Virginia is beautiful all years round, at least to me: because there are beautiful people living there!

I could not wait till the full cherry blossom due to a wedding contract in Dallas. I came here early while the flower-buds were still sleeping. And this time, I had my 5D mark II with me – that means I could do some motion pictures – my long time plan finally came into implementation.

It’s been over a half year since I met little Liam and Natalie. I saw them getting bigger and bigger. Liam could speak better in a very proper English style, and Natalie almost started her first walk. They are getting more beautiful and lovely. Aaah, my future kids dream!!!!

Again, we had wonderful time together. Liam and Natalie’s parents were going to work so they were kept by their grandparents. We did not go to the Pactomac river for the cherry blossom like every year. We went to the National Arboretum in DC. Despite the heavy rains days before and the flowers were not yet bloomed, we had great photos and VIDEOS!!!.

This is actually my first experiment on “moving photography” which you film and edit videos in photography styles. I had technical limits and I am still learning, but the video make all of us happy. There are moments which are beyond words or “technical things”.

The video was shot in full HD, so you should try to watch it in highest resolution your screen and computer can support. If the net line is slow, just press Play, then pause to wait for the buffer.

Ah, I sing in here too, hehe. Hope you won’t mind, haha!

There are some scenes with my face in it. I directed my brother to shoot, just some kind of curiosity, I wanted to see how my face is like on the screen, not bad hehe!

So, here it is:

And oh yeah, here comes the photos. Hope you will be happy or simply – feeling fresh looking at these photos!!!

So sorry for deserting this blog.  I have been working hard for my new book’s release and travelling like crazy. Been a while since I wrote something in English, so do not pay too much attention on my English, hehe, as long as you understand what I MEAN!!!

I will start writing about my breath-taking Jetblue trip right after this refreshing entry. Today, I am in the mood for telling you about someone really special, someone I love a lot. My 2 years old cousin!

This little angel was born after his older sister 20 years, and to his older brother 12 years.  So here comes a funny story:  His sister who is now already 22 years old – a tall pretty girl – had been chased after by a guy for several years, then he gave up and went away.

One day, he came back home. He saw his dream lover holding a little baby in her arms. And he thought to himself: “That’s it, she is married, she has baby. My life is done!”.

He called her and told her how desperate he was. At first, my cousin (the girl) thought she must clear this misunderstanding, but then thinking of how crazy he was standing in front of her house in all these years had changed her mind. “Oh, yeah, that is my son, is there anything wrong? You should go marry someone and have one too, bleeh!!!”.

Oh yeah, the world welcomed a new broken – hearted young man! Totally broken- hearted!

I am the oldest grandchild of my grandparents and he is the youngest. Somehow among all the cousins, I have the most chemical connection with him. Since the day he was born, I felt something special, I love that feeling, and I use it every time I need inspiration.

“Chi Ha, Chi Ha , wake up wake up”. That is what he called me every morning. He would jump on me and give me a kiss on my cheek, then whispers again: “wake up wake up”. Can you imagine that is a 2 years old boy?

He rarely cries and does not ask for his mom or dad all the time. If you tell him not to touch something, well, he…still touch, but then he would smile and cover his face as if he knows he is wrong, no one would bother give him any punishment.

He loves camera. When I pointed my camera to him, he gave me wonderful smiles. He would smile and pose till he became numb. He is THE BEST model of mine until now.  Too bad I did not have much time photographing him when I was at home. But even if I had 15 mins with him, I already had tons of beautiful photos.

It is my best moment to ask him to dance with me. I must bend down my knees and hold his arms. Then we sang and moved together. I imagine one day, he would be much much taller than me, then it is him who would bend down to hold my arms to dance. Well, time flies, we’ll see…

When I said goodbye to him. He was sad, but then he put his palm to his mouth and blew me a kiss. “Bye bye chi Ha, bye bye chi…”

Him- some months old

HIM – NOW

He is asking for a candy

In memory of our grandfather. We love you so much!

