rush I pulled out my equipment, got some candy to bribe my toddler and shot for 20 min. just to make myself feel better. I shouldn't have edited any pictures, because I have a ton of homework but what the heck.... I feel better already :)

BTW - did I mention that Alex turned 2???

AWESOME sunset to keep my spirit up.

Truth be told I'm not in a great shape lately. Life is catching up for all those peaceful moments I've had last 3 years and it's kicking my butt big time :( But I can only do as much about it so rather than crying over my misery I choose to get happy on the side. Like this photo - it makes me happy.

Job - provides money - money buys things - things don't make me happy
Home - I don't love being home so I should be there only as much as required to get things done
School - I actually like is so far
Dh - he's coming around - I hope.

Summary - let's just focus on the photo, shall we? :)

Pink wall!

If only it was somewhere close.... but it's far far away.... This pink wall was such a great background I'm a little mad it was built in Greece *stomping my feet*. I have to find another one just as good! LOL

Now help me decide if I should print those in color or B&W?? I love vibrant photos but when I convert to B&W it just gets super powers and all of a sudden the color version looks blank. What do you say??

Greece - {Kerkira} {Ioannina} {Athens}

I'm so proud to present you these. I knew coming back from Greece that my memories and the instant beauty of it will stay with me forever. Our whole trip was so intensive we could barely catch a breath during those hours spent moving from one place to another under the cruel, harsh sun that never gave us any relief. Majority of houses there were not air conditioned and we just didn't have the energy to fight it so siesta wasn't even an option - it was a necessity.

We started of in Corfu {Kierkira} where ALex got Baptised. That took a ton of our time to prepare for. Then took a ferry to Ioannina from where we drove to a village so old and separated from any everyday pleasures that I take for granted like drinking water that I can't even remember the name of it. I didn't even know that close member's of Dh's family grew up there.... This was by far the most impressive place from all of our trip. From there we moved down ( down the mountains driving those nauseating roads) to stay in Ioannina only few hours and back on the plane to go to Athens. I saw absolutely nothing in Athens because: a) we were wiped out of energy and any good will what - so -ever , b) we got there the day the fires started and it was difficult to move around the city, c) Danai's baptism was a big event we had to attend to and prepare for, d) and that probably was the biggest reason - we were invited every day to spend time with Dh's family which was very nice but ohhhh so "family like" - if you know what I mean.

4 days after arriving in Athens we were back on the plane to go where we started off in Corfu... and that was the time we all could relax some. We did the beach, local taverns, and a short trip with a boat and that was the end of our trip. I'm very happy with our stay there even if it wasn't as relaxing or didn't include as much sightseeing as would have imagined... but that's what happens when you hang out with your family. It just required some extra organizing skills.

So here's a little bit of Greece in my eyes :)

One little bee.

She was so busy she didn't even see me coming :) I took her by a surprise and *snap* here she is :)

Danai's Baptism

My SIL's daughter is the sweetest little angel. I love her so much and it was a pleasure being invited to her baptism. I wasn't asked to take photos but when you have a camera you just take it every single place you can. Here are the results. Some taken before the ceremony, some after... I have so many more but those caught my heart right away.

WHy do we ALWAYS leave stuff for the very last minute??? WHYYYYY??

I've purchased out flight tickets over 2months ago.... I knew exactly what will be needed for this trip and what paper stuff needed to be finished. Guess WHAT??? Everything is happening NOW - 24h before our flight and I feel like I'm about to scream....

Here's the list of things that where important and got done in the past 24h.

• Get the translations of our marriage certificate from English to Greek - $ 450 ( AAAAAAAAAAA!!! - why so much???) Dh drove 1h one way to pick it up and pay this OUTRAGEOUS amount.

• Laundry + ironing - I HATE ironing. I never do it and for people following this blog I don't have a dryer so everything gets hung outside my window and really doesn't look like it was ironed since it came out of the packaging... or a hanger in store lol. So 6 loads of laundry + 2h of ironing and I'm still not done.

• Buying suite cases - we thought we had some.... we didn't. Thankfully our Chinese store on the corner has EVERYTHING you'd need. $70 for 2 huge ones. DONE

• Nails. I'm not a princess type of a girl ( I always wished I was ) but you just need to get that stuff done when going nice places..... I showed up 25 min before they were closing so I only got pedicure... wonder if I'll have enough time tomorrow to get the my hands done?

