How to let go of negative emotions?

When there are so many things that could make us happy in this world, equally lots of things can make us unhappy. Learn how to let go of negative emotions can help us live our lives in a much easier way, in a much happier manner. Being happy or not, the time is gonna fly away none the less, so why don't us live it happily?

Doing what we like to do is a way to get rid of our disturbing negative emotions, for me cooking and taking photos are one of the best entertainments, when the food is ready to eat, I will feel happier, like the blue berry muffins I made today. :):)

Other than doing what we like to do, a while ago I came across a very helpful video on the web about how to let go our negative emotions, everybody can do it, although it cannot solve the problems that arouse our negative emotions, at least we can face the problems in a better mood, which might help us solve the problems in a better way. 

So, here are the 5 steps:

1. Find a quiet place, you can close your eyes if you like, welcome and feel the emotions that we are trying to get rid of, whether it is sadness ,anger, anxiousness, or anything that is bothering us, just experience the feeling.

2. After experiencing the emotions, ask yourself the first question 

"Could I let go of this feeling?" and Answer yourself "Yes"

3. Ask yourself the second question

"Would I let go of this feeling?" and Answer yourself "Yes"

4. Ask yourself the final question

"When?" and Answer yourself "Now" 

5. Repeat the whole process for 2-3 times until you feel better.

Again, this might not help solving the problems but at least we can now face the challenges again in a more positive emotion! 

Thanks Karen for sharing such a wonderful video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aCRo872l4k

Take care.

Congregation - and I am graduated!

30th November, 2010
..."By virtue of the authority vested in me, I admit these candidates to the degrees for which they have been presented." Said the Pro-Chancellor. It was the moment we have been waiting for after all these years' studies, and it marks the end of my 3 years' undergraduate life in the university.

It was a touching moment - When Prof. Tsui, our Vice-Chancellor, reminded us of the support and love from our family, teachers and friends during the time when we were a student. I said to myself back in year 1 that 3 years of university life would fly away very soon, it was true, and indeed, it flied away faster than I have excepted.

Road will not be as easy after graduation I think. It will not be as simple as before, we don't have a pattern to follow anymore, compared to going to kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, university - that all we need to do is to study hard and learn as much as we can. Suddenly, the protection shield seemed to be expired and we will need to take what we learnt to the real world - the university of society. Stepping away from the comfort zone is not easy until we have found our courage and determination to do so, and, don't let our fears to hold back our dreams.

I am proud of being a graduate of my university, thank you my school, teachers, family and friends.

The 52-Week Collection - Week 38: A Bunch of Love

This bunch of flower is unique and full of love, specially wrapped for my graduation day with my mum. :D:D

The 52-Week Collection - Week 37: Choices

Everyday, every minute, we are making choices...
how colorful would we like our life to be? the choices are on our hands...

“Life is a sum of all your choices.”  ~Albert Camus

The 52-Week Collection - Week 35 Shine

Be the one that shines.

Childhood

On my way to work, I always walk pass a primary school and a kindergarten. Hearing the laughter when the kids are having sports lesson on the playground and small kids saying "One, Two, Three..." after their teacher, suddenly I realized how far those experience / memories are behind me now.

I couldn't quite remember the time when I was in the kindergarten, my parents told me most of the things back in those time which I don't remember.
I do remember a bit of my primary school experience, like how naughty I was back then, running around with boys, fooling around with my classmates. I think they would be surprised to see how I have grown into now. I myself, am surprised too at the change of my personality throughout these 10 years. Back then, I didn't quite remember exactly what has happened but I was 'powerful' enough to push the boy sitting next to me off the chair because he pissed me off...LoL now when I think about it, it's kind of a funny memory *HAHAHA*. (and now I learnt how to control myself well, so don't worry when you are sitting next to me...LoL)

I was a fast runner back in primary school, my legs earned me 5 gold medals and 1 silver medal(considered as a flaw back then) in 100M, relay race and basketball on school sports days. Well...about the sports gene, I don't think they are very active now (overpowered by the fat gene?!)...LoL but I do like to play most of the sports still!

