roaming the deserts

March 21, 2017March 21, 2017 Anum1 Comment

I’ve been spending a lot more time exploring the treasures of southern California after realizing that I’m surrounded by such incredible beauty and don’t explore it nearly as often as I should. I’ve also been getting over my irrational fear of ‘finding parking’ and thus, venturing out more.

This past week I went to check out the super bloom in Lake Elsinore and to Desert X in Coachella Valley. Both were incredible experiences that I’m so grateful to have had. I’ve included some of my favorite shots taken on my DSLR from both locations below. Looking through my lens at works of art and the art that is our world truly brings peace to my heart. Grateful for the means to go on these adventures and the joy they bring my soul.

kohl’s adoption story

January 17, 2016January 28, 2016 Anum2 Comments

If you follow me on Instagram, you already know this but we recently adopted a kitten! I thought I would share a bit about how we got him and how it’s been as a first time pet owner.

We adopted Kohl from a local rescue group about three weeks ago and he’s quickly moved his way into our hearts. He’s currently roaming around the room as I type this, playing hide and seek with himself, and I can’t imagine our home without him. While we were doing research, we saw that black animals (both cats and dogs) had lower adoption rates due to superstitions and stigma associated with them, which completely broke our hearts. How ridiculous is it that humans are even racist against certain animals!?

arizona adventures

December 23, 2015January 4, 2016 Anum1 Comment

Last week, hubs and I took a trip to Arizona for our winter vacation. We try to take a short trip every time we both get some time off at the same time, since that so rarely happens. We’re both pretty much homebodies so it’s nice to take a few days away to get our fill of adventuring.

We spent a night in Sedona, two nights in Page (where Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend are) and two nights at the south end of the Grand Canyon. In hindsight, I wish we’d stayed two nights in Sedona and only one in Page because there wasn’t really much to do there.

Below I’ve included some info on where we stayed and a couple places we ate. And at the very bottom of this post, I added some of my photos from my ‘real camera.’

hi-def warmth

November 30, 2015December 1, 2015 Anum1 Comment

Every year we have Thanksgiving at my aunt’s house and the past couple times we’ve had gatherings at her house, it rains! We were joking around that we’ve solved the drought – we just need to keep having parties at her place. Someone call Governor Brown!

Below you can see the rain soaked tables. Thankfully the covers from her previous party were still up so the rest of the tables were nice and dry.

My cousins did an awesome job with the decor, as usual! I loved all the fall colors in everything – so many autumn vibes. It was pretty chilly because of the rain but that actually made it feel more like Thanksgiving.

the realness

October 12, 2015November 7, 2015 Anum2 Comments

So glad I got to look through my lens again this weekend. Here are some of the shots from my Nikon D90. I really don’t play with it as often as I should but I’m definitely making an effort to do so more often. I used to get so lost in my photography. I’d go on photo walks to a park or something and then end up completely lost because I kept following the ‘next’ thing I wanted to photograph and completely forgot to keep track of where I was going hah. Going to make a real effort to go on photo walks more often. Especially now that I upgraded the RAM on my laptop, uploading and editing photos is not nearly as frustrating so I have one fewer excuse!

The first couple photos are in San Francisco and the rest were all taken in Muir Woods. Still deciding which ones to print for our gallery (& I’m open to suggestions)!

the ‘real’ stuff

August 9, 2015November 7, 2015 Anum1 Comment

Tomorrow I start MSII and it would be an understatement to say that I’m not ready. I wish I could just skip over this year, especially boards. So not looking forward to that but it’s a part of the process. It’s hard but I need to keep perspective about why I’m here and putting in all this work.

I wanted to post a few shots from my DSLR (aka my ‘real’ camera) before I get too busy with school and procrastinate. Hope you all have a great week!