My grandparents gave me these adorable painted eggs as a gift the last time I visited Taiwan (2002). My mom kept them safe in Houston for me, and I picked these up in early April when I spent some time with mi madre. My mom was super-helpful and super-supportive when I told her why I wanted to take these home with me to New York.

I spent the month of April shooting some content for Canon (eeeeee!), and this is one of the images I created to test the 100 mm macro. More details on that soon!

I knew I wanted to present these little guys as a trio, but my dad had glued them into separate plastic containers (per my mother’s borderline-OCD instructions, I’m sure). My roommate, Mitesh, and I spent one evening prying them out of their shells, so to speak. I love the support, but I cringed every time Tesh hammered the screwdriver into the box, fearful of damaging the delicate shells. Realize, my grandfather had these eggs for over 50 years! Clearly, Tesh managed to pull my tiny friends out of their cases without harm. Yay, Tesh!

I had a May 1st deadline for Canon, but ever the perfectionist, I made myself sick with worry that I did not have enough good content to submit. So I spent the night before shooting, shooting, shooting–and writing. Luckily, I know lighting well enough to get the desired effect rather quickly, and this photo demonstrates an image I had pictured in my head and was able to produce in minutes.

Here, I placed an AB 1600 on a boom stand and used a 10° grid to create a spotlight. I never trust boom stands because they can be top-heavy if not fully supported with weight on the other end. My imagination kept crushing these hollow eggs, so I had to shoot quickly. The 100 mm macro helped me lock focus quickly, and I believe this is the first shot straight out of the camera.

Stay tuned for more Canon stuff! And as always, thanks for the support. It means more to me than you know.