B/W Toning...

Black and White toning subtracts the color elements from a photo but adds so much more in term of mood and evokes a sense timeless quality to the picture. So inspired this morning, I created some actions that provide warming B/W toning to the picture and I like it a lot. Check these pictures out.

Terrence with his daddy

B/W serves to make someone who's not pleasing to look at more acceptable. aka...me ;)

Wiping a little bit of drool

Love to eat him up

Here is an image I did not like at all because of the distracting color elements. But in a B/W warming tone, I absolutely love the sense of mood. Imagine, I was going to toss this one out.

Continuing to grow...

Terrence is now 5mo old and he continues to grow in the >90 percentile. Mom's milk is doing him well. Mom put him down for a nap earlier and when we went to wake him, she exclaim that he looks like he grew taller during the nap. LOL

He's now wearing his 9mo old clothes and with new clothes means new picture opportunities for the little one. Especially when his new clothes has fish related theme. As a BTF daddy, there doesn't need to be more excuses for a picture op than wearing clothes with little fishey embroidered on it. ;)

First, check him out in his new duds...isn't he darling? He is starting to sit a lot better now.

A close up of his bum with the little fishey on it

And one of him pretending to swim like one.

I created some new b/w toning action today. These will be DH's signature b/w warming tone, more info in a later post on the subject.

On the other side...

You know, Terrence officially turns 5mo old tomorrow and I realized I still don't have in my possession a father and son picture. I had the camera out and wifey decide she wants to play photographer. The result out of about 7frames? Pitch blackness. I was able to push 4stops and increase brightness in post to capture a nice moment as seen in the first image below. oi vey



But once the settings were correctly set, wifey was able to capture the first real shot I have of me and Terrence. What do you guys think?

Let sleeping pig lie...

Terrence likes to wake up for his first feeding at around 6AM each day. After feeding and playing for a little bit, he's right back to sleep. In the first picture, he's playing ninja baby and is how I left him when I headed out to work this morning.



This is what he was doing when I came back home. Ahh...the life of a baby...not too bad with loving parents to guard over them. Julie said that he didn't want to sleep much today, so he was a bit cranky. So, even though I would love to wake him so I can get some daddy time...it's best to let sleeping pig lie if you get the reference.

Terrence is so cute...

The other day, I wrote that Terrence has begun to sit on his own. Still not totally stable, but you can see him prop himself up with his arms. When he does this, he goes from being a little piggie to looking more like a little ape. :) But he's sooo adorable nonetheless. Here is a couple of him from the other night, sitting contently and looking every which way. I think part of the reason he learned to sit before learning to roll over is because when he sit, he can really see things around him better. It is more interesting to him. Besides, with his excess weight, I don't think his muscle is capable of getting him completely turn over via a roll yet.

I think she likes me...

Don't tell the groom, but maybe the bride has a crush on me. You think?!? Right under the grooms nose too. Gotta keep an eye on this one Son. j/k

My favs from the other night

Here are a few of my favorite moments from the other night. The story behind the first picture was that I was shooting something else entirely when I caught the vibrant dress out of the corner of my eye. I turn just in time to see Huong walking between the aisle of sharply dress men and I knew instantly the shot I wanted to capture. I quickly knelt down fired off a single shot and captured the following moment. The more I look at it, the more I love the motion represented in this image.



I saw this moment happening as the bride and groom went table to table to toast their guest. The cute little flower girl is Britney and I saw how adorable she was peering through the basket. So I had to quickly capture the moment before it was lost.



The night ended with lots of dancing and it allowed me to practice getting some creative shots of it. I set up a off camera strobe that I triggered wirelessly to create this flared shot. I like the mood it created and once you adjust yourself to the blinding light, you see the expression of the people and they are having a great time.



Here's Britney again, tearing up the dance floor. I think she looks so much like her mom Nena, and in this picture...she's tearing up the dance floor like her mom as well. Nena was the number one person I saw consistently in all my dancing photos; laughing and having just a great time dancing with everyone. Well, everyone except me. ;) I did get a chance to do the twist with Britney so that was fun.

Sometimes I get it right...

In the last post, I swore I had everything right and yet the result speaks for themselves. Contrast that with the following sequence. Julie calls out to me to get the camera quick...apparently I have a new blog reader. So, with haste, I take out my camera and hope that I have a memory card in it and that the batteries are charged. Yet, in the brief moment of time I had to shoot this moment, I manage to get these great shots of Terrence learning to keep himself seated upright on his own perfectly. These perfect capture in time reminds me that I don't suck all the time.

Sometimes I Suck...

Ok...maybe change the somtimes to a lot of times. But my point is evident in the following picture. Not sure what happened here. Everything was perfect or so I thought...but it's so badly misfocused. :( And all she wanted was a nice headshot that perhaps she could one day use for her funeral picture. Maybe my gear just don't want to do funeral picture?!?

Son and Huong's Wedding

I had a blast attending Sonny's younger brother Son's wedding. We all met at Son's parents home where the Vietnamese tea ceremony took place. Because the bride and groom got caught in the typical Saturday summer traffic into San Diego, it allowed me some time to get some relax portraits of the lovely ladies who represented Son's side of the party.

Everyone should know Nena by now. Pratically every shot I caught where she was in the background, she was usually laughing or smiling. I guess she really enjoyed herself last night.

Nena's lovely daughters Tiffany and Britney.

The groom's mother. I love the way she looks in this photo. The red color of her áo dài really pops out from the background.

The following are Son's sisters. Tracy in the following picture, drove with her family all the way down from Oregon to attend the wedding ceremony. She was so nice to look after me through out the whole day, making sure I had enough to eat and drink. Thanks Tracy.

Tracy looks great here, but she looks even better in the evening with the dress she wore then.

Another one of Sonny's sister, I only know her by her vietnamese name. Don't ask me to spell it. But she was also fussy over me all evening, making sure I had enough to eat and even packing food so I can take home to my wife Julie.

Xui (sp?) is Mimi's sister. Mimi was still putting the final touches on the wedding details so she wasn't around for the portrait session.

A few shots of the bride's bouquet. I love the vibrant colors and some of the details represented here.

Here is a shots of the centerpiece so meticulously created by the fun to be around Mimi, one of Son's neice. She may be next in line to get married and she was nice enough to mention that she would love for me to photograph her wedding. Judging by her creation of the boutonnières and the centerpiece, that will be a wedding that's going to be lovely to shoot. Can't wait till then...hurry up Destin, everyone is waiting.

One of my favorite type of photos to take...here's a ring shot of a pair of matching his and her wedding rings.

The wedding reception was lots of fun and the band did a good job of getting everyone to get up and dance. Actually, I was impress that so many of the guest wanted to get up and shake their booties late into the night. All in all, it was lots of fun. Here is the link to the gallery...latest pictures will appear there. Son and Huong's gallery.