English, Music and cooking classes were my favorite subjects in secondary school. Proudly to be ranked #1 in music for quite a few years, partly because I was one of the pianists for morning assembly and I could play piano okay. However, due to the fact that my instinct interest in piano was overpowered by external forces in the last few years of my piano-learning, and that I was not in a very good relationship with my teacher, I couldn't enjoy playing piano anymore after I have obtained my grade 8 qualification. Now after a few years of cooling down period, I think I can pick up piano again in a new and easy way.

Back to the spot where I saw the kids running around on the playground, I wondered, when seeing the youngster doing what I did, are they enjoying what they are doing? Do they know that what they are doing are gonna be memorable experience? Do they know that those are their golden time in childhood?

If we have a pet we might have stronger feelings towards a life-cycle. When we see our dog young, full of energy, do our beloved dog knows that he's in his golden time? And I am pretty sure when our respectable elders see us, they would wonder "Do these young people know that they are in their golden time?"

Are we doing the right things? Are we doing things right?
Are we enjoying and treasuring the presents (gifts) that the present (now) gives us?

p.s my friend and I have attended a touching wedding of our friend today, there's a message about family that is inspiring. The speaker said what makes a family works start with loving our parents, for family might be the short form of Father And Mother I Love You (F-A-M-I-L-Y), when we have learnt how to love our parents and set an example for our kids, the family will automatically run well.

The 52-Week Collection - Week 34: reflection

Week 34!
The weather was cool and fine in the weekend, finally it feels like autumn! My family and I went hiking in that beautiful weather around one of the reservoirs in Hong Kong. We walked for about 3 hours, about 8.6 km and the scene was beautiful. This picture was taken around the half way through, a reflection of a big tree on clear water. It is so hard to believe that we have this beautiful scene in Hong Kong when we are living in the middle of our city. It might sound a bit weird to our foreign friends but you will get what we mean after you have visited Hong Kong!

When we were there, we can't actually see the real tree because it is so tall and there are lots of other plants nearby, but we can clearly see the tree through the reflection on the water. It was so beautiful and calm. The picture is 180 degree rotated. Let's love and protect our beautiful planet!

The 52-Week Collection - Week 33: Love

A bit late for previous weeks' collection! The plan was messed up a little during the weekend because of Megi the typhoon. I was also trying to take pictures of the heart shape cookies that were bought in the weekend. However, the pictures didn't turn out to be what I have pictured in my head so this is what I have got for the previous week!

A long time ago I saw a picture with a ring and a heart-shape shadow, I am still so fond of this incredible effect of that and this explains why I took this picture. It is quite hard to find the content in the book that matches the rings and topic "love". I flipped through some books and finally found a few pages that are decent, and finally this is the content I like most among what I have found.

'Treasure your beloved and your relationship will flourish.
A relationship is like a garden, if you tend to your garden with care, attention, and maintenance, it will grow.'

No happiness or success comes by its own, we have to at least do something to get what we want. Even if the food is placed on our plate, we still need to make some effort to put the food into our mouths, or the food will turn bad sitting on the plate untouched for a long while.

Same to relationship or any aspects in life, doing nothing guarantees getting nothing. Sometimes we get so used to the love from our parents or family members that we take their love for granted, forgetting to treasure what they are offering us unconditionally or saying hurtful words to them without much thinking.

"A relationship is like a garden. Give it plenty of water and sunshine, the seedlings will mature into strong healthy plants. Neglect it and hope for the best, it will become overrun with weeds. Step on the plants, tear their leaves, deny them love and nutrients, they will wither and die."

Treasure our beloved ones.

P.S. The is page 174 from the book "If love is a game, these are the rules" by Cherie Carter-Scott (Hard-cover)
I read "If life is a game, these are the rules" first and found it quite good so I got the love one also! :D:D Try to read them if you are interested. This type of book is one of my favorite!

