oh-so-creamy-beautiful

my husband was home to sign for the new lens and try out the canon 5D mark ii for the first time, and i was so excited to see that not only did he take the initiative to learn how to use the camera, but he found creative things to photograph that i would never have even considered within our property lines.

i went to an arts school on granville island as a kid, then as a teenager, for many years, and while i took classes in everything from print-making, to sculpting, to animation, to ballet, lyrical, jazz (and even interpretive dance, now that i think about it), photography was a course that i was excited to do over and over again. i spent a lot of time in the darkroom because i felt i'd run out of things to take pictures of in that little tourist locale. ten years later, though, i guess i've rediscovered what granville island has to offer, and i'm excited that my husband found new ways to capture everyday images in and around our home. i spent the money on the new 24mm lens (i had to cancel my lens order mid-shipment because i didn't realize i'd bought the old version), and we're both blown away with it so far, so the extra $700 was worth it. apparently it only has 8 diaphragm blades, compared to one of my nikkors that has 9, but it makes everything outside the depth of field look oh-so-creamy-beautiful, and i can't wait to make good use of it.

that's hakoinu, which is japanese for "cardboard dog". there's a fantastically whimsical little store in the gastown area of vancouver called occupied, from a rare breed of wonderful shops akin to places like schmancy in seattle. we first stumbled upon haikonu onscreen at occupied and were delighted to bring home not only the dvd, but the little box dog himself. he's featured in a sweet silent-type japanese film with relaxing music. a boy unable to have pets in the apartment building creates hakoinu. his parents take travel-gnome-like photos of him with hakoinu, which are kept in the top of the dog's head for safe-keeping where they become hakoinu's "memories." sadly, the boy and his family move away, leaving hakoinu behind, and the little box dog spends the movie trying to find the boy, visiting the places captured in all his memories. i wish there was just a snippet of the movie on youtube to feature, but there isn't.

gong hei fat choi

mmm fried bread and sesame-filled mini buns.

last of the berries in winter

today: dozens of robins swarmed our trees out in front for these red jewels. i met with a great girl whose wedding i'm going to shoot at the end of may. my nikon flash came in the mail. i battled it out on the phone with my credit card company to get my canon 5D mark ii and a 24mm f/1.2 L-series lens transactions approved. my new lens and camera left new york and are on their way to my front door.

soosie's chivaree

chaia threw soosie a chivaree, aka anti-bridal shower, complete with jeopardy, pictionary, and a cute story about the happy couple filled with adverbs, adjectives, and nouns that we made up. we wore nametags with our names spelled backwards. lorinda's sounded like a drug name - adnoral, and viktoriya's, ayirotkiv, still managed to sound very, very russian. wendi's was the cutest, most pronounceable, and perhaps most eskimo-sounding: idnew. for my first round of pictionary, chaia, miss drawing extraordinaire, gave me "bridesmaid dress that doesn't fit"....touche, so i drew a tv, a wii, and a man on a balance board to try and elicit the word "fit" from the group.











who knew we would have two dark-haired russians in one room. the one above had some fun with my camera and looking through what she shot, crooked doesn't necessarily have to scream "look at me, i'm crooked":

bridal shower....

saturday night dinner

gooseberries!

there is a fancy little fruit whose name has eluded me for many years. i requested many of them for my wedding cake, and even the chef at the bakery couldn't tell me what it was called. it sometimes makes appearances on fancy catered platters, either cloaked within a membrane of leaves, or emerging from them like a tiny inverted umbrella. the 20-something year old waiters at death by chocolate never know what it's called, and they usually tell me i'll easily find it at asian produce stores. there are none to be found at t&t and there is always a serious language barrier between me and the only people that might know what it is. so to granville island, where for 25 cents i discover my tangy little orange fruit is indeed called a "gooseberry." hooray for gooseberries!