A photography special in tribute to all Mothers

Happy Mother's Day to both my mummy and my mee!

Shopping

Most ladies I know would perk up at the word SHOPPING! But not me. Since Dylan was born, I have not been able to lose the baby bulge and I now wear two dress sizes bigger than before. Nothing looks good on me when I am in the fitting room thus shopping has become ZERO fun (hey! I'm sounding like most of the husbands out there). If I do shop, it's for my kids or I'm at the supermarket. Yup! You know you have attained "Aunty" status when you would rather shop for groceries than clothes :D

Anyway, you can imagine my apprehensive excitement when Esprit invited me to go on a shopping spree this Mother's Day with my kids at their Liat Towers store with a personal stylist to boot! Oh wow! Me? They must not have seen me before I thought LOL! And hmmm, I wasn't aware that Esprit has a kids range! You must think I live in a farm far far away but seriously I haven't been shopping, and even when I do, it's all done online.

Ok, so I walked into the store and was greeted and introduced to my Esprit stylist Peiling. I wasn't sure what to expect and tried my best to look trendy (ya right! in my daily shorts and tee!) but who am I kidding! Haha! Thank goodness Peiling was a pleasant girl, wasn't pushy at all and gave me lots of suggestions while I picked out clothes for my sons and myself. She took note of my problem areas (read: 5months pregnant looking tummy and fat arms) and my occupation and selected appropriate outfits for me to try. There were a couple of times when I thought nah, that colour/style wouldn't work on me but she insisted I try it and what do you know? It was lovely on me! I even got myself a jumpsuit which I never thought I could carry off but it worked and that ended up being my favourite of the lot! Yay for Peiling's discerning eye :)

Back when I was of school-going age, Esprit was a brand synonymous with the young. We saved our pocket money for weeks just so to buy that rectangular drawstring bag with the ESPRIT logo on it (oops! now you know how old I am :p). I never thought that now, as a mother of two young children, I would still be able to shop at Esprit! Not only for me, but for the kids as well. Walking around the Liat Towers store, I noticed that Esprit also retails footwear, handbags, bodywear, belts and accessories. So really, you can get an entire outfit (top to toe) all at one stop. For someone who don't really like to shop, that really appeals to me :)

Do stop by an Esprit store the next time you are out shopping and check out their smart, affordable and stylish apparel for the entire family. Yup, they have clothes for daddys too! I'll update in another post pictures of the boys and myself in our Esprit gear but meantime, here are some shots I took during our shopping spree :)

 

 

A Skippy Breakfast

So, how many of you skip breakfast even though we know it's important? *me!* The usual "no time", "nothing to eat", "not hungry" excuses. I am glad to say that I have not passed this habit of skipping breakfast to my children. They do eat, at least drink a glass of milk.

Do you know that eating breakfast will lead to better behaviour in kids? Not hungry = happy kids :) They get higher test scores as they can concentrate better in class with a filled tummy. And this next info will interest us mummies, eating breakfast can help in weight control by regulating caloric intake! We won't get hungry till lunch time - means less snacking. Makes sense!

But there's no time in the morning! Those of you with kids in the morning session, I hear you! Try preparing a handy and easy to eat breakfast to let your child eat along the way. Plan ahead and prepare ingredients the night before and assemble in the morning.

It's always sandwiches! The child groans, even I groan. It's BORING! So avoid repetition. Be creative by preparing different cuisines. It can be asian porridge, a continental breakfast of scrambled eggs and baked beans, roti prata, a slice of banana cake, cereal or oats etc. Some kids find it hard to swallow in the morning, in this case, you can prepare a nutritious beverage such as a fruit smoothie or milk shake.

Ok ok so you have a fussy child. Here are some helpful tips:
1. Set a good example, you eat too!
2. Make sure the food is tasty.
3. Children thrive on routine, serve them their favourite meal a few times a week with some variations.
4. Do not bribe your child, you will run out of ideas and money LOL :D
5. Instead, find a substitute for food your child doesn't like eg. muffin instead of bread.
6. Kids are attracted to colours, offer a variety of food with different colours.
7. Keep offering new foods even if they reject them at first.
8. Keep eating fun by involving the children in food preparation.

