id was set in the arguments array for the "Sidebar 1" sidebar. Defaulting to "sidebar-1". Manually set the id to "sidebar-1" to silence this notice and keep existing sidebar content. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 4.2.0.) in /home/oia5vvrwuu20/nadinehsu.com/wp-includes/functions.php on line 5315Do you ever have those moments when you look at something of yours and you get all gaga about it? Like “OMG my car looks so hot” or “OMG these shoes are the cats meow”? I have those moments pretty much every time I take pictures of Elise. Gaga moment #1,432,125: Elise at the beach this past weekend
Have a wonderful week…and go take a pic of your kid(s)/car(s)/hot shoes!
I wish I could be driving at the track (but in cool weather). Instead, I’m settling for a summer of taking pictures, waiting for the weather to let up so I can have a nice, cool time at the track. I miss you drifting…
Photog at the Pool
Taking some shots of the kids in the pool was a fantastic lesson on how different aperture can impact how water droplets look in the shot. When I shot with a wide open apterture at F1.4, the water droplets looked more true to what the human eye sees. When I closed down to an F10, the water droplets looked more like firework sparks. Nerd tech talk (feel free to skip down): I shot these with the Canon 50mm 1.4 on a crop sensor Canon T2i, which has proven to be a challenge lately. I’m so in love with shooting with the 30mm lens that I don’t give Mr. 50 any love. Shooting with the 50mm is forcing me to learn as if I was shooting full frame with a 78mm lens. Its cool!
Anyway, when I said photographing at the pool, you probably didn’t think it was going to look like this one! Here are some shots of Elise & one of her best buds, Ethan. Or in Japanese, here are some shots of Harumi & Hiroshi <3. The mixed up asian kids of the future. Harumi: 1/4 Scottish, 1/4 Japanese, 1/2 Chinese. Hiroshi: 1/2 Japanese 1/2 Filipino. Mixed unite!
This past weekend we journeyed to Little Tokyo to see some friends. Our friend introduced us to TOT Restaurant in Little Tokyo. I discovered their specialty, spicy miso soup. It was yum!! Its a pretty good hole-in-the-wall Japanese joint.
Walking the streets of Little Tokyo made me realize we don’t visit enough. We send our daughter to Japanese school, yet seldom take her to Little Tokyo! We’re Japanese at heart…its all coming back to me now.
Here are some pics of the HSUFAM in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles:
We had a good time shooting Denise & Jameson. Here are some behind the scenes shots to paint the rest of the picture:
One of the 1st shots of the happy couple…good job Handicapped sign!!
Elise & Kristy came with us! Good thing they’re iPad fanatics!
We went up to Big Bear for our friend’s birthday/wedding anniversary. They’ve been married for 10 years! Makes you feel old when your friends are celebrating their 10 year. LA is so amazing, this trip made me thankful to live in such a beautiful city. Just a couple hours and we’re deep in the wilderness hanging in a boat on a huge beautiful lake.
I haven’t been shooting as much as I’ve been wanting to lately. So I made up for it at Big Bear. Here are some of my fav pics from the restful weekend:
Things have been so hectic lately while we’re prepping my car for the track (this coming Sat, 5/28). The Hsu’s are running around town like Chickens with their heads cut off. Not a lot of time to talk, but here are the highlights (I am never too busy to take a shot):
Benson named this stray “Gary Busey.” He likes to come and visit our outdoor cat Vera Wang. He is TORE up.
As we prepare for summer break, we’re touring preschools for Elise and college prep courses for Kristy.
Another advantage I have over the guys…I shop at craft stores with hot duct tape!
my daughter Kristy helped design my new sticker scheme…its multi-functional design ensures my bumper doesn’t fall apart!
(taken with my iPhone) the DriftQueen runs for the 1st time, in…2 years. She starts on the 1st try with no problems.
I’ll see you after the car’s brakes are bled!
