Serena Project-6 months

I have been documenting Serena's first year. This project was arranged before Serena was born. I saw Serena's older siblings and I knew that she was going to have the gorgeous set of deep blue eyes. My first meeting with Serena was when she was only 3 weeks old so I did not get to see her blue eyes. When Melissa brought Serena out in her pretty blue dress, I thought I saw most beautiful baby in the whole world. Well, all babies are beautiful! but this one is special.... Don't you think?
So here is image of her with no retouching or enhancement.

Her eyes are really that big and blue

Miss Personality!

Here is Serena at 3 weeks while she was dreaming in her mommy's arm.

All she wanted was to eat and sleep as what babies supposed to do. I had to walk away with one roll of 120 film, that is 16 shots. I wanted to document her on my medium format camera, Mamiya 645 with Ilford HP5 film which I have been testing extensively in the past for my fine art work. When the film retured from the lab, I was thrilled to see this image.

I still love film, I am not denying digital but I think film captures nostalgic essence of things.

e-session Mary & Benny

When Mary & Benny told me that they have decided to hire me as their wedding photographer, I was thrilled. We, photographers always love to work with clients that respect our work and would be willing to do anything that we ask them to do. Benny first told me that he was not really into being photographed, but he was doing it ALL for Mary. Today, Benny not only came up with few ideas for our shoot and did charming job as a model. These two weren't feeling not so well today, but we had a blast. Thank you guys for being such a good sport about everything! Andy & I really enjoyed spending time with you two. Thank you for sharing precious moments in your life with us. Let's do Korean BBQ dinner soon!
Here are some of my favorites of the day. - Click Here to see the slideshow

so cute!

Some dramatic lights!Love the flare!

I just love capturing true moments like this!

Mary looking so sophisticated!

Benny looking sharp !

A Spontaneous Moment-Thanks Benny!

and their quiet moment...

Ed Pierce Seminar

Last night, I attended Ed Pierce's "Captivated by the Light" seminar sponsored by PPA. To be honest, I initially decided to go because I wanted to check out few vendors before WPPI- No offence Ed! I did not know of his work before this seminar so I just drove myself to Radisson Westside Hotel, with very little expectation. However, Ed Pierce's seminar was by far one of the best. He is obviously a very talented photographer and gifted speaker! Not to mention he looked better in person than his promo photo. I often find out how little some photographers know about creating,controlling and seeing the light. Fortunately, I learned quiet a bit of lighting from my fine art and chimerical photography training at school. But this 4 hour seminar clearly helped me to see how I can apply quality lighting to my image more effectively. Ed Pierce's PhotovisionVideos presents this really clearly. So I broke my promise to not to buy anything before WPPI and bought subscription to his DVD program. I am hopping that Andy can watch this with me so he can get a sense of what professional lighting is like.
Another inspirational topic that this seminar had was about the non-profit organization called "Now I lay me down to sleep" (NILMDTS), co-founded by talented portrait photographer Sady Puc. I first read about this organization years ago on news paper article. Basically NILMDTS provides portrait session with their child they may night bring back home. I thought of volunteering while I was a student, but I was afraid that I may not be qualified to do this job. What if I make mistake? This is by far worst than missing couple of important shots at the wedding!!! That was my excuse then. I am still afraid of that even though I've never made a single mistake on my weddings so far. Last night, Ed announced that NILMDTS is short of volunteers. I think, I am going to sign up with them once I finish branding my new photography business this spring. It will be emotionally intense,but I believe that God gave me this talent to share with others. Many people question people like me writing on charity subject here. This is not to boast about what we do. It's just my small contribution to let the rest of the world know that we can still take small parts in helping others and paying it forward. So if you are reading this and you are a professional photographer and want to volunteer please click here to go to NILMDTS website, you can also make cash donation.