Of improvised photobooths and pink, glowing hearts.

In my previous post I told you about how I went home at 5am and slept until 1pm. The Christmas weather is cuh-razy these days and there was a slight drizzle going on that Sunday so it felt really nice and cozy to just stay in bed armed with my netbook Lady Fabrize. I meant to waste the day away doing just that, if not for my grumbling stomach. I was tempted to settle with a cup of instant noodles, but thankfully Mae sent me a message asking me if I wanted to go to SM Fairview with her so she can buy a tripod. A day exploring outside with a friend is much better than a day moping alone in my apartment so I said yes :) Besides, we were meant to meet that day for a shoot anyway but it got cancelled because I still haven't found a costume yet; it would've been cancelled either way though because of the rain.

My good friend/ officemate Frank's niece Badeth (who has now become Mae's really close friend) came with us, and what followed is a fun day of photos and lights!

After a heavy meal in Chow King, we had dessert at The White Hat. They had frozen yogurts while I bought myself a 9oz cup of Dairy Queen's Brownie Temptation (as I have been craving for it for days!). You know that feeling when you're craving for something and then you finally get to taste it? It was pure indulgent heaven.

Baker's Hat (Frozen yogurt topped with cherries, cheesecake, and almond clusters)
Very Christmas-y, yes? Very yummy, too!

Mae and me with my Brownie Temptation
Photo taken by Badeth

Me with my point-and-shoot digicam, Lady Johanna Mirabou

After buying what we needed for Mae's experiment (tripod, glow sticks, nylon string), we went back to my apartment where we had a lot of fun setting up a "photobooth"!

Badeth with the Patrick plushie Mich gave me, me with my Wizard plushie from Dane, and Mae with one of the props we'll be using for a future shoot

Thanks to Mae's tripod and her camera Maggie's self-timer, we were able to set up our very own photobooth using my butterfly-print curtain as the backdrop. We had so much fun thinking of various ways to pose and grabbing the different stuff scattered around my still messy apartment (I don't have shelves yet so everything's everywhere). Fun fun fun! :D

After exhausting ourselves with this set-up we started to work on Mae's experiment. Using glowsticks from Toy Kingdom and Maggie's shutter settings, we were able to create glow-in-the-dark letters! This technique has been around for a long time now, yes, but the thrill is different when you are the one doing it! I was the designated "writer", and we had such a kick out of these letters in the air!

Originally, Mae planned to do just my name:

The glowsticks were only available in pink. It's meant to be. I love.

But I had the idea to do all the letters in the alphabet so we can take the letters we want and create random words

like RANDOM.

The words above were already "cleaned" and sewn together. This is actually the original photo:

You can see me on the background hee.

It was quite a challenge because I needed to write in reverse (just like what your reflection in the mirror will write like). Yes we are aware that we can readily flip photos, but we thought it would be better this way. We also tried writing full words in cursive:

may not make the world go round, but it surely makes the ride worthwhile.
- from a cheesy teen flick hah!

My new apartment just unlocked new possibilities. One of the main reasons why I love it (even though it is not that pretty) is that it can now serve as a perfect "studio" for our mini-shoots! The apartment I've lived in before is much more posh and modern-looking, but it was not ideal for shoots like this.

It was a fun day, and I'm glad I did not let it go to waste by just staying in bed the whole day. Thank you Mae and Badeth ♥ Now I can proudly say that my heart glows.

Literally.

All photos (except for the "cleaned" KRISSY and RANDOM which were post-processed by myself) are by Mae Ilagan. Now I'm tempted to get myself a fancy camera hee.