Lauren & Ryan | Cincinnati Lifestyle Photographer
We grew up playing violin together, having named ourselves the two halves of "wubu," Anna Wu and Lauren Buchkajian. We played so much in so many various groups and combinations (youth symphony, chamber symphony, duets, quartets, etc.) that our high school orchestra conductor named an award after us, the wubu award, equivalent to the 3000 points club. Yes, we were really that cool.
Orchestra overachieving aside, Lauren is doubtlessly one of my longest running blogstalkers, as she has been a personal supporter of mine from the very beginning. Long before I ever knew I wanted to be "a photographer" she stood by me in my various little ventures. She is incredibly beautiful, smart, and talented, and is far more amazing than she ever gives herself credit for.
This summer we got together back in Cincinnati at the tail end of my Midwest tour, meeting at the Panera Bread right by my house. We sat in the shop chatting for a little while, until the sun started to disappear. We took the quick trip over to Weller Park, and in between mosquito bites, I snapped a couple photos. Lauren's boyfriend Ryan joined in for a little bit too, before we headed over to Dairy Queen to finish off the night. I may have frightened Lauren with the horrendous swelled up welts on my legs from the mosquito bites, but it was all worth it in the end.
Please tell her she's gorgeous. Sometimes she doesn't believe me.
Lauren and Ryan have the most adorable story about how they met-- commuting together on the same bus together for literalaly weeks and weeks, neither one having the courage to approach the other. Of course, one day Lauren finally said hello, and well, here they are. 
Seattle & Shang Chen
If I just concentrate for a moment, I can conjure it all back. The amazing overlooks, late-afternoon blue skies, and the feeling of being in this beautiful city with no obligations-- only an open day to explore and spend time with friends. Seattle has a vibe not unlike the Bay Area's.
Despite its gray reputation for clouds and gloom, Seattle lights up in the summer. By late afternoon, the sun wins over the clouds. If there is a color I associate with summer Seattle, it's not gray, but green. Trees huddle in the landscape surrounding the water of the Puget sound, providing lush views of nature and city intertwined.
My last day in Seattle I spent with my friend Shang and her friend Emily. Below are some of my images of Seattle and portraits of Shang from our impromptu shoots.
Olympic Sculpture Garden:
The standard view of Seattle from a little park atop a hill in Queen Anne:
She's a Nikon girl, but I still love her. Shang Chen.
Me & Shang looking very coordinated with our brightly colored outfits.
I love traveling, and I feel incredibly lucky to be able to explore all these different places. If you've been following my blog, you'll know how excited I am to have bought JetBlue's All You Can Jet pass, which will allow me to fly to as many places as humanly possible for 30 days.
Follow along with my updated calendar on this previous blog post and catch me in your city. Here's a summary below:
Los Angeles: 9/7-9
Chicago: 9/15-16
Indianapolis: 17-19
Chicago: 9/19
New York: 9/20-21
Pittsburgh: 9/22
Boston: 9/23
Austin: 10/1
San Antonio: 10/1-3
Austin: 10/4
Los Angeles: 10/21-25
Lexington, KY: 10/29-31
The Shay-Tang Family | Kirk in the Hills, Michigan | Lifestyle Photographer
When I arrived, the house was buzzing with preparations for Lily's big day. This was the day she would be introduced to solid food. But you have to think of solid as a flexible term. Solid like... soupy rice pudding. But food that's not in a bottle is a big deal! We were all making exaggerated OM NOM NOM motions with our mouths, and I stood by with flip cam as we eagerly awaited Lily's reaction to the spoon in her mouth and the food dribbling down her chin. She was a trooper, and later would be rewarded with bathtime (her favorite) and an actual bottle of milk.
The next morning, we did a spontaneous photoshoot with Lily in her adorable polka dot outfit, in which she later made a huge poop.
Later, we headed to Kirk in the Hills, an amazing home-turned-church in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
While Lily is the star of her own show at home, and her 5-month birthday was something to celebrate, this was actually the main reason I drove over to Michigan for this shoot:
FOUR generations of Shay women.
In relation to Lily, we have Grandma, Great-Grandma (flew in from Taiwan), Aunt Patty (flew in from Arizona), Mommy Christine, and of course, baby Lily.
Mommy & Lily
With grandma and with daddy.
The whole family.
Then an outfit change, and we took it inside, out of the 95-degree weather. I loved the window lighting in this hallway and the arches in the background.
Love.
One more with the whole Shay-Tang family.
Patty and Lily.
And finally, I absolutely love this portrait of Christine & Patty's grandmother, age 87. Still young, I say.
Thank you so much, Christine, for inviting me to Michigan to stay with your family and to capture these portraits! I had a wonderful time and would love to come by again and again as Lily grows up! Hope your family enjoys these images for years to come.
