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


Monday, January 28, 2008

Fighting hard.

Fever, cough, colds go away, 'don't' come again another day. It's been 5 days our family is fighting this nasty coughs and the kids get a combo of both fever and coughs. All we do is get up for breakfast walk around the house a few times, then land on the bed. Get up again for late lunch, walk around the house a few times then trip over the bed. Next thing that we do is, get up to go to the doctor (walk-ins, no appointments necessary), come home for dinner, walk around, then the bed calls for us again. It's been 3 days where I have not yet met any neighbors, nor anybody outside except for the doctor. While having this stuffy nose and cough, I'm here blogging how our family is doing so our wonderful friends know what we have been up to. LOL. Which interestingly enough, NOTHING, we haven't been doing ANYTHING. Sorry for being missing in action. Until we recover, I'll put some pictures up.

Thinking of you,
our family

Monday, January 21, 2008

Fashion Designer Tuong Khue visiting Virginia

eTT has done a number of this type of events photoshoot in the past, for concerts, and fashion shows (while in medium format, yes!) but guess what, for myself, I wasn't around when he photographed celebrities, so, I was excited to finally have attended a fashion show, but this time to my surprise, a fashion show of a designer who is very known in our time, Tuong Khue!! He is one of the two designers responsible for all of the Vietnamese dresses featured in the two leading music entertainment industries- worldwide! The renowned Asia Entertainment and Paris By Night. He has been around for only a number of years yet quickly had gained a lot of attention from our generation. I have seen his work on the fashion shows featured in the music videos and have even seen his musical performances. So when TT and I walked in the changing room, I quickly recognized him and was very surprised. I immediately whispered to TT to make sure that I wasn't seeing things. And TT turned and greeted Tuong Khue (TK) to make sure that's him. And indeed, Tuong Khue smiled, greeted TT and shook hands. This is one of the best things!! Being a photographer has allowed inside access to backstage (for photoshoot ;) plus meeting celebrities!! How very cool is that. Oh, not to mention to meet all the cutiessss!!! I'll show you what I mean.

But before we get started, I have to show you my Pursebuzzie inspired makeup for the night!! I'm very excited to share this with you. This is what Pursebuzzie called the Smoky Bedroom Eyes. I'll email and share this with her!


Being a new mother, Linh hasn't gone back to the club since my birthday of last year, so guess what, they had planned to come to see the fashion show and celebrated her birthday there! It so happened that TT and I were going to be there to do the photoshoot, so it worked out well!! Happy Birthday girl!



Brief Intro: All of the clothing for this runway fashion show is by fashion designer Tuong Khue. Hair is by Tanya and makeup is by Nha Yen. Hair- you have to see it to believe it, but you can judge for yourself, as I was chilling at backstage and saw the hair updo being done by Tanya, and I have to say, THUMBS UP! She really is an expert and has been around for this kind of events in the MD/DC/VA community. Each of the model has a different hair style and really rocked the house.




Favorites from the night
So, if you can't tell already, TT had fun snapping away. There were a few that caught our attention, even I really thought one of them was like a Japanese Doll. Did I mention they totally owned the stage that night? Rock ON!!

From left to right: makeup artist Nha Yen, Fashion Designer Tuong Khue, hairstylist Tanya, and our friend Daniel Bui photographer:


Two cuties:














Community Events Bulletin Board:
We're looking for fresh new faces!!! There is another very BIG BIG fashion show in about 3 weeks, so if anyone is interested, before I get in touch with the event coordinator, feel free to send me send me an email!!!!

Thursday, January 17, 2008

What an inspiration !

More makeup flying at you! This might make your jaws drop. Well, it made my eyes pop! Here is a video of picture slideshow of some makeup inspiration. Not everyone of those are an everyday look, but I consider it arts. Not everyone of us can draw a piece of painting, but it doesn't mean we can't enjoy a piece of art.

Here is a list of my favorite. Some of which can be subtle enough for an everyday look. But definitely more party/night out look:

:14, :26,
:32 white/black, :34, :36 NICE
:49 her lip angle here reminds me of ...u got it, Angelina??
:59 purple
1:07, 1:11, 1:26, 1:31, 1:36 nice purple/black love to try!
1:52 white shimmer
2:19 looks so smooth
2:20, 2:31 black smoky, 2:37 a good try
2:49 this one scared me, I didn't want to look, but wow
2:56 - smoky black and blue
3:04
3:11 nice subtle

With that said, let's roll it with Eily311:

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Urban Decay, our lovable primer..but a little disappointing!


This is FRESH OFF THE PRESS!! Ok, makeup lovers out there, I'm sure some of you have stumbled onto Urban Decay Primer Potion (UDPP). If you're about to throw it out and go buy another one because you think you have finished up your old one. STOP RIGHT THERE!!!!!! HANG onto your seats!!!

The news is out there now! Click here to check out how you can get more for what you had paid for!! Thanks for passing to us this great info!!! Or Bella Sugar.

So basically, you need to CHOP/Cut/Knife that genie in the bottle open, and scoop scoop scoop on the sides and you'll be surprised of how much more stuff is still left in there, Am I hearing the stuff you scoop out will fit in a 5 grams jar??!

I personally feel cheated! (But welcome to the real world!) Now, pass it on to all of your sisters, brothers, friends, colleagues. A penny saved is a penny earned!!

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Khuong and Nhi's engagement ceremony

Happy New Year! So my holiday break from the web is officially over. I have a lot to catch up on but first things first. I'd want to share Tim & Nhi's Engagement with you all.

Tim's story unfolds as this:
"People say love is like fish in the sea. In all my life, I fished, and fish ate my baits but ran away. This time, I am the fish who is biting upon a hook that has no bait...:-). Here I am, a happily flapping fish on the hook. It all started with a kiss, then evolving love, and now it comes to this."

How romantic is that!

Their love has brought a FULL HOUSE and gained full attention from family and friends on Dec. 30 as they took their first leap into the sea. Everyone gathered and witnessed as 'Prince' Timmy placed the first circle of love on the 'Princess' Mermaid.





Click here for Picasa Album:
Khuong & Nhi's Engagement


Using my new small Sony cybershot, this is what I got from my test drive:
Khuong & Nhi _small camera

Some Recent Holiday Pictures

In the early afternoon of New Year Day 2008, TT started our New Year with this shot, untouched:




I'm trying to catch up!! I know I know. Here are some random photos taken during the holiday season from our new Sony Cybershot:
Holiday Party with TT's family, rarely do we see both of these angels not smiling huh:



Crack me up:


TT's Nephew's genius idea, very clever, cute and in the spirit:


At a friend's house:



Party at a friend's house, this is the baby from our maternity session, click here:


Some fun shots, if you can recall this couple from their engagement pics click here on our homepage



This is some Family holiday pastimes:


Since one of TT's buddy is heading back to VN to get married, the guys got together for some 'sweet' time. Shall I tell you, they are a very interesting bunch. They get together once in a while, for dinner, drinking, and a-must is their TEA time, yes, TEA:

New Year Party 2

Another party with friends, no need for a club, we danced right in the living room with live singers. Can you tell what babyboy is holding, I wonder where he got that trait from?
New Year Party