we're here.

It wasn't just an ordinary morning call today.

When I opened my eyes due to hearing the door, instead of finding Alex saying hello while taking off her shoes, I found the four of them shouting and grinning at my half-surprised and sleepy face. 'The four of them' consisted of amazing individuals I've been spending my time with for the last 8 months in class; Alex (my roommate since January), Tom, Barbara, and Marissa. With the everyday puns, sassy phrases, and the constant effort of trying to teach me sarcasm, my freshmen year went by just like that, breaking all of my premonitions about being a sad introvert at SVA.

Although we'll see less of each other next year, I'll always wish them well and remember the days when we sat around together in McDonald's or the painting class, or today's trip to Madison Square Park enjoying the bright skies of New York complete with the sound of jazz trumpet.

They're here, and I'm very glad of that.

high.

Let today be a double-post day!

Fresh pictures, layout-ed straight from our trip this afternoon to The High Line park! The weather's too great to be placed in a box, so I ditched my afternoon studio and jet out as soon as Brea called. After intensive editing phase, I am glad to be able to go back to my roots. My love of plants, flowers, and blue skies will never fade away. They're vitamins for my eyes and soul.

Hello, spring. Nice to meet you.

no signal.

During Spring break, I visited Jochebelle (Bella) and her roommate Yani at San Jose, about an hour drive from San Fransisco. Months of no contact with her made the simple shoot pretty unexpected, and I'm glad that she still got her poses, beauty, and personality all in-tact.

Aside from the shoot, we also had a conversation about selecting pictures for the blog. Bella seemed to like her softer expressions compared to the darker and edgy ones that I tend to choose for the final pictures. Despite all that, I agreed to plan another shoot with her that'll be softer than the previous ones because we both would like to explore more feminine themes.

Big thanks to Connie and Stefan for coming along to San Jose with me that day!

stripes.

Woke up a bit too early and so the randomness came to me. As I changed my usual wide lens to a fixed one, I started snapping away every light that comes in stripes inside this cluttered dorm room.

Repetitive, transferred, organically divided form of lights.

I am subconsciously attracted to stripes.

meet danielle.

Danielle De Block was the girl who entered art history class as if she came out from a Raphael's painting of cherubs. So far I witnessed her love of fine arts, cats, salad, and how she can literally glow under the sunlight. To experience her presence in the room is to ponder upon a pair of clear blue eyes only to find traces of the sun trapped in her irises.

My words are cheesy, but the pictures will show you further about what I've been trying hard to explain.

These pictures of her test shoot turned into an outlet for me to improve my editing. Plus I'd like to be braver and take risks in art, learn things that I'm capable of learning before defining my own style later on in the future.

Thank you Danielle for lending a Sunday to me.

coming soon.

"Where are the updates?"

"Why do you keep on posting previews at Instagram and not post any pictures?"

"Is Olen still alive?"

Yes, this is all I've been hearing for the past two months despite the fact that this visual blog doesn't have much followers except you, yes you, all of my loyal friends and people who got the updates notice from Facebook.

If you're wondering why the updates are getting longer and longer, it's because I've been living without a laptop for almost three months by now. How is that even possible? IPad. That practically saved my cyber connection. Yet when it comes to keeping the blog updated, it's pretty difficult especially with the library closing at 11 PM and the weekends spent getting distracted with food, friends, and artworks.

Just to keep you posted (and interested, believe me I'm trying hard) I have two batches of pictures to edit ...hopefully soon. One would feature a new friend of mine that looks like an asian-caucasian cherub, and the other would be a comeback of one of my four muses. They're just simple stuff, since  I'd like to keep my things far from grandiose. But who knows, you might find me doing glamour during the summer.

And so here I am, keeping all of you curious with a sneak peak above.

Hang in there, pretty minds!

Calins pour vous,

Olen

one day.

The vintage-loving lomo-mania Bea came to visit NYC for two weeks, yet we squeezed her NYC experience into a Monday. We started our morning walking to East Village, then hugged some mugs at Max Brenner Union Square, spent major hours at the MoMa, ended the day in front of the closed St John the Divine and ate lamb chops at the Symposium.

Of course it's quite impossible to experience everything in a day but we successfully filled our stomachs and brains with delights and culture.

Wishing lots of wellness to Beejoux! See you in the summer!