quarantine obsession.

Hello. Welcome to the blog post were I literally go insane because I am crazyily obsessed over this show.

If you haven’t heard of the Outerbanks on Netflix, I am quite literally positive that you live under a freaking rock. Everybody is talking about it, my whole TikTok for you page is about it. It’s is taking over my life, it is a problem.

I have watched the show now fully through twice, but select episodes at least 10 times. The cast on and off screen have such good chemistry, that it makes the show so enjoyable.

In a nutshell, the show is about a group of teens and their adventure of finding treasure on their island. There are two main rival groups, the Kooks a.k.a the rich kids, and the Pogues, how are obviously better. The relationships are amazing (welllllll ok one of them is), the friendship is what LITERALLY every teenager wants. They have so much fun and are carefree. Me and my friends are so obsessed that we have created a group chat. It has also come to the pint were my camera roll from the past 2 days is just edits of the show.

One of the reasons, ok the main reason I love this show is because of the character JJ. Now I know this may not be school appropriate (idk, but sorry either way AJ), but JJ is hot. Like hot. His character also has a very intricate background story home life which makes everyone feel for him even more. The hot tub scene in Episode 7 @ 33:47 makes me cry. He finally let’s out his feelings and makes anyone watching emotional.

Something that me and my friends want to happen is JJ and Kie as a couple. I know this blog is all over the place and won’t make sense if you haven’t seen the show but I need to let all of this out. The writers of the show made SPOILER ALERT Kie and Pope end up together. In my opinion, (and most others on the internets opinion), they don’t have any chemistry. Every single time Kie hugged or kissed another guy on the cheek it would pan to JJ to see his reaction and he would always look so sad. They also have so much chemistry that it makes sense.

Anyways, I am going to sign off before I go anymore insane. Watch the Outerbanks on Netflix rn. Goodbye.

jj is the blonde on and if you like john b better you suck and we can’t be friends. (all photo rights to Netflix.)

nyc.

This summer I was supposed to go to New York City for a very special camp. The camp is called SOCAPA. It focuses on the arts. Dancing, singing, screenwriting, film, photography, and so on. I was going there to learn about film which had screenwriting tied into it.

My program was 3 weeks long and we would be making a short film each week. I was excited to learn and pursue something I was passionate about. I would have also been able to leave my parents for 3 weeks (the actual teenage dream). It would have helped me mature and become more independent, while living in my favorite city in the world.

However due to rona, I won’t be able to go this year. I was given the option by my parents to transfer to the L.A. camp or go to NYC next year. For me personally, I still want they NYC experience so I m excited to go next year.

New York has always been a big deal to me. I just love the vibe and culture surrounding it. My ultimate goal in life is to be able to own a loft there and a nice house in California ( yes, I am aware I will need to be rich).

The last trip I took to New York was actually very last minute. It was the summer of 2018. Greta and Zoe were going to New York and I ket begging my parents to let me. Somehow, by July they said okay, and in August I was shipped off for 2 weeks. I have family there who were happy to have me. My aunt and uncle live in Stonybrook, Long Island, and my cousin lives in Manhattan. I stayed in Stonybrook for the beginning and end of my stay and got to experince the non-city side of New York. However, I was as excited as ever to go to the city.

Keep in mind this is the year I was obsessed with Tom Holland, and spiderman, so being in New York was super exciting for me.

mail tag.

On Friday, March 13th, we found out that school would be closing for the next two weeks, little did we know that school would shut down for the rest of the year! That same day also happened to be my friends Greta and Zoe’s birthday. We all were at their house that night to celebrate (the social distancing rule hadn’t begun yet).

We came up with a plan to stay in touch and still have fun during quarantine. We decided we should play a “huge” game of tag. To make it more interesting we decided to set an end date, and whoever had the box on the last day had to do a dare. We wrote down the dares and decided that we would meet the next day to decorate the box.

When decorating we found a cow sticker and decided our theme would be cowrona.

The next day the games begun. The first round of this game included myself, Sarah, Eden, Carolina, Greta, and Zoe. Over the next two weeks we passed the box around and everyone received little gifts.

a collection of knick knacks i have received.

On Saturday April 3, the last night of the game, things got intense. At around 9:30, Greta and Zoe gave me the box. I was mad, I some how convinced my parents, who became just invested in this game as me, to drive me to Carolina’s house. Carolina managed to get it to Eden’s by 12, meaning Eden had to do her dare.

