Land of Happy Sleepy » photography

Crocodile Tears earrings up in Ladilola shop on Etsy

Magda — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:12:01 +0000

Some earrings are finally up in the Ladilola shop on Etsy. I’ve been trying out various backgrounds and styles of photography, experimenting with what works as a process for me and also how the photos then look in the shop and within Etsy search results.

Ladilola earrings in black patent leather in a geometric, pointy shape.

Ladilola earrings in grape purple patent leather stamped with an alligator pattern cut to a geometric, teardrop shape.

Right now the shop looks a bit hodgepodge as a result of this experimenting. Soon a style will emerge and the shop will fill up.

Towards the end of my year in France (2008), my friend Nada who makes goregeous leather bags in Paris took me to a small warehouse in the Paris suburbs. In a corner I found a box of post-industry scraps of genuine crocodile leather and patent leather stamped with a croc pattern. I was on my way from France to India, and the leather travelled around with me for four months (yes, I know, crazy) until I was finally inspired in the cooler weather of Nepal to start designing and cutting. And that is how the eco luxury Crocodile Tears Earrings collection came to be.

Here are some of the items now in the shop:

New camera goes to Band Practice

Magda — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 16:54:32 +0000

About a month ago I started using the Panasoni GF-1 camera, with the “pancake” lens (f1.7, 40mm lens equivalent). Very happy with the camera, and this is also my first time shooting RAW format files. VERY happy about that. Recently I took the camera on an outing to a friend’s place and shot inside with very little light. I used the Lightroom 3 beta release for post production, and I’m deslighted with the results I was able to achieve with the low light RAW files. I opted for black and white or super-saturated effects in Lightroom partly to test the setting and also to highlight the most aspects of the the low quality photos. There is a lot to learn in Lightroom and I’m planning on buying the video tutorial from Luminous Landscapes.

Below are a few of the photos – you can see the rest in the Band Practice photo set on Flickr. Thanks to Band Practice for the photo op. :)

Mung bean sprout creatures

Magda — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 22:12:18 +0000

The secret life of plants. I’ve been sprouting various beans all summer, and these guys are always littering the dining table, trying to escape en route from the sprouting jar to the plate.

Photos by Marc Ngui.

Toronto is home these days

Magda — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 00:49:34 +0000

Up the porch and through the length of the house and out the kitchen door to this small garden retreat. I spend a lot of time here these days.

The benches are a favourite sleeping place of the cats, and great for breakfast because this

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Bit of greenery turns crumbling to picturesque, Calcutta, India

Magda — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:39:06 +0000

View from the hotel where I stayed in April 2008.

Trekking north of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Magda — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:04:32 +0000

The Everest Range in pre-dawn silhouette

Herding goats down the mountain

Corn seedlings grow in terraced mountain fields.

More photos from trekkin in Nepal in the Flickr set.

Mother’s Day saris in Nepal

Magda — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:56:48 +0000

Red and pink saris worn by married women on Mother's Day in Nepal, 2009.

On Mother’s Day in Nepal, married daughters wear read (or other bright colour close to red) and buy fruit and sweets in the market as well as other presents and go to visit their mothers.

Only mothers with married daughters celebrate Mother’s Day in Nepal!

Although the birth of a son is cause for much more celegration than the birth of a daughter, mothers who have only sons do not
celebrate Mother’s Day, same as mothers of unwed daughters.

More photos from Kathmandu Valley in the Flickr photo set.

Pink lotus dying gracefully, Auroville

Magda — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:35:34 +0000

How lovely death can be, and how much more interesting than birth.

Best pistachio and cardamom kulfi in India

Magda — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:49:22 +0000

Served frozen in individual little pots in Auroville. Yum yum yum.

Village butcher wears a lungi

Magda — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 10:05:18 +0000

Customers wearing lungi in front of the village butcher in the early morning light, Auroville, India. (Click image to view larger)

A lungi is sort of a dohti, which is the men’s version of the sari and widely worn in the south of India. A cotton fabric of table cloth thickness is wrapped around the waist and reaches the ground, except then it’s picked up from the bottom and doubled up, bottom wrapped around the waist again to make a thigh to knee length skirty thing.

Some guys wear underwear, or even shorts, but maybe that’s cheating?

Anyway, when a good breeze picks up or a leap up the train platform is required or a restless nap… Well, then the lungi shifts up up and the lingam and accompanying tackle might be all on view. Actually, though, that happens surprisingly seldom, considering how many lungi, breezes, naps and jumps off and onto platforms there are.