Baby Thayer

I've only got one word to describe this new family: GORGEOUS!

Yes, indeed, just meet baby Thayer. You don't have to wonder where he got his good looks from, I mean, just look at his parents.

It was such a joy to meet this little new family. They were so awesome and so easy to work with. My favorite part of their session is that I could honestly say that I truly felt the love they had inside their home. And often times I walked by and found this Daddy just sitting there staring at his baby sleeping on his bed. It was the sweetest thing ever. And the mommy told me he does that all the time too. (I think this Daddy is in love with his baby!) I loved the way this mommy snuggled with baby Thayer and the soft sweet voice she had when she spoke to him, the gentle kisses she gave him. And just the way these two bonded and interacted with each other, it was all too sweet to describe.

Lisa & Kevin - You guys made it so easy for me, thank you. And thank you so much for inviting me to come over to spend the beautiful morning with you all. I had an awesome time at your photo shoot and is so glad you guys did too. I can't wait to show you guys the rest of your photos in a few weeks.

Baby Connor

Um, hello, ah, yes, I'm still catching up over here and no, I didn't forget about you guys at all. That's why I wanted to pop in to say "Hello".

Meet our little guy here, his name is Connor. He's just 3 months young and is already full of smiles.

Thank you little Connor for being good to me. It was so good to meet you my little man. I hope you liked our little walk up in the hills, I thought you might enjoy that beautiful scenery up there right by your house. I sure loved it. I also loved the big smiles you gave me that day too. Remember to keep on smiling to your mommy and daddy because that is what they look forward to see each and everyday when they pick you up and look you in the eyes.

From belly to baby...

This mommy's belly was the last maternity session I did for the year of 2009. To ring in the New Year, her newborn baby, Drew was the first baby I got to photograph in 2010. What a sweet way for me to remember this special family.

Meet Jill, her husband Keith and her beautiful belly.




I absolutely love Jill's expression ... like any new mom, the unconditional love you feel when you hold your newborn baby during that first month of life. A feeling that no mother should ever forget. And that moment should be captured for her.





My favorite part about this shot? The toes!
Myf

Happy New Year

Happy 2010 Everyone. I hope you all had a fabulous holiday with your love ones. It's been one crazy holiday season at our studio and we are still catching up with some editing and orders from our December sessions. Thank you everyone for being so patient with us as we tackle each session one after another.

During this holiday, I took my family to Asia to visit Hong Kong and Thailand this year. We just got back last week and is still adjusting our biological clock back to the California timezone right now. We are almost all back on track, if only my little guy would sleep through the night again one of these nights.

The highlight of my trip in Hong Kong was being able to see my 88 year old grandma again, and being able to see all my close cousins and relatives there as well. I also got to witness my husband's little sister tied the knot with her new husband as I watched my first born son walked down that aisle with the couple's wedding rings on the pillow in his handsome little tuxedo.

From Hong Kong, my husband and I went off to a little rendez-vous to Thailand for a couple of days, sans kids. We visited the beautiful city of Bangkok together and walked the streets at night hand in hand. The highlight of my Thailand trip was having the chance to really spend some quality time with my dear hubby. It was such a treat for us to be able to get away to just rejuvenate as two tired parents.

My boys got to spend time with their grandparents in Hong Kong while we were gone and even got to visit the Disneyland in Hong Kong during those few days. I don't think they missed us very much after all!?

While in Bangkok, we visited some of the world-known landmarks and shrines including the Four Face Buddha at Erawan Shrine, the Giant Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho and many more. Of course, I took lots of pictures while I was there and I will definitely share more of that here when I have them ready.

It's been a fabulous holiday overall, eventhough it was quite hectic and tiring traveling with 2 young kids at this age but I am sure that it was definitely a great experience for them both as well.

I want to wish everyone a prosperous New Year and may all your wishes and New Year resolutions come true and stay consistent throughout this year. I look forward to meet many more new faces, playing with more chubby babies and seeing more beautiful bellies this coming year. Thank you everyone for your love and support throughout this past year. I am very blessed and fortunate to be able to do what I truly love with your trust in my work. I will continue to push my creative juice to the next level at each of my sessions this coming year and I can't wait to share what I create with you all here on my blog.

And before I go, I must post a photo ... so here's a quick teaser of taken in Thailand.

Cheers to another fabulous year everyone - Happy 2010!

More of Baby Kenzie...

