Kaitlyn

One of the things that we immensely enjoy is to take Katie to her weekly Saturday exercise class. Except it is not something I can do on regular basis now that wedding season has already started and I have to be away from her on most Saturdays.

Katie is a carbon copy of me, minus the long hair, at her age. In fact, one time we showed her my childhood photo of me sitting next to my parents and Katie said "That's Katie with grandpa and grandma" :)

Katie is never the one who jumps into excitement right away no matter how many times we've gone to the excercise class before. Katie would always first observe the other kids as she'll gradually warm up to them. And at the end she won't be able to contain herself with joy. It's just too much fun and blessings for us to be able to watch her being so happy.



Image on right: while slowly warming up to the other kids, Katie is smiling inside. I just know it :) She even flashed a brief smile that's quickly disappeared when her teacher saw it.


I love how she curls her toes while standing and waiting for her turn for the next exercise.


Katie's being silly with mommy. I could live in this moment forever.


We have a few months to come up with the theme for her third birthday this coming August so feel free to share your fun-original-cute ideas with us :)

Blessings,
David

Children Photography

What a week it had been!

At the very last minute I was offered to attend a photography workshop led by Cheryl Jacobs, one of the best children photographers in the business. The workshop is quite unique in its nature since in addition to learning from the best, we were offered to have a quick photo session with the children where each participant had a total full control of what to do with the kids in term of the outcome of the shoot. So none of that "the instructor sets up the pose and we all shoot the same thing" cherry-pickin' here. I also have to add that none of the children are models.

The following images are my rendition of the children.

This little guy is a big fan of Spiderman, and he's showing me how to shoot spider web from his wrist :)


A found moment. He decided that he had enough and so ready to go home.


Another found moment. Tummy tattoo. Too cute.


Happy baby makes a happy photographer ;)



And this young lady has so many stories to tell from her young life.


At one point, we decided to photograph each other just to see how it felt like on the other side of the lens (yeah...it felt pretty weird. ha!). Here's my friend Anne Dillon, awesome photographer from KC.



And Eric Graf, photojournalist extraordinaire from Louisville, KY.


Guys, it's great to meet you all.

And to the parents of the children, thank you for your kindness, your generosity will not be forgotten.

'Till next time.

David

Las Vegas Here I Come

It's been two weeks ago since uncommon blogsite was launched and I have to apologize for not writing the latest update promptly. You see, we've been away all last week which explains the lack of activity on this blogsite. I was attending the wedding photographer convention in Las Vegas. I had to sadly acknowledge that Las Vegas would be too much for my 19-months old daughter so we decided that my wife and daughter just had to stay with her uncle in Los Angeles area. It was a bit hard for me to see my little girl waved bye-bye from her car seat when they dropped me off at the airport :(

So anyway, this is my third year in a row where I made a regular pilgrimage to see old friends, and to meet new wonderful people during the convention. The relationships that I have made along the line have been rock solid. It's wonderful to see how my friends/colleagues have grown their photography business, but most importantly I was delighted to see that as individuals, I think we all have grown to become better persons.

Without further ado, here are some pictures that I took during my stay in Vegas.

My good friend, photographer extra-ordinaire Kym Skiles of f8Studio, and Jason Clark of Canada, are contemplating what to do with the vast empty land. Oh btw, the next morning I saw Jason still wearing the same clothing and looking somewhat dazed, and he told me that he just finished an 11-hours poker game marathon. Holly cow!!! Eleven hours??? How's that even possible? I can't even sleep for 11-hours straight.

Arranged "PJ" moments with the super talented Rita Wiebner and Heath Sandall. Hey guys, if you read this, it's an absolute pleasure to meet you guys. We should chat more next time we meet.


The uber-talented John Michael Cooper works his bride in the dessert. I have to tell you that the bride and groom are not professional models, they are John's real wedding clients.


And when John is at work, a large photographers crowd tends to congregate. And I thought I have it hard when I have to deal with two or three "uncle Bobs" in my wedding ;) John has to deal with hundred uncle bobs each carrying bigger lenses than his. ha!




I have more photos of the bride and groom from the dessert shoot, but I'd rather not post them since they're not my clients and I wasn't the one who set up the pose either. So, we just have to move on to our, that is my wife and daughter and me, trip to San Diego that followed my Las Vegas convention.

Since our daughter Kaitlyn already showed her love toward animals, we decided to visit San Diego Zoo, and of course once we're there we got lost on our way to the panda area.


We did find the pandas, then took a break and then our baby had a little accident. No worries...it's only water from her sippy cup.


5 minutes later and a spare set of pants, everything is back to normal.


Didn't stay too long at the Zoo, we're all too exhausted and thirsty...


... and hungry.



I'm showing how happy I am to be in San Diego. This taken at a local elementary school. Yep...I'm a total nerd ;)

Soon we had to fly back home to Kansas City, and of course every time we go to LAX we have to patiently wait for our lugages to be inspected by TSA. Yep, that's how long the line was just to drop our check-in bagages at the TSA counter. But no complaint here, we can't demand great security while still demanding quick service and convenience.


We made it through all the security check points, the plane took off leaving the beautiful west coast behind us.

And just because we were sitting down in our plane, it didn't mean we were resting... we still had to entertain our baby all the way to Kansas City.


Hey lookie here, the in-flight magazine always has some wicked thing-a-majig to sell. Can you sleep as well as this guy during flight? Well, I certainly can't say that I sleep well in any of my flights, so maybe these guys are on to something good.



Actually, one time on a different flight I saw a guy using that gigantic airbag to sleep on, it looked so funny and surreal at the same time. But the guy actually was asleep throughout the entire flight, so I guess it works. Maybe I should get me one of those things.


On another musing: Why do they still have the no-smoking sign in the plane? I can't remember the last time any airline actually allows smoking during or before flight. Actually, other than in Las Vegas, I can't remember the last time smoking was allowed inside a building.


Three hours later, we're back in Kansas City air space. It's a rare treat to see Kansas City from above since our flight usually arrives at night time.


Well, that's it for now. I do have more photos from Las Vegas convention, but I shot them all on film on my plastic Holga camera. I have to send the films to the lab, and then wait a couple weeks before I actually see anything. But I'll promise I'll post something if anything good comes out from my plastic toy camera.

Till then. And thanks for reading.

-David