The 52-Week Collection - Week 32: Imperfection

Time flies really quickly, it's already autumn now, more than 3/4 of the year has passed! There's a playground along the way when I am on the way to work, seeing the kids having PE (sports) lessons in the mornings, they reminded me I am no longer a kid. I miss those time when I was in primary school / secondary school, when I was spoiled by all the people around, when teachers encourage us to ask questions (Teacher: No question is regarded as a stupid one at school) and to learn through trial and error. Perfectionism is something that pushes us for further achievement while at the same time, gives us stress. We are not perfect, and it's quite unrealistic to try to get everything perfect, that might be a bit discouraging but we have to remember that, we are all unique. Without imperfection, we couldn't know what is perfect.

The 52-Week Collection - Week 31: Sweet as Honey

A happy day with a lovely couple!
An old saying reads how we look is the reflection of our heart (character) - 相由心生. Women are most beautiful on their wedding day, and I truly believe it's the love that makes them so pretty. The love between the couple who are stepping into a new chapter together, the love and best wishes of the guests to the newly-wed, and of course, the love of parents who see their children grow and now starting a family of their own. It's the happiest day of the couple celebrating their love with their loved ones, for sure they should look happy! My sincere congratulations to Harold and his beautiful wife!

The 52-Week Collection - Week 30: Dream a Dream

Oh yes I like sleeping a lot! :D Such a relaxation! Because of the National Day on Friday, I am enjoying my 3 days' holiday! Cooking, crocheting, gathering with friends, shopping, eating! And after that we will have to long for Christmas holiday...LoL

Play Time

Oh now I have time to write about what I did last weekend! George introduced me to his teacher who keeps a wonderful dog and a cute cat. It was a fun day, half working day and then play time with the lovely dog. His name is TaiChi and we played foot-tennis. He is certainly a very good player at kicking tennis LoL I haven't been playing with dogs for a few years now and it's true that I love dogs a lot, still.

The fun time at weekend flies at a lightning speed, thanks to the national day now I am having 3 days' off! :D:D

The 52-Week Collection - Week 29: Dedicated

Week 29! It's quite exhausting to go photo shoot after a half day work, but I enjoyed it no less. I am always a dog lover, they are really cute and with attractive character. I think dogs are connected to their owner in a very special way and the fact that they are always by their owners' side is one of the reasons I like dogs so much. Be nice to them though, think carefully before we want to keep a pet, it's a huge commitment!

Btw...I think my prime lens is not working well since it was dropped on the sand about one year ago...sigh >.< it focuses in a slower speed and the focus point seems to be not that right...

First encounter with Black and White

Frankly speaking, I didn't like black and white photo, I thought they are lack of color, lack of lively spirit. Not until I read an article on the newspaper regarding Mr. Chow Yun-Fat's point of view on photography do I start to learn how to admire the beauty of black and white photo. Mr. Chow said black and white photos are special in the way that they are black and white, that the subject in the picture wouldn't be distracted by the color presented, and I agree!

I tried to experience what he said about black and white photograph and to me it's true that when I look at the colored one, I focused on the color compositions of the flower, on how the color interacts with each other. However, on the black and white one, I would focus on the petal of the flower, the texture and lines of the petal, and the different level of light reflection between the left side and the right side.

Now I don't resist black and white pictures that much as before, but still, I fond of colorful pictures more~ :):)

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2010

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! Now the cool weather is approaching! Didn't have time to make my icy moon cake this year, but happily got a box of moon cake from the workplace! These few days have been raining with lots of cloud so we couldn't quite admire the moon, however we enjoyed the moon cake no less!

Baked a cake today! That's what I like to do on a holiday...do something relaxing at home...hehe!
Quite a lot of people around me has been talking about Pandan cake, I haven't tried one before so this morning I decided to see if I can get some fresh Pandan leaf nearby, luckily I found them haha! 1 dollar for 2 pieces! I got 6 of them and followed this recipe.

It turned out quite well however the Pandan flavour is not as strong as the egg flavour, maybe I should get a piece from the cake shop and see how the taste is!