Now the last tip really worked on my sons. My younger boy Dylan, who doesn't eat peanut butter at all on it's own, chomped down a couple of these delicious peanut butter cookies which we baked together over the weekend!

Some interesting facts on peanut butter...it is not butter and neither does it contain any! It is actually a spread made from roasted peanuts. Peanut butters are at least 90% peanuts and does not contain any additives such as artificial preservatives. It takes 850 peanuts to make 500g of peanut butter! Peanut butter is an excellent source of protein and dietary fibre, containing healthful unsaturated fats and other vitamins and minerals. One tablespoon of peanut butter = 30g meat protein! Kids need protein for normal growth and development, building and repairing of tissues. So wow! I didn't know all that about peanut butter! I thought it was just a few peanuts mixed with loads of butter! How enlightening :) So peanut butter is good for you and an easy breakfast choice, spread over a slice of wholemeal bread or you can try the two recipes I am sharing with you below.

No more excuses, do try to start your child's day (and yours) with a nutritious breakfast, don't skip it! Have a Skippy breakfast instead :p Here are two peanut butter recipes to start you off. One is the peanut butter cookie *yum yum* and the other is a peanut butter milk shake *double yum*! Enjoy!

This is an extra step I did, to roll the cookie dough in some cinnamon sugar :) 

 

 

 

 

Skippy Classic Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients:  Makes about 3 dozens cookies.
1 cup unsalted butter, softened (i used half cup instead)
1 cup Skippy crunchy peanut butter
1 cup granulated castor sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda (i used 1 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:                                                      

1          Cream together butter, peanut butter and sugars. Beat in eggs.
2          In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir into batter.  
            Put batter in refrigerator for 1 hour. 
3          Roll into 1" balls and put on baking sheets. Flatten each ball with a fork, making a criss-cross pattern. 
4          Bake in a preheated 180°C oven for about 15 minutes or until cookies begin to brown. Do not over-bake.  

Skippy Banana Milk Shake

Ingredients:

1 medium frozen Delmont banana, peeled
4 tbsp Skippy creamy peanut butter
1 cup vanilla ice cream
1 cup chilled fresh milk

Garnishing:  Chopped Nutty Bars  and  chocolate chips or shaves

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in blender.  Cover process until smooth.  

Pour into chilled glasses.  Top with crumbled Nutty Bars and chocolate chips.  Serve and Enjoy!

Intern Extraordinaire Part Deux

Last year around this time, we had the pleasure of having Yvonne Soh as our intern at the studio. If you had seen her illustrations you will know that I am not exaggerating when I tell you she is DAMN good! See my blog masthead above? That's her work too.

So the first day she started her slavery internship, we put her illustration skills to good use hee hee :p We were preparing for a baby fair and wanted some tee-shirts printed and she helped us with the character illustrations and tee design all within a day! Here's a shot I took of Yvonne and she has included Wen Lin, Joanne and me with her in the shot using the illustrations she did for our tee-shirt :) Cute right?

While she was interning with us, we also tried to incorporate her illustrations with our photography and you can see examples of our collaboration here and here. She also designed our 2012 brochure, Christmas card templates, my blog's namecard etc and overall we were very happy with our intern of last year. Well, guess what? Yvonne is joining us again next week for a few weeks! We can't wait for her to help us with that mountain of photo editing to work with her again and Yvonne, good luck with your final year project, see you soon! :)

The Evanoffs

Did I tell you that I love Canadians? They are warm and friendly and one after another my Canadian clients have introduced their friends to me and I can't thank them enough for the support shown :)

Meet the Evanoffs, a Canadian couple who recently came for their Bloom and Teeny Weeny sessions. The Bloom shoot was wonderfully relaxed and I made a mental note of some of the shots we took (including props used) to carry over to their Teeny Weeny session in a few weeks time. Well, the newborn session with little Aidan really made me sweat literally! He wasn't sleepy even after many feeds, he fussed, cried, poo and peed :p Mummy and daddy were on the verge of giving up. Plus we had all those challenging shots planned but now seem unachievable with a very awake baby :(

Well we did what we could and I am so happy with what we managed to achieve despite the difficulties. The "aeroplane" shot in particular which was requested by mummy proved the most challenging and I implore you not to try this unless you have all safety measures checked! Newborn safety in photography is of utmost importance and we take this very seriously.

