Kaasa Siblings | Portraits

I took these exactly a month ago from today. Chelsey is a friend of mine from high school and she contacted me a few months ago for some portraits of her and her brothers for their parents as a Christmas present. Great idea right? She requested that I didn't blog them until Christmas since they have family members online and what not. Anyway, I'm really excited to share these images with you all.

These were taken at Gas Works Park in Seattle. If you've never been there, I highly recommend it. It gives you a gorgeous view of the Seattle skyline. It looks pretty cool at night as well. Chelsey, Chris and Chad were great and I had an awesome time photographing them. I'm so glad that it wasn't raining that day, but the wind was pretty ridiculous. If you scroll down to the very last image, it is actually retouched by the very talented Majesta Campbell. Chelsey's right arm was up to keep the hair out of her face and Majesta composited it with another image. It looks awesome right? Thanks MJ!

Hope you're all enjoying a lovely Christmas with friends and family. May God bless and keep all of you!

Chris

Chad

Chelsey

Nguyen Family | Portraits

This is typically not the kind of work I am most comfortable doing. As a photographer, I would want my clients to get the best quality of images. Indoor photography/studio work is not my strong suit. However, I couldn't say no to my aunt and her beautiful family. They're the closest thing to a 'hip' family in my huge circle of relatives (haha). It also happened to be raining this day so we were unable to take some outdoor portraits.

We had a really short session since all of us were headed to our church's Christmas program. Here are nine quick frames that I enjoyed. I especially like the portraits of my cousins :)

Aunt and Uncle

The kids makin' silly faces

Darren, the oldest

Lilly

And finally, Dylan

Vanessa Joy | Senior Portraits

Before I begin this post, I'll tell you that this was probably the most fun I've ever had shooting senior portraits... only because not did I have a privilege of photographing a dear friend and fellow photographer, but I went along with many of my other San Diegan photographers here. Yesterday I went on a little photo excursion with several of my friends. We had a bunch of photographers and some friends come along... and we all rotated being models and what not. These were taken at Lake Hodges. If you aren't familiar with this place, it's where Phil Wickham shot his cover picture for his album Cannons. I am having an unbelievable time here in California. It's definitely exhausting me... in a good way. A more detailed post with even more photos of everyone else will come soon. For now, here is Vanessa.

I also met Vanessa last November when I went on the missions trip. Before I even met her, I was impressed by the way she held herself and looked up to her because she truly is a daughter of Christ. Also, she is extremely talented... you've got to check out some of her work here and her musical talentness on her YouTube.

What I love most about these portraits are probably the fact that they are so unique from my other Seniors. They're a little bit more on the artsy side only 'cause Vanessa is also a photographer and I wanted to get more of a 'bio' shoot going on. :) We also used a Polaroid camera, which I've been wanting to do forever! I'm privileged to say that I was able to photograph her while I'm down in San Diego. Love you girl!

Had some fun with a Polaroid camera...

MacDonald Family | Portraits

I honestly don't know what to say about this family. They truly hold a special place in my heart- hands down. I first met Yvonne and her family a little over a year ago. Since I've met them, I've visited them multiple times when I was still living in SoCal and twice since I've moved back to Washington. They are my home in Escondido- always willing to house me and feed me. I am beyond words appreciative of them. The last time I was in California, we were really busy preparing for the wedding so I was unable to take their family portraits then. This time around, I came just to vacation and this portrait session was the least I could do for this amazing family.

Uncle Rick and Aunt Thanh (that's what I call them :D) are two fantastic parents and lovers of God. Their hearts for children blow me away. They're currently in the process of preparing to move to Vietnam next year for a couple months to work on some ministry for the Lord. Megan and Yvonne are Aunt Thanh's biological children and the rest of them are adopted! How coolis that? I'm hoping to visit them in the summer of 2011. The two youngest ones, Jeston and Chloe, are actually in the process of being officially adopted. They are two of the most gorgeous children ever. Joseph and Ryan are two awesome boys and so much fun to be around.

I normally don't do indoor portraits but we decided it would be best to stay at home and take these. They didn't turn out too shabby ;). I love this family and I hope you do too!

The Ladies

The Guys

Kids

Joseph

Ryan

Jeston

Chloe

Megan and Yvonne

Soo absolutely breathtaking

Majesta | Just Portraits

Majesta happens to be the first friend I made when I moved to Santa Barbara over a year ago. She actually added me on Facebook a few months before we started school. We didn't talk to much on there, but we saw each other the first day at Orientation and hit it off from there. I had the chance to come and visit Santa Barbara and stay with her for a day or two. She needed some bio images done for her website! I was so honored that she asked me. As photographers, we usually don't like being behind the camera, but MJ was definitely workin' it. I love the colors in these images- so good.

Majesta is currently at Brooks, majoring in Professional Photography and concentrating in Digital Imaging. In other words, she's an amazing retoucher. You all should definitely check out her website!

I had a great time catching up with several of my friends from Brooks. It was weird to be back in Santa Barbara, but definitely awesome to have friends who are willing to house me. Love you guys!

Lovin' this