Friday 3.20.20

So I here I am with my 2-week hiatus… Sorry things got really busy in the last bit of February. Alright! I will start by summarizing some of the notable events that happened in my not planned and yet required break from the good old “ typie typie for readers”
The first notable thing I did was shoot food photography. This was a task that was actually assigned at the beginning of January, but we didn’t wrap up will the close to the end of the month. On the bright side, I got a picture that I took in my local newspaper! That was pretty fun! Although I took like over 100 pictures for the event and they specifically wanted the names of everyone, portraits, and professional meaning nothing artsy… I wish I knew that ahead of time! I was literally assigned by the ramen shop to take the pictures and submit them here.

Oh well, at least I was able to learn how to use studio lighting to take pictures of food!! The setup was what I called “rustic” ( kitchen pun) there was a Paul C buff monolight with an umbrella at an angle pointing up. The tripod was placed on the table with one leg extended to give the camera and over the head look. I would have used a C stand, but A I didn’t have time cause I was also working an office job and B the kitchen was in operation. With the C stand, it would have probably been a hazard. The perspective actually worked pretty well for an improvised over the head look. I was using the Nikon 24-70 f 2.8 typically zoomed into 70 mm for reach and shooting at f11 for the sharpness. My ISO was around 160-200 and Shutter was at 1/200. I was pleased with how the ramen images came out. They were used mostly for the menus and for the chef diagrams.
Overall the experience was a success and total I spend 4 days with a few hours for each day, longest being 6 hours on a weekend to get everything done on time before the rush of opening.

The major event was one of my friends got married and I was kind of a last-minute thing…. They had only been going out for about 1 year and we’re looking for a low budget photography option. I learned later they asked another friend(I know them and they actually shoot weddings) and that friend said the people getting married didn’t respond after he told them the price.
This is where I came in, mind you, I am not a professional photographer. I took the job (although I wasn’t expecting to get paid, I did get some money though which is a plus) it was intense!
Props to all the wedding photogs out there!! It was so difficult to station yourselves accordingly! You literally have to plan every spot like chess to be there at the right time!! I was shooting by myself with three bodies. I was for video only, the other two I switched out. The video was fun because I found a good spot to perch the camera, but at the same time because I was just me I had to move the body on the ball head. That plus the dark AF aesthetic and the I was also the photographer made it a bit hectic… I literally jumped around to take pictures of this, move the camera for this, run back there, etc.
Still, at the very least the wedding was low key and no before the wedding shot. I would have literally needed a team for that! Nonetheless, it was an amazing experience and I wish the best for the lovely couple!!

This was around February. I was working, thinking about going back to school for some classes, and overall starting my boring adult life. I mentioned that I had a wedding to attend on February 15th, the day before, Valentine’s day, there was seemingly less traffic than usual, most likely due to the people taking time off or having a reservation for the lovely day. I arrived home and my uncle said we are going out to eat. I politely declined to say I am going to relax at home and will just eat leftovers or make something simple; I didn’t eat that night.
I was all chill after that, I sat down and embrace a successful end of the week ready to embrace the weekend until.
Hurry up Keynes, my cousin, we are going out to eat.
My cousin, I’m finishing up my homework I have a few problems left.
Back and forth
Then my uncle yells hurry up! You can do this later or we are going to leave without you!
At that point my cousin is frustrated, mind you he is a very chill person and hardly gets emotional about everything, yells back “I said give me a few minutes!”
Boom
My uncle pushing the computer monitor in his face….
Really mature oh master’s degree of engineering uncle of mine
Then he starts fuming saying you should have done it earlier, you’re wasting my time, and everyone else’s time blah blah blah.
My cousin, on the other hand, is apologizing profusely.
I jump in to calm the situation, which turns everything on me because when people are mad literally nothing gets through to them and that is a fact!!
I was trying to calm everything down. There was no avail I go turned on because from his perspective is that everything one is out to get him and that all the anger he experiences before becomes this identity to the person he is looking at. Let just say my uncle and I don’t exactly get along 100 of the time. So what ends up happening is that he gets really mad as red face mouth looks like a turtle frown barking type of mad.
Everything that people usually get over has been brought up, my relationship with my ex from FIVE YEARS AGO was brought up, me from HIGHSCHOOL was brought up, why are you holding all this in?! yes, I understand I wasn’t the A+ student and best person there is, but that doesn’t mean you need to belittle me and push me into the mud.
Honestly, when we argue the nature of the conversation is him saying what he wants to say first and not acknowledge people and half the time the topic is misunderstood completely. To this day he still talks about everything in the past as if he is being left out of something or is entitled to something. He lives in the past and thinks way far in the future.
I get it, he is the youngest of the family and arguably the most successful, but that does not mean you need to flex yourself right?! His way or the highway seems to be his motto and it is frustrating to deal with.
We had another conversation after that and I’m pretty sure it settled everything, but the funny thing is, is that the conversation is that he is done telling me what to do and that my life is up to me to decide what I do…well, THANK GOD!!
There was a sense of relief and utter sadness that it A.)it took this long for it to sink into his thick skull that I have been trying to make my own decision this whole time, with the obstacle being him preventing me due his own contorted views and B.) If I were to bring it up any other way for me to do my own thing he would have not understood and probably thought something was wrong OR what would happen is he would think I was being rebellious and would have gotten mad that I was saying anything that he would intervene with [ insert multiple past experiences here] and prove his cold abrasive point at the expense of someone’s mental state.

��2me-