People vs. Things

Randy was so generous to share those important messages. People vs. Things is the point that leads me to a lot of thinking after watching it. When we just see the words "People vs. Things", it's likely that we'll say "People of course", however, when we look at our lives, perhaps very often, it's "things" that we are going for. When we think about it, many of our arguments might be originated from "things". Later when we are cooled down, we might just realize that it is not worthy to make someone sad just because of that "thing".

It is hard to tune that way but I believe if we can learn this bit by bit, we would learn how to love the people around us.

This is a reprised lecture of Randy and I think it worths you 10 minutes to watch.
Randy's Lecture

CLICK

Finally watched the movie CLICK (2006) yesterday. The movie is about a guy who was not satisfied about his life and was given a remote control that can pause, fast forward, go back and re-watch, mute etc his life.

At first, he is very happy about the remote because he can fast- forward the moments that he doesn't like, such as argument, stressful moments, failure at work, sad events etc. However, this remote is really intelligent that it can remember the user's preferences and gradually run the fast forward function on its own. Thus, he is being skipped all the unpleasant moments automatically and every time when it's back to normal speed it's always promotion, promotion and promotion.

He wanted to have his life back and to stop skipping the unpleasant moments after a while but there is no such function. He is even automated to skip his own father's death and funeral, which he is really frustrated about. He is so sad and asked why Morty who gave him that non-returnable control is doing this to him.

He is able to watch the moment when he last saw his father - he was so busy at work that he barely looked at his father who paid a surprise visit to his office, he is so sad to know this and keep repeating the moment when his old father says "I love you son".

When he is fast forwarded near the end of his life, at the hospital he sees his son is following his steps, putting work above everything else and decided to postpone the honeymoon. He wanted to say something to his son desperately but they left. Morty, the angel of death who gave him the remote control, saw him taking away the tubes and machines that are sustaining his life and ran after his son, warned him "it doesn't have to be now". But he wouldn't listen and keep chasing after his son. Fell onto the ground at a rainy night, his son spots him luckily, and the 3 words that he wanted so much to say are "family comes first" to his son and "I am sorry" to his ex-wife(which he has fast-forward all the argument and he doesn't even know they are divorced until a while later). And Morty took him away.

Suddenly, he finds himself woke up in the store he has fallen asleep, back to when he wanted to buy a multi-function remote control. He was given a second chance. When he is back to home, happily thinks that it was just a dream, the remote appears again on the kitchen table. Shocked in horror, he read the card attached to the remote that is written by Morty, who believes "good guys need a break sometimes and I believe u would use it wisely this time".

Without a second thought, he throws the remote away in the rubbish bin and it doesn't return ever again.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I think this movie is worth watching. When I was at school in my psychology class, I remember we have discussed about that is happiness and there is one point that is quite true: without unhappiness, there would be no way for us to know what happiness is. For sure we wouldn't want to deal with all the sad moments in life, however, every moments in our lives made us who we are and meant something to us, weather those are happy or unhappy moments.

The 52-Week Collection - Week 28: Backstage Hero

Another week! It's like time has already flew away before I can realize what I actually did in the week. Need to find a way to enjoy more of my daily life!

Got some flowers when I came across a flower store today, the flower is really cheap! Five dollars for 4 flowers...I was planning to shoot rings photo this week but the flowers are too cheap to resist...

When we see beautiful things, or successful people on stage, don't forget how hard they worked on    building up the stage before they become successful. And, one day, when we taste the joy of success, don't forget how we get there and the people who were supporting us behind our back!

The 52-Week Collection - Week 27: Touch from the Sky

Another week! I can't believe it, time just flies... This week is a rather tiring week, the weather is not very nice, thundering and lightning for a few nights...and the picture for this week showed how it's like! Those nights are quite scary indeed, haven't seen the weather change that suddenly before, I hope the earth is fine..

Touch From the Sky

A shocking thunder storm show was started just when I thought it's almost time to go to bed. This is the first time I see thunderstorm with my camera, shocking-beauty is the word I would use, this is the very first time I sit there and watch the lightening for about 20 minutes (and the thunderstorm is still going on out there...)I didn't know when should I press the shutter so only got a few pictures with the lightening in...the lightening comes from every way I just didn't know which way to turn to...