• Fish - I have a saltwater 10 gallon tank with 2 clown fish. One is Ocellaris the other one tomato - you're not supposed to mix 2 species like this, but of course those eager sales people didn't tell me that - so I have them both. They're doing just fine... I think they they both hate me for putting them in this glass box and this feeling unites them.

• ..... oh so about the fish ..... knocked on my neighbor's door to ask him to come upstairs twice a day and turn the light on and off for them, feed them, clean their water and pamper in every way. As you can imagine he said that he always dreamed of doing this..... NOT :) lol
• Missing gifts. Since we're going to Greece to throw a baptism party for our son we jsut had to get a ton of gifts for family and friends. As if we were religious in first place. So after getting " just a small thing" for everybody out budget for this trip is now cut 50%. pheeeewww.

• Multiple trips to the bank.... transferring from one account to another to another... just to stay on the budget.

Things to get done that I STILL didn't do - scratching my head - why didn't I???

• This one is a good one..... I need to drive to Manhattan tomorrow.... just few hours before our flight to................. TAM TADAH DAM.......... exchange the remote that I got fo my camera to use with my tripod because IT'S NOT WORKING!!!! That's what happens when you buy generic $20 brands. But I'm determined to get shots that will throw you off your chairs so...

• I have to call 3 different departments in my college to inform them that I'll be back a week after the classes start. This one's a good one too no?

• Mail a check to Alex's daycare.

• Narrow a dress. I got it on sale and never bothered to wear it before. Now I just have to do it, because it needs to be presented in Greece. Boy I'm stubborn sometimes.
• Fish - I forgot to tell my neighbor that there's a crab too that needs to be hand fed so he'll need to take the fish food and stick his hand in the aquarium every day and make sure that the crab grabs it.... I'm sure he'll be delighted with this news.

• I bet there's a least 10 more things to do but my tired mind now refuses to process any more....

....so goodnight and please cross your fingers so we don't forget anything major.

Thanks and see you after the summer!!!! YEY

Getting ready for tomorrow's shoot.

I thought I'd give my zoom lens a last try and see if I can use it for tomorrow's shoot which I'm very excited about ... but I think it has so stay home. It just won't perform as I'd want it to. LOVE the bokeh but it's just not sharp :( It's not easy to see here but if you pay close attention to his hair is shows.... not to mention the clarity of the eyes when I zoom in. I think I'll start playing mega millions os something..... that could buy me a GOOD lens huh- hahahahahaha :)

First one with a 50mm 1.8.

And another with my 55-200 4-5.6

Trying out newborn poses.

I always wished I had a dslr camera when Alex was just a baby... I don't have one shot of him which I could hang on my wall. Well, I think he tried to make it up to me :) So here it is.... my first shot of a sleeping baby. LOL

Charleston suburban style.

All taken on my brothers property :)

Charleston, SC - first time visit to the south :)

My brother has been living there for 2 years now and this was my first visit. I really didn't know much about Charleston and it was a real surprise to me that it was so amazingly cozy. No tall buildings, a ton of sweet little cafes and galleries. I didn't spend as much time sightseeing as I'd like but it's been a while since I last saw my brother so I wanted to catch up on relations with him too.

We did one trip downtown and then unfortunately we had to cancel out trip to the plantations... the weather got a little stormy on us :( Next time. Also I got to see the beach which was really a great destination. It had that surfing, free vibe to it. Something everybody taking vacation should experience.... shame the sand itself was so dirty and the shore was packed with ugly trash cans.

Photography wise I didn't take a full advantage of my stay but that's fine by me. I ran into new situations where people working on the local market refused to have their pictures taken ( boy was I embarrassed). But I'm happy with the memories I captured over there.

Alex took the whole trip like a champ. He slept, ate and traveled without any trouble. I dare to say that he's a better child when away from home :) Must have taken that after me - not his couch potato father :)(with all my love for him).

Here's a little bit of Charleston from me to you :)

It really is a fun job!!!

Last one just because I want to remember her like this.... all the faces we captured for portraiture where posed. Those were real :)

Monika - my beautiful niece!

We had a ton of fun while shooting those. I wish we had more time and that my Alex wasn't "helping us" at the shoot but I think we both did great :)