A few more sneak peeks from our o'so adorable baby Kenzie from our latest session...

Growing Up Together

I love to watch the boys play together on the weekend. And I especially love the age they are in right now, 6 and 2.5 years old. It's a really fun age and I am definitely trying to enjoy this time with them as much as I can.

The 2 boys get along very well (well, most of the time)... and of course, other times, they would fight for their Lego's, LightSabers, etc. It's just part of brotherhood. I hope someday when they grow up, they will always be just as close as they are right now. Especially when I see them look for each other the minute they wake up... "Where's Adun, Mommy?".... "Where's Coop Coop, Mama?".... they always have each other in their hearts... and I hope this will continue when they grow up.

Baby Kenzie...

A teaser from our latest Baby Session. Still remember this cute baby from her newborn session
back in May? She's all grown up now. Mooooooo.......More to come soon.

Check It Out: Flying Peas

Besides photographing just babies and pregnant bellies... I would sometimes get a request to do product shots. I recently did a couple of products shots for Flying Peas, a really awesome online kids store. Hip stuff for cool kids is exactly what they sell. Their site recently did a complete makeover and it looks great. It's a great place to finish off your christmas shopping late at night when the kids are in bed. One of our product shot made it to the frontpage of their site too, check it out.

Connecting with your subject...

Today I had a conversation with one of my friend/client who mentioned that she really liked the connection I had with her kids during our photo shoots. She might not have noticed how much that really meant for me. I believe that in order to be a great photographer, you not only need to know how to create good composition and lighting from your images but to really know how to connect with your subject during the photo shoot. Especially for a child, their true personality will shine through as they get more comfortable around you.

Here is a great example of a child named Andrew whom I truly enjoyed photographing. His charming personality was hard to hide through his every changing expressions.

A few more to share from their session. Photos taken at Stanford University.

Ready, Action!

I never knew how I looked like during my photo shoots... until a friend of mine took a shot of me photographing a newborn. The image on the right is the shot taken from that session. Don't you just love the way a newborn stretches? Its so adorable.

Thanks for sending over this shot Adea. More images from this session to come soon ....

The Friedman Family

One beautiful family from a beautiful city in Hillsborough. I really enjoyed meeting the Friedman family. I was greeted warmly in the driveway from Rick, who is the daddy of this family. Then I met their beautiful older daughter Emily who was so sweet and friendly. We went to find little Adam who his mommy said was "flirting" with me already because he was hiding from me in the house... but eventually we found him hiding behind this big lazy chair, looking a bit shy but very handsome. Mommy Racky looked very well prepared for the photo shoot, showing me the different outfits she have carefully planned for the family. Shortly after my arrival, baby Olivia just started to wake up from her nap. It was a perfect arrival time, just as mommy have planned.

Our photo shoot went well and we just had a few occasional hiccups here and there, so we would take many short breaks to let the kids run free, have their space and press restart again. Baby Emily needed a milk break, Adam needed a few minutes to himself, Emily grabbed a cookie...it was a very casual and typical photo shoot with 3 young kids.

As we were shooting in their backyard, I heard something that completely made my day. Little Adam who is just 6 years old, looked at me and said, "I like your website!" And that just completely caught my attention. I gave him a big smiled and just laughed. It was the cutest, and best compliment I've gotten this month! of course, I was COMPLETELY flattered because I know a 6 year old wouldn't just be telling me something I wanted to hear out of nowhere. He was the cutest thing ever. So throughout my shoot, I would tell him, if you give me a good smile, I will have to put that one on my website. He did so well with his smiles that I will definitely be putting him onto my website to make HIS day because he made mine.

{ Thank you so much Racky & Rick for welcoming me into your beautiful home. I hope you guys enjoyed these sneak peeks from our shoot. }

The Kid's Artwork

Every mother who has a child in preschool or kindergarten would ask themselves this question - "What should I do with my kid's artwork?" Throwing them away just seem too cruel, but keeping all of them seems like too much to store. As much as we LOVE all of them, you know only a few would actually end up in our scrapbook or on our walls.

Here's my way of saving the artwork. Photograph your child WITH the artwork every year, pick a fun background to use and then make a collage. Have your child pick out his top 20 favorite piece. Throwing away some of the artwork after a photo of your child with it just doesn't seem as guilty after that.

And as for Aidan, he loves to ham it up in front of my camera, can't you tell? He posed most of these on his own. I just said, "Hold this up and let me take a picture". And this is what I got.