Taken on Christmas Day, 2009.

(G.O.D. is the name of the group, by the way.)

This song is from a period when Korean music and film were just starting to find an international audience almost 10 years ago. I like the song, but I love the cinemetography. Simple color palette, beautiful light and framing.

(Mini-movie intro. Music starts at 2:14)

At the time we shot this session, Natalie was around 8 months pregnant and her son Ethan was just about to turn two. Some might still remember Ethan on this blog as the little birthday boy who really couldn’t get enough cake. How fast did he grow up, eh? Anyway, it was my pleasure to capture them in their final few weeks as just the three of them, before the joy of welcoming a new little one to the family.

I’m so grateful to have met these two people. I’m so grateful to be allowed to photograph their beautifully revealed selves. Confident in person, and confident in front of the camera, they really inspired me.

Venue: Four Seasons Hotel, Hong Kong

I’m very excited to finally reveal the pictures from the wedding of Carey and Keith. I went to Hong Kong to shoot this wedding, and it was an amazing way to be introduced to a full Chinese/Western hybrid wedding there. The morning was orchestrated by the a series of negotiations and games, followed by tea ceremonies for the two families. In the afternoon, a more western “legal” wedding was performed and the evening reception had the energy of a college party while maintaining a wedding elegance. I really can’t say enough for embracing the traditions and ceremonies at hand, whatever they might be. Even though I didn’t understand what was said through half the day (sadly, I don’t speak Cantonese), I had a great time just received the amazing moments that were happening all around.

(I will post later with their wedding portraits, as this set of pictures has a cohesive story that I didn’t want to disrupt.)

Venue: Four Seasons Hotel, Hong Kong

Upon pondering about trees:

Trees don’t judge,
Trees don’t stress out about things they can’t control,
Trees aren’t self-conscious,
They don’t worry about defining themselves,
They don’t strive to be that which they are not.

They are free.

Trees exist.
They grow.

Trees let themselves just… be

Be the tree.

I usually don’t do sneak peeks or previews, but I will this one time because I don’t want to release all the pictures before Julie’s CD comes out in a month or 2… and because I just had to share at least one.

To strive to capture an idea, a moment, a feeling. To attempt to find the essence of the present. To rest. To be.

I’m a bit behind on television right now. I just started catching up on Lost [Season 5] a few days ago. In the episodes so far, it’s been all about time travel. I find it interesting how they’ve progressively redefined the idea of being “lost” through the show’s seasons. At first, it was about being physically lost, and now there are some that are lost in time and place, and others who are lost in their identities.

The reason I bring this up is because going back through these images to put them together for the blog had me feeling a bit lost in time. The pictures – they feel like yesterday and long ago all wrapped into the present. It’s easy to get so focused on making new inventive, expressive pictures; sometimes I need to be reminded of their magic.

With photography, I feel that every day I am taking part in something that is far beyond me but also very much intrinsic to me. In a sense, getting lost is part of getting found. Things settle and then change, spurring me back on the journey to discover (i.e. uncover) that which has always been there, which is me. Constantly different and constantly the same. Fragile, yet resilient. Here in this moment, but also in the memories of the past and hopes of the future.

This trip to Hong Kong and Korea is one of my stories. Some of the pictures are repeats of things I have already shared, but I believe they are a little bit different when presented in full context.