The setting I used was 1/10 f5 ISO 400 MF, I think the focus was not very right and should use a tripod next time.


When I try to read on more articles about taking lightening pictures just now, I learnt that to take good lightening pictures, we've got to firstly determine if the thunderstorm is near or not as it would affect the F value we would use. For example, if the thunderstorm is estimated to be 8km away, use F8, more than 8km, use 5.6, around 5 km, use f11. To know how far the thunderstorm is away from us we can count the seconds the thunder came after the lightening. According to the passage, the speed which air can transfer sound is 340m/second, so let's do the maths!

Secondly we need to find somewhere with a darker background to get a better exposure of the lightening, use a tripod.

Thirdly, the aperture have to be small with long exposure time to catch the lightening. Focus the focus point to the furthest point and be patient!

Got to be careful when we wanna take pictures of lightening, better stay indoor! Safety comes first. Let's keep learining!

source: http://www.southcn.com/it/sheying/200302100528.htm

Cough Cough

Picture taken in Central, Hong Kong.

I am having the same express as this doll does - feeling sleepy. Even though I sleep quite a lot everyday, I still feel tired these days, and my throat is not feeling well these days...hope to get well soon. Life goes on as usual, working every day, seeing a lot more students on the street now since school has started. I saw a class of primary student in their PE lesson on a playground, which reminded me of the time I was in primary school. I was a great athlete lol I won  gold medals in running in the sports day every year when I was in primary school...(of course, I was much thinner back then...) when I was in primary one I often think about the time when I will be a primary six student. After realizing time flies really fast in primary six, I started to comfort myself that secondary school will be another seven years, and that is a long while. And now? the seven years secondary school plus three years of university, here I am, joined the work force.

These few months has been the season of announcing public exam results and every-year people would think about the issue on whether university studies is useful for future job hunting. In my opinion, it does, especially if you want to become professionals like an accountant, doctor or lawyer etc. That would be the path to get you there. However, it might not be that important if you don't aim at those professions. Knowledge and experience are both as important, they help each other in a sense. 

I am indeed quite happy about Hong Kong introducing minimum wage, I heard that countries like USA has a min. wage of US 8 per hour, which is really great. Perhaps that can explain why it is so expensive to dine out in foreign countries compared to Hong Kong, and that people who discovered they don't like to study would just drop themselves out of school and join the workforce, since they can maintain their daily live quite well with that min. wage. There are drawbacks also but I think as a whole, it brings more good to the society, at least people can maintain a better live (assume the employers do not fire workers for that). 

The 52-Week Collection - Week 26: Food For Eyes

Looking back at my work in the past 25 weeks, I think I need to work harder to improve my photography works. I have been told that my pictures are a bit too dark in general, and I really agree. In the coming weeks, I will work harder, focusing on adjusting my exposure settings.

Week 26, half way to the 52 week collection, quite grateful that I am still feeling energetic about this collection! It is somehow a relaxation activity for me, I have been going out to take pictures for a few weekends and it's a bit too tiring...plus the sky is a bit grey due to the typhoon lately, so I decided to take pictures indoor today.

I have collected this emm...I don't know how should I call it...flower decoration...for a long time. I always think that this is beautiful, with the bricks I like (I really like brick pattern) and roses. I didn't know what to do with it when I bought it...and I still do not know what to do with it...haha it feeds my eyes every time I look at it.

My New Collection!

I said to myself yesterday that money should not be spent on unnecessary items so that I can save enough money to get better equipments earlier...(see...photography is really a money black-hole, sometimes I wonder if I am working hard to earn $$ for those camera and lens manufacturers...)but I couldn't resist this beautiful fox...I saw it, looked at it...walked away and came back for it...well of course it is a "A product" (fake jewelery...I wish I can afford real ones la lol ), I think the curves of this ring is designed really beautifully...so haha like what we always say: "it's very easy to take money from women's wallet" (女人錢好易賺)

I admire the design of this ring, perhaps I always like animal stuffs...now I think it somehow looks like a deer...haha but with that tail...I think it should be a fox...hmmm

anyway....let me remind myself to spend money wisely again...

