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…
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 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…
$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…
I’ve been working this week at Taiwanese American Foundation, the summer camp I’ve attended since I was ten years old. I’m serving as part of tafLabs, a new program in which we develop projects to make awesome things happen in our community. To see some of the multimedia work we’ve been doing, follow out the…
Welcome to Taiwanese American Foundation 2009: Sprout! After a two-year absence on my part, I am very happy to return for my 13th year at TAF, this time as a member of the TAFMedia crew. Our first project of the week: given 24 hours, produce a video to be used as the Intro/Theme skit for…
Stephanie’s back! You might recognize her from the anti-iPod shoot I did with her for Mochi Magazine a little while back. Stephanie Isidro is a young aspiring actress, so look out for her in the years to come. Best of luck!
Karla was one of our eighth grade students this year at United for Success. Back in May, by the light of the campfire on the last day of our school camping trip, Karla performed this poem. I was absolutely wowed, impressed, proud, inspired… The next week, back at school, I videotaped Karla doing her poem…
Last night was an interesting experiment in convergences of threads of my life: photography meets teaching meets Duke meets TAF. A couple weeks ago, I brought some of my students to a Dinner with Scientists event hosted by our Oakland Unified School District science department. Of course, while we were there, I was snapping away…