white lies

question: why you looked so upset in the photo?

answer: because i miss you a lot, papa.

: )

brother and sister

if my memory serves well, this should be the seventh time we had family portrait at studio. at first i was quite reluctant to try out but then i think it's quite a good way to save the precious moment - especially when the kids are still willing to do so. i hope by this time next year i can show you another set of new portrait : )

retouch magic

i've always wanted to learn more about photo retouching techniques, especially how to create a cross processing effect. i know we can do it in photoshop but it takes quite a few steps. and today i found this really handy and user-friendly online editing tool (the best part is you don't need to sign up or install anything!) called picnik which can help you create a bunch of special effects with literally just one click.

shall we have some photo fun now?

cross process

cinemascope

lomo-ish

focal black and white + boost

smile a little smile for us

mama: rafael, what should we do on a boring bus ride? hmm... how about having a "smile" lesson?

媽媽：靖愷，坐巴士很悶嗎？來，我們來"學習"對著鏡頭笑！

mama: smile!

媽媽：笑！

mama: rafa, that's a really good try! hmm... maybe you can try to be a little more natural?

媽媽：很不俗啊！不如自然些來試試看？

rafa: no, i don't want to smile. how about this piggy mouth?

靖愷：不如整個"豬嘴"仲好玩啦！

mama: that's funny, but let's try one more time. smile!

媽媽：靖愷很可愛呢！來來來，我們還是再來一次！笑！

rafa: this is so boring... i'd rather look at the cars on the road.

靖愷：zzzz.... 不如睇車車仲好玩！

"family tree"

an insurance company recently built a living billboard on the web to celebrate its 10th anniversary. 5,000 pics capturing fragments of precious moments were collected and weaved into a growing tree of life. we're not a customer of this company but well, it seems fun and we took part in this interesting growing journey.

一間保險公司早前在網上設了網上外牆廣告，慶祝公司的十週年誌慶，徵收了5,000張照片來種棵”生命之樹”。雖然麥氏不是該公司客戶，但本著”免費有得玩又何妨”的精神，還是寄了張家庭照放上樹上。

look, the tree is fully grown now! can you spot where the mackie family is?

”生命樹”現已長大，找到我們在哪嗎？

we're near the top! 在樹頂上的風光不俗呢！

have a closer look. Zoom近D!

studio pics take 2

2S Sabrina & Sherman 昨日到studio影相，我們一家三口也去趁趁熱鬧，乘機拍一兩張合照．
our godchildren sabrina & sherman were having a portrait session yesterday and we went up to the studio to take some group pics with them.

趁著小公主在專業地擺pose...
while the little princess is posing...


小王子在駕著thomas火車到迪士尼...
and the little prince driving his thomas train to disneyland...


還未到我們"埋位", 靖愷, 不如先玩玩碰碰車吧！
rafael, why don't we have an amusement ride too?

靖愷拿著神仙棒，是不是想扮小神仙？
and what do you want to do with this magic wand?

我們也要自娛一番，來張錯誤示範爆光過度的全家幅．
still not our turn to take pics, why not take an over-exposed family portrait just for illustration?


終於到大配角靖愷出場啦！等了個多小時，幸好埋位時沒有發脾氣．．．
oh it's finally time for our supporting role rafael! luckily he didn't really show his temper after a long wait...

辛苦了，愷愷即時倒頭便睡，Sabrina拍了半天照，幾乎成了專業模特兒，輕易地便擺出這個優雅的睡公主pose.
rafael had a long day and fell right asleep in mac's arms. and sabrina, after a day of modelling, seems to be really getting good at this! see her professional and elegant sleeping beauty pose! will she be hong kong's next top model?

studio pix

we went to a studio to take pictures with rafael today, and it's a surprise that the wife of the photographer is actually my highschool classmate! rafael had fun at the shoot, because many people at the studio helped make funny faces and sounds at the same time to make him smile!

he took some naked shots, and was a cook, rabbit, train driver and of course mommy and daddy's dearest boy today!

靖愷今天到影樓影相去, 還扮了廚師, 兔子, 火車司機和拍了裸照呢!

More pics here 更多相片:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amymtam/sets/72157601921431096/

rafael's first passport photos

rafael is going to the day creche starting next month and we need to do some admission procedures for him this saturday. the supervisor at the creche told me to bring some passport photos. luckily nowadays with photoshop, we don't need to bring rafa to the photo printing shop to take a pic :P

finally it's in sync!

rafael turned 15 weeks this monday and it's only this week that i suceeded in keeping his flickr albums in sync with his growth. you can go check out his pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/amymtam/collections or just click the "my flickr album" icon on this page :)

i got it!

i finally figured out how to take pictures on rafael while making him laugh at the same time - shoot from the side! now i got some clear frames finally...

more on photos

rafael can smile quite a lot now, but it's not easy to capture the moment, particularly when i'm alone to make him smile while shoot at the same time. one moment he's smiling but by the time i take up the camera and press the shutter on this camera-sensitive guy, it's always too late so most of the time, his smiling pics become like this...

it's easier shooting him in funny positions...

more portraits

i think we're obsessed with taking pictures on rafael, well i guess every new parent is the same? yesterday we went to the playground just across the street and had another portrait session. today i was downloading the pictures onto my computer, and found that the serial number of the pictures on our canon e0s 400d has already passed 1700, with more than 95% of the pics on baby rafael... he's only 10 weeks old today, that means we take an average of 170 frames in a week - and that's not including the other compact camera we're using!



and after a nice bath with rafael this afternoon, i couldn't resist taking some more pictures with the clean boy...

big boy rafael

we bought a new lens (f/1.8, 50mm) during the easter holidays for our canon eos 400d and this afternoon we had a special portrait session with little rafa at our home. i really love this pic, he looks really like a big boy!

a fun-packed weekend

rafael made lots of new friends and went to lots of new places this weekend! first on early saturday afternoon, he met with auntie monica with which daddy and mommy discussed his insurance plans. and in the late afternoon, he went to IFC and met 18-month-old chelsea - daughter of mac's MPA classmates lawrence and clara. and that's not all, auntie queenie & natalie, uncle rumjahn and 2-year-old ali came visit rafa at our place in the evening!

sunday was such a fine day and after lunching at a french restaurant nearby, daddy and mommy decided to bring little rafa to victoria park to take some pics! luckily rafa was wearing long-sleeves and long pants or else he would have got a few mosquitoe bites just like his parents. and that's not the end of his packed weekend - he also went shopping at toys r us for the first time as mommy wanted to get him a new rattle!

a special portrait session

baby rafael was having these pimple-like things on his face all week (an LLH leader told me it's because his hormones are starting to get in) so i haven't really taken many pictures with him recently, luckily my friend hydie came by yesterday and had a special photography session with rafa! and what's more, she brought rafa a super cute and fluffy lion and a bunch of flowers! but too bad i forgot to ask the photographer to take a pic w/ rafa!

see rafael's portraits taken yesterday here: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0BaMmLlwyaMXUA