September The First

Valuable books that I have collected in the past 3 years.

For many years, 1st of September meant the beginning of a new academic year to me. In this year, it meant the date I get my salary. I still can't believe I have already graduated from school. Has it really been three year since the day I was admitted to the university? Time flies.

Seeing students who are on the way to school, with tidy uniform, I feel old suddenly. In fact, a while ago when I went shopping, a cute little girl dropped her fairy stick and I helped her to pick it up, she said "thanks auntie", I started to realize that I am no longer a little girl.

Still, I embrace aging, we don't need to envy others who are younger, because we all have been through that. I watched a very touching video this morning which is about an old man visiting old places and looking back at old pictures, crying. This is perhaps one of the reasons why I like to take pictures, it reminds us of the old days, something we might not be able to remember so meticulously.


It is so fun to go to school and to learn, thankfully there are so many means for us to learn nowadays outside school, but still, I will miss school!


"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter" ~Mark Twain

"Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional"~Chili Davis

The 52-Week Collection - Week 25: Believe

Tradition - according to wikipedia tradition is beliefs or customs that are taught from one generation to the next and that are maintained by the society. I always admire the wisdom of our ancestors and the knowledge that have been accumulated for thousands of years.

However, tradition can also be limiting in terms of what we are capable of, because we have too much too follow rather than building up a new system. I admire scientists and people with great creativity, that they are brave enough to do what is not said in the history, that they are willing to try and adjust, it takes a lot of courage to do so and so this is the quote for the week "we are what we believe we are". Believe in ourselves and do not fear. Heard some sharing today, I think to become successful we need to have a flexible mindset. There must be rule to get the things working but we have to ensure that the rules do not limit change or creativity.

Reality

Have been working for a month now, glad that the progress of my collection project is not affected. Earlier I  have attended two concerts by HKFO, and I asked my friend the other day if he is worried about the growing musicians, that when they start working one day, will they still be able to squeeze time and play music together?

He assured me that as long as people know what the like to do, they will find a way to do what they like, like the musicians in the orchestra who also work in the law firm / accounting firm. This is encouraging.

These few weeks I have been spontaneously asking my friends to hang out together, I feel thankful that we can make it.. even though I asked only a few days in advanced..

Still feel a bit emotionally troubled when I read the news about the hostage. I somehow feel a bit scared because this tragedy seems to grow into politics and racism issues, with negative emotions that might be affecting our rational thinking. Time will lessen the pain.

The 52-Week Collection - Week 24: Escape from the city

The more busy we are, the more important it is for us to take the time and go sight seeing / do something relaxing regularly. This might sounds a little bit contradicting or that we might be too busy to even think about it, we have to squeeze time for it.

Being in an office or library, with 4 walls around us and a computer or book or a pile of notes in front of us, 5 or 6 days a week, might somehow make us to forget the other aspects in life that are also worth paying attention to. That is the reason I believe that we have to do something we like or relaxing regularly to keep our mind fresh and in reality.

Rooms for improvement

I am off this Saturday happily so decided take the time to play around, and I went to Disney...station today...haha and the inspiration lake.I am so thankful that the weather is fine and that we have a blue blue sky. Other than too hot and humid lately, everything is just fine. Disneyland is surely a great place to take pictures and I am glad to have chosen this place today, the place somehow gave me some childhood strengths...lol

Thanks George for accompanying me to sight-seeing around and to let me take pictures of u...haha long time no see. This is the first time I take portrait of male...purposely. George is someone who are quite spontaneous and enjoy relaxing style, although he is also a musician playing the piano and violin, I thought a "relaxing" album would suit him more.

I like the pictures but I am having a difficult time trying to develop in other directions...Looking back at the work of this half year, when I pick up the camera to shoot portrait, most of them are half body ones, and the worse thing is I take pictures of this structure automatically. I like the pictures but I don't like that most of them with such alike structure. I need more variations. I need more inspiration. Maybe I should stop taking portraits for a while to cool down a little and to spend more time to be inspired by other photographers for the time being.

