zhangling❤photography

There's this ongoing joke amongst my girlfriends that I'm not meant to wear nail polish. Every time my nails get done, they're chipped almost immediately -- regardless of the formula, number of coats, whether I got them done at home or at the salon, etc. Once, Carlie went bowling right after we got the same manicure and her nails stayed intact after, while mine chipped in the car ride home. Sigh. Recently, I tried shellac nail polish for the first time, and after hearing all the testimonies of how it'll last for weeks and never chip, I was cautiously optimistic. Trying to be hopeful but also paranoid that I'll be the one weirdo where shellac doesn't work. Fortunately, it did! I went with an all-occasion, pink-nude and I was sooo happy, I couldn't stop touching or admiring my nails. I felt so put together, so lady-like, so  polished (badum-tss).  Needless to say, I've now decided I will always have nice nails because they're such a small thing b...

Last weekend, I attended my very first beer festival -- Beau's Oktoberfest out in Vankleek Hill (between Ottawa and Montreal). It was a really fun time and I'm already looking forward to next year! With beer on the brain plus a few cans of Sapporo in the fridge, I started brewing up ideas for this month's product shoot. background is authentic happi coat that I brought back from my trip to Japan! "the Avengers shot" - A.K. the samurai shot A bit of background on the photo shoot: my first attempt at shooting was during a power outage and so in editing the first batch photos, I had the weird feeling something was off. I quickly realized that I was missing the condensation/frostiness on the can and glass that conveys the message that the beer is cold. Frustrated, because we gave away basically everything in the fridge so it wouldn't go bad during the power outage (which included the rest of the beer) I ranted to my friend Charlotte. Coincidenta...

It's been three weeks since I've returned from my China trip and I was out of commission the first two of those three. I don't know what it was (although at one point it was definitely bronchitis – oof) but it sure knocked me on my butt! It was pretty awful and I’m finding myself scrambling to try to catch up for all the lost time. With this post, I can cross April off my to-do list and get a move on the *hundreds* of China photos I’ve been neglecting. I've been wanting to shoot accessories for a while, and after the few when shooting outfits with Haikang , I realized the main struggle was finding the right surfaces to shoot on. Luckily, while shopping for housewares in Simon's, I found a bunch of neat place mats (for like $4!) and thought they'd be a great hack for those blogger flat lays on gorgeous marble or wood counter tops. Here goes my first try shooting with the marble one (with $1 fake flowers to complete the blogger aesthetic :P) As men...