We all agreed the game was super fun and decided to do a new round including two more of our friends. That round is currently occurring and is still a lot of fun!

fun at home.

Quarantine. It’s still as boring as ever, and I’m running out of things to do. Thankfully my cousin sent our family group chat a way to have fun, and today I am going to share that with you. (and yes it still has to do with photography, so don’t lose your marbles.)

Have you ever wanted a life sized bear in your house? Well in your’e in luck I have a simple way to help you achieve your dreams. Go to google and type in the animals name and if you scroll down just a tiny bit you should see an option saying View in 3D.

And there you go, you have an easy way to be around a life size bear. You can view it in video form or as a still life.

Here’s my nephew with a bear!!

There is a whole variety of animals you can try:

Lion
Tiger
Cheetah
Shark
Hedgehog
Duck
Emperor penguin
Wolf
Angler fish
Goat
Rottweiler
Snakes
Eagle
Brown bear
Alligator
Horse
Shetland pony
Macaw
Pug
Turtle
Cat
Octopus
Dog
Golden Retriever

Petting a tiger in the living room?!!

This is a great way to keep younger children entertained! It could also be an educational experience. Once playing around with the animal(s), you and your little one can sit down and learn some facts about the animal. It makes it more fun and it’s always good to open up a kid’s mind to something. And who knows maybe one day they’ll be a marine biologist or vet, and it will all be thanks to me.

lazaretto ennui.

Boredom. It’s the one thing that has hit all of us really bad during quarantine. We sit there staring at are screens all day whether it’s for class, watching netflix, or being engrossed in tiktoks. Well since you’re already on your phone, go take some photos! It can be of you or of nature.

I was so bored and didn’t have many good photos of myself so I decided to do a self portrait photoshoot. I set the self timer up on my phone, and placed my phone on my bed, a tripod would be more ideal for this situation, but if you don’t have one you can use anything around you. I then placed the light at an angle that would make me look flattering.

I mentioned a tip in one of my previous blogs but I’ll restate it here. When getting a model to make a certain expression, tell them to think of a scenario were they would be making that face. For example, if you want them to laugh tell them to think of their happiest moment. This tip is helpful in self portraits too, the result will always be more convincing.

Get up and don’t be lazy. Moving locations isn’t only good for you physically but going outside or being in a different place will help your mental health. Yes, it’s fun to take pictures with the background in your room or in places that you’re comfortable with, but expanding your scenery is good, so your photos don’t get too repetitive in every Instagram post.

I decided to go outside to take photos. We have a table and chairs out there. I moved it into a place where the sun gave me ideal lighting, then set up my phone and, voila more photos.

After you’re done it is also fun to experiment with editing. I made some crazy changes by just changing the exposure or tint. Look at this photo of the grass, the original looked like a happy day, and this edited version looks like it would be some kind of starting graphic in a post apocalyptic set video game. And it only took 10 minutes to change it that much.

I love doing this as it is a fun way to pass time during quarantine. Stay safe and stay home!

silage snapshot.

This week I photographed food. But before I tell you how I do that, I want to introduce you to the face behind the food. My mom. My mother who is better known to the world as Tasneem Faizullabhoy, means the world to me. She is always smiling and laughing and making the best of life.

my mom with my niece.

In 2012 my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. This changed all of our lives. If she would have continued on that medicine, she would have been cured by 2017. However in 2015, a worse monster came, ovarian cancer. This was worse and impacted my mom a lot. She has been into remission multiple times and been diagnosed multiple times. Right now she is taking a trial treatment at UCLA, and she seems to be happy as she laughs a lot again. Through all these hard times, the one thing my mom enjoys is cooking.

my mom at UCLA, getting treated.

One of my mom’s favorite dishes to cook is barbecue chicken. It is a staple in our house and we eat it almost every two weeks.

To take the shot I brought an LED light to make the food look more appealing, then added flower and plated it to make it look more put together. I stood above the table to get a “drone shot” of the food.

If you’re interested in the recipe here it is!

Barbecue chicken recepie
chicken (1lb )
1 tspn ginger ,
1 tbspn mustard ,
a splash of soy sauce
1tspn papaya paste .