Continuous improvement is important...and how could that be done? hmmm...

HKFO

Finally have time to write something. Earlier in this week I was lucky enough to attend 2 music concerts of HKFO, I haven't been to a music concert like this since secondary school! HKFO was founded in 2009, non-profit and with about 80 musicians. That was the premiere concert of the orchestra. The music was touching and powerful, we can definitely feel the hearts and souls the musicians have put into the music. When people are doing something because they simply love doing it, the mood is much different, the musicians were really enjoying themselves and the audience can feel their desire to share music with everyone. Symphony #9 "from the new world" is definitely my favorite.

It is very easy to see how successful people are on the stage but not the hard-working moments behind the scene. I admire the whole orchestra because they are all people who can fight against the fear and limitations we often give ourselves when we are pursuing what we want. When about a 100 people are working towards a same goal, that's how powerful cooperation can be. The sleepless nights, tear and sweat they've put into the orchestra have well paid off at the second they start playing music on stage, the applause from the audience assured their hard work. Their spirit and the action of how they fulfilled their dreams are something we should learn from. Dare to make a difference and make the dreams come true.

How could young people only in their teenage and 20's have the ability to form an orchestra from scratch? The answer revealed in the concert- their passion towards music, see it for yourself next time when the great orchestra is performing again in the future!

"If you can dream it, you can do it."

My sincere congratulation to HKFO.

Yum Cha (Drink Tea)

I can't recall since when my family have developed a habit to yum cha every weekend, yum cha is a noun in cantonese which basically means to eat dim sum and drink chinese tea at the chinese restaurant.

Tourists often feel a bit overwhelmed when they are presented with the long list of dim sum order sheet, wondering what should they order or what are the most famous dishes. I can't say my suggestions are the best but I would suggest our tourist friends to eat SiuMai (燒賣), which is appeared at the right bottom corner on the above picture, this is a must-eat (I guess) dim sum at the Chinese restaurant, but beware if you are allergic to prawn (like me><). Other dishes include rice noodle rolls (sorry that I don't have a picture here, will shoot it next time~), usually there are plain rice noodle roll / with barbecue pork inside / beef inside / vegetable or mushroom inside / seafood inside. Okay, other good dim sum in my opinion includes the Chinese bun (barbecue pork or chicken or the sweet ones), beef balls, prawn dumplings, normal dumplings, congee, and dessert like the sesame rice ball at the right top corner!

If you are crazy about dim sum, even if you pick any on the list randomly, it can't go very wrong...LoL

Yum Cha is something we must do when we are visiting in China, a very good way to enjoy food, tea and to explore the culture. Many visitors can master chopsticks even better than me because they really love Chinese food, I am really proud of our food and culture! :)

The 52-Week Collection - Week 23: The Mask

It is not easy to shoot in the summer...I am so exhausted now after half day working, only 2 hours' walking and 1.5 hour's shooting in the evening...I can feel my body was drying up under the sun, but I am still grateful that my brain has enough room to shoot pictures after work haha. It is really important to squeeze time to do what we like in our busy lives, it fuels up our emotion stability tanks.

It's good to meet up with old friends, Daisy is my secondary schoolmate and now we are graduated and working, time flies. I am really glad to have known a lot of good friends at schools. I didn't realize I do like this style so much, black clothing, black long gloves, red lips and hat. I was watching Breakfast at Tiffany's yesterday and I do like how the women dress up back then. Watching old movies once in a while is really great.

Looking back at my photos now I think my works are too alike, which is not a very good thing, I need some breakthroughs to further develop my styles, think I need to look at more works by other photographers to grow and develop.

The 52-Week Collection - Week 22: A Drop of Effort

Week 22, The weather is so hot and unstable, I was planning to go take pictures of Vitoria Harbour but am a bit concerned about the sudden changing weather lately so I think I might have to do that next week.

Glad that I finally got a new ball head for the tripod, the old platform only allows me to take pictures in landscape direction so I think it should be great to get one that can allow me to take portrait direction also~ money come and go since the day I realized I like photography...

