It’s been a While

It really has been an extremely long while.

I personally don’t know how people manage to write a blog entry every so often. Perhaps they are a whole lot more inspired and a whole lot less lazy than I am.

Or perhaps blogging is a habit that one has to get into.

Maybe if I forced myself to blog at a regular interval I will get better at it… and perhaps that will trigger my creativity.

Which is why I am here now. Although I am also here to do shameless plugs and do various updates to an ambiguous audience — I’m not that surprised if we don’t actually have an audience… but from now on I promise to try harder at updating this page.

(Plus it’s a whole lot easier to update with English than Chinese…you can tell that our pixnet blog is just near being completely and utterly abandoned…not far from it, not far at all)

Well, this is food, photography, philosophy, so I guess I’ll write a little bit on each of these things.

Photography

Seasons have always been a main part of my inspirations in photography. I  must admit that I do have a slight obsession with nature (the little Taoist in me yearns to be part of nature…), and doing season related shoots makes me happy. The natural atmosphere of the setting inspires myself as a model and a photographer. I think I find myself “posing” a lot less and try to really delve into the feeling of the season.

The fashion/outfit that I choose also have a lot to do with seasons. Clearly, I’m not one of the most up-to-date with what is fashionable and what’s not, but I do enjoy finding out bits and pieces of what’s “hot” in the season, look for the garments and really do some styling that makes me happy.

There is a reason why I don’t do styling professionally in the fashion industry — my knowledge is too naive.

It does take the pressure off myself though; I feel a whole lot more free and to really see the “fashion” from my own eyes — what pleases me, and what doesn’t, and more importantly, what feels right.

My most recent shoot is shot in Regent’s Park, London. I must say that this park is absolutely ginormous… and it’s quite a new experience to model in public. It does feel slightly awkward though, when everyone else just looks or glances at you and some of them grinning. That probably stems from the fact that we’ve photographed in private locations most of the time, and in knowing that we’re not professionals (nor did we look professional, to be honest, but I promise our results are professional!) we are even more self-conscious than before.

It was an awkward experience, especially when we had other people photographing us modelling too… but I shall take that as a compliment. If you ask if I would do it again, I would. A million times over, just so to get used to it, to neglect what anyone else thinks and to really be absorbed into it. So yes, I would do it again. and again. If my friends are willing to!

So here is the link to the Spring set that we’ve done:
The Beginning of Spring
(clicking the link opens a new window/tab)

And here are a few photographs from the set that I personally quite liked:

(Yes! I have started a Flickr. Mainly because my mother complained that I don’t show her any of the photography I do. Which reminds me, I should probably link her to this set to enjoy)

Here are also links to other sets we have done recently:
Love at Oxford
Almost Alice

I really do appreciate comments and feedbacks on photography/modelling/fashion/whatever! I feel more lost without inputs than I do with a lot of information. What would you like to see? Let me/us know on our “Inspire us” page, or e-mail us at pheedthezoo@gmail.com
(You’re opinions are safer going through the inspire us page rather than our e-mail, which is even more neglected than our blog….)

Food

It makes a really big difference being out of university and away from friends because the number of food adventures really have decreased. For me anyway — the rest of the zoo is still pursuing food adventures having to cook their daily meals, while I, on the other hand, is being pampered everyday. Although soon I shall embark on my food adventures — I look forward to that.

Having said that, one of the things that is new to me, but not new generally, is to incorporate cinnamon into my breakfast.

It’s not anything revolutionary, just add a little cinnamon on to a buttered toast, or on soft cream cheese that has been spread on toast. Like I said, nothing revolutionary.

So when I do start cooking/baking in the near future, there are quite a number of things I’d like to try:
– macaroons: still haven’t succeeded once, and will try again and again.
– rocky road bars: the ones from Marks & Spencers really have me hooked on them!
– brownies with loads of twists: I think they’re like muffins/cupcakes; you get a basic form, then you add/minus stuff from it
– green curry: purely because in a leaflet I saw “Green Thai Chicken” and realised I haven’t had green curry in a really long time and I suddenly have this on-going subtle craving for it

What have you made recently?

Philosophy

Change. I think that’s what I want to talk about today…

We all have different attitudes towards change…in everything. And in different contexts we have a different attitude to it: fear, hope, courage…

I must admit most of the time it’s the fear of change that gets me the most, even though change is happening all the time. And sometimes, paradoxically, I fear the non-change. Being at a still-point in this point of my life, wanting to move forward, but contrarily being afraid to take the step forward.

It’s really frustrating. And then I get frustrated about being frustrated. It’s a vicious cycle.

How do you deal with change? How do you deal with the fear?

I try to live with it. For me, there really is no way of eradicating the fear; so from now I try to be friends with it, coaxing it to change into courage. It’s starting to work, but that is based on the fact that I am extremely dissatisfied and sick of something that I feel like I need to do something about it. So basically, out of desperation, I draw up the courage to change and take action.

Although what I would like is to not having to meet that desperation before I want to take a step forward.

I want to walk with change and fear.

Because then I feel that the ups and downs would be more regulated — it’s like homeostasis, where change and fear regulate my life balance.

So now I have to start working on shifting into the gear for that. Starting with removing procrastination bit by bit. How? Using different methods of procrastination — replace not wanting to do event A with doing event B, which is also productive in another aspect. If you know what I mean. Maybe eventually I’d be able to stick with doing event A all the way.

Funnily enough, I rarely procrastinate at work; but then again, it might just be the urgent and fast-paced environment I have at work.

So those are some of my thoughts.

Let me know yours!

Until next time, hopefully soon enough

Cat