Afternoon delights

I was about to sit down to some tea – Thé du Hammam from Le Palais des Thés was my choice this afternoon – and chocolate, but couldn't help to stage a little shot to welcome my new teapot and tray to the prop mix. I picked these up from ABC Carpet & Home today (a dangerous place for me) along with some quince blossoms from the greenmarket. Here's to hoping they bloom!

Home, lately

Since moving in late October, I've already moved around the furniture multiple times. I can't help it. It's hard to find the right configuration at first. After I ordered this shelf unit, I was struggling with how to rearrange the living room to accommodate it. My brilliant friend Kira (the same one that styled this post) gave me the idea of putting the couch in the middle of the room instead of against either of the walls. It was the best advice I've received in a long time. I am not a "huggy" person but I practically jumped to hug her in excitement. It really made all the difference. I then moved my desk away from the corner and put our little dining table there instead. The space is starting to feel more cohesive. There are definitely a few problematic areas I'm still working on, but for now, the pretty parts.

Winter Still Life

An ongoing goal of mine is to become better with artificial light (because as much as I love natural light, not every space I shoot in has beautiful or abundant natural light). These are some results from today's practice. You almost can't tell that the first three were all shot with the same background.

Happy holidays

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy holidays! Thank you for reading along for another year. Hope 2014 is bigger and better for everyone. :)

A morning of polaroids

I recently got a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II on eBay after playing around with one at Cindy's. The large square Polaroids you can achieve with the Polaroid back was the main draw for me, plus it's really quite the workhorse (and an excellent arm/wrist workout). I shot through a pack of Fuji FP-3000B film and a few of the color 100C as well. Here's just a sampling from this morning. Avedon is quite the poser.

Still Life Study

There is nothing like a beautiful Juliet rose to add a dose of grace to any scene. After peonies, these are a close second favorite flower.

Tabletop

Well, thank you for the chiming in on the last post! Thought that I'd just hear crickets after hitting publish on that one. If I can find the discipline, I'd love to do a follow-up with full outfits for each pair of boots. This week, I also have some pretty white fringed tulips and tree peonies from 2hflowers adorning my dining table and desk. Thought I'd spread some of the cheer they bring me.


(I swear, my apartment could be a Mud Australia advertisement. Ever since they opened up on Crosby Street, there's been some magnet drawing me into the store every time I step within 10 blocks of it. I do love my newest acquisition — this teapot and cup.)


I know this photo fills one too many hipster/design-victim stereotypes. Deer antler, mason jar of flowers, and stack of books for show? Yikes.

Happy weekend, and here's hoping for more regular posts again!

Pie for breakfast

One morning last week involved the fanciest coffee I've ever had ($25 for 150g! but so worth it!) and a slice of Four and Twenty Blackbirds Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie (no stranger to these parts). If only all days could start like this.

2013 Instagram Photo Calendar

I have always wanted to design a little calendar using some of my photos from the year. This year, I thought it would be fitting to use Instagram photos, and I'm excited to finally present the finished product. The calendar is printed on a nice matte paper and comes unbound, so there's some flexibility in how you want to display it. When each month is done, you can cut off the calendar portion, and keep a little 5x5 print (if you'd like :)).


The photos I chose are tied in to still life, coffee and interiors - which comprise the bulk of my Instagram feed.


For the month of November, I am donating 25% of all calendar sales to local Hurricane Sandy relief efforts (a great list on Jenna's blog here). You can grab a calendar with the button right down there.

OUT OF STOCK

Update: December 13 -- At this time I'm no longer shipping internationally. I appreciate all the love from you, international buyers though!

Thank you for your support!

A week offline

Hello - it's been a while. Last Sunday, before the storm, J and I, along with a reluctant Avedon, evacuated our apartment under mandatory orders. I wasn't sure what to expect. I assumed the power would go out and maybe we'd lose water. But I was expecting things would be fine after the storm passed. As some of you know, I live VERY close to the water. So close that, in fact, our street and building experienced heavy flooding, about 5-6 feet during the surge. Every ground floor apartment and business establishment in the neighborhood sustained pretty bad flooding damage.

We were lucky. Despite that we went a full week without power, heat, or hot water (well they're still working on that one), we are among the lucky.

Before the power came on yesterday evening, I was in pretty low spirits. My body ached from walking all over the city during the day time to avoid being in our depressing apartment, I was incredibly anxious about all the work I was missing out on and all the emails that needed my attention, and I was just damned tired of breathing in so many candle fumes. Then the fridge started to buzz and there was an energy in the air. I was very cautiously optimistic, afraid that if I exclaimed that the power was back on, it'd go away.

But now that I'm slowly getting back in the swing of things, I am incredibly thankful that I still have a place to call home. My little apartment is still standing and well. I can't even imagine having to rebuild from scratch and I feel terrible for those who lost everything.

Thank you to everyone who emailed or tweeted or got in touch with concerns. It's so so good to be back!

Grateful

In the midst of a hectic and stressful month, I wanted to note how grateful I am to be busy doing what I love. Sometimes (rather, all the time) I still can't believe it. When I quit my day job in June of last year, I had absolutely no idea what lay ahead or if I'd be hunting for a corporate job again in a year or so. I have so much to learn still, so many goals to accomplish still, and that all greatly excites and terrifies me.

One area that ends up suffering is my personal work and all the fun stuff that began Lingered Upon. I used to be inseparable from my camera on the weekends, documenting all the details of my jaunts around the city. I hope I can pick that up again. I'm grateful to all you readers who have stuck around through it all.