I took photos for another family this time. It was a birthday party of a little girl and they had the party at the beach. It took me over 2 hours to be there, I have no talents in finding the correct roads, so it is always a serious problem to reach any destination on time.

Again, bad time, extremely bad time and location to take photos, not just because the sun was too harsh, but it is because the shoot carried out at the beach where there was absolutely no shadow, and if there was some trees, that would create very complicated exposures!

And you know that taking children photos is not an easy job. They run, they hide, they cry, but once you catch a smile, no other types of photo can be compared! But again, it is not an easy job!

These people are Spanish; I guessed they were Puerto Rican and later I was confirmed by this information.  Spanish kids have beautiful wide eyes that will always be the focal points in my images.

In the early Weekend Photos Entry I posted, I have the photos of a handsome little boy who is mixed with Japanese and black. Even at a very little age, he shows his handsomeness and manly look, anticipating a lady killer in the future.

But this time I caught a little girl and I saw her pretty interesting. Just like what I have described the boy, she shows her feminine manner in a very cute and natural way. Well, I don’t need to say clearly how, just look at the photos and they will say all.

I just remembered about myself, I had never been a velvet girl since I was born until one day, I realized, I need to be soften down in order to attract a guy, haha, but still I am not sure I could do that. So, being an attractive woman (or a man), it’s must be in the gene or developed since someone is little. Well, it can be trained as well, but I do believe only those who have this “natural ability” since they were unconscious  of what the heck “man”, “woman” or “sex” is – are the “real” ones, haha!

The little girl who was the most important person of the party has extremely beautiful eyes, she did not show her “feminine attraction” but she showed what a lovely beautiful kid really is!

I gave the photos to the little girl’s mommy later and she seemed to be disappointed for some whiles, due to the bad exposures which I could not avoid. Well, but I encouraged her that all can be healed with PS. Well, they are not bad, do you think?

Tried to call mommy several times but she did not pick the phone to get these photos, don’t know why!

This day – Nina is 3 years old!

Seeing a mixed person is always something interesting to me. Most of the time I see mixed people are so beautiful and I really wish I could have some as my children in the future.

We rarely see Black-Asian mixed people, but whatever they are, they are beautiful.

I remembered first receiving an email from the lady; I learnt that she must be Japanese. We had to cancel the shooting several times due to bad weather. Nearly 2 months passed by and finally we had a date to meet.

It was a wonderful day, except again, it was a bad time to take photos. Taking children photos have never been so easy as well. They are always in motion and unstable moods!

I was surprised to see them, she is really Japanese but her husband is not, not even a Caucasian as I usually see on street. And look at theỉr boy, oh my god, he has very interesting features;  he gets all the best from his parents. He does not look black, a little bit of Asian, but well, if I see him on street without parents, I would think he is Latin American. But the best is, he looks freaky handsome. This kid is going to be a lady killer in coming future!

What was a challenge to me on this shooting is that: each member of the family has a distinguished color skin. Husband and wife are really in great contrast tones, and if the whole family is standing together, I must think of some ways to balance the exposure. This, indeed, to me: was an interesting experience!

I asked the family if I can post some of their happy and beautiful family photos on my gallery and they agreed!

The next weekend photos, we’ll talk about mixed beautiful girls, ukie?

If i could reach your heart – Rene Dupere

I met Linh over 14 years ago in Canada, She was so friendly and kind to me. I visited the place just for 2 or 3 days, but she friendly received me as a great guest, I was quite lonely and felt strange those days, but she made my trip really comfortable.

Later we were both back to Vietnam and turned into the same college, but she graduated one year before I did (Linh is 1 year older than me). I had not talked to her much at that time, but I still had a well memory of her.

And now, we met again in New York, and she is married to her long time boy friend. It seems like time goes really fast, she still has that pretty look of those previous days, still like I am seeing a little girl 14 years ago, but now she has a baby in her arms…..and all of a sudden, some days, the baby is so grown-up…

Just several days before she went into labor, I still took her out for a ballet. It was a very very cold day with frozen chilly wind, and we had to walk a quite long distance from the station to the ballet theater. Her husband seemed to be upset about that, but who cares, haha . When we came home, she talked to her BIG belly: “Hey, baby, be proud, the first time I have ever seen a ballet and you are here with me, did you hear the music?”
Then I could not take her out for a concert since then because she HAD THE BABY. Remember the day we went out for the ballet, she said: “Hey, don’t forget to take me to the concerts later, even that I will have a baby”. I told her: “But you can’t leave your baby alone?”. She said: “Just out for some hours, my mother will take care of him”. Haha, she really loves to be out and is willing to go, despite the fact that she IS A YOUNG MOTHER now. So guess what, from now on, I will take both of them out, just like I did when I took them to the ballet, but the difference is, now I can see his tiny little face. And once I see him, I must photograph him, hehe!
He’s just over a month old now, his grandmother and mother are the most photo-loved people ever in this world that I have ever met. They LOVE it so much when I said I wanted to photograph their little baby. They posed the baby in every way so I could take the best photos. Let’s wait until the weather is really better and the baby is a bit older, more better photos will be shown, just wait!!!

Just after a bath

See his tiny little fingers? He loves to hold his mother's finger.

Ah, finally we had a great evening out...

Into the light...

Ah, he LOVES to look at me, haha

Sleepy baby...I woke him up in the middle of his nap to take photos, oh poor baby!!!

Smiling ;;)

In his daddy's arm

Everywhere I go, I always pay attention to the children around me.  Everywhere, from the rural areas, to the mountains, in the city, in the fields, or in…Washington DC. It was a wonderful day with load of sunshine, romantic cherry, happy people are all around, and happy children in wonderful dress are running, playing, smiling. I have always wished I could take beautiful children photos with great color tones and impressive light like those I saw on the webs. And that was the big chance! Since I came to New York, the weather has been horrible; the freezing wind, the naked trees, the gray sky…hell I just stayed inside rather than going out and dreaming of great color tones photos.

So, here we go, those are almost the first children photos I have ever taken in the “western world”. And hey there, I got it, I got some photos with the great “color tones and impressive light” I had ever dreamt about, haha. Happy me, hehe!

Dream In Color  – Bianca Ryan

Along the Potomac river...

A friend of mine said she loves this photo so much, cause it reminds of her childhood, with a soccer ball at her feet...

Posing for her little sister to take a photo

Or just going around the cherry tree for...me to take photo

Haha, as I was looking around to see if there was anything to shoot, I heard my mother screamed out: "Hey honey, come here, there's a baby on the cherry tree", and I rushed to her immediately. There, a baby was lifted up by his mother, he was trying to pick up as much flowers as he could. And pretty quick, I shot him, quite many, hehe!

He was curious with the flowers he had picked

And then, just....ate them!

Do you notice the little cherry flower in her hand? I would rather leave this one in colors, but since her parents had been distractive background, so I turned it into BW!

Playing kite at the Washington Monument, the kite was flying real low, hehe

The cropped BW version of the Potomac river girl

Those little girls are from the Vietnam Mission whom I went to DC with. They are sisters, quite playful, never stay in one place!

Haha, this is one of my favorite. I just like the view that this little baby was crawling alone among such so many "adults", with a great red carpet as "background". This photo was taken when I was at the Vietnam Embassy to celebrate our national Holiday, the Hung King's Anniversary, (our first King).

Oh, how cute...

And I LOVE this one, with the great tones and light I was talking about, hehe. I love her blond hair blowing in the sunshine!

Ooh hooh, and this one, too!!!!

I Have A Dream – Connie Talbot

The Lucky One – Alison Krauss & Union Station

I took this picture with a Fuji Easy Shot 3.2. She was 5 at that time and was so shy or may be she hated when I tried to take a picture of her all the time. And the Fuji one was damn slowly, as I pressed the button, like 10 years later it flashed, by that time she had already gone. And all the photos were just her back, a piece of her hair, or just....my grandfather sitting on his bed watching TV. Then I had to beg her, please, please, and this is the best one of her I could take with my Fuji camera!

