NEW NIKON LENS

I bought brand new 50mm f/1.8 for my Nikon off eBay just for £90 and I was very excited when it arrived on Tuesday.

I've been wanting this lens for a while, to take better photographs of portraits and achieve shallow depth of field with its low f-number. It is also very good lens for low light situations. I wanted f/1.2 but f/1.8 was what I could afford at the moment. It turned out satisfactory anyway when I gave it a spin in the studio.

Again, I surprised myself- no edits are needed! Lots of natural light is a key...

Do you have 50mm lens too?

ART TUESDAY | MADGA CORDELL

Last Saturday, I visited Tate Modern with my boyfriend. I didn't want to spend money (due being temporarily poor from buying new lens recently, talking about this next time!) so we looked around two of their free exhibitions: Transformed Visions and Energy and Process.

While enjoying both exhibitions, one particular painting caught my eyes- the painting of female body, quite abstractly and colourfully. It was thick with layers of paint, which I believe was an essence of its beauty. This painting was the kind of artwork I would stand there and stare for a quite while, trying to imagine how it was painted.

Figure (Woman), 1956-7 by Madga Cordell

I found her inspiring when I looked her up- especially her certain devotion to paint as she quoted, "I'm a binge painter. I can go on for days until I'm limp and all wrung out. I have tremendous amounts of energy." I am writing down this quote and putting it up on my board in the studio to provide a motivation I might need eventually. You can see more of her works here.

What do you think of her paintings?

BOROUGH MARKET

I had one of the best Fridays- a day out to Borough Market with my sister and mum. We were meant to go to the museum nearby after lunch but we lost the track of time with catch up lunch, maybe it was the wines? Who can't say no to Merlot too! The market was stunning with various kinds of cheese, meat, fruits, vegetables and cakes- all fresh and delicious. Obviously and happily, there were lot of food samples we tried fair lot of cheese and some were very very strong that we tried so hard not to grimace front of the traders! I took my Nikon out and got in serious photographer mode.

I am very pleased with the pictures and for the first time I didn't feel the need to edit them. I've learnt more about adjusting the ISO and using aperture- priority auto setting on my camera via internet for couple of weeks and I think it is worth the effort! I can see the huge difference from my old photos. I like to think that I've achieved the suble bokeh effect in those pictures and that they are lovely.

Visit here to view the rest of my photos of Borough Market. 

Have you been to Borough Market? 

ART TUESDAY | DIRK DZIMIRSKY

When I stumbled across Dirk Dzimirsky's hyper-realistic works somewhere online, I was amazed and still am. The photo above is not a photograph but charcoal drawing. Faints. Using charcoal to draw faces, I'd make such a mess on the paper and waste the entirety of my paper purchases. It is especially awesome that Dzimirsky could draw water so perfectly and realistically. I've tried, practised and always found it extremely difficult to achieve. Not just water, he drew the hair perfectly too!

Details are important, I see it as the big part of my life being deaf and visual. I would say many of my art works are detailed and I get excited when I see beautifully detailed works from anywhere. It is safe to say that I am in love with his art. He is an inspiration for sure.

Are you as amazed?

SOMETIMES THINGS FALL APART SO THAT BETTER THING CAN FALL TOGETHER

Yesterday, I drew yet another picture of Marilyn Monroe! Here is what I drew a couple of weeks ago.

As you might notice my ranting tweets, I was supposed to be at Dublin on Saturday til tomorrow but I missed my flight. There was a fatality on the track while my train journey to the airport, I had to wait for two hours in the roasting hot train and as the train finally moved, the plane had already left. I was so gutted and stressed. Despite with the proof of train disruption, I was refused a refund and had to pay £110 for the next available flight. As I couldn't afford it, I had to apologise to my best friend that I am not coming anymore (it was his 25th do) and returned to London. I ended up chilling with my boyfriend with beers (in the sunshine, ahh), bbq chickens and pizza, which I was eventually cheered up. Missing my flight, not seeing my friends and Dublin sure sucked but my weekend wasn't so bad! 

So, how was your weekend?

BLONDE AND BLACK

This is an experimental photoshoot using my Olympus OM10 I bought off eBay for only 22 pounds. With its Miranda 28mm-70mm lens, reviews said it is great for portrait photography and I would agree with them- looking at my portrait-less photos I took in Brick Lane, the camera seems to be more suitable for portraits. The model is my sister as usual, she'd just got her hair cut and dyed- I was sort of getting excited with it as her hair used to be really long and dark, you can see what I mean on here. She looks a bit like Twiggy doesn't she?! 

Yay or nay?

WEDDED BLISS

I was invited to my old school friend's wedding, my first wedding invitation ever and I was super excited. Even though there are plenty of dresses hanging in my massive wardrobe covered with dust, I just had to buy a new dress and shoes specially for this wedding! I bought flowery fitted dress and the matching kitten heels, both from Dorothy Perkins and for only £45 altogether (sale). I totally love the outfit and I wish there are more different colours of that particular dress as it fits me so well. 

The wedding was lovely and I was proud to see my friend getting married to her fiance of seven years- they looked absolutely stunning and elated! The night went on with buffets, cutting cake, first dance, speeches and towards the end we all were literally obsessed with the photobooth, messing about with the props! Knowing me, I took over a hundred photos but here I am only putting up three of them to avoid the endless scrolling and boredom! Just enough to see the bride, groom, bridemaids, more of my new hair, dress, shoes and my lovely friend.

Do you love weddings? Because I certainly do!