Kitty Cat Diary 2005

Kitty Cat Diary | 貓咪日記

The Kitty Cat Diary is a photo diary of my adorkable wife, and it's what happens when a photographer marries a woman who doesn't mind having a camera pointed at her during everyday life. Elena (A.K.A. Kitty Cat, because my nicknames for her all revolve around the theme of a cat.) is my favorite subject to photograph--there's just something very theraputic about grabbing a camera and capturing the person you love the most in the world, while combining that with creativity and aesthetic sensibility. This interaction has brought us a lot of joy over the years and captured a lot of precious memories. If you want to get to know Elena better, her bio is the best place to start.

Since these are spur-of-the-moment snapshots, it's best to enjoy them simply as casual fun instead of serious photography (you can find more serious photography in other areas of my site). A wide range of camera were used to shoot these photos--from professional cameras to casual compacts and smartphones. You can find out what photography gear I shoot with in the FAQ section.

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Kitty Cat having a chat with her sister in the livingroom, while I harass her with my camera. Her sister is used to me doing that by now.

We've been on a skirt shopping craze lately. Every time we pass by a clothing store, we go in and try to find this type of skirt (I say we because I pick out most of her wardrobe--she trusts my taste in fashion more than her own because I have designed clothes for her in the past--including her coctail dress for our wedding). I like the romantic and autumn feel of the design. I think she's got about 5 different colors/designs of this type of skirt now.

My workstation is right next to our bed, so I often look over to my right and see Kitty Cat staring at me like this with that cute smile.

The next 2 photos were taken with the Olympus C3030Z, hence the difference in image quality.

Getting ready to return to Fuzhou. I like how in the first photo, she looks like she's listening to music and immersed in it. Unfortunately, her appreciation for music does not run that deep. It's always me that's got my eyes closed and arms waving around like a conductor (or air guitar/drums/piano).

Several hours later, Kitty Cat is back with her approval letter! (Red is for approved, blue is for rejected). It was basically hours of waiting, and then the moment the immigration officers sees you walking towards the counter, they've pretty much decided then and there if you'll be approved. The "country bumpkin" or the "suspicious criminal" looking ones are almost always rejected, unless they provide overwhelmingly positive material for their case (although all applicants who are called in for interview have already fulfilled the prerequisit). We had prepared tons of material (photos of us together for the last four years, bank statements, letters, our Malaysian visas when we were there..etc), but the immigration officer didn't even bother looking. He just took one look at her and reached for the approval stamp. Of course, he asked a few questions for formality's sake, like "Who introduced you?" "When did you get married?" and "Did your husband visit you in China?" Obviously, these were formality questions as he didn't see a problem with her at all--if it was someone that he thought was suspicious, the questions wouldn've been extremely difficult and numerous. Four years--and we got it!

The big day! Kitty Cat dressed elegantly for the immigration interview at the American Consulate.

On our way to the immigration consultant agency for a final briefing. That little skirt is a bit too short, and I had to make sure there were no unintentional upskirt moments when she rode the escalator up.

On the bus to the airport. We were going to Guangzhou for Kitty Cat's immigration visa interview. What an important trip that was.

The price of beauty. The paper mask is not nearly as bad as the green or pink mud she uses.

Kitty Cat at the hospital getting a full physical exam. She looks pretty worried here, but she was actually just frustrated by the bureacracy in the hospital.

One of Kitty Cat's most favorite things to do is to read the newspaper. She pretty much reads it for the both of us, because she relays what she reads to me, and she has a tendency to do it while I'm busy working on something, so I only catch about 70% of her reportage.

Kitty Cat decides to repaint our bathroom furnitures, and she stunk up the house with the most foul paint fume I've ever had the displeasure of encountering. I have no idea what kind of toxic crap house-paint manufacturers in China put in their paints, but holy crap it was so bad my eyes almost watered.

Dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Fuzhou. They make a really nice meat sauce with cheese spaghetti. Kitty Cat always order the same thing there--the seafood udon. I tease her about it and tell her she has no guts to try the rest of the menu (she tried something different a couple of times and decided the seafood udon is the only safe choice). The last time we went the food became horrible--turned out they switched chefs. Bad move. We won't be going back.

Kitty Cat getting ready to go out. We were invited by Canon to attend a product seminar, pushing their EOS 20D and 350D DSLR cameras.

Kitty Cat looks at me suspiciously, wondering if her bra is in the shot (it was--but I cropped it, because she'd kill me).

Kitty Cat got a phone call while we were shooting the Between Darkness & Light session. As she gabbed on the phone, I killed time by tweaking the lights. Looking back, I really hated using conventional photography strobes, because they were cumbersome and you couldn't see what the result looked like until you've taken the shot and reviewed it on the LCD screen. When affordable wireless LED constant lights became available, I stopped using strobes completely.

Kitty Cat wears her new little skirt out. (I'm a sucker for cute little skirts.)

Kitty Cat hard at work, trying her get her cat brain around confusing English grammar.

I was experimenting with ways to use fill-flash in very subtle ways that won't destroy the low-light ambiance that I love so much. Kitty Cat was cleaning the fuzz off of of a stick of lip-moisturizer, and soon finds herself a victim of my shutter-itch--again.

Kitty Cat footing the bill at a crappy Taiwanese cuisine in Xiamen. The place had a blackout, so half the menu was unavailable. The restaurant wanted to charge four RMB for a candle! We thought it was ridiculous they'd charge for a candle and chose to eat in the dark (The lighting in the picture is from my flash).

Kitty Cat and her older sister waiting for our ride to take us back to Fuzhou. Notice the KFC bag she's carring. KFC's in China sell really good eggtarts, which is surprising. The crust is crispy with nice baked thin layers, and the filling itself is very creamy and authentic.

Kitty cat riding a tour cart from one greenhouse to another. You can see the pictures I took of really cool looking cacti here.

Kitty Cat braiding her hair in the hotel, just before adventuring out for a day of vacationing in Xiamen.

How do I know when summer has arrived? When Kitty Cat starts wearing a lot less clothes around the house.