Barbecue sauce :
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 sweet chili sauce
2tspns brown sugar ( or more to taste)
1/2 tspn Chinese mustard
1 1/2 tspn white vinegar

Method : Marinate chicken with the above ingredients for atleast 2 hours or overnight.
Prepare barbecue sauce by adding all ingredients to saucepan and bring it to a quick boil .
Take a grill plan heat some oil , and before adding chicken add a quarter cup barbecue sauce to chicken .
Then add that to the the heated grill pan let it cook for 15 mins and flip cook another 15 mins till juices run clear. When flipping baste again with some barbecue sauce . Before serving pour some heated barbecue sauce .
Potatoes.
Boil small potatoes till tender cut in wedges with skin on . Heat butter and olive oil in a skillet at potatoes, dried parsley garlic and onion powder a little salt . Saute till brown and serve with chicken.

a reenactment.

About 4 years ago, I met Max. Max Thomas Herrell is a very talented human being and has inspired me to try better and harder in things I do. He is a very creative person and when he starts something he always puts his mind to it.

Yup, that’s Max. That first picture was about a year after I met him, and that second picture is this year. You’re probably wondering why I am giving you such a long introduction to Max. Well, he is my model for this week but his friendship also means a lot to me.

The idea for this weeks photoshoot goes back to the idea of recreation, however this time it is not of old childhood photos, it’s recreating a famous celebrities’ photos. And who might that celebrity be? Well the one and only tiktok famous: Lil’ Huddy! (a.k.a Chase Hudson.) But why Chase Hudson? Well my friends and I all joke about how Max looks like Chase, so the idea popped into my head to take Max and recreate some of Chase’s photos.

For all of these photos we photographed Max in front of a white wall, since we didn’t have access to all the different backgrounds. I took the photo of Max and made the wall red and added a shadow to make it seem more realistic. This photo is personally my favorite.

In this photo I also pictured Max in front of the white wall. However I edited it out and added a similar black background to what Chase’s picture looked like.

Helping me with Max, was my friend Jessie. I have known her since pre-school and she was helping position him to look similar to the photos we were recreating.

In this photo we found a nearby tree and positioned Max against it. There was some difficulty in this picture as people kept walking by and it was making Max laugh, taking us a while to achieve an almost perfect replica photo.

Lastly was this photo. In my opinion this one turned out the best. The outfit was almost exact and so was the posing of Max. The photo of Max is in black and white as it fit together/ looked better as a black and white photo.

This shoot was a really great experince and I got to spend time with one of my favorite friends. I definitely recommend going out with your friends and taking photos as it is an experince you will never forget.

a special style.

After taking photos, most photographers edit their photos to make them look better. Each photographer usually also has their own style. As I mentioned in one of my previous blogs, I have synesthesia, which means when I edit I usually focus on one color or a group of colors. Today I am going to show you how I edit these photos.

The first thing I do is load it into photoshop. If you don’t have Photoshop, Picsart is always a cheaper and good alternative. I then take the polygonal lasso tool and roughly trace around the part I want to cover. I then press select and mask and it masks what I need.

I then go in with more precision and make the edges smoother and around the areas I want. In this case I was focusing on all the blue in the photo as well as the pink of her lips. I masked everything that wasn’t it. Once you have covered what you prefer, press OK and it will take you to a screen with dotted lines.

Next I went to the menu on the top and selected the option Select Inverse. After that I went to Image: Adjustments: Black and White. This is one style of how I edit.

The final product!!

When I edit in Lightroom I also have a certain process. When I take photos the exposure is really high, so the first thing I do is bring down the exposure to -0.21. I like to have a little contrast in my photos so I usually bring it down. For highlights and shadows I adjust to every specific photo, I don’t have a set number for them. Same goes for the whites and blacks. I always like to have cooler tones on my photos so I bring the temp. to -8 which gives it a slight blue hint and the tint to +9 which makes it slightly purple. I like to have the colors pop so I bring the vibrance up and the saturation down which gives it that perfect pop. I also adjust that based on the individual photo. When I work with texture, clarity, dehaze, and vignette I adjust those per photo.

This is the final photo!

Thank you for reading this week!

picturesque paintings.

One of my favorite forms of photography is night photography, or more specifically painting with light. It is so interesting because it lets you be more creative and in a sense, control your photo. You can also stage the photo letting you use more things and again use your mind creatively.

To get started, you will want to set your camera up on a tripod. If you don’t have one, like me, set your camera on a flat and stable surface. Set your camera to manual mode, and set the shutter speed between f/8 and f/11. This lets more light in to the photo. Next you want to get a flashlight. Turn on the camera, and then turn on the flashlight. Then run around in the shape you want to create. Keep your body moving so it wont show up in the image.

