Sydney Moments

Some moments from my trip to Sydney. This trip was probably the trip where I missed my husband the most, as he spent two years of his life there before meeting me. Having met up with some of his friends, I felt like I was tracing his footsteps. Bittersweet experience. Here are some of the things which I captured while roaming around the land of Aussies.

There must have been a school trip to visit the same place as myself. So many little ones (even shorter than myself) in these yellow polo shirts & brown sweaters roaming about. I wonder what they were thinking. 

Student and Sydney University

Sydney Opera House

It's amazing to know that I remember exactly where I was when taking this photo. I guess photos really are a ticket back to a moment once experienced.

Probably one of my favorite images. Taken at the tallest building in Sydney. Sydney was kind enough to demonstrate a height comparison chart with the other tallest buildings in their city. Sydney's was proudly one of the shortest buildings built. 

The passenger sitting in front of me in the train. 

Waited forever like a real creeper to get the right angle of her face to be in view. 

The lovely greener that was in front of the apartment complex that I stayed at. 

Masumi

From One to Two

After visiting Rottnest Island I headed over to the other side of Australia: Sydney. I want to share with you a sweet incident that occurred while I was heading over to a dessert shop there. Having exited the train station, I was in the middle of walking down the path that directed me toward my destination but while walking I saw something that caught my eye. A small shop that seemed to sell an item that my husband told me to make sure to eat in Sydney: the Chico Roll. 

So I headed straight to the shop, allowing my prior plan to postpone for a bit. After a short talk with the man in the front of the shop I opted to try the chicken roll due to not eating beef. It was clear to him that I was a visitor, because I asked what was in a Chico roll, a big giveaway to a Sydney native huh?. We started talking about where I was from, and he got excited when I told him that I'm from Portland. His brother went there for a while!  

He shared with me a little about his brother & his venture to my land of pretty trees & food carts. He also wanted to tell me about the kindest lady he has ever met, the employee who was a lady standing behind him. Want to see the face of the kindest lady ever? She let me take a photo ^^. The one to the right! After maybe a good ten minutes of talking, he asked me if I wanted "tomato sauce" with my chicken roll. I wasn't sure whether to try it with the tomato sauce, and so he took out another chicken roll & put the tomato sauce on. "On the house." It was good.

One day I'll find this Chico roll shop again & tell him that I've never forgotten our fun encounter. That it made my day. Also, that I felt too full to eat my expensive dessert from trying to eat two chicken rolls. 

Rottnest Island: Breakfast with New Friends

Happy Thursday guys!

Can I share with you an unforgettable experience from Rottnest Island, besides meeting one of the world's most sweetest creatures? It has to do with these people who you see right below, this lovely group of five. 

During mid-morning on my first day at Rottnest Island, I was walking from the guest services building back to my cabin to go take a shower. Both looking pretty un-presentable and feeling rather gross from flying on various planes for 20 hours, I was heading back, eager to get cleaned up. In fact, under my sweater I was still in PJs. You get what I probably looked like. On the way back though, I found a man who was on his computer and we immediately began having a conversation, and seeing that I had a camera he was open to letting me photograph him. From there, I couldn't help but be curious as to what his friend was cooking on the grill over to his right, so they let me into the front porch to talk and photograph what was being cooked: the fish that this man Baden who I was first talking to had caught in the morning out at sea. Baden is the man you see below :). 

Shortly afterward the wife of the man cooking on the grill came out and kindly invited me in for breakfast. After a few times of invitation I couldn't continue to say no, so I decided to accept their kind gesture, and breakfast with them I had. They were so welcoming and kind to me, and at one point I just had to let myself let go of how I was feeling about myself at the moment because of my appearance (sort of gross) and enjoyed this lovely breakfast. Most of them being locals around the Perth, they shared with me the history of the island, about themselves, and about Australia. It was a lovely experience that I will never forget. That morning I learned an important lesson about being open to opportunities regardless of the situation you are in, because you never know when something good will come your way, regardless of whether you feel ready or not.

So what were they all doing visiting Rottnest Island? The cute thing is that the couple on the very left from the first photo you saw were celebrating their 15th anniversary, and they wanted to invite their friends to join them. This anniversary tradition they kept up since they first got married and went on their honeymoon ^^. Cute isn't it? 

