Lights. Camera. Action!

" It takes two to create beauty, and not only in the play of light and shadow, of color, and contrast; or most delightfully of fashion and flesh- it takes two beings-one poses, another who snaps." ~Sports Illustrated 2008~


As I have mentioned in my interests, I enjoy photography very much, both behind and in front of camera.  If we only get to live this life once, as we make the very best out of it, improving our body and soul- why not record all of that, through photography? It is the same as blogging, writing and vlogging.

Coming from a very conservative, traditional Asian culture, one of the big no no's for my family is for their kids to even think about modeling. As a kid, I've always picked and chose the sort of traditional values I wanted to follow and the outdated ones I'd like to break. I attended my first photo shoot about 4 years ago, and then on and off through out the years. As a newbie, my in front of the camera skills, were, uh, very raw.

Expressions, body language, lighting, holding a position, composure, message-all that changes between every flash.

Through out this modeling journey, I can say that I've learned a lot about boundaries and myself. Although, I know the society (or my family) has its own opinions about modeling, I have to say that I am glad that I have taken on this journey. Notably, I have also met some of the most talented photographers; make up artists and most beautiful models (inside and out!).

I can see my growth whenever I go through my old and new pictures. Sometimes I am like," WHAT WAS I THINKING?" and sometimes I can tell I am completely uncomfortable in the picture. Ha Ha. I remember I was told many times by different people that modeling, in a way, is to pose the most uncomfortable poses, and make them look natural and comfortable. That always stuck with me. Posing uncomfortable poses I got it down, now I just have 'look' comfortable. :P

I once read a response on Gaia about maturity. It said that maturity is transparency. It got me thinking about how ‘transparent' I wanted to be, or should be. I do maintain a certain level of privacy online, but mostly, I think I do share a lot about my thoughts and experiences. However, I stopped sharing so much of the modeling side of me for the fear of, how what is art to me at the moment, can be easily misread by someone else. Or maybe I was shying away from judgment.

But who is a better judge than myself? 

As of earlier this year, I took a long break from photo shoots. I found that I had other aspects of my life that I wanted to work on and a few new foundations I wanted to build and strengthen. I am glad I did- now I have a better sense of who I am and what I want-I am hopeful that it will show through the lenses.

Last week was my first photo shoot in many many months. We shot in studio and on location in San Diego. Busy downtown, I almost forgot how awkward it could be shooting in public with people watching (as they talked about in the video above). I am utterly excited about the images and concepts from that shoot (Stephen Akers Photography rocks!)- I truly believe that shoot captured my growth in the past few months as a person.

With that said, I also record my journey here:

www.modelmayhem.com/358483

These are pictures before the break. I am hopeful to have the new pictures up in two to three weeks.