Thank you Theresa, Darryl and Aidan for your time, here are a few favourites from your session :)

the shot above inspired by Baby As Art :)

#sgperth0312

So you already know I am an Instagram freak, well here's my entire vacation to Perth with the family this month as an extra large instagram collage :D To make head or tail of the images, I guess you should go to Instagram and search the hashtag #sgperth0312 to view the entire collection complete with captions and comments. All instagrams shot and edited with my iPhone 4S. DSLR images to come soon :)

Life's unfair like that

I remember being bloated, big as a whale and totally ugly when 38 weeks pregnant with my kids. So how can anyone look this good like the gorgeous Ms A below? Nary a stretchmark, nor swelling whatsoever apart from her baby bump! All I can say is, life's unfair like that. Enjoy the pictures and go envy that glowing pregger's skin! It's March and boy, do I have beautiful clients!

P1

So yay! We survived the first month into Primary 1. What a nightmare it was waking up at 530am each morning! It was hell for the first 3 weeks and believe me, weekends take on a whole new meaning :p

The first morning to school was very exciting. All four of us were out of the door at 640am. We didn't know then but this was too late to beat the traffic at Bartley Road. We have to be at least 10mins earlier if we want to avoid that bottleneck area. To beat the heavy traffic, Kay and I took the train one stop away while daddy continued to the school in the car. This worked well, we arrived just on time.

Lots of activity at the drop off area as anxious parents stood around watching their sons being ushered to their classrooms. We were not allowed anywhere beyond the drop off area, not even to the canteen. The teachers assured as that there will be a P5 buddy to guide them during recess time and that the teachers will take care of everything else and that we have to go home and just trust them with their job. But how can we? He's still my baby, so clueless and innocent. After a wave goodbye and watching him walk away till he turned the bend, we finally left. No tears.

We arrived back at the school during dismissal hoping to see him before he heads to student care services. Waited and waited but no signs of him, I was getting anxious and worried! We were then told that students going to the student care centre are waiting at another area and we quickly rushed there. From afar, I spotted him and he spotted us too and stood up and waved. I started crying, all my pent up worries and frustrations at not being able to watch over him this first day in school just started pouring out in tears. I've never been happier to see my boy! The last time I cried like this was when he was 21mths old and I left him at childcare after being with him for the first 3 days. I was peeping at him crying through the school's gate, myself crying as well :( Now he's in primary school but it still feels the same.

Well, all that drama aside, we are happy that he has settled in after some hiccups encountered during the initial few days, like not having a P5 buddy and not being able to finish his lunch in time etc. Even mummy and daddy are trying to get adjusted to the amount of homework and stuff a P1 boy has to complete and we are receiving emails from the teachers almost everyday telling us what needs to be done etc. VERY stressful! So far he has aced all his spelling tests and ting xie too, we are so proud, his daddy's hard work paying off :)

Keep up the good work darling Kay and we will be with you on this journey for the next 6 years!  

Can't shoot wearing specs

I'm one of those who can't drive wearing shoes, can't work on my computer wearing a watch and I also cannot shoot wearing spectacles. Which is why you hardly see me in glasses unless it is after work or the weekends. I've been a contact lens wearer since I was a 14 year old teenager. It was life changing, I hated glasses. My myopia was -6.00 per eye and back then even with high index lenses, your spectacles will still be very thick, almost goggles-like :d So as you can imagine, I wore my contact lenses all the time. On a few occasions I even forget to take them off when I went to sleep. That's terrible I know.

