Terrence is like his dad, he wakes up in the morning and is ready to play. He is so alert and talks so much nowadays. Here he is this morning, wearing a jersey that was given to him by my coworker Eric up in Lake Oswego, Oregon. I am sure that in a blink of an eye, he will be joining little league, suiting up in a real baseball uniform of his own.
The only thing missing from this picture is a little baseball cap that will fit his head.
Here are some more pictures of Kristi and Jason from the "Trash the Dress" session in downtown San Jose. Ham and I had a blast and got some great images of Kristi and Jason. Here are a sampling...
What a fun Saturday. Denny and I went out to meet up with our friend Kan and new friend Lulu in Little Italy by downtown San Diego. Lulu is so much fun and easy to shoot and Denny was having a great time doing it. You can tell by the gleeful look on his face after each picture. I was regulated to reflector boy duties, hoping to get a few shots in later in the day. Once the sun started setting and we made our way to the lounge of the trendy W Hotel, we kicked things up another notch with a few shots of Patron. Now the party is just getting started with Lulu in good spirits. That made for such a fun filled evening and I had to pull out my own camera to join in on the fun.
Lulu, you are as modest as you are beautiful. I am sure your small town upbringing has a lot to do with it. It was so fun to get a few shots of you as Denny was hogging all the goodness to himself initially. It was also great fun getting lost for a bit, allowing me to get to know the person behind the pretty face a little more. Here's a few photos I pulled from the set that I manage to upload before I run off to Dana Point. 
Lighting in photography is the deciding factor of whether a photo looks like an ordinary snapshot or trancend into the relm of art. The way the camera sees the light is different than our own eyes. That is one of the things one learn as we grow to become a photographer. As one gets better with photography, one learn to control and manipulate the light to create true art. Here, Ham and I decided to try to employ some off camera lighting technique to create a very dramatic scene. We shot this picture in the lobby of a hotel and I was in a little room just off the hall. Ham was in the hall, to the right of the model with his flash unit. To the left was another photog friend holding up his flash to provide some subtle fill. I trigger both with the built in infrared trigger on our Canon 580EX strobes. The result or the lighting, and of course the awesome subject the light is falling on, creates a very dramatic effect. Some sepia toning in post process and a piece of art is created. Enjoy...and stay tune for more from this wonderful session.
On Sunday, the most of us celebrated Mother's day. Julie, Terrence and I drove up to LA to meet with Julie's family at Cafe Tu Tu (or something like that) at the Block in the OC. This mother's day is even more special than previous years because it will be Julie's first time celebrating it as a mother herself. That was a lot of fun and because my own mom was not available that day, it allow Julie and I to drive back home to San Diego early and afforded me some personal time with Julie and Terrence as well as invest some time in my work. We will have to celebrate mother's day with my mom next week.
While I was away, my wife was at home scheming. She got it in her head to throw a party for my birthday. Of course, she brought it up to my BTF family and they all got it in their head that it would be fun to torture their fishing buddy. But all jokes aside, it was so much fun seeing everyone get together for dinner. :) Thanks so much for all the planning and effort you guys put into all of this. It was so much fun and I appreciate it more than I am able to convey. And you guys know you do not ever need to get me any gifts. Your friendship is enough.
I was driving back from LA with Julie and I told her that my friends are great and I don't know what to make of their monetary gifts. I realized that we all work hard for our money and that the each person's contribution to my "camera fun" is more than I can accept. But you know, a good wife and mother is always able to put things into a different perspective. Julie told me that my friends believe in what I want to do and they want to see me succeed at it. The contribution is to help me get closer to that goal and it wouldn't be right to give it back, even if I have the best of intention. Besides, she said that I am to think of it as a deposit. Once I become a successful wedding photographer, it'll be in time to pay back the dues and shoot my friends weddings for free. LOL You guys better sign up now, I may be book years in advance shortly here. ;)
So, I just wanted to say, thanks again for all your efforts and planning for undeserving ole (literally) me. Hopefully by the time the next one of you guys get hitch, I will be able to offer my services as a full time photographer.
On Saturday, Ham and I met with some other photog friends for a fun photoshoot of one of our friend's client. Stephanie got married last October and agreed to allow us to shoot a Trash the Dress session in downtown San Jose. If you guys aren't aware, trashing the dress is kindda en vogue nowadays with similar shots appearing on magazine prints and similar media. It basically allow the photographer to get really fun, creative pictures of the bride in her wedding dress after the wedding is over and done with, without worrying about dirtying the dress. Stephanie is absolutely gorgeous and so much fun to shoot with. She's super friendly and was getting hit on by the bell boys at the hotels we visited. Sorry guys, she's taken. What made it even more fun is the places we had access to. We were invited into a nice restuarant and was given free reign of the place, so we got some cool shots there. It's so true, beauty does give you access to more places. (I'm talking about our model, not me!) We got to shoot in some nice hotel lobbies and got some amazing shots without getting kicked out. :) So much fun! Here's some of Stephanie. 
Denny and I went down to historic Old Town after work to do a shoot of Kan. Denny was the principal photographer and I was there to carry the bag. However, I did manage to catch a few good shots of Kan, shooting over Denny's shoulder most of the time. Kan's older sister was a model at one point and you can definitely see that the talent run in the family. It was tough getting all the shots in as the sun was disappearing quickly behind the marine layer, but we manage alright.
