Đêm Nhạc Thiền - Tôi Đang Lắng Nghe

Happy New Year to all! I've been taking some time off to relax, rest and believe it or not, I dived into a couple of hongkong movie series that for so long I've tried to stay away from. I really enjoyed that mini break. Those of you who has watched those movies before, they are on your list of #1 addiction enemy, so try to stay away. Now back to photo work!

We started our New Year with a meditation session with Thay Minh Niem. It's been so long I haven't been to the sessions and it felt like home to come back to listen to his lecture with old and new faces. This meditation session had a twist for something different, it was formulated through a theme of musical lyrics interpretation. Đêm Nhạc Thiền với tựa đề, "Tôi Đang Lắng Nghe" - translated Meditate via Musical Lyrics to achieve the state of "Listening Deeply."

One of the greatest Vietnamese composer, musician, painter and singer-songwriter was Trinh Cong Son. Our teacher has chosen his songs, and lyrics to elaborate and study for this evening. With songs such as, "Mỗi Ngày Tôi Chọn Một Niềm Vui" (I seek one happiness each day), to "Tôi Ơi, Đừng Tuyệt Vọng" (Oh Dear I shall not lose hope), etc. All of these songs remind us of the fact that if we can Feel and see then we are living in the presence. Yet, we must not allow our sight to overpower our listening, because simply seeing will cause us to overlook the deep meaning.

How many times do we try to listen to others? It may not sound too surprising since I think we more likely find in ourselves a greater inability to listen. How many times have we mis-communicated simply because we didn't listen carefully? How many times have we judged a person before we actually engaged in a conversation and afterward found ourselves living with wrong perceptions and interpretations toward the person. Listening is an art and by practicing it, we will help people release their worries, fear, and misery.

So next time when you feel you are not being heard, patiently ask, "Have you listened to me deeply?"

This session was the first to be held at a place where our Cherry Blossom sangha friends greatly contributed their time and effort to renovate and have it turned to the center to hold more sessions to come.

Here are some photos of Thiền Đường Tĩnh Lặng, translated as "Still Meditation Hall".


Everyone had complimented the way everything is laid out, the color coordination, the paint color on the wall, together bring the mood we should achieve. Every little details was put together by Thay and the sangha. Notice the photo and the writing on the wall:





Entertainment group who sang the songs we studied on:



There was even a skit that's related to our studies:

A group photos of those who stayed for a post-event discussion session:


There is another event to celebrate the Lunar New Year so please contact us for details if you're interested.
Ref: Our Blog for more photos

Long & Anh's Wedding

Congratulations to Tuan and Anh!
A sneak peek at their wedding in the winter weather:



Ref: Our Blog for more photos

Cousinly Love

I've been totally missing for the past couple of weeks. And listen to this lame excuse...that's because I've misplaced my eyeglasses! So once I take out my contacts in the evening, I didn't want to put them back on for computer work ...so...now after 2 weeks, I have finally found the glasses. I was taking out kids' toys from under the sofa and found something that looked like my glasses, so yay! Anyways, let me do some catch up here:

Last month, my niece turned sweet 4, and had some portraits taken at our studio.

These are some of the album photo pages of my adorable niece who has such a soft-spoken voice (just like her mom's) that I wish my bbgirl could learn.

My niece and my bbgirl were playing dress up and found a halloween costume in bbgirl's closet that was too long for her but fitted my niece perfectly. My niece insisted on wearing that as her second change of outfit. And being a kid, she softly asked if she could borrow and take the dress home. Of course I couldn't say no to that! (when she outgrows it, she can pass it back to bbgirl ;)


While taking her photos, our little boy jumped in during my niece's switch of outfits time. Here he is, my little boy doing his own thing by himself and insisted TT to take his pictures:




I want to remember this: when bboy found I was going through these pictures, he pointed at himself on the monitor and identified which ones he was happy in and which ones he was sad in. My little boy is all grown up!