These weather changes are not being kind to my body. I'm at that point of being on the edge of sickness and feeling slightly disconnected from everything that's going on. I'm hoping all the shooting I'll be doing soon will be a welcome distraction.

For now, dahlias.

Polux Fleuriste

I enjoyed this beautiful arrangement from Polux for a good week or so. I can surely make this a monthly habit, no?

Still beauty in the dry and wilted remains.

Chairs! + an alternate workspace

If you haven't noticed, I've gotten really into furniture over the past year or so, oof. I'm now all for getting pieces that will last, both in terms of style and construction/build, instead of tossing and re-buying my Ikea furniture every time I move. It's been hard not to make our new space into a design victim's lair (and I don't think we quite succeeded), but hopefully we'll be able to collect some cool and unique things over the years that will soften the edges up a bit.

The 35'' Saarinen dining table is perfect for our tiny space, though our experience in getting it - from the DWR outlet on eBay - was far from perfect. It took three (!) deliveries, but we finally ended up with the correct table. I researched chairs for a good, like, two weeks before I went with my first pick anyway. We ordered them back in July and finally got them today. They make them from scratch I think. It's embarrassing to admit how much these chairs excited me (these are the wafer + walnut legs).



I'm also pretty excited to be able to sit at a different "desk" for some work, especially as my iMac's wifi has been busted for months.

And if you're curious, we painted this wall "Wrought Iron" by Martha Stewart Living.

Happy weekending!

P.S. Thank you all for the thoughtful responses on the last post - it was great to learn more about your current/past whereabouts and how you feel about them.

Friends and the apartment

Cozbi was in town a few weeks back and I took the opportunity to shoot her in the (tiny) apartment. Then Pei came over, and I grabbed a few of her too. :) All on 400H (a film I haven't used in forever!) and Contax 645.

Had to finish the roll, so here are some gratuitous photos of the apartment and an Avedon cameo.

Happy weekend!

A new ride

I haven't owned or ridden a bike since I was maybe 13 years old. On Sunday, I test-rode a bike that was far too big on me on the streets of Soho. Where there are no bike lanes. Where there are hordes of people. Where the side streets are super narrow. Yeah, it was harrowing. When I told the bike shop people I hadn't ridden a bike in over a decade, someone was sent to accompany me on my test ride. Poor guy had to deal with me nearly falling off the bike every time I had to stop. Towards the end, I was like, "Erm, can we just walk the bikes back?"

I ended up getting a smaller bike than the one I test-rode. And even still, I am on tiptoes when sitting down with the seat at its lowest. Cursing my short legs. While I don't think I'll be dodging street traffic any time soon, I will be riding up and down the east and west side when I can. Because riding on the streets still kinda scares me shitless. And then I'll slowly try to ease my way into the calmer streets with bike lanes. We'll see.



But really, how cute is she!

(I've got myself a hideous helmet - don't worry.)

6:52 PM

Yikes, I've been a terrible blogger. And completely slowed down in putting the apartment together. I was going great the first few days after the move but quickly ran out of steam. For now, the photo frames will live along this wall.



I snapped this with my iPhone a few minutes ago, as the clock will prove. I'm shooting my last August wedding tomorrow (out of four). This month is FLYING by. Crazytown. Did I mention I'm off to SF and Napa at the end of the month? :)

The new digs

Oh, hello. The move went fairly smoothly and took a surprisingly shorter time than last year (huge thanks to Pei who helped me pack the day before). So the new place - shitty location, but I am pretty fond of the apartment. And although it is much smaller than the old place (the entire living room/my office space/kitchen/dining room totals 200 sq ft!), I think the space and layout are much more usable. I unpacked in record time - not a single box left. Last year, I swear I was digging out of boxes even months after the fact.

It's definitely a huge work in progress, but for now, lemme share a few iPhone photos of it. (Sorry if you've already seen most of these on Instagram!). Oh speaking of Instagram, did you catch my video interview with The Daily in their #NoFilter series? It was both fun and terrifying being in front of the lens. Thank goodness for video editing. :)

24.5

Hello and thank you for the encouraging and constructive comments on my last post. I almost always feel lame after feeling down - it's like the next phase is always "get your shit together, Alice!" Ironically, after lamenting about how expensive props wouldn't make me better a photographer in my last post, I impulsively shelled out way more than necessary for this simple teapot and mug. They're from marimekko and I just loved the design of them. It's also my half-birthday (and I've always been a proponent of noting them and well, of spoiling myself in general), so it was an easy justification.

I broke them in with some Earl Grey French Blue tea from Mariage Frères, and had a little snack of donut peaches (that also cost an arm and a leg, sheesh). I'm also mildly horrified that I like my iPhone shot of this very same scene more than my 5Dmkii's...

I've got an early wedding call time tomorrow so I'm taking it easy tonight. Stay tuned for Paris posts next week!

A little break

Things will be a little quiet here while I am in the Dominican Republic, so I'm signing off now until I return. What's a little crazy is that I'll be (second) shooting a wedding until midnight Saturday and leaving ~6AM on Sunday for the airport. My body may hate me, but will hopefully recover with some good tropical sun. In the meantime, you can always follow me through my travels on Instagram or Twitter - @alice_gao on both. I'm leaving J to hold down the fort and make sure Avedon doesn't destroy the apartment while I'm gone... we shall see.