Crab cakes and fresh slaw as an appetizer. The main course was a bread crusted halibut with lemon sauce. All homemade by my aunt, the fabulous chef.

I love wedding photography!  And, I love my business because it provides me with so many cool experiences.  Earlier this month, I was able to attend one of [b]ecker’s Party of Five workshops.  [b]ecker is a hugely influential photographer, and thankfully, he uses his powers for good…sharing knowledge and generally elevating the industry.  Part of the workshop involved a little engagement shoot - Gavin and Erin were gracious enough to show off their good looks.  Easy to be gracious if you have such good looks. ; )  One more plug…if you are a professional photographer, then sign up for the [b] school!!!

Here’s a few samples from our little engagement session.  I don’t normally shoot with such a wide perspective, but the other photographers were mostly in close, so I thought I’d experiment using a wider lens.

I’ve lived pretty much up and down the West Coast.  The Bay Area, Los Angeles, Seattle, and now…the Tri-Cities, WA.  My journey has led to me to progressively less, umm diverse regions.  While I love the place in which I live now, it is definitely not high ranking on the “Most Ethni-City List.”  In fact, the other day I was kinda’ laughing at myself as I imagined what other people thought when they observed me.

I’m Chinese, driving a 2000 Ford F-150 in my blue jeans, listening to Alan Jackson (I’m genre agnostic); work gloves on the floor boards, thinking about when I would be able to go hunting with my friend.  My friends are teasing me, saying that they are going to buy me a cowboy hat.  Imagine that.

I came across this video, which encompasses perfectly my experience in the Tri-Cities.  Again, I love it here, so I’m not complaining.  Just reflecting.  Enjoy!

I mostly grew up in California, where winter and Christmas meant, at best, cool weather and rain. Now that I’m in Washington, I really appreciate the snow we get during the winter. Here’s a quick pic from my phone.

I get lots of questions about the possibility of doing portraits in cold weather.  Can we do them?  Will they look good?  My answer is “YES!”  Winter portraits in the snow and/or cold weather can be tons of fun, and I can work with you to produce great results. It just takes flexible folks that are willing to put on their sweaters and scarves and hang out in the crisp air.  The same can be true of night-time portraits.  I’ll post some recent examples soon.

Interested? Give me a call!

Times have been challenging recently and this blog has suffered.  In late October, I injured my knee, in which I had already completely torn my ACL.  After a visit to the doctor, I found out that I had torn my meniscus and, surprise, my ACL was still torn.  The treatment?  ACL reconstruction and removal of the torn meniscus.  Ugh.  Well, the procedure was performed in late November and I’m on the mend.  The good news is that I will be up and ready for my weddings and none of my clients need to worry.  Bad news is that the past month has been crazy hectic.  And here I thought I would have plenty of time to watch movies and play MarioKart on the Wii while I was recovering.  Uh…no such luck.  Thanks for being patient and I should return to my normal bloginess soon.

With the holidays coming up and with my first weddings for 2009 coming right around the corner, love is in the air.  I leave you with this awesome love song, which any Mario Kart fan should truly appreciate.  Blessings to all.

Did I mention how awesome my wife is?  She has totally stepped up to take care of me and the kids.

Yesterday marked my seventh anniversary with my wonderful wife. I wrote a poem for her based on something I read in the Bible. I share it now in the hopes that she would be honored and that she would know how much I love and appreciate her.

Whom have I found?

Who is she, more precious than jewels,
Trusted by the man who’s heart she holds?
She does him good, and not harm,
All the days of her life.
Her selflessness and sacrificial efforts
Yield provision and comfort for this blessed one.
Clothed with strength and dignity,
She speaks wisdom and kindness.
She is deserving of praise
For many women have done excellently,
But she surpasses them all.
Whom have I found?
Whom have I found?
Only you, my beloved wife.
Only you, my precious Yolanda.

Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart!
I love you more now than ever.

Here’s a picture of us taken with my phone at our celebratory dinner at Tagaris Winery.

The winter is such a wonderful time.  I love the change of season and all of the excitement associated with anticipating the holiday season.  I also appreciate the cold months because it is the “slow” time of the year, which allows me to focus on the business aspects of our studio.  I have many exciting changes in the works from infrastructure to client offerings.  I’ll be rolling these changes out slowly, but here is a hint at some of the things to come.  Press the play button below. Of course, I’m using my family and their portraits as a guinea pig.  These are all portraits from the fall…from a visit from Yolanda’s family, to Lucas’ first day of preschool, to a trip to the pumpkin patch.  Blessings to you and yours this season.

Two lumberjacks go into the woods to determine who can axe trees down faster.  One lumberjack is big and muscular.  The other is of rather small height and build.  They begin swinging their axes and the big dude smiles with pride, confident that he will win by his strength.  He laughs out loud when as he watches the other lumberjack walk away from the tree several times.  He is baffled to see the small lumberjack’s tree come down while he still has a significant amount of cutting to do.  

“How did your tree fall so quickly?  I watched you take several breaks to rest!?” he asked his small competitor.

“I wasn’t resting…I was sharpening the axe.”

This week I had a chance to sharpen the old axe.  I was fortunate to be able to attend Zack Arias’ “OneLight” Workshop and David Beckstead’s “Shoot with Beckstead” workshop.  Great learning experience and wonderful chance to meet some other great photographers.  Special thanks to Dan and Caroline of Tinywater Photography in Sac-town for driving us around town all week.  Here are some of the fun images I shot.

So, the blessed news is that our babiest girl, Elise, is growing and staying healthy.  The tough news is that I struggle to find time to blog all the cool things that have happened in the past few weeks.  I’ve done some VERY cool senior portrait sessions, so please hang in there with me!  I’ll post some portraits soon.  My awesome wife is SO considerate that she usually lets me sleep through the night in spite of Elise’s two hour eating schedule.  Yes, she actually wakes up about every two hours to eat.  Still, I average about 6.5 hours of sleep and that is interrupted at least twice by one of our other kids.  So, my blog has suffered.  BUT, I’m starting to see the light, and I hope to pick things up on a more consistent basis again very soon.  Did I mention that my wife is wonderful?!

Blog Enemy Number 1…

Our babiest girl arrived to open, loving arms.  Yolanda spent the evening of Labor Day laboring!  She had been having “mild” contractions on Monday night and by Tuesday morning at about 2:45 am, her contractions were severe enough that she couldn’t sleep.  We headed to the hospital and by about 7:45 am, she was complete…ready to push. 

The “new” practice at our hospital is to allow the mom to reach down and bring the baby to her body immediately after entering the world.  Here, Elise is just seconds old.

A few hours later, the nurses and doctors do their thing.  Elise was too tired to object.

Baby. Foot.

Big brother and big sis welcomed their babiest sister with hugs, kisses, and head pats.  They were so sad when we had to take Elise away from them that Emma cried.  

Two of my three beautiful ladies.

Now, Allan need sleee…eep.