Now as a photographer-who-cannot-shoot-wearing-spectacles and a mummy-to-two-rascals, my long wearing relationship with my contact lenses continue. I put them on first thing in the morning after I shower and I remove them in the night after my bath. That's around 12-16 hours. Pretty hardcore huh? But it can't be helped. I often experience dryness, on bad days blurred vision and generally really just very tired eyes. 

Recently I was introduced to Bausch + Lomb’s Biotrue multi-purpose solution. It is inspired by the biology of your eyes and formulated to work like your eyes. Being the only solution to bring together three bio-inspired innovations:

·      * Has a lubricant found naturally in your eyes which helps keep your lens moist for up to 20 hours

·       * Matches the pH of healthy tears thus promotes comfort upon lens insertion

·       * Keeps certain beneficial tear proteins active to promote eye health and comfort

So I thought no harm giving this solution a try. At first I didn't notice any difference cause I was on leave that whole last week of 2011 and did not wear my contact lenses as long as I would have on a regular work day. But when 2012 came and my elder son started primary school, that was when I noticed major differences. You see, he is in the morning session and we have to get up at 550am to get him in school by 710am. Then after work, we will fetch the kids and be home around 6pm. After I shower around 8pm that's when I remove my contact lenses and if you count, that is like 14hours of continuous usage! With the previous solution and life before P1, I would be wearing the lenses from 8am onwards, so about 2 hours less than currently. But by 7-8pm, the dryness would have been unbearable already and my vision will be blurry. Last week I was wearing them for at least 14hours each day and when I took them out at night, my eyes were still pretty comfortable up till then.

I didn't feel any dryness of late. The contact lenses remain comfortable and my vision is still sharp. I guess lubrication of the eyes is very important and Biotrue helps.

Biotrue works! Get a free sample at www.biotrue.com.sg and try this outstanding lens care solution for yourself! You will not be rubbing your eyes I swear! 

Retailing at $28 for a Twin Pack (300mL x 2 bottles). Available at leading optical shops island-wide.

27 reasons not to marry a photographer

Came across this hilarious post by visual artist Melly and decided to repost it with some tweaks :D
If you are a photographer or married to one, you will get it! LOL

1. They would rather carry their bulky camera and kid(s), than hold hands with you.
2. When packing for a family vacation, half your allowed baggage allowance goes to their equipment.
3. If you’re taking a walk outside and come across some “interesting light” they will make the kids and you sit/stand/pose in public so that they can take a photo.
4. You’ll never be able to sit where you like in a restaurant because they will always pick the spot with the best light for photography of the kids and food.
5. You’ll never get to enjoy freshly cooked meals because they’ll spend at least 5 minutes taking 10 variations of the same dish with their iPhone.
6. They rather drop $1,000+ on new glass than furniture for the home.
7. You can’t take a photo of them without taking at least five more.
8. If you are concern about the scratch on junior's forehead showing up, they’ll say “Don’t worry I can photoshop it later.”
9. They won’t return your calls or text messages, but you can bet they’re still posting pics on Instagram.
10. They still use film cameras.
11. They spend all their time on the computer and iPhone (and not for porn).
12. They like watching arty films that you’ve never heard of or will ever understand.
13. Their choices for holiday destinations will be third world countries where they can get great documentary or cultural shots.
14. They think everyone else’s photos suck or is a bad copy of some other great photographer.
15. They like to edit the colours of their photos to look like scenes from Twilight or 300.
16. They like trespassing into old abandoned buildings or going to unpopulated areas where there's a nice lone tree for pictures.
17. They always want to show a new photo they took, but don’t really care if you like it or not.
18. They hate your friend’s new artsy profile picture.
19. Christmas presents for your parents will be a framed portrait that they’ve taken of the kids.
20. You can’t go anywhere new without them stopping to take a photo of everything and anything.
21. Nothing can ever be naturally pretty, everything must be fixed in Photoshop.
22. They are natural hoarders, collecting and keeping piles of old newspapers, packaging, magazines, and other things that “inspire” them.
23. They have a weird sense of fashion and like to extend it to you and the children's dressing.
24. They have hard drives of photos, but probably have printed 10 images.
25. They are always secretly judging your creativity.
26. If you’re ever in auto mode, they laugh at you.
27. They orgasm every time they learn a new lighting technique.