And of course, I can't possibly leave bbgirl out from the cousinly love:


Ref: Our blog for more photos

Month of November

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! So here is a long post for you to read before you stuffed yourself and can hardly walk =)
In this season, I'm thankful to be able to see these beautiful colors and
couldn't help but capture them. I wanted to share with you what I saw and what I enjoyed that lasted a little more than one week:

All of the following untouched photos were taken from my Sony Cybershot =)


To recap what has happened around here. On November 4th, 2008 the BIG Election Day which made US history. I arrived to my polling place at 10am and waited for 40 minutes. I wanted to remember this day so of course I took a picture when I was waiting in line:

Laugh away, but this is ME ME ME, a proud citizen...I VOTED:


Then that weekend, we went to our brother-in-law's surprise BD in Virginia:

Our bboy was the center of attention, all the waitress adored him and gave him chair-rides around the restaurant!


The following day was my friend Thanh's BD, where once again, my bboy captured all the attention by the cake and taken into adoption by the birthday girl (jk):




Then the following weekend, we attended our niece Torie's 5th Birthday at Chuck E Cheese:
(check out the awesome shirt mama dressed him in, it's so cool-looking that she wore it for him twice w/o knowing!)

Babygirl was loving the tickets:


Our nephew redeemed the tickets:


Chuck E Cheese, where 'adult' can be a kid:


On November 19th, it was bbgirl's FIRST DENTIST APPOINTMENT!!
She was shy the whole time, but she listened and behaved well. Here's her shy 'morning' face:

The dentist, Dr. Poursaeid, a pediatric dentist of Metropolitan Dental Specialist was very nice and good with kids. I was able to bring bboy along to be there with bbgirl. Bboy seemed interested and next thing you know, the dentist said at his age, he could be seen too! So woohoo...he was such a breeze to work with and didn't give one second of a hard time. As a matter of fact, he seemed to be enjoying himself. He paid attention, opened his mouth when asked, and when given the dinosaur floss, he took it and tried to floss it himself. The dentist and I were AMAZED (I even used my camera and videoclipped it). I wouldn't miss videoclipping that, I captured to re-live those memories with my kiddos anytime I want!


To wrap up the month of November, we celebrated another girlfriend's bday! Nhan turned how old?? yayy!! Chef Jane hosted a Thanksgiving dinner/Nhan's BD party, and of course, I WAS once again STUFFED with DELICIOUS FOOD! Everything was made from scratch, even all the birthday cakes:


Chef Jane holding the dish of smoked salmon on top of cheese and cracker:

And birthday girl, Nhan:

More pictures from the party, click here
Last weekend, we also went to Adams Morgan and celebrated her birthday. I haven't been out with my girls for YEARS ok, and oh boy, it was SO GREAT to be spending time with them. Oh and it happened to be the night where I left my camera at home, for ONCE, so..until I snatched some pictures from the girls, I wouldn't have any to share. It's usually so hard to get out of the house to have some downtime, but this time, I managed to escape and spent some good time with my good friends. I cannot wait for the next hang-out! Oh and Chloe Lounge, you spinned such such great music, that kept my feet on the floor the whole night, so I'm coming there again w/o a doubt!

Ref: Our Blog for more photos

Nathan turned 6-month

Two years ago, we captured Trang and Vu's wedding, one of TT's good friends:

Last month, their first babyboy turned 6-month and they came to our studio for their baby's photo session. I wanted to process this particular baby photo session with DUAL-TONE so check out this adorable babyboy:

First, one of the photos that featured on the banner of this blog up there, was when Nate was two month:

Here he is at 6-month:




This always makes me smile, the lines on Nate's forehead, makes me think of 'ong cu non' aka 'little old man':




One of my favorites!!!

What's in a baby photo session without some butt-cheeks!



Can't get enough of his smile, sooo cute:

One is a baby when: finger-nail scratches are everywhere...how about on his legs:


And finally, photos around this time of the year can turn into great holiday greeting cards for family and friends:


If anyone is interested in a portrait session and have the photos made into greeting cards, then Email us for the holiday portrait special soon and we'll try to squeeze it in as we don't have too many days left before the holidays!

Ref: Our Blog for more photos