As a Taiwanese-American, I grew up with all sorts of customs and traditions rooted in my Taiwanese heritage. You know, slurping the long noodles on your birthday to symbolize long life, cleaning the house on Chinese New Year’s Eve to rid the house of things associated with the old year (but being careful not to sweep on Chinese New Year’s Day to avoid sweeping away the good fortune), the handing out of red envelopes (filled with money!) from the elders to children (always a personal favorite), etc. With this personal understanding of how various customs and traditions play a role in Asian cultures, I was extremely honored and excited when asked to photograph a baby girl’s first birthday celebration, a very important milestone in the Korean culture.

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. After all, I’d never been to a Korean first birthday celebration before. And I’d never met (other than by phone) my client before. But when I arrived on location to see this, I just knew it was going to be a fabulous event. It was clear my client had great taste, amazing organizational and event-planning capabilities and a love for all things fun and fantastic.

Here’s the birthday girl. In the sweetest dress. With the best cheeks. Isn’t she absolutely adorable? I can’t get enough of her.

Wow, I’m not sure she could smile any bigger here! I can vividly remember her kicking her little legs and waving her arms up and down as I snapped this shot.

A sweet moment between my client and her baby girl.

And here’s Dad, snapping his own photos of his kiddos as they changed into their Han Bok, traditional Korean dress. I love how he’s workin’ two gadgets at the same time.

The celebration includes a traditional ceremony that predicts the baby’s future. Five items,each item representing a different future, are set out in front of the baby. Her future is predicted according to what she grabs. Here she is, just moments before the official ceremony began.

Will she go for the bowl? The bundle of thread? The spoon/chopsticks? The money? Or the pencil & book?

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Wait for it.

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Wait for it.

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The spoon! If I remember correctly, the spoon symbolizes a future where she would never be hungry, would always be taken care of.

Big brother comes up to congratulate her and join in on the fun. And perhaps, to encourage her to go after the money, too??

J&T, LOTS more photos to come. LOTS more photos to document the fun … including the clown entertainer, the drawing center, the puppet show, the fantastic table filled with {tons of} delicious dishes, family photos, and lots of guests enjoying the awesome celebration of little L turning one. J, GREAT job on throwing an amazing event. And many thanks for trusting me to document this important day.

A post on Day Two of our time together will also follow shortly. Stay tuned.

I love my boys. Especially when they are so cute … and giggly … and cooperative … and in front of a cool wall to be photographed!

I just wish I’d known I was going to run into this wall. If I had, I would have dressed them in something more ‘portrait-worthy’ … To me, this image highlights how clothing plays a key role in the outcome of successful portraits and as such, should be considered carefully. If I had actually planned for this shoot, I would not have chosen to have a huge logo emblazoned across Lincoln’s chest and would have opted for a less busy T-shirt on Nate. Too distracting. Bright, bold colors in a coordinating color scheme across the two boys would have greatly enhanced this shot.

It’s still a good image. But it could have been great. That being said, I still absolutely adore this image and will proudly display it on my walls.

This little client of mine makes my job so EASY. She’s adorable, social and mellow … a winning combination for a baby model! I swear, my dog could probably take a great photo of her! (Kidding, kidding. I work my butt off for all of my images!)

And her mom makes my job so much FUN. In between and during clicks, this little baby’s mom and I chatted away. Next thing you know, our hour and a half is up and it’s time for me to be on my merry way. Awwww, man. Did I really have to go? We were nowhere near finished talking! Alas, our catching up will have to continue over email and phone. And as a last resort, our conversation continues when we get together next month. Looking forward to it, JJ!

This image doesn’t necessarily go in the Jet Set portfolio. But it’s GOT to go in the family scrapbook. This is Baby S’s expression when her daddy walked up. Baby girl couldn’t smile big enough to express herself!

I’ll wrap up this post with one of my favorite images from this session. It was a scorcher (90 degrees) during our session and as a result, it wasn’t long before we moved indoors. In my opinion ,the change of scenery worked out great.

With school starting up in just over a week, it’s safe to say the end of summer is in sight. But that’s not such a bad thing, really. Aside from the fact that many parents (like me! Yep, I will state for the record I fall in this category) are ready to see their kids head out the door for a good chunk of time, there are also last minute vacations being squeezed in, end-of-summer pool parties thrown and my favorite part: back-to-school shopping! As a child, back-to-school was one of my favorite “seasons” (if you can call it that). The air is filled with excitement and eagerness to see classmates and friends, the anticipation of finding out who your teacher would be and who would be in your class, new notebooks and pencils, the latest craze in lunch boxes and bookbags, and the best part of all? Brand spankin’ new clothes!

The brother/sister duo in yesterday’s session fit the bill perfectly for an “end-of-summer/back-to-school” session. They had just returned from a last minute vacation to San Diego … AND they had just completed a nice — and successful — round of back-to-school shopping. The mom brought the new purchases to the session and together, we rifled through the bags to select the perfect outfits for our “end-of-summer/back-to-school” session.

K, it was a blast taking your kids out for the evening. (I’m wondering if they wore you down and convinced you to get an ice cream treat afterwards??) I enjoyed chatting with you while the kids ran around and look forward to getting to know you even better. And yes, I will be happy to see you at the drop-offs and pick-ups at school! So, without further adieu … here are the kids and the debut of some of their ’09-’10 outfits.

Is this a GORGEOUS girl or what?? I love the backlighting in this picture.

The sun was going down quickly and boy, did I have to get little brother to hustle over in order to capture this shot before we lost the sun completely. Mom, I think you’ll agree it was worth it. (Thank goodness for M&M’s!!)

And now for a change in scenery and clothes:

These siblings had SO much fun playing together. I loved the sounds of their giggling and when I look at these images, I feel like I can still hear that laughter.

Whew! That turned out to be a long post. Hope you blog readers out there weren’t bored and will come back soon … I’ll have some more sessions I’ll be blogging in the next day or so.

J: I love, love, LOVE this image of little J. I could just stare at it forever. A peaceful moment, frozen in time.

She’s always this tranquil and contemplative, right??