Chelsi's Sweet 16 Birthday Party

Last Saturday night, I found myself surrounded by of a bunch of giggly teenagers bouncing around on a dance floor. No, I was not reliving the glory days of my youth. I was hired to shoot a Sweet 16 Birthday Party. As I carefully made my way across the dance floor, I took a moment to reflect on all the interesting places my photography hobby has taken me. Ive spent mornings way out in the deserted brush lands of Hemet following a group of Falconers on the hunt. I've crawled around on stage photographing the band, Last One Done while they performed. I've even flew out to the exotic island of Maui to photograph a beach side wedding. However, photographing this Sweet 16 Birthday Party has to take the cake, literally!

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Bac Xuan Funeral Services

My uncle Bac Xuan passed away recently. We had the funeral services this past Tuesday. My parents asked me to photograph the event for posterity. It was quite a difficult "assignment." It is not easy to photograph your loved ones during their most vulnerable moments grieving. Usually as a photographer you have a sense of detachment to the scene unfolding through your view finder. However since this was my family, their emotions were my emotions. Even though I did not have the enthusiasm and excitement of shooting a wedding or birthday party, I wanted to make sure that I honored my uncle's passing and captured the sanctity of this moment as best as I could. The funeral services were held in a small dimly lit chapel. There were tungsten lights which gave off a yellow color cast. Even the walls and stained glass windows had a yellow hue which made white balancing in post processing impossible. Anyways, I did my best and here are the shot. Rest in peace Bac Xuan.

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