Babbles of a Lover and a Fighter

The littlest of the Reyes’ living legacy of 4 generations had her first birthday party today.  This was my first family party since the beginning of January, Christmas if you only count parties with the “real food,”  (you guys know what I’m talking about.  Pansit, adobo, lumpia, rice, ube, an entire roasted pig…you know…the “real food.”) and in all of the hubbub of work and job searching and time away from the family, I found how much I really miss gatherings like the one today.

I got to meet my aunt-in-law’s side of the family.  They’re all really friendly, and damn, can they cook.  They’re right up there with Ninang.  I think they used to own a restaurant.

Talk about food coma.  They had already started cooking before we got there at 4, and they were still cooking when we left at around 8:30.  Of course, we had to bring home the obligatory 5 1-gallon bags of food.  Leftovers, anyone?

So, the reason for the party was this little princess right here:

And the main reason for this post is to share the pictures.  Indoor photography with dim lighting is pretty frustrating, especially without an external flash.  I got a new lens for my camera for Christmas, and the built-in flash tends to cast a shadow when it’s zoomed all the way out.  My indoor pictures tend to be blurry and awkwardly off-white-balanced, but hopefully with a bit more practice, they’ll turn out better in the future.  Just to get an idea of the whittling process, of the 141 pictures I took, I kept 73, and I’m posting 7.  That’s the way my photography has always been, I think.  I’m only satisfied with about 5% of a set, if that.  I guess that’s the beauty of digital photography.  No wasting film, no waiting for development…instant critiques.

I love taking pictures of people, I love learning new techniques with my camera and with Photoshop, so here’s to more photography posts in the future.  In the meantime, feel free to check out my photography page to get a feel of my psychedelic photoshop side and pic-taking style.

Stay classy!