silence speaks

“See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...we need silence to be able to touch souls.” - Mother Teresa

an e-mail to mom

dear mom,

you're insight on taking care of plants inspired me to take action when i came back from the philippines. i don't consider myself having a "green thumb" but like you said, there's no such thing as one. you said, "taking care of plants is like taking care of a baby. you can't expect a baby to grow up on it's own if you just sit it there. you have to give plants their basic needs of food, water and sunlight."

i re-potted all the plants in the house and even bought a few more we saw at the store that needed a good home. i even bought a plant stand exactly like the one you used to have in the bay window of the kitchen. you know, they don't make those anymore. i purchased it from someone who was selling theirs on the internet.

it's been an exciting experience watching all the plants grow new stems and leaves. i talk to them too. i like to encourage the new buds to grow and i welcome them to the world. i've noticed all the original plants are growing so much faster, especially with the new soil. i can't believe we were starving them all this time.

i've attached a photo of my indoor garden. i know you'll be proud. i am my mother's daughter :) i love you and miss you lots.

-neleh

bark in the park

"bark in the park", sponsored by the humane society, is one of the largest doggie socials i've ever been to.



frosty paws eating contest

pink punk, blue bunny & open bars

in the past few months, shane and i had the honor of attending the weddings of two awesome friends we've known since college. i was not the hired photographer but that never stops me from capturing the story from my point of view :) click on the images below for a better looksee.

kim & gerald

d & ai

cheers to the newlyweds!

communicating positively

our last friday event in july focused on thinking positive and communicating these thoughts creatively. in the above photo, each person contributed one item from their list of "things i like about myself." group members also chose happy songs that played in the background while they wrote.

the happy songs list:

the girl- city and color
what a wonderful world - louis armstrong
this will be our year - the zombies
autumn leaves - joe pass
life is good - mos def
soft shock - yeah yeah yeahs
mr. blue sky - electric light orchestra
three little birds - bob marley
there is a way - mos def
what cool breezes do - digable planets
BBQ - 2 skinnee j's
let the right one slip in - morrisey
in the aeroplane over the sea - neutral milk hotel


share your happy songs with those you care about. list them in the comments section of this post :)


sometimes we just doodle collaboratively the rest of the time.

summer cipher

i went to a b-boy/b-girl cipher during the summer. here are some featured images i captured. more images from this event are posted in my facebook album. enjoy :)

if you lay down the vinyl... they will come.


stretching is key


















"Each time a b-boy or a b-girl stepped in the cipher, they wrote their own generational narrative. Starting upright in the top-rock, hands up and stabbing like a gang-member in motion, feet moving side to side like Ali in a rope-a-dope, dropping down like James Brown, turning hurricanes of Spy's boricua footwork, exploding into a Zulu freeze, tossing in a spin and punctuating it all with a Bruce Lee grin or mocking Maori tongue-the entire history of the hip-hop body in a virtuoso display of style." - Can't Stop Won't Stop by Jeff Chang

"the disney princesses are here! smile for them!"

my brother and his family came to visit this summer. we did a family portrait session their last day here. i had to con my niece in to looking up from the sand by saying things like, "the disney princesses are here! smile for them!" it totally worked :) here are a few images from the shoot.

sampayan

while i was in the Philippines, i spent a lot of traveling on the road. my parents live on a main highway in Bataan and it would take anywhere from 1.5 to 2 hours to get to our destinations. we went out almost every other day and i started finding things i wanted to take photos of off the highway. since there wasn't time to stop for me to take pictures, i memorized landmarks so i would be ready to capture the next time we'd go out. with a fast shutter button finger, i shot from inside a moving van rolling down my window at just the right time.

of the many things i saw out of that van window, i was fascinated by all the clotheslines of laundry hanging out to dry. my auntie asked me why i wanted to take pictures of them. i explained how i liked the different compositions of lines and colors and how resourceful people were in finding places to construct them. next thing you know, everyone in the car started to help me spot them.

here is my "sampayan" collection: