Emilie, Milan and Echo @ the beach...

We had a great time photographing Emilie, Milan, and their incredibly well behaved dog, Echo!  It was a good day at the beach to be snapping away memories for mother and daughter (and pet).   The tide had just gone out, so the beach had left it's magical tide pools and moist, cool sand to keep our feet comfy.

Both mother and daughter were such great subjects with wonderful personalities that make sessions like these incredibly rewarding to shoot.   Whenever she wasn't smiling or making faces for the camera, Milan was playing in the sand and checking out the plethora of interesting items on the beach. Echo's discipline was pretty impressive...she was as behaved as can be, stayed calm and collected even though the presence of another dog running around on the beach had her attention and was probably much more interesting than looking sharp for the camera.

Daughter and Mommy toes enjoying the cool sand!

In case you are wondering why a gorgeous beach like this was fairly deserted, it wasn't.  There were a good eight or nine other photographers shooting all around us.  It was a matter of working around each other that was keeping each other from popping up in each others images...at least I hope I didn't show up in theirs :)

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.  ~Washington Irving

Emilie and Milan, you ladies have a wonderful partnership of being mother and daughter.  Thank you for letting me be part of your world as your photographer for the afternoon.  It was a pleasure capturing your precious smiles. 

Techie Notes:  Gear Used - Canon 5D, 550ex Flash, Sunpak 333 Thyristor, 24-70mm, 70-200mm, a car sunshade for reflectors from Kragen Auto Parts :), ND filters.

Most of the shots here were metered and underexposed by about two stops.  The sun was still pretty strong at this time of day and I didn't want blown out skies for the majority of the shots.  Every now and then I get blown out skies when the moment is happening and metering is not an option, but for portrait sessions like these when you can control the speed of your workflow, I'll take blue skies over white skies.

Special thanks to my sons Kiefer and Dawson for assisting me on this shoot. 

Fall Family Portraits

Ethan's Birthday Party

On July 25th, I had the chance to photograph Ethan's Tol.  It was a traditional celebration for a first Korean birthday.  This was my first time to capture memories for this type of a celebration, and after a bit of research, I had an idea of what to expect.

Ethan in his Tol-Bok.  Precious as can be!

The happy father with his adorable son.

Ethan had to check out those rice cake towers...those colorful stacks of goodies were just begging to be knocked over!

Ethan showing off his walking skills...and Lorraine, the proudest mom in LA that day!

There were a lot of colorful decorations for Ethan's party.  From his Tol-Bok (traditional outfit), to the colorful rice bean cake towers, to the balloons and his Elmo birthday cake.
Family, friends, and platter after platter of delicious food!  That's a grand Tol celebration for you!

The Toljabee was the highlight of the event.  This was the part where Ethan would be given the opportunity to pick an item that would help predict his future.  A stethoscope would mean a future in the medical world, a book would hint on him being a scholar, a computer mouse would be for something in the computer world, maybe become the next Steve Jobs, a Baseball would be for sports, and a rope for longevity.

Ethan chose the baseball!  MLB may be in this handsome little guy's future.

Ethan picks the baseball.

Ieenor, Lorraine and Ethan...a beautiful family!

Ieenor and Lorraine, I am really honored that you chose me to capture memories for Ethan's birthday.  I wish you all the great health and good fortune in your adventures in raising your family!


Techie Notes:  Being that this was an indoor event and the room didn't have any windows, all shots you see here have on-camera flash.  Not direct flash though, all were shot with bounced flash to different areas of the restaurant.  No plastic tupperware-looking modifiers were attached to the flash as well (my Sto-fen omni-bounce has not seen the light of day for a few years now...always in the bag, but never makes it out of the bag)...the light modifier I was using drew a few chuckles from some of the guests, as it was a foam mousepad acting as the snoot, and a ponytail holder that I grabbed from my wife's hair accessories.  This was an idea I got from a New Jersey Photographer, Neil van Niekerk (unfortunately, I do not know him personally.  I was signed up to attend one of his seminars in Las Vegas, but it was canceled, so I never had the chance to meet him in person).  I've always preferred bouncing flash, but once in a while I would have some light spill onto my subject directly, and this foam-snoot takes care of that issue.  Off camera lighting was not an option for this shoot for me, since I didn't have an assistant with me.

Gear Used:  Canon 5D, 24-70mm 2.8, 50mm 1.8, 550Ex, black mousepad as a snoot, and a ponytail holder / rubber band thingy.

A Nice Day For A Ride To The Park...

It was a very nice afternoon...cool breeze blowing in, the temperature was in the low 70s and friends were visiting.  The light was just perfect this afternoon and the colors were just right...

Helmet on, ready to roll...

Basket...check, matching helmet...check...cute-ness....check!

Spending an afternoon biking with friends...memories are made of this.

Got road?

100 and 4 days of summer vacation, and school comes a long just to end it.. and end it soon it will.  Enjoying the last days of summer.

With the golden light fading fast, it was time to hit the road again and head on home for some McDonald's cheeseburgers for the kids and some Korean BBQ chicken for The Loft for the moms and dads!

Jino and Carol with rim lighting compliments of the Sun!

Gotta love that bokeh that the 70-200mm 2.8 lens gives.  Smooth and silky!

I didn't use any flash for these images because there wasn't a need to lift any shadows ... A reflector would have helped a bit, but not a show-stopper.   
  
I usually have my speedlights handy, but riding a bike and clinging to a 70-200 was bulky enough.  I had a nifty fifty in my bike pouch, and that saw a little action too, but it's very hard not to use the 70-200 lens with this gorgeous golden light beaming through the trees in the park...

Gear used:  Canon 5D, 70-200mm 2.8 IS, 50mm 1.8

Beauty and the Beast @ Cornerstone Christian School in Murrieta

Watching a an entertaining play is always nice.  Experiencing a great play plants images that turn into memories.  I was with family and friends at Cornerstone Christian School in Murrieta to check out my nephews in a production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast.   It was incredible.

This was my younger nephew as a peasant boy. He also played the part of "Chip" for this performance. I think he was the youngest performer in the show, being in kindergarten and all.

Gaston wooing Belle with his manliness and charm.  "Belle, it's about time you got your head out of those books and paid attention to more important things...like me!" -Gaston.

This was my other nephew, Daryl, performing as Lefou, Gaston's right hand man.
"Who, you? Never. Gaston, you've got to pull yourself together.
Gosh it disturbs me to see you, Gaston
Looking so down in the dumps
Every guy here'd love to be you, Gaston
Even when taking your lumps"
... good ole Lefou. 

The Beast and his magic mirror.

Mrs Potts, Chip and Maurice.

The Beast and Belle while they dance to the theme of the play...courtesy of Mrs Potts.

This was a great production of this Disney Classic.   A lot of hard work put in for a few nights of memorable performances.  Hats off to the actors, the production team, the technical crew, the parents and everybody else involved in this play.  Great work.

Techie Notes: It was a "no flash photography" zone for obvious reasons, so this is where a steady hand, anticipation of action and fast glass with wide apertures can all work together to bring out some good images.  There was really no space for a tripod, and it would only attract unwanted attention.
I was at ISO 1000 for most of the night, switching up to 1600 if it was a really dark scene. Most of the shots were done @ f2.8 unless conditions allowed for f3.5 or f4 just to get more than one subject into focus.  Timing was still key here, because I was shooting at very low shutter speeds...1/30, 1/15, 1/60 (while hand-holding the 70-200 IS lens) ...motion from any of the actors was fairly visible in the images i took.  This became an added level of difficulty when shooting Lumiere (who did a lot of gesturing with his hands), and Cogsworth (who did his gesturing by moving his head and torso).
The images were white-balanced in Photoshop, but I kept them a close to the original temperature of the mood to maintain the atmosphere that the director setup via the lighting, after all, I am just capturing the images of the show, not re-interpreting via photography.

Girl Scouts Troop 371

I recently had the privilege to photograph Girl Scouts from Troop 371 in Huntington Beach. This was probably one of the easiest photo shoots that I've been involved in. The sun was bright and high but we had the shade of the Huntington Beach Pier to work with, so all went swimmingly smooth!

Fun in the Sun, Sand, and a little fill-flash!  That's what it's all about!  

New Look Site

I've been slaving over the last few weeks changing the design of www.lengthofadream.com ...has a fresher feel to it (i think)...hopefully it's easier to navigate too. If you have any feedback, please drop me a line. I would appreciate it.

I took some photos at the Pack 278 Cub Scouts pine wood derby races last weekend...a very fun event. Helped my older boys make their cars, and we all had a lot of fun. Kiefer's car won the Open / Family class for children, and Dawson's car won the Wolf division.



Kiefer's car was a powered by 3 D-cells :) In case you are wondering if that was legal, this was for the open "no rules" division. I didn't have time to put in a little motor, but maybe for next year we won't procrastinate so much (yeah right) and will do just that.






It was interesting that we finally got to make cars that went fast. We were going for a creative award when we made his Indiana Jones car.