$2000 Lens: 85 mm f/1.2

Photography and editing: Thomas Roach (the handsome feller above)

Preview of more photos to come: My photog friend Thomas Roach rented this $2000 lens (85 mm f/1.2 prime) for much, much less than that. It was for a special event but we pranced around campus Thursday afternoon test-shooting each other and our other friend-photog, Vince. It had just stopped raining and there was a decent golden hour, and these photos made me want to pee my pants hot pink skirt. Shooting full-body outfit pics means backing away the length of a small schoolbus, so the benefit of having sexy bokeh may not be practical for personal style photography. Not sure camera remotes even sense that far - imagine running that distance every time you self-timer hahaha. 

Aren't these boys so sharply dressed too? Thomas and I practically live in our brown leather oxfords. Funny thing too, we're all science majors xD

I just took a long swim in nostalgic tears last night at the St. Louis Symphony Final Fantasy concert (Distant Worlds). Going again tonight and ready to see me some more Nobuo Uematsu, the composer himself! He's soooo shy and cute in person. In other news, this week JJ and I watched Kiki's Delivery Service and X-Men: First Class (sooo good!). Hunger Games movie this Sunday if I behave and get my study on. The beautiful 70-80 degree weather makes it impossible to focus anyway ... oh, and second semester senioritis. Have an exciting weekend!

Readers - do you like the ultra-blurry background or prefer more detail?

FOTD: Ladylike Lilac + Canon Powershot SX120 IS !!

I feel whole again! Dad took me to Best Buy today to look at cameras :D He knows how upset I am without something to photograph. Unfortunately, they didn't have the Sony Hx5 in store so I couldn't test it out. However, we did buy a Canon Powershot SX120 IS for $199, so the updated version of my boyfriend's camera I have been using for the past half year. I love this camera. Even though the pics could turn out a little less granulated, they look pretty good on the new and improved larger screen. The camera seems less bulky than the last model and seems to weigh less but I don't like the little door that covers the memory card and batteries. It makes uploading a pain because it won't open easily and I feel like it's going to break if I use too much force.

I also checked out the Sony H55 but even with 14x optical zoom, the quality is kind of lacking. The Canon is pretty amazing for its price. I also fooled around with the cheapest Canon EOS DSLR for fun and my I'm just drooling for a nice, nice camera. Someday. Someday! 

I really do enjoy blogging. I think without it, I'd go crazy. Facebook and Chictopia I can do without. I've made a lot of friends here and it's not fun to just up and leave. I still like reading everyone's posts so naturally I also want to say my spiel and post post post! (I learned how to spell "spiel" finally through a Murakami novel. Go figure.) Maybe I can take some pictures of outfits I wear and show them to you guys! Also, I can do FOTD's again. Thank goodness.

About a week ago, I was wearing my white lace dress again and a pearl necklace from Mom. It all fit perfectly and elegantly when I went over to a family friend's house for dinner. We stopped by Barnes & Noble on the way for Examkrackers 1001 MCAT Physics Questions book and Bath & Body Works for some handwashing liquid soap and I got many compliments from the sale assistants :D I also wore my low heel white pumps and a red half sleeve jacket. I'll just redo this outfit and take pics next time. It was all lovely.

Products used: 

Anastasia Brow Wiz in Medium Ash

ELF Studio Concealer in Light

ELF Studio Complexion Perfection

Wet n Wild E/S Palette in Lust: Bright purple all over lid, some matte white for browbone highlight

ELF Duo E/S light purple swept over the bright purple

Wet n Wild Creme Shadow Stick in Pixie for nose highlight

ELF Mineral Lipstick in Rosy Tan

ELF Studio Blush from Blush/Bronzer Duo Compact

Imju Fiberwig Mascara + heated lash curler

Nails: ELF Nail Polish in Nude + Love & Beauty pen nail art in White

Geo Nudy Brown Lenses

Of course these photos were taken with Photobooth again. They're okay in good daytime lighting. I like the delicate purple shadow. It complements brown eyes perfectly and shows up but isn't too "whoa save that for the club." I've also lightened up on the whole dark shadows on outer V look for a while. It doesn't seem to fly very well for the au naturale style and I have a hard time getting it to work. Curled my hair with a crappy straightener, put some Garnier smoothing milk to smooth the flyaways and voila!

Did this manicure at home :D Closeup of what I showed you guys in my last post. French manicures are a must for ladies, you know.

Hahaha I don't know how to make videos! This was my first attempt. My voice was kind of weird that day and I was sitting outside on my porch, blabbing away for a Youtube contest entry. My voice is actually not as pip-squeaky girly as you imagined, huh? :D Actually I sound kind of manly when I speak Chinese xD
[edit 6.10.10: deleted because I'm switching Youtube accounts at the moment]

Last but not least, my new camera :D My photos probably won't seem that different than the ones I've been taking all year, but you enjoyed them, right? I can finally get rid of my horrendous Kodak Easyshare. I might still get the Sony Hx5 though at the end of summer, but for now I'll be using the Canon : ) There's something I don't trust about compact little cameras. They seem so fragile and untrustworthy. I want to lug around a huge DSLR to show who's boss. It's all part of that image.

What's your dream camera? Can you live one day without taking pictures? I've only survived about 2 weeks before crumbling, camwhore to the max xD