Love Out Loud– tafLabs 2010
My favorite thing about our "tafLabs" room is not the ten computers or the impressive mass of wires and hard drives everywhere. It's not even the six Canon DSLRs with all their amazing lenses scattered on all the desks. (And you know how much I love my DSLRs!)
No, it has nothing to do with the gear.
At each of our stations, we are working on individual projects that contribute to the whole-- parody videos; marketing surveys; a retrospective documentary; the slideshow. Every so often, someone will stop what they're working on and lean over to check in on someone else. Andrew coaches Justin through video editing. I help Tiffany rename her files. Ho Chie and Eric look through photo albums from 1989 and laugh at their reminiscences. Karen stops by and we have the kind of late-night conversation about purpose and life decisions that makes me reminisce about life in college.
I love this space because it feels alive. People are connecting and doing amazing work-- completely unpaid-- out of love.
Every year, 200+ youth gather in the Midwest for this summer camp, the Taiwanese American Foundation (TAF). Unlike the rest of the programs (elementary through high school), tafLabs is a space dedicated to developing all sorts of projects, small to huge, that contribute to the TAF mission or serve the larger community beyond TAF.
Within the week, I created a photography mentorship group, started an online video project, produced a mini documentary, and helped with our epic 3D slideshow.
The tafLabs crew this year:
The amazing thing about TAF is that I've been attending since I was 10, and yet I still walk away every year feeling like I've pushed myself to grow. We intentionally create this space for people to be open and vulnerable with each other, and it's awesome to look around and see lightbulbs going off everywhere and people clicking into gear. I'm constantly inspired, amazed, and thankful to be a part of it all.
Here are just a few more images from the week:
The Juniors (elementary) campers crowd around a laptop for a special message from the future.
The annual Thursday afternoon water fight is preceded by a variety of stations, one of which resulted in dumping water on unsuspecting counselors.
Full blown water fight!
This is a fairly good representation of what it's like to be a Juniors counselor.
We walked into the gym already lit like this, so we had to take advantage. And if you think the shot looks pretty decent now, just go check out what happens when it goes 3D in our slideshow.
Tearin up the dance floor. He's inexhaustible.
The wonders of off camera flash. Thanks to Jon Lee for running around the dance floor with me.
The 2010 theme-- Love Out Loud (LOL)
That's all for now. See you at TAF 2011!
Learn more about TAF/tafLabs and see our work at blog.tafworld.org.
Laura & Phil | Oakland Lifestyle Photographer
Laura is a stunning natural beauty in every way. No self-conscious preening or layers of makeup. It's just her that shines through. And yes, Phil is handsome too. Handsome, warm, and funny. The two make a lovely couple, and in the past year they've frequently hosted gatherings that feel more like family celebrations than 20-somethings' house parties.
Laura is about to move to Beijing, China, to work with an organization called Teach for All, while Phil needs to stay in Oakland another year for school before he can try to join her there. Long distance is never fun, but not even the Pacific Ocean can keep these two apart. We picked some good Oakland locations to get these two some portraits before she embarks.
We started the session at the Morcom Rose Garden, tucked away off Grand Ave. right here in Oakland.
If I haven't mentioned it lately, I love magic hour sunshine. It only hangs around in the 45 minutes before sunset, but it's truly magical.
Laura and I went to Duke together, and even before I really knew her, I knew of her and was often there photographing events where she'd perform with Chinese Folk Dance and Sabrosura.
Stunningly Beautiful.
Then we headed over to Lake Merritt for some classic Oakland backdrops.
Sunset over downtown Oakland.
So here's to wishing them all the best with these life changes coming up. And Laura, I hope to see you when you visit!
Rich Smajo | Oakland Portrait Photographer
He approached the session with a certain amount of trepidation. He's never been comfortable in front of a camera. But he figured it was time to face his apprehensions and get some great portraits of himself. We met at Jack London Square in front of Yoshi's Jazz Club, and Rich let go of his anxieties to get a whole slew of solid shots. I think I even see a tiny bit of Nicholas Cage in him, no? Turned out wonderfully, if you ask me.
I can't speak for the Angelina Jolies of the world, but I think most of us feel some anxiety about having our photos taken, maybe about not being photogenic enough or having a bad hair day, or just generally worrying that we won't be captured in the most flattering light. There are plenty of things we can do to help ourselves out, from wearing an outfit that inspires confidence to making sure we don't have lettuce between our teeth. But perhaps the most important element is to work with a photographer that you can trust. Being photographed means taking the control out of your own hands and trusting that the photographer will take care of the rest. If they're any good, you'll be able to see that it's not about being a photogenic model as much as it's about revealing a glimpse of who you are. And really, who can do that better than yourself?