This is what I have done finally...I didn't know why would I do water but anyway...I have shot for about 2 hours and this is one of those done in the first half hour...so exhausted...not a very wise choice to shoot water again until I get a small spot light ($ again), the environment was not bright enough so that was a bit difficult. The liquid's color is from food coloring, hmmm wanna try blue coloring next time hehe

"Be a learner all the time, learn from everything."

The 52-Week Collection - Week 21: Distinct

It has been about a week since I have start working, I am glad that I am still able to do my weekly photography project :)

At a time I was thinking digging old pictures, but I really would like to take new ones from now on because it would make the collection more meaningful. I will try my best :)

I was reading a book about close up images in the morning so I think it would be nice to do some assignments after reading. I went to the park and saw this colorful plant (which I don't know what it's called). I seldom see plants with that purple blue color with orange leafs, nature is so wonderful. Dare to be different and make a difference!

I am very happy about my equipment at the moment, however, now I know that equipment could matter in some situations. Sigh, as I said, photography is a money black-hole. I think, before I can afford the high end level equipment, I must learn to release the full potential of my existing equipment. Cheers.

The 52-Week Collection - Week 20: The Sleeping Beauty

As the old saying goes, summer is the season that good for sleeping (夏日炎炎正好眠). I definitely feel like this today, feel so sleepy. Tomorrow is another week, I feel good to have something to ground on, sometimes we may feel bored by the daily routine, but to me it's a sense of security. Back to the life like a few years ago: wake up early and get to the MTR station early enough to pick up the free newspaper. A lot to learn in every aspects and I am really grateful for that.

Can't believe it is already the 20th week since I have started the collection, time flies. I have been reading the book "How to win friends and influence people" lately, I think it's really important for us to learn how not to criticize and also how to see things from other points of view. This is something really easier said than done, however, I believe if we are able to do just these 2 things, it will make a big difference.

p.s. my website is finally in shape, check it out and give me some suggestions!
http://www.wix.com/chausesphotography/index

The 52-Week Collection - Week 19: The Inspiration

This week I would like to thank the person who inspired me a great deal in photography. Cherry and I met in school 2 years ago, I feel lucky that we met each other and revealed our interest in photography. She is a very generous person who teaches me a lot in this field and provides me with lots of opportunities to learn by practicing. I would like to say that if I haven't met Cherry, I wouldn't find taking portrait is so fun early on my learning curve. We definitely have lots of fun together and nice breakfast today!

Chauses is looking for models!

Hi all!

I am currently looking for models located in Hong Kong! whether you are female or male, Chinese or westerners, wanting to take portraits, family portraits, pets portraits, or even pre-wedding pictures, please leave a message here, I will see if we can arrange for a shoot!

I don't charge for the photos at the moment, you only need to pay for my transportation fee~ (and treat me meals if that's a whole day shooting lol)

For my portfolio, please refer to http://www.wix.com/chausesphotography/index

p.s. I don't have a studio at the moment so that would be outdoor shoot.

Best,
Chauses

The 52-Week Collection - Week 18: The Pretty

"Oh My God" were the three word I said when I saw Miki again today. It has almost been two years! If you can recognize...Miki was on week 2's picture of my collection, week 2's picture was taken in October 2008...and it is almost like two years now! I can't believe it LoL I can barely recognize Miki when I saw her today because she has grown so much now, so beautiful and young still!

We had a great day together photo shooting, and thanks Kelvin for joining us...and especially for your SD card. I had a weird feeling about my SD card before I went out today...and I couldn't find my other SD cards...and Bing! in the middle of the photo shoot "Card error! Please format your card!" Luckily Kelvin was with us today so I can borrow his card...Morale of the story is...trust your sixth sense and do precaution! Thanks Miki and Kelvin for such a great day, the fun shielded me from the heat today lol, and I heart photography =)

The 52-Week Collection - Week 17: Happy Together

It is very hot here this week and the sky is blue and nice, summer has come!

This pair of doll has joined the family for a long time and it will be nice to have a photo shoot for them! Happy together!