See you next week!
M Kat

Colorado Dog: Walking Me

A few weeks ago I took a trip out to visit my dear friend who lives out in rural Mancus, Colorado. During the stay there I took a walk around the area a few times, and each time I went out, this adorable friendly dog walked me wherever I went. When I first met the dog I was a little nervous because she came running straight towards me from far down the street. Watching the dog run full speed toward me, I was not sure if I was going to be met with a fate of life or death. As you see from this blog post, it was fortunately a fate of life. Most of the time it was nice to have this canine companion walking me around, but sometimes she would make photographing the local farm animals a bigger challenge because she would chase them.

Nonetheless, it was great meeting this little one. Will we ever meet again? Nobody knows. Maybe that question isn't as important as knowing that for that moment in time we shared those few hours of walking around town together, visiting goats, horses, donkeys, geese, donkeys, and yaks.

Thanks for the memories.  

M Kat

Analog Moments: Moe

During these past few days Portland has been blessed with days of lovely blue skies. Did you get a chance to feel the sun rays? Here are some lovely shots I got to create with Portland dancer Moe Yamamoto

Due to gigs and meetings my trip to Australia has been pushed back to June, but this month I am planning on taking a little solo trip. Somewhere, sometime. For now I plan to keep it to myself until taking off. 

See you again, folks.

Singapore: Nature View

Singapore's beautiful jungle scenery.

Most of the images that you see will be of my visit to Macritchie Reservoir. I got to encounter beautiful wildlife and the lush jungle from both the bottom and the top. The view from the bridge at the top was absolutely beautiful. I hope to visit again. Some of the images are from when Joanne & I got lost in the Singapore greens while trying to find an abandoned mansion that was "permanently closed." It seems to be that when Singapore says "permanently closed", they mean it. Dang.

Next week:
Singapore People

M Kat

Singapore: City View

Happy Monday everyone :)

Many of you may already know, but for 2017 I received the privilege of pursuing a dream that I've had for many years. That dream is to see the world. For far too long I've denied myself the opportunity to do so mainly for financial reasons, but to be completely honest the real reason behind not leaving can be pointed to guilt. Guilt to leave my family as a youth, and as a married woman now, guilt to leave my husband behind. I felt that I was being selfish by going somewhere by myself. We love spending time together and we rarely are separated for more than a day or two at most. Maybe shame also. Who am I to be seeing the world when I "ought to be doing something else"?

Through several years of personal growth I've come to learn a few important life lessons that got me to this point:

  • My dream is just as valid as anyone else's.
  • Without loving myself I cannot better love others.
  • By accepting myself for who I am I can better accept others for who they are. 

So, I began my traveling dream with my now travel buddy Joanne. :) Our first stop was Singapore. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Next week: Singapore: Nature view
Next stop: London

M Kat

Colorplay

There is something beautiful about seeing nature during sunset. Blue and red-orange are two colors that I find so lovely. While scouting locations the other day I couldn't help but capture a picture when I saw the birds perched atop the bare tree while the sun was setting. 

M Kat

Zouk Instructors: Marissa and Rinaldo

My Christmas trip back to California was luckily filled with family, friends and photo shoots ^^.

If you're ever down in Southern California, specifically Orange County, give Zouk dancing a try. It's actually my favorite type of partner dancing. There is a beauty about it that is just captivating. I started learning under Marissa last year and have loved it so much that I still practice it up here in Portland. 

Christmas Chadsen Trio

This Christmas break my husband Chadsen & I were lucky to fly back down to California to spend time with family. Amidst the several photo sessions with clients I couldn't resist having fun taking photos of Chadsen with his cute Christmas outfit. Credit to his sister for the sweater :).

I will call this the Christmas Chadsen Trio. :)

I hope you enjoyed your Christmas.

M Kat

Self-Portrait: Double Exposure

It had been a while since creating a double exposure shot. I received inspiration to create one again after recently seeing a beautiful double exposure image created by one of my favorite photographers @bykikili. 

The following are the two images which were combined to create the image you see:

Self-portrait: My husband generously spared a few minutes to take a photo of me indoors. Blank wall, and the flash was used to lighting, bouncing off of the wall.

Trees and birds shot: This was an image that I captured when in Japan a few years ago. It has sentimental value to me since Japan is where my heritage is from, and I love birds because they symbolize adventure and flight.

M Kat