Luna’s Birthday Party | Redwood City Lifestyle Photographer
It was a beautiful Saturday morning in Redwood City, a perfect day for a two-year-old's birthday party. I walked over to Luna, and she surveyed me skeptically, entertaining the possible outcomes that might result from smiling my camera. In an instant, she decided nah, and ran back to daddy's arms to hide. It's ok, Luna, I think, the giant camera lens really isn't all that friendly looking. So I just step back and let her do her thing. She's cautious but curious, playing on the playground, working up the courage to go down the slide, and wandering around with food in her hands. And when she does finally let those smiles out, well, there's no stopping her then.
Just look at those adorable pigtails with the cow and the pig barrettes!
Kids love cake. Really. They could hardly contain themselves.
Dimple!
Happy Birthday, Luna!
Little Isla | Richmond Family Photographer
I remember our first staff meeting two Autumns ago in that transition from summer to fall, vacation to work. We were checking in with each other, talking about how we felt about starting this new school year with all the teachers old and new. I still remember what Aaron/Mr. Gardner, the 8th grade English teacher/DJ/slam poet, talked about, because he spoke about his baby girl Isla with the glowing revelations of a new father. Life had reorganized itself around her. Priorities shifted to a life constantly driven by love and amazement at all of the beautiful little moments with her. And all of this you could feel, even if he uttered no more than three sentences.
Isla, with her big brown eyes, charmed us all when Tegan brought her to school every once in a while. She's already grown so much in the last year and has added some great dancing techniques and a huge rambling (not always intelligible) vocabulary to her repertoire of adorable skills. Today, she turns 2 years old! I'm so happy to wish her good birthday wishes with these family photos.
The absolute best part of this whole session was just being able to document the love that this family has for each other. It's such a thick, gooey love, you can just feel its presence. It's almost as if you can reach out and touch it right in front of you.
Happy Birthday, little Isla!
BAYAC Photography Workshop
On Thursday, I led a photography workshop for my fellow AmeriCorps members. As part of the BAYAC Recovery Team, we all work in after-school programs at different sites across San Francisco and Oakland. For the next couple months, we're taking turns leading trainings for each other on topics of our choice. Naturally, I decided to turn my training into a photoshoot expedition!
We started at OASES, the non-profit where I work during the week. I imparted some wisdom, did some demos, and we migrated towards downtown Oakland.
We start with Lizbeth Lopez who works at Alliance Middle School in East Oakland.
Elaine Walker is a native San Franciscan who now runs a gardening class for her kids here in Oakland at Glenview Elementary.
Our ringleader, Zoe wrangles us all as the BAYAC Recovery team supervisor.
Stylish and classy! Elizabeth Bowler was born and raised here in Oakland, and she's still here giving her love to the community through her work at James Madison Middle School.
Marty is working in San Francisco with America SCORES, a soccer program that serves urban public schools across the country.
Anna Clayton (um, gorgeous!) is working at Markham Elementary in East Oakland.
Sam Petty is cool with window bars. He works at Hoover Elementary in Oakland, filling in wherever needed.
Derrick Lomax is from the notorious Hunters Point in San Francisco and now serves the kids in West Oakland at Prescott Elementary. Role Model. Capital M.
And last but not least, my favorite: the group picture!
Not mentioned yet are Marlena Cannon who works at Sankofa Elementary in Oakland, Jessica Yung who works with me at OASES in Oakland, Ronnie Bush who works at Longfellow Elementary School in San Francisco, and Stephanie Siringoringo who works at Emerson Elementary in Oakland. And six others who weren't there that day.
Check out the rest of the photos from our shoot and become my newest fan on my Facebook fan page.
Also, check out BAYAC AmeriCorps to learn more about the work we do.
Passion Project: Help these students travel to Washington, D.C.
$1453. That's the amount each one of these eighth graders is trying to raise to go to Washington, D.C. Not having much money to give to the cause, I contributed what I could, grabbing my camera and headed through the thick 8am fog to take portraits of each student. Later, we created a website with the photos and personal stories from the students about what it would mean to them to go to Washington, D.C.
I never been on a plane and I want to know what it's like. Also, I want to meet new people and see how different their lives are.
I want to learn new things that I can share with people.
My family wants me to explore the world, to take in sights that I could never see until later on in my life.
I think I will become more involved in local politics after knowing what it's about.
Right now my family is struggling with the economy and you have a chance to make a donation and make one of my dreams come true.
Help us create an unforgettable fun trip to Washington, D.C.
$1453 is a big number, but even $10 helps! Visit the UFSA DC Trip website to learn more about the trip and read more from each of the students. Then support them by making a donation through Close Up. ( Click Sponsor a School, select Middle School, and enter the School ID: SF109)
Love these photos in front of the Oakland mural and all their smiling faces!
Visit the UFSA DC Fundraising Website
Donate at Close Up