United Colors of Noryn Aziz

As promised earlier. Here are the colored sets from the Noryn Aziz photoshoot.  It was fun mixing and matching her outfits. Noryn did her own makeup, and we worked together picking out what to wear. At the end of the post I've included behind the scene shots.

And the voting for the Nuffnang Asia-Pacific is already on. If you haven't do vote for this blog of mine for the Best Photography Blog. You are allowed to vote multiple times every two hours. Remember to make your votes count, when done selecting the finalist of your choice *cough*sueannajoe.blogspot*cough*, scroll below to cast in your votes and log in to your facebook account. Thank you so so much! So enough with the shameless self promotion, here are the photos.

Much Love, Sue Anna Joe

Finalist for the NAPBAS 2011 (Best Photography Blog)

So some of you might be wondering what is NAPBAS 2011. No, it ain't napping on a bus..  ya geddit? Nap - bas/bus. Uh.. okay, not funny. It's basically short for the Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards 2011. And well, this blog of yours truly has been nominated and selected as one of the 5 finalist for the Best Photography Blog category like OMGSERIOUZLLYYY?? 

Yes, I was extremely surprised, I had NO idea at all I was nominated, and finding out I'm one of the finalist. And, if that's not crazy enough, I'm the one representing Malaysia for this particular category like OMGSERIOUZLLLYYY? Yes, I was extremely surprised. Yes I am repeating myself, because I am that surprised.

Now. Who am I to blame for this nomination? Please come forward, as I would love to give you love. Yes, you have my love, because you just made my day. I nominate you as the coolest person ever in my book! I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. But I think I just did, didn't I? Seriously though, I am truly honored and touched. Thank you to whoever you are you awesome person you.

Being a finalist is like super duper wuhahahahahahooyeah moment for me already. But to actually win the category now that would be something. Cause I be representing Malaysia yaw. Bloggers and photography enthusiasts. However, I don't want you peeps to vote for me just because I asked / begged / nagged / forced / blackmailed you to. I want your votes to be true, honest, sincere, and that you really think my works, my blog, my photos really do deserve the win. 

I will be updating this blog more frequently from now on. I'll try my best to make this blog worthwhile and hopefully be able to maybe inspire, humor you, share stuff, and entertain ya'all during those times at the office when you're supposed to be doing work , or perhaps when you kids are supposed to be doing your 'research' for your assignments, and you somehow magically appear on this blog of mine.

So if you think lil ol me deserves that award, you can vote for me over at the NAPBAS 2011 voting site HERE starting 15 November 2011 (which is only a day away from this blog post), until 27 November 2011.

And with that I end this entry with a collage of my works throughout the years. Thank you all. 

Much Love, Sue Anna Joe

Noryn Aziz in B/W

I had the privilege to shoot the charming and beautiful Malaysian Jazz songbird, Noryn Aziz. Was mesmerized when I first laid eyes on her, face to face she's just drop dead gorgeous I tell ya. Plus the super awesome attitude, she is extremely friendly and down to earth. I had a very enjoyable time during the photoshoot.

A huge thanks to Gjie Aziz for introducing my works to Noryn, and Fynaz Shariff for contacting me to do the shoot. And the best bit is that, now all of us are friends! Weee. To the talented young fashion photographer Bibo Aswan who assisted with the lighting, I'd be quite lost without him because studio lighting isn't really my forte. Also thank you to my dearest husband who tagged along during the shoot. Love ya to bits!

Hope you like these photos. Will post the colored set in another entry. I had to do very little post processing. She's a natural beauty! Last photo is my personal favorite.

Much Love, Sue Anna Joe

My Happiest Moment

Since I was young I have always loved babies. And I have always always wanted one of my own. On the 5th of February 2010 my dream came true, I was bestowed a precious baby boy. Giving birth, the first time I laid eyes on him would be one of the happiest moments in my life. And I thought no other moment would beat that.

I was wrong, each and every day watching him grow up is just as wonderful as the day he was born. One of my fave moments is cuddling with him during nap time and waking up with him right by my side. I absolutely love his smell and warmth.

I am thankful for this life, for meeting my soul mate, and together having this beautiful child of ours. And hopefully many more to come *wink*

This photo was snapped by my husband while I was napping with our son. Definitely a happy photography moment. And thanks to technology, this moment is cherished forever.

Much Love, Sue Anna Joe

Bleed + Bird + Run

"She Only Knows How To Bleed"

"Here Birdy Birdy"

"Run Away With Me"

Here are a few more sets made from Polyvore. Please take note that all the images, graphics or illustration do not belong to me, but it's a collage of those images made up into a visual 'set'. The images available on that site are mostly uploaded by the users of Polyvore. And I'm beginning to think that, a number of those photos are actually copyrighted. Eeek!

Because the photos uploaded from users I believe are taken from somewhere on the internet, on art sites such as deviantART and Flickr to name a few. Then to have them edited, cut out, different from the original image, is definitely a no no unless with permission, which of course I doubt they have.

Upon investigating well googling, I found out there has been many concerns with Polyvore regarding copyright issues. So one has to be extra cautious when using images found on Polyvore for their sets to prevent any infringement. I'm pretty sure that the clothing items are safe to use, but those graphic elements, images, well most probably not. So as much I love creating these sets, I will discontinue creating these so called 'Art & Expression' set. Unless, I'm extremely sure that the images are okay to use.

But having to use this, it has sparked a bunch of new ideas. It still can be done with stock images, but it'll take extra work to cut out the image. Polyvore does it automatically for you, that's what makes it so fun because it's easy. Cuts down all the tedious work. Anyhoo, it was fun for a while, till I started thinking about, uh wait, these images, where did they really come from? Is it their own, well I don't think soooooo, so what, do they have permission to cut them out and use it on Polyvore? I don't think soooooo, so you mean it's actually a copyright violation?? Ting ting ting ting! Spot on Anna Joe, spot on. *Slaps self* Duhhhhhhh.

Anyhoo, I still will be using Polyvore for my fashion sets on countthethread. In fact I opened up another account for certain posts in my budu dan belacan blog. As I mentioned not having to manually getting rid of unwanted backgrounds, Polyvore really comes in handy. But to create 'art' from someone else's art, is just plain wrong. Tsk tsk tsk. You nawdy!

Being on the internet, it's really easy to do mistakes like this, accidentally plagiarizing without even realizing, or 'accidentally' downloading movies from torrents, or computer software and using crack codes or key generators that has some lame loud techno music at the background to unlock them. You 'unintentional' cyber criminals! Bad people bad!

Much Love, Sue Anna Joe

My Dreams Of Love

My Dreams Of Love by Sue Anna Joe

Just registered myself with Polyvore because I wanted to come up with ideas of what to wear especially for my fashion blog, countthethread. Then I noticed the 'Art & Expression' category, and I was like ooooo, so I thought I give it a go, and mwalah, what you see above is the result of my little experiment! Wuhoo.

You just key in the search box like you would do in Google of the things you want to include in your set/design. For instance, I typed 'bird', 'flower' and 'splash'. And they also have the option to select the categories and even the color that you'd like from the palette to narrow down your search. I think you can upload your own images as well, haven't tried that though. I just used whatever I could find in there. So it's pretty much playing mix and match. The tools are pretty basic like, resize, flip and rotate. But I think it's good enough, and it forces you to be creative.

So, if you haven't you could try it out yourself. And you can register using your facebook account, avoiding the hassle of filling in a form. If you already have an account or about to create one, be sure to leave your link so I can check out your creations!

Much Love, Sue Anna Joe