So, now, she is 11, and I had my 5D. This picture was taken when I took her out shopping for Mid Autumn festival, on my childhood street, where our grandparents are living. Look at her, can you tell how pretty she is?

I said: Hey, put this thing on, she said: Nah, it looks weird! But she did!

Most of my visit time to my grandparent’s house was very limited, just like one or two days, and she had to go to school, so I tried every free moments to take pictures of her. It was a hot summer day,  she was off and I took her out everywhere, just let her playing with another cousin (who never wanted to show her face to my camera), I was running after them. They were eating, talking, laughing, running, making jokes. And whatever positions or acts she did, she was still so attractive and beautiful!

Pretty, this left side....

Pretty, this right side....

Or in front side

Even when she is eating....

She was singing something I think, how I miss her now...

And still, she is beautiful as she grimaced her face because of the hard exposed sun light!!!

This one and those below were taken at a house of my grandfather's brother who is such a wonderful lovely old man. He talked about me every time he met me or my grandparents ; he talked about my job, my career, my achievement.... Phuong was listening to him as he pointed at me and said: "Hey, I am so proud you, Ha!"

Oh an angel is looking at me....

Yeah, whatever changes, even the picture's color, she is still amazing!

Yet there is one sad thing about her that I can not deny, SHE IS TOO SKINNY!

This photo was taken on the Astronomy Hill. My grandparents' house is located at this foot hill. The Hill is not so high, everyday, hundreds of people are running or walking up here as their daily exercises, the temperature is getting cooler as we walk up higher. It is so beautiful and romantic along the way with wild flowers, old trees, pagodas, sunshine....And as you reach to the top of the hill, you can see an overall image of my grandfather's village. You can even see the ocean somewhere faraway!

This set of photos I took on the day I came back to my grandparent's village to say goodbye to them as I would have to leave for New York soon. The day before, I saw her coming home with a very pretty school dress, but it was too late to take pictures, like 6PM already. So I told her I would take pictures of her in this school dress the next day. I would wait for her at school to take her home. But then she disappointed me a bit as she said: "But I only wear this dress on Monday, I wear casual clothes the other days". Then I said OK somehow, as long as I could take her school photos, because she looks so wonderful with her school bag and that red scarf on her neck!She is expected to leave class at 5 but I was at her school at 4h30, I was so excited that I wanted to make sure I could capture the initial moments she comes out from her class. I was waiting there with my huge camera, as other parents were coming to pick up their children, they saw me and whispered to each other: "Hey, that's the reporter, maybe something is wrong in there..."

I told her: "Hey, run, smile, do whatever you want, ignore me!" And she was running, smiling to people on the way, she is such a natural born model. Honestly, I could not recogize if she was acting for real, or just her natural behaviors? I was having no hard time trying to make the pictures look natural! Click! Oops, it's just like that!

We were back at my grandparent's house. The night is fading in, she leaned her hand on the motorcycle and looked out the street lights, the air was breezing softly. I was thinking to myself: "Hey, tomorrow, I'm gonna leave you and our beloved grandpa for a couple of years, I wanted to keep these moments forever". And yes, I kept it!

Absolutely no acting! It is a real great moment! She stood up, looked up to the darkening sky, and closed her eyes for two seconds, she thought I was not there anymore, but I was still there!

We had a farewell party that night with my relatives, she finished her meal and rushed for a TV series, now, she really ignored me for real!

A gift for me from her and Giang, my another cousin, hey, what's in there?

Ah, there's a note in there then, something like : "We hope you will write more books, success in your life, we love you, and please get marry soon, we want to attend the wedding!"

And the gift, is a bottle of sparkling stars they made by themself. It is with me now, as my lucky bless!