FINALLY.

finally.

i got it right.

or as right as i could hope for.

and i didn't even have to embarrass myself to get this shot.

all i know now is that the 50mm f/1.4 lens will never fail you.

so without further ado, may i present to you my lovely corner at RBC NYC. it's not one of the cutest cafes in new york, but you could never tell from this picture. i love love love all of their espresso-based drinks here carefully brewed on their infamous Slayer machine, but i craving something cold this particular afternoon. i couldn't bring myself to get one of their non-coffee drinks seeing as i was at RBC. it's like going to levain bakery and not getting a cookie. you just don't do it. so i settled for a cold brew.. or iced coffee as 99.9% of the world refers as it to. in retrospect, a latte would probably have been a better aesthetic choice, but whatever, i'm just happy i got the shot right. on FILM, no less.

checklist at trendy tribeca cafe? moleskine, double check. (film) dslr, check. thick plastic frame glasses, check. holier-than-thou attitude, ALWAYS check. sebastian tellier blasting through monster turbine pro headphones, check. fringe bangs, can finally check this one off (see below)! i think i had an american apparel v-neck on then too.. check.

it's not rocco's best picture as he definitely looks a little cracked out, but i look ok. i forgot photo booth's ability to make everyone look good, and the fact that these bangs shaved 10 years off my face doesn't hurt.

and i finally started a flickr! it should be easier to manage than a blog, and i thought it was about time that i stop creepin' around there..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tracyang/ 

when tracy met photoshop..

ok, not my first foray into photoshop, but the first time that i've spent an extended period of time in there for a while. i've been trying to cure my levels/curves/color balance addiction, but stressful monday means too much in photoshop. hopefully these are the you-can-tell-i-post-processed-in-photoshop-but-it-was-totally-intentional kind of look. i know i could've been more concise with that, but wordiness is my thing. anyway, i'm getting nervous my paragraph is getting too long as i am prone to more grammar/spelling errors the more i write. so that's it for now. fyi, i can speak/write properly.. my typing is just horrendous, haha.

scenes from dc | union square greenmarket | cappuccino from la colombe torrefaction

more from brunch at untitled at the whitney.

gonna get my developed film from this sunday tomorrow which means hours of spot healing brush time in photoshop. i.am.excited.

still a film newbie.

shitty weather outside means tonight's going to be a CSI:NY night. my least favorite CSI, but they always have good music, e.g. they have DJ shadow playing while they track some prints in the sand.....? i don't know, it make no sense sometimes.

there is probably a reason why my f100 came with an instruction manual (and instructions from the agent  at b&h to read the instruction manual), but regardless, i still haven't touched it. proooobably would really help my pics, but oh well, still kinda like these. grainy but i guess it's kind of part of their charm? haha just trying to make up for the fact that i can't use this camera properly. so until i actually read the manual, i guess y'all will just have to deal with my "intentionally" grainy/blurry pics!

jar of sunshine on film / dc landscape / trinity church juxtaposed.

i should probably spend tonight reading the manual since i'm not doing anything.. but that fact usually precludes any chance of productivity. only goal for tonight? finishing off my smoothie and mint chocolate chip ice cream, and finally listening to the thom yorke/four tet/burial collab (guaranteed to be legittt)!

feeelin' laaaazy..

feelin' lazy and feverish, so just a quick update. some random scenes from this past weekend.. although not really indicative of my weekend at all. haha, oh well.

april showers bring may cherry blossom flowers.

i went to the cherry blossom festival this past weekend in DC, and i got hail, rain, and extra bright (not the nice kind) sunlight all within twenty minutes, annnnd now i hate cherry blossoms. however, i took most of my pictures on film, and by virtue of that fact, i will hate them a little bit less.. even though my pictures came out really, really blue.. oh well, practice makes perfect..decent..good-enough-to-justify-buying-this-camera (i have low standards).

despite my newfound hatred of cherry blossoms, i did have a few revelations (re: only revelations to me) this weekend:

1. there are no cherries on cherry blossom trees. i don't know much about flowers, so you know, this was quite a revelation to me. i think flowers are nice once in a while, but generally, they're kind of boring and weird-looking, especially when you stare at them for a long time. something about their reproductive organs being out in the open also freaks me out.
2. i need to learn how to focus my pics. wearing glasses (in the rain) does not help any. plus, manually focusing and refocusing each shot over and over again was nauseating, and the fact that it was an endless sea of white flowers did not help my cause.
2a. did you know that cherry blossoms are white?! not only are there no cherries, they are not pink as i had previously thought.
3. japan gave these trees to the US as a sign of their nascent friendship in 1912 (only one of two cool revelations/facts i learned this weekend.)
4. the US almost gave up on aviation in the early 1900s, but it was revived as a result of the US postal service using it to send mail. (second cool fact i learned this weekend.. obviously the nerdier of the two - courtesy of my brief foray into the national air & space museum.)
5. my title is technically incorrect since cherry blossoms bloom in early spring, but i liked my lame title too much.
6. i.love.jelly.belly.sours.
7. i know every rest stop between NJ and DC. i can't help my small bladder.
8. exposure is tricky, tricky thing. i couldn't sleep one night and ended up reading about it from 4-5am.
9. asian tourists will always have a bigger, better camera and lens than you. always.
10. there are cherry blossom trees all over DC. like everywhere. even in front the the shitty apartments on the outskirts of dc. i don't know why i subjected myself to the boredom, nausea, and hunger walking around the tidal basin for two hours.
11. i don't know much as is evident by the fact that i am having revelations every 10 minutes apparently.

ok, enough rambling for one post i suppose.

can you tell that the sun finally came out in the last picture? haha, and unblossomed cherry blossoms definitely resemble cherries. a little..?

i love film! like true love.

eeeeep, i finally got my film developed and scanned, and it only took a month! i don't know what else to say except that it makes my post-processing a lot easier (as in i didn't edit at all). i should shoot film more often since i'm mostly trying to imitate it on the dslr anyway. even when the picture's not focused, it produces the noise that i love so much. this is especially perfect for me since i can't focus for shit. yeahh.. little else to say - for once - except that these are from a while back. just a bunch of random shots from central park. some of them are underexposed since i adjusted it unknowingly midway into the film (hey, it was my second day ever using a film camera!), but that's okay because it looks intentional..ish. so here they are in all their underexposed glory! can you tell i'm excited by the sheer number of exclamation points in this post?

last one look familiar? haha just snuck the last one in there because i like the vignetting. i was just trying to finish up the roll of film, okay? and i happen to like that picture too, haha.