For this picture I wanted to try and write a couple words with the light. I am not sure what those words were supposed to be. You can clearly make out one word, and it says love. I think that is quite ironic since I am a hopeless romantic. I think this photo is interesting because there is so much going on but at the same time there isn’t too much.

In this photo I ran down the driveway waving my light side to side. The car in the background was also perfectly timed and zoomed in the back, creating a red streak of light.

These two photos were me just messing around and running around with the light. It created two effects. I squiggly effect and the other one is a little circle loop effect.

Another fun thing to do is play with flashlight settings. Flicker the light and you could get a cool dotted effect. Spin fairy lights why the change colors. Have fun with!

a picture perfect past.

When I take photos I like to draw inspiration from other people’s photos or even photos from my past. This is what inspired this week’s post. I love reminiscing on my past as it brings back joyous memories and takes me back to a time when I wasn’t stressed out about passing a class or acing a test.

This first photo is of Sarah and I. Sarah has been one of my best friends since 3rd grade. We started out with mutual friends and then became very close. This picture was taken off us at a movie night in elementary school. All the kids would be able to come in pj’s and enjoy a movie with some free popcorn, all in our school library. The recreation of this photo was taken at my house on Valentine’s day. We also watched a movie this day, but I can guarantee you, our movie taste has changed in the past 7 years.

The next photo is also of me and Sarah. This one was taken after our school’s annual jogathon, the Rose Run. Students of all grades would run laps for 45 minutes to raise money for the school. We would be rewarded with popsicles at the end, and this was also an opportunity for parents to take as many photos as possible of their sweaty children. The new version of this photo was taken in my backyard. I still own some of the jogathon shirts, so we decided to wear those to keep at as similar as possible.

You all remember Zoe from my last post, right? Well, ladies and gentlemen, she is making her second appearance today.  This photo was taken the first time Zoe and I ever had a playdate. Looking back to this photo I can confirm that we have definitely switched clothing style. We took the recreation of this photo in my backyard exactly where it was taken 10 years ago.

Thank you for diving into my memories today. See you next week.

colors of euphoria.

I have synesthesia. Though there’s 80+ types, I have two. I can give people a color just based on their personality, and I associate certain numbers and subjects with certain colors. You’re probably wondering what this has to do with photography. Well when I take photos I like to be able to focus on one thing, which in most cases means there needs to be a certain color for me to focus on.

I love to take photos in darker environments as it usually provides a way for there to be only one thing to focus on. I also like to use a darker color palette if that is possible at the time. Usually the colors I focus on are shades of purple, blue, browns/beiges, grays, and dark pinks. I think one other reason that these colors appeal to me is because it is the main color scheme of my favorite movie, Aladdin.

I usually take photos of my friends in my room with LED lights as I can get certain colors. When I take photos of people it is usually of my friend Zoe. Zoe and I have known each other since kindergarten. She has been with me through thick and thin. We have shared so many memories for the last 11 years, so I had to include her in one of my blogs.

When I take photos in this type of setting I like to have one main source of light, to bring attention to the main object. In this case, I use my desk lamp which has 3 different light settings. A bright studio light, a golden hour light, and a boring classroom like light. I tend to use the studio light and golden hour light more as they make the pictures turn out better. The camera I use is a Nikon D3500, I have grown up using this camera, so I know how to handle it best. My second choice for a camera would be a Sony Camera, as it edits your photos for you.

picture this.

Picture this. You’re sitting in your room, pressing the “next episode” button on Netflix for the 18th time today. Got that picture in your head? Good, cause now you know the basis of what I do almost everyday. When I finally get bored of watching Netflix, I like to go out and take photos. Photography has always been a big part of my life and helps me express my emotions. I always try to implement a little bit of myself into every photo, whether it’s direct or indirect.

I can scroll through millions of Instagram accounts based around photography for hours, without getting tired. Each photographer has their own style and it makes them unique. I don’t have a style and I am still trying to figure that out.

The point of this blog is for me to share my photos and the adventures or memories behind them. A lot of photos I have taken were during an important time in my life, and mean a lot to me, and some of these stories maybe even you can relate to. I encourage you to go look through your phone right now, scroll through your camera roll, stop on a random picture and write about the story behind it, even if it’s a silly little selfie. All I can say is that, “Every picture is worth a thousand words.”

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