Looking forward to 2012

2011 was not a good year for many I know. It was quite a bad one for me too the first half of 2011. The year started with me falling sick twice. Now this is rare if you know me and to get hit twice at the beginning of the year started the bad luck rolling. The next few months saw us receiving two lawyers' letters (long story), my kids contracted HFMD, chicken pox too even though vaccinated, business was slow up till June, our photos were used everywhere without credit, my grandma passed away and my mother took thousands from me to settle her debts leaving us with no vacation last year.

But why bore you with my sob story?! Here are the good bits of 2011! :) On the business front for The Studio Loft, we had an awesome year and a few milestones. In Feb we welcomed Joanne Tan as our 3rd photographer, she was teaching at a childcare centre before and is great with kids especially the naughty ones :p Wen Lin and I are happy to have her on board working with us. We also had intern extraordinaire Yvonne Soh for 8 weeks! She is an extremely talented illustrator and artist and we were bloody lucky to have her as our intern :)

We had our very first walk-in promotion OUTDOORS! It was the Easter Hop-Out and it was a great success although the weather was rather unkind to us. We also smashed all walk-in records with our innovative and awesomely cute settings for the Children's Day Walk-In! The first day of the walk-in on Childrens' Day itself saw us not being able to cope with the number of people coming in so we had to turn a few away otherwise we would have been shooting till 9pm!

In total for 2011, we shot 283 Blooms (maternity), 135 Teeny Weenys (newborn), 215 Little Big Shots and 155 We Are Families! We are so grateful for all the support shown to us by our clients, old and new, and hope that 2012 will be an even better year for the studio. What's coming up for The Studio Loft in 2012? First big thing will be we are moving to a BIGGER and better space come 3rd quarter of 2012! We are also hoping to hire one more digital imaging artist to help us with post processing work. To stay at the top of our game, we will be attending more professional photography workshops and may even hold one ourselves! We will strive to continually come up with new and exciting promotions and interesting settings and backgrounds for walk-in or walk-out shoots in appreciation of all our clients who love to come for these mini-shoots. So stay tuned by "liking" our Facebook page :)

Last year also saw great exposure for me as a mobile photographer. Three of my iPhone Instagram photos were selected for the SIN exhibition out of 8000+ submissions and I am very honoured to be a part of the Singapore Instagram community. I was also given a HTC Sensation smartphone as part of HTC's marketing campaign getting photographers from different backgrounds to shoot with a HTC. Six of my photos shot with the HTC was featured in advertorials for the phone company. I was also interviewed in The Straits Times for an article on the growing trend of travel photography with the phone camera.

This blog was nominated as Best Family Blog in the Singapore Blog Awards 2011. I didn't win the category but won a few new friends :) Since then I have not been actively blogging due to work and family commitments. I am hoping to be more active this year so do keep your comments coming as I would feel better knowing I am talking to somebody out there and not just to myself :D

I baked my most ever in 2011 and was constantly Instagramming as well! This led to me forming a special friendship with the Instagram Mamas - @kawaiisensei @tygermama @catfong and @jmeelim! These ladies made each day much easier to get through with our Whatsapp chats, monthly meetups for tea or baking classes together! Thank you so much for your friendship :)

2012 sees a big change in my family's schedule. Kayden our eldest starts his primary education this year! Dylan continues at nursery level in the childcare centre (much to his dismay) and we parents have been struggling to stay awake and sane since the year began :p Here's hoping the new year gets better as we go along. That goes for you too and I wish everyone a great 2012!  

I leave you with a few shots from one of my last few Teeny Weeny shoots of 2011 :)