Welcome to our blog!

Hi, thanks for stopping by our photo blog! I'm Anna, the person behind all of the blog posts you're reading! I work with my husband Travis, aka TT, a wedding and portrait photographer for MD/DC/VA area. What you'll find here is our latest photography work, our life, passion, family, and all the moments that I want to remember about everything else that happens in our lives. We'd love to hear from old friends and new friends so don't hesitate to leave a comment / subscribe us to get the latest blog posts.
By the way, be prepared for some music pumping on here as it's loading; Turn your volume up/down, put on your headphones ;) Enjoy


email embrace @ embracephoto . net ; anna @ embracephoto . net ; travis @ embracephoto . net ;
phone anna 240.506.1491 travis 703.608.8152


Friday, August 22, 2008

A message from mommy

By day, watching you grow with this laughter on your face makes my heart complete.
By night, while mommy has to work late, you carry your blanket over to stay in my sight. I simply adore you.
What's even more wonderful is when you say, "Mommy, mommy, I love you."
What makes mommy think more is when you say, "Will you not work tonight?"




**dreams do come true. I love you too sweetie. xoxo. mommy**

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Jin + Jack Engagement session

A few weeks back, Jin emailed and said she needs some save-the-date materials and photos for their wedding website...and well...'asap'! Because how awesome is this, they've decided to "ditch the city and get married on a beautiful beach in Mexico!"
Due to their wedding being a destination wedding, arrangements had to be made extra early for their friends and family, so we worked together on getting their favorites photos post-processed and onto their wedding site within a week after the session. More of their favorites were done the second week and on their plates now, so we hope everything is on schedule for you guys! Woohoo!

I asked what she wanted, and she said something like the windy small roads. It doesn't have to be too far to have that for her... how about right around the corner?

Here are some of our favorites combined with their favorites that will make the palm trees in mexico dance =)

Let's get to it! We started with a studio session, lasts almost an hour and here are only a fewwww of what we loved:


First up, what started it all...the bling accepted on 01/01/2008:

They're a beautiful couple:



This is really them and they're so in love- Love this!


We asked her what was the cause of attraction, and she responded, "HE CAN RAP"
How about this, a combo of rap and romance...I said, he should definitely rap for your first dance. (Considering?? =) This is really how he is, a fun guy! So very cute:



Lights off, let's get exotic. I'll share with you the same pose that's used in-studio and outdoors and how they're different in mood!

First one, in-studio...where romance can spice up:


Second one, outdoors...where the fun begins:

Isn't it Gorgeous! (a proud A's captures!)

Love hands-holding and walking...a sign of carefree and life-loving:
Good choice of color for this session!





The following: cameras, photographers, who cares:





Casually them:



There's more................

Jin's favorite:


Jin, awww:


The sun was setting, and we played with some shadows, very cool...
From this:


To this:


" 'Cause I'm not, leaving you behind"

'Til the end of the road, we stick together:



Congratulations again Jin & Jack!!! We hope you found your first 'professional' photo session super pleasant! There's always a first time =) for everything. You make a beautiful couple!! Thank you for being such good sports!!

Friday, August 15, 2008

Le Vu Lan 2008

Le Vu Lan, a popular Buddhist holiday is actually HERE TODAY! On the ride home quite late last night, the kids looked out the car window and exclaimed, "Lookie at the moon, it's following us!" Very cute, I quickly gazed up and observed the perfectly round moon shining in the sky, yet I felt something missing, my moon was a little faded on the edges. Without my parents in town this holiday, my moon isn't shining as bright. I miss them as they're on the other side of the globe. For every holiday, my parents would do the preparation on the altar with fresh flowers and fresh fruits. Actually, it's year round in our family to have those items on the altar. Then on the weekend, we would go to the pagoda together and sit down for a reading. I recall, this reading gets very teary and very emotional, we would all come out in red eyes and puffy nose. It describes the responsibilities of parenting, its difficulties, the endurance parents face to provide the life for their youngsters. Something one would only understand when one becomes parents. (I would already started crying by this point). It also has a story explaining Ngay Muc Kien Lien, loves his mother dearly that when he became enlightened, he was able to see the suffering his mother was enduring in Hell for her wrong doings when she was alive. He wanted to help her. From this love and inspiration, the 15th day of the 7th month of the Lunar Calendar became a traditional Mother's Day for Vietnamese. I found an article explaining more on this, you can read it here: Muc Kien Lien

