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.

Ready, Set, Cut!

Many people have asked me where my kids get their haircut. I figured I might as well share that info with you all here - AT HOME!... um, not me, of course. I can't take the credit for their beautifully cut hair. But my husband's hair stylist, Jacky, who is also a good friend, lives near our place. So instead of going to Jacky's hair salon out in the city during the day, he just comes over to our house at night and cuts all 3 boys' hair one after another all in the same night. Convenient, eh? I LOVE it.

I've been meaning to post these pics that I took of the boys getting their cut and finally got around to them tonight. Oh, and if you're wondering what my boys have on their faces that makes them look so white and ghostly... its just baby powder. I've learned that sprinkling baby power onto the skin helps to keep the tiny strains of hair from sticking onto your moist skin so its easier to remove when you are done. What a great way to use up the baby powder I had.

Oh, and by the way, if you're interested to get the contact info of Jacky, the hair stylist, please email me and I can share that info with you. Jacky owns a hair salon based in San Francisco off of Clement.

Are you feeling lucky?

If so, you might be able to win yourself a Gift Certificate from our studio! .... plus many other baby products as well at the First Annual ItsaBelly Mom & Baby Multi-city event in San Francisco.

The special event will be held at Sprout Children's Boutique in San Francisco. Our preferred baby planner, Amy from ItsaBelly and her crew will be there with us too. So don't forget to stop by and check out all the cool baby prizes you can win. So mark your calendars - Saturday, November 7th @ 11-12pm. We will see you there!

Please RSVP at info@itsa-belly.com

The Tooth Fairy is coming to town.

Today marks a very big day for my little Aidan. If you remembered my post from weeks ago, he started to have his very first wobbly tooth. Well, gueeeess what? He woke up this morning and had a gap in his teeth! Daddy noticed it first and asked him where his tooth went? Did he swallow it? (was my first thought) Then Aidan ran back into his bedroom and searched his bed. Viola! We found it on his bed.

I made sure Aidan kept his tooth safely so I told him to put it on this porcelain plate that I have by my sink in the bathroom. As he was reaching for the plate, guess what happened?... Yuuup, you guessed it. The tooth went DOWN the drain. Poor little guy, he burst into tears. The tooth went straight down that drain. I felt so bad for the little guy. We made sure no one uses the sink anymore. And after we came back home from our long day, we went for the elbow pipe. Bucket under the sink, wrench, towels... we opened it up and there it was! (It was stuck into the yellow mildew tho). We washed it out real good. I will not forget how happy little Aidan was when he saw us dig his little tooth out of that pipe. He couldn't wait to put the tooth inside his little tooth fairy pillow for the night!

I'm planning to swap out his little tooth with this BIG dollar coin that I have since I was a teenager. Where did I get those huge dollar coins? It was my hard earned reward when I used to have braces. My orthodontist would award me with a big dollar coin whenever I went in for a visit with VERY clean teeth. So I've collected a few of those since then and never wanted to use it for anything. Now I'm really glad that I am able to pass my very hard earned dollar coins down to my own son tonight.




Showing off his tooth...

Kissing his little tooth fairy pillow before he goes to bed...

Here's a side by side comparison from wobbly stage to the missing tooth....

Baby Ryan-Day 16

I don't think I would ever get enough of newborns. I truly love my job and is so fortunate that I get the chance to do what I love and meet so many great people who have put their trust in me with their newborns. Each life brought into this world is a true miracle. And with every newborn I meet, I can still feel how fresh they are out of their mother's womb. Everything about a newborn is just so amazing. Their 2 little eyes, 10 chubby toes, 10 tiny fingers, and tiny little heart beating inside that body... it's amazing how 2 people can create a new little person together. And everytime I walk into the house to meet a newborn, my heart just melt as I am reminded of how tiny they are at just days old - so fresh, so new and so curious.

That feeling was the same when I met baby Ryan in his parents room. He was sound asleep on his parents bed. I couldn't help myself from peeking under his blanket to say 'hello'. "Welcome to this world little one" I thought to myself as I looked at him and smiled.

And at 16 days old, baby Ryan have already learned that he does not want to miss any of the action happening during his photo shoot and decided to stay awake majority of the time. But after a couple of feedings and some rocking in my arms, he managed to doze off on and off. I had to work quickly to capture the few moments we had as he sleep.

{ Thank you Karen & Dave for inviting me into your beautiful home. Your boys were so good to me, I couldn't ask for more. Thank you T & M for behaving so well for me during our photo shoot. I can't wait to show you guys the rest of your photos, enjoy the sneak peeks! }

Baby Noah @ 7 months

I met Susan when she was pregnant with baby Noah. And we met again to photograph her newborn baby. And on Sunday, we meet again as baby Noah is now already 7 months old.

It was a great photo shoot on a beautiful afternoon in Stanford. Babies around 7 months old are one of my favorite ages to photograph as they are usually just a sitting duck full of smiles. Little Noah is one fast learner, can you believe he is crawling already? At this rate, I'm sure the next time I'm back (when he turns 1 year), he will most likely be running away from me!

My favorite part of this shoot was to get baby all dressed up, it was almost like changing clothes for a cabbage patch. His mama was so prepared for our shoot, she brought more than 3 outfits to change into. I couldn't resist those cute and stylish outfits his mama brought for him.

One of my favorite shot is this one below, with baby Noah all decked out in his Burberry outfit from head to toe. Now if that's not what you called cute, then I don't know what cute is. I think this little guy is ready to go to Fashion Week!

Sunday morning...

... in my bedroom. Why didn't my mom let me jump on her bed when I was a child?

Wobbly One

The bottom front tooth is starting to wobble. Had to photograph it now before there is a big hole there real soon.

The Connolly

One gorgeous home in the heart of Mill Valley lived one beautiful family of five. Meet the Connollys . They are a happy bunch who was so much fun to shoot for. All 3 boys were full of energy and no one seemed to be shy towards my camera at all - lucky me!

There were many beautiful rooms I photographed in but my favorite one was their bathroom. I mean, their bath tub was too gorgeous not to be used as a prop. The minute I saw the tub I knew I wanted to have some photos of the kids in there. But little did I know, we even ended up throwing their doggie into the tub altogether too. It was so much fun!

{ Jocelyn & Sean - Thank you so much for having me over to spend the beautiful morning with your family... being able to capture your 3 boys at this very special age was a privilege. Thanks for choosing me as your photographer. Boys rock! }