Finally got to play with the new polarizer filter on the camera today. It wasn’t quite sunny enough, but we caught some sweet pre-sunset light. Elise skipped her 2-hour nap today. She wasn’t exactly in the smiley mood. Here are a few raw photos. I wish I could make more time to take photos!
Elise picking daisies (a daily ritual)
Just another evening at the Hsu residence...Elise picking daisies, the new cars on the driveway, the old beat up drift cars no where in sight.
picking up all the red berries she dropped
Elise giving her daisies
For Valentine’s day, Benson gave me the green light to get a lens! I’ve had my eye on this lens since December, but could never get the guts to push that “buy” button on Amazon until a few days ago. The lens arrived Friday, just in time for this weekend & the beautiful California weather.
The lens is a Tamron 28-75 2.8, which so far has proven to be quite versatile. I photograph mainly to capture my kiddies growing up, so it looks as if this could be one of the only lenses I will need. I may want another in the future, but this is going to hold me over for a long time. The lens is super fast and has made it easy to shoot tight portraits (with blurring the background) as well as wide landscape shots and everything in the middle.
500 shots in, here are some of the results:
There isn’t enough time…or maybe I’m just not using my time wisely!?
As I work my full-time accounting job, run Drifting Pretty, be a mommy to my gals, be a wife, enjoy my hobbies, help take care of both my grandmas who are having health issues and somehow find time to write blogs and brush my teeth…I realize time is so scarce and so valuable. Its been so difficult choosing what to spend my time on. Right now its everything! I think something has to give. It certainly won’t be easy. Maybe I’ll just stop brushing my teeth or doing laundry?!
One of the loves in my life…Drifting Pretty kicked off its 8th year of operation this past weekend. Its truly amazing. Tons of gals rumbling in with their noisy cars, running around my culdesac screaming, laughing, flipping photos while carrying textbooks on car racing…all joining together for a good cause: learning how to race. Its a pretty magical sight! Congratulations to our 2011 students. Can’t wait to race with you this year!!!
She Drifts Again…
I finally have plans to take my 240 back to the drift track. Oh how I have missed you pink drift car. As I slated up the 2011 Drifting Pretty schedule, I committed to driving a drift event with the DP gals. My deadline will be May 1st to get the car back to working condition. There aren’t major problems with the car, just faulty intercooler pipes that I warped when I drove last and ran over my own front bumper. I’m going to have Elton @ Raceline fab me some new piping. The only challenge is to get my car there…she has no tags or intercooler pipes. So she needs to be towed.
After that, I need to work on the brakes. I’m hosting a Drifting Pretty tech day to finally put on some StopTech brakes and Z32 rear calipers. That feeling of having brand new parts sitting around un-installed is depressing! I hope I can do that job in a day. I also got a beautiful new Veilside hood (thank you to Benson, I love you :), so I need to install the hoodpins for that. And I need a new battery and a fluid change and I ::hope:: that is all I’ll need to be ready for the track. That’s all?! Wow that list sure got long. Here we go!!!
Photog
All the time I usually spend blogging has been dedicated to my new hobby of photography. Benson & my friends got together and got me an SLR for my birthday last October. I got a Canon T2i. Friends have been so generous to lend me all sorts of lenses. 6,000 shots in, I’m possibly getting the hang of it! This weekend when it was about to rain, I took Elise out for a quick Birthday photo shoot in the backyard with a borrowed 50mm 1.4 lens. There is this beautiful magnolia tree in my backyard just covered in flowers!!! Talk about photo opp.
Elise turns 3 later this month. There are a few more fantastic photos, but you’ll see those if you’re lucky enough to be on her guestlist haha.
Happy Girl Scout cookie month and Happy Chinese New Year this Saturday.
See you soon!
4 years ago I married the man who completed me and turned my life into a dream come true.
Happy 4 year anniversary Benson
Our cars married each other too. Happy Anniversary Cars 🙂
Nissan 240sx
Infiniti G35
Mazdaspeed 3
