One thing i want to get back to about blogging is doing actual documentation of my day to day. I’m probably not as interesting as people who actually, yknow, go outside, in general i like to be at home and curled up and thinking my thoughts. As a photographer that doesn’t tend to make for incredibly exciting content, unless your introspection is your content, in which case, girl you about to be g a g g e d with introspection. I have been watching a lot of RPDR and it is affecting my speech patterns. But i guess i’ve been outside, enough to have material for this post. Just not the sexy outside that translates into the trappings of internet celebrity (still KIND OF daydreaming about becoming a bonafide ~*influencer*~). That is okay though, i like my weird unnamable niche.
The first quarter of 2018 has brought with it-
Babies. It’s that season in my age group. After all the weddings in the past 5 years, 2018 is looking to be a year of babies in my small life. Q1 ended with a birth, and I’m still anticipating four more babies this year, one of which will be my FIRST EVER NEPHEW and I can’t handle how excited i am to meet him. Babies also means baby showers, and those have been an unexpectedly great reason to get together with people you only ever see at your mutual friend’s major life events. This image is from a game we played at my sister in law’s shower where we took stickers of her face and my brother’s and tried to make their baby’s face. If the Lord is merciful, none of us came close.
Brides and bridegrooms. Having said all that, people still are getting married. I think the nice thing about weddings as we move down the age graph is that people aren’t as compelled by tradition or convention to do things the way the industry recommends, so lately i’ve seen a lot more unconventional ceremonies. For instance, a good friend asked me to act as a witness for their civil wedding at city hall (a first for me!), and i found that the simple ceremony was so much more moving and meaningful than a lot of elaborate dog and pony show type weddings I’ve been to in the past. This photograph is from their beachside ceremony, which followed a few days after.
Not to say that a dog and pony wedding is less than ideal. Weddings are personal, so you can do whatever the hell you want. I say this from the perspective of someone who used to participate in this industry by the way. This is not a slight on suppliers, a lot of whom are incredibly hardworking and honest people. They just meet a demand that already exists – they didn’t create it. The nefarious unseen machinery at work here feeds on insecurity and FOMO and, uh, the lust for instagrammable centerpieces, all of which have the potential to mislead an otherwise unprepared couple to think that the wedding is the apex of their relationship, and not the marriage, and that milestones don’t count unless you are tagged in the photo. Having said THAT, i also want to add that one of my favorite trends from the past three years is WEDDING HASHTAGS. I am a genius at coming up with them, and will gladly lend my assistance in that regard to anyone having trouble coming up with theirs (free of charge to make my point).
Birds. My father has taken it upon himself to turn our house into a petting zoo, and i am fine with that. Last year he installed a very elaborate bird enclosure between our house and our neighbor’s firewall, and our lives have been featherful ever since. It’s not all been Disney princess bird feeding at the windowsill, though some of it has been. There’s been some down and dirty too as we had a few new baby birbs coming to roost bringing the grand total up to 11 pairs of wings as of the last count. My grandmother, a painter, has taken interest in the creatures, and i’ve semi-regularly been asked to provide her with references.
Beaches. The one pictured here is so beautiful and untouched that I don’t even want to name it for fear that you will try to find it. I don’t think i’ve ever seen a beachfront that had NO manmade structures on it. This is what that looks like, just overrun with greenery crawling into the sea. It has been a good quarter for beaches – i’ve been to three as of April hahaha. That’s already better than my annual average of around… two. Being at the beach is arguably the biggest perk of growing up in this country. My confession here is that I am a beach snob. When i lived in Hong Kong I lived at a beachside residence and couldn’t help the prick of disappointment i felt at its sad, baleful shoreline. I’ve walked on pebbly European beaches and scoffed at their paradisical promises. The beach is the one thing I think the Philippine islands is superior for, and i know there are people working hard to make sure we don’t fuck that up.
Business. This has been my working situation for the past few months. My issues with it have less to do with the work at home situation, or my comfort level in the space (i love my room and my house!), or my access to anything, and more to do with the… let’s say, diminished professional environment within which i conduct business. Sandra Dans the professional doesn’t really get along with Sandra Dans the lady that got her master’s degree and then moved back into her parents’ house, cause dat bitch is a S L O B. But because most of my work is most easily done from my desktop, i’m a little hard pressed to find a more permanent and professional office situation.
Thankfully, my prayers were answered. This quarter we also saw that come into fruition. A better office situation is in the works, and i am pumped all the way up for it as we prep and preen the space. I’ve been losing my mind in interior blogs and YouTube channels, as this is a creative arena i’ve never explored before. I’ve gone craaaaazy. I learned to make floor plans, i paid for (!!!) 3D software, i have a buttload of moodboards, my Pinterest is exploding. I am that person now, thanks in part to Mr. Kate.
Boy. We turned two in January, but I counted and we’ve known each other for more than a decade now. I could extol all his virtues and justify his flaws, but instead i will plug his website. If you’ve never seen any of his work before, check out this project first.
Backlog. I am still a photographer. I am still a photographer. I am still a photographer.
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3 comments on “Beginning Again, 2018 Q1”
If there was ever something so seemingly mundane (but absolutely not!) that I love to see- it would be pictures of your room. It has a life of its own with the way things are thrown and left to grow and move. It has its own narrative that always says: THIS IS SANDEE. IM HERE. This place is a place of living.
And maybe we just need to make these spaces into our rooms. Let’s leave things where they’re not supposed to. Let’s leave organic digital tracks and drop things carelessly sometimes. Let’s fill it with the people we love. With the hard times, the things we want to remember and work through, and the things we wish we could forget. And I think that maybe with enough living and leaving traces behind… maybe these journals will start to look like a proper illustration of us.
Hey what a beautiful start <3
Photos of my room are DEFINITELY something i can do, that’s pretty much the only place i’m at right now :)) Much love to you Kitty, you are an inspiration!
You go Sandra Dans ! :)