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December 25, 2008

Christmas Cheer

Since I was little I was always excited to receive Christmas cards. I loved looking at the family photos and seeing how people were changing year to year. I would proudly post up our collection each year. I guess it shouldn't surprise me that I looooove taking family portraits for Christmas cards. :) And with today being a day that I got to be with my family, I couldn't be more thankful. 













Eden & Jonas


December 18, 2008

My Grandma's House // Sacramento, CA

Sacramento is a medly of memories for me. We used to live there for a month each summer from the time I was 5 till I was 14 (and too much to handle!) Pau-Pau (my grandma) and Uncle Gordon would feed us - that was the extent of my exposure to authentic Chinese food. I would tell her "Pau-Pau...you should open your own restaurant!" and she would just laugh. I think it made her happy when we would say little things like that.

My auntie and her husband would watch us and work us (summer camps galore!) Since my mom had moved to L.A. in her college days, summer was the main time that we got to spend with her family. And they basically took care of us in every way while Mom worked. The HOT summer days felt like they lasted forever. But then I reached that point when summers in Sac were no more.

I headed back there on my way to Napa and this time I had camera in hand. There are so many iconic things in my grandmas's house and I made it my mission to capture them. I myself am quite Americanized but those are the pieces of my heritage that I want to hold on to.

Heritage Appreciation
Heritage Appreciation Grandma's House
Grandma's House

Washtime Heritage Appreciation
The bathroom is the same as I ever remember it being.


Joy Luck Club
The many video tapes of Pau-Pau's chinese soap opera library.
Carefully labeled and categorized. :)


Sacramento
SacramentoSacramento

Sacramento

Driving down Riverside.

December 11, 2008

The Su Family


Can you believe its nearly halfway through the month of December without a mention of Christmas from me yet? Me neither.

Through some good PR (via my dear friends, the chons), I was given the opportunity to take some photos of the The Su family for their Christmas card!

When Laurie first emailed me I was so flattered that they would ask me to take portraits of them - especially because they didn't have many of their son, who was born a little over a year ago. But it only got better - November was the month of Dennis and Laurie's fifth wedding anniversary so we revisited L'Auberge Del Mar (where they got married) and Seagrove Park (where they took their wedding portraits) to capture some portraits of their family. My roommates always always "oooh" and "ahhh" at the cuteness of their kids...(those big eyes!) so it was such a warm and lovely afternoon shooting them.

What a lucky girl I am!




I love this one of Laurie and Ben.



Little girl + red sweater + pineneedles = awesome.






*I still have time for 2 more family sessions before Christmas. Let me know if you're interested.
Next up: 2 more family sessions!

December 10, 2008

Summer Sunshine // Orange, CA

I mentioned the potential of this post back in like...August. With the addition of a macbook pro to my work station photo editing efficiency is now through the roof - yay! Therefore - all those photos I "promised" a while back are finally seeing the light of day.

There was a small window of time to see Joyce before she moved to NY for grad school...it was the weekend before I was going to leave for CZ but with New York being so far a way, we made it work. We were 3 for 5 (the fab five that is - also known as my best friends from college...we were missing Betty & Kristin) so Joyce, Leslie and I went to one of our favorite restaurants in OC - Felix's Continental Cafe. Simply amazingly delicious Cuban food. If I could eat there everyday, I totally would.

It's in a cool neighborhood - the antique district of Orange just near enough to our old stomping grounds. With Joyce being the last one to head off to grad school, it felt like we were leaving behind our UCI days...so we had one last photo fun shoot.

Just down the block from Felix's.

Joyce's got hops. I loved this blue garage door.

Lovely Leslie. Extremely graceful.

Thoroughly enjoyed the antique mall...picking out super ugly stuff for each other.


Downtown Orange
Joyce - I can't wait to see you. Come home soon. :)

December 3, 2008

The Sanchez Family

I know...its been a ridiculous amount of time since the last time I posted ANYTHING. Like I always say, its not for lack of photos - just lack of time! If I could sum up the past few months I would describe it as "burning daylight". I get to the end of the day and I have no idea how the time ran out!

Anyways, i've gotten the chance to shoot a few families this season - which makes me happy (those are some of my favorite shots! :) but I'm not going to share those juuuuust yet.

I realized that I had never shared my first official family shoot in Balboa Park from last year! My coworker Edith was gracious enough to let me spend a morning with her and her kids. OBVIOUSLY, they are some of the cutest kids in the whole wide world. I can only imagine how big they are now!

very FIRST shot of the day. We have not yet warmed up to the idea of a photoshoot with a strange girl.


Edith and her kids. (I loved the light in the Atrium!)







So beautiful and sweet.


Stay tuned for more to come soon...but I'm wishing you a lot of holiday cheer for now!