For John

Every so often I get this urge of trying new things. It comes and goes. I forget about it pretty quickly. But John remembers it everytime. Over a year ago, I happpened to see an article on the Internet that says digital SLR cameras were hot and professional photographers did wonders with them. One night I mentioned it at the dinner table and expressed my admiration towards these SLRs. A few weeks later John bought me a Cannon SLR camera. I screamed - how wonderful! But it must be expensive (he wouldn't tell me how much it cost)! I was estatic but in the meantime I kicked myself for saying my wishes too easily because John always tries to make them come true! He is always happy to see me joyfully surprised. The fact is each time I AM truely amazed by him and I AM speechless at his loving attention. Again and again I thank God for giving John to me - not because the things he buys or does for me, but for his forever gentle caring heart!

Back to the SLR. Life has been so busy that I never fully utilized this advanced equipment as of today. This afternoon we took our duaghter and her friend to the Fort Worth garden for a walk. We did some blind photo shooting there. Suddenly I realized how little I knew about my camera - I still don't know how to set the f-stop, the exposure offset, etc. Most of the time I had to do what I always do, which is setting it to "automatic" and just point and shoot. What a waste to have such a nice camera! John kept telling me it was ok and this was a good start. He even picked out a couple of photos to prove his point. I knew he tried to make me feel better, but I couldn't stop feeling sorry because I should have been good at using this camera by now. I felt I didn't treat John's gift right, I didn't treat John right.

John suggested me to put these pictures up as some sort of self-encouragement. I know they are very so-so pictures, but I will do as he wishes...






As for the previous post "Shampoo Bottle Desgin", I am stilling working on it. There is a long way to go yet.

Shampoo Bottle Design (Phase 1)

Not completed yet, but I will finish it soon.
The bottle: drawn with photoshop.
The flower: derived from the original image "Tibouchina urvilleana" by photographer Kristine from St. Augustine, USA

Bottle makeover with photoshop

Before:



After:

Professional U-Turn

I am learning about myself - still. Last December, I was still with a tiny compay working really hard for myself, and for the company. I was always afraid if I didn't work hard enough, the company would have difficulty to pay us on time, or, pay us at all. Later I realized how childish I was - I had been with that company for two years by then and it didn't really miss any of our paychecks even though there were a few incidents that signaled some financial trouble. Finally, in January, everyone's hard work paid off - our 20 people company got bought by a huge corporation, a corporation that is top 20 in the nation and has around 180,000 employees. We cheered - we are "rich" now, we are safe now.

I thought I would "work" happily ever after the bought-out. What I didn't realize was that I just entered into the nightmare of big corporation's bureaucracy, mind-buggling controling policies and the new manager's power struggles. Suddenly, a different kind of pressure was mouting. It sufficated me to the point that I finally could't take it anymore.

Now I am back to a small company. I feel like I just went on a long waited journey and quickly took a U-turn and came back home. Now work is as harder as ever again but I couldn't appreciate it more.