I have received a lot of visits to our blog on the story I wrote on Le Vu Lan of 2007. Thanks again for your visits. Out of this, I received an email from one reader back in late June, asking if she could quote my piece of writing to an article she was invited to submit for Asia Trend Magazine, a magazine in Orlando, FL. I happily accepted her request and I just wanted to take a moment and thank you everyone worldwide for reading and acknowledging the source. The web has so much info that it's nice to honor the references. So yay to that! From there, I had made some modifications to my writing and added a last minute collage. After the magazine publication, she offered to send me through snail mail a few copies of the magazines and provided the link to the article on the web for Asia Trend Magazine. What an honor! It was our first public article that doesn't require the mouse clicking, although this blog here is already public -But you know what I mean. It was fun =)

Although it's a July Issue, it's never too late to pass it on to you to view it =)

Click on this link

Click on the white search box for Page 26 & 27
There is our article!

And here is a snapshot of it:



Better yet, you can just simply go back to my blog post and read it =)
Le Vu Lan 2007

To those that are celebrating Le Vu Lan this weekend, hope you are enjoying your time and may you find yourself living in mindfulness. Although my parents aren't here, I will carry on the tradition and be the bridge between the old and new, I will take the little ones to the pagoda to allow the first generation in America to enjoy the tradition we had all grown up with.

"Be aware and awake to the present moment. To be truly alive, present and at one with those around you and with what you are doing."

"Tho*? va`o tho*? ra" "Breathe in breathe out".


---AP---

Friday, August 8, 2008

August 8, 2008

It's August 08, 2008 today!!! 8-8-8, stands for lots of fortune! The Olympics 2008 Grand Opening is today 08-08-08 and guess at what time ...8pm.

On the same note, it's TT's mom's birthday today! I have placed a flower basket from this Florist shop Vuon Xinh (http://www.vuonxinh.info/home/) in Binh Thanh VietNam and got it delivered to mommy. If you're looking for flowers to deliver in Vietnam for ANY occasions, contact them!!

That's not all the birthdays...there's also Linh! Happy Birthday be' An (from this maternity session!!!

Here is the flower basket delivered to mommy!

Monday, August 4, 2008

our little ballerina

Lately, the little girl starts to do some tip-toeing like a ballerina. She must be watching too much Barbie. She constantly remembers that she has access to the studio anytime, so one July weekend, she puts on her favorite dress and she INSISTED that daddy take out the camera to shoot some portraits for her!
"Yes" to her order, here is what bbgirl came up with, totally her idea, I'm sure TT didn't need to guide her.



to be cont.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Cheesecake

Two days ago, Cheesecake Factory was offering every slice of its cheesecake for $1.50/slice in celebration of 30 years of serving the best cheesecake around!!! It's for dine-in orders only and one per person. Well, guess what, I WENT w/a colleague just for the experience of how crazy that day would be!!! And it was ridiculously insanely crowded!! When we walked in and asked for a table for 2, they said it would be a 20-40 minutes wait. Well, ok, so we walked out and I thought why not sit at the bar, so we walked back in to see if seatings at the bar was available. How clever was that!! Luckily, there were a few potential seats open which took us 10 minutes to finally get situated. Took us another 10 minutes IN ORDER to place our 2 orders of cheesecake and a dish of fries. We thought going off-peak hours would help, but we were wrong. Yep, we're there for cheesecake only! The server warned us that it will take at least 20 minutes for the cheesecake to be ready. WOOOORRRZZZZ!!! We weren't in a rush, we just nodded at him, acknowledged that we can tell how busy and behind they are in serving just cheesecake. Since we were sitting near the bar and next to the soda refill machine, we overheard how crazy the day had been.

One story was: a meal and cheesecake order was placed, people finished their meals and yet took another 15 minutes for the cheesecake to come out!

We asked how had tipping been for them since regular price cheesecake would cost $8, but now only $1.50. Well, they said, some would tip on the regular price but some would tip on the $1.50 price. So, imagine getting .30cents for each slice of cheesecake. Aww, we felt bad for them.

After some time had passed, our orders of yummy looking goodies arrived. I blindly ordered a Dulce De Leche Caramel and my colleague ordered Lemon Raspberry Cream. It was amazingly delicious!!! I have never ordered dessert there since I never had room for one. So this was my first Cheesecake Factory dine-in cheesecake. W.o.w. Smooth, creamy, rich and subtle in caramel taste!!! Maybe I'll take TT there just for dessert so we'll have plenty of room for it!

Seems like Black Friday all over.
An experience not to miss, but would not repeat =) I think I would pass the next time there is this kind of deal!
Our bill came out to be under $7 and we left $5 behind =)

Of course I had to take a pic of my slice of cheesecake - from my camera phone though. Oh how yummy it was: