A GOOD picture is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars :: Maryland Real Estate Photography

Just photographed this amazing and gorgeous piece of real estate today for the Bowie-based company called New Focus Realty. The team of Larry and Charlie Hudson of New Focus and I are now working together to bring you BETTER images of the beautiful homes that YOU can call "home sweet home."

 

Larry and Charlie Hudson of New Focus Realty are incredible professionals of the real estate industry and they know the value of outstanding quality images of the properties they list. It is their priority to not just have well listed and shown properties but it's important to them to ensure that every interested buyer be able to see all of their options as fully as possible. I'm certain that the local real estate market will be clamoring to step up their games after they see the way better quality images help move properties that much faster. A picture might be worth a thousand words to some but to a real estate company? Well, an amazing picture of the company they are trying to sell can easily be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars!!!

If I weren't already a homeowner, you better believe I would have refused to take more pictures of this property, gone straight to the bank, and forced the listing agent Mr. Charlie Hudson to not show it to any other people so that I could have it all for myself!!! I have over 20 more beautiful interior shots that will be included in the MLS listing in addition to this gorgeous curb shot. I would show you all of the rest of the pictures but honestly? For as beautifully as it photographs, I urge you to contact Charlie at New Focus and arrange for a personal showing of it. Just don't forget your wallet to buy it as soon as you see it because it really is THAT AWESOME!!!

Contact New Focus Realty directly at (410) 721-7625 and ask for Charlie Hudson for more information about this amazing house on Cowan Avenue in Bowie, Maryland. It's going to go fast so don't delay! 

Heaven on Earth :: Maryland portrait photographer

Something you might not know of me is this: I am adopted.

Now, I don't come out with this the first time I tell people. I mean it's not like it's so much a conversation starter so much as I just feel like it's unnecessary to mention. I mean really? What does it matter? My family is my family is my family. *shrug* But I won't deny that it has made me and the way I think about my own life different than someone elses. I don't look like any of my family members. (Well... maybe my dad I do because he just happens to be Asian too but he's from a whole different country than I'm from and despite the argument that might exist that "we" all look alike. WE DON'T. But I digress.) I also don't have many things that so many others do - the stories of their origins like what it was like when they were born or even the rundown of what their first five months of their life was like. *shrug* I won't lie, it used to bother me but it doesn't anymore. Why? Because, as I said before, my family is who they are and that is my family and I'm not a person that gets easily bogged down by the messy details. Also? I feel like my life has really come full circle (so to speak) and now that I have my own child...




Well?  I guess the fact that I've been able to give her so much of what I never had? Well... I feel like I don't miss all of that so much anymore. Just the same, I've not forgotten what it was like before now.

Family is so important. I was raised to obey some very solid family values with regard to the correct and appropriate way to be towards your family (it's an Asian thing) and it's something that I believe I will raise my daughter to have as well. Yesterday I had both the joy and the honor to photograph a family for their first ever family portrait. I can only show you this one image though.

And why is it the only one? Well, because they are a family of the adopted sort as well. And per their request and my own belief and understanding of the situation, it's best this way. Right now they are at the beginning stages of being a family. Similar to what I experienced as an adopted child, they all have spent some huge chunks of time missing from each others lives. They need this time right now to live in their own private world together and make up for all of the lost time and stolen moments that we all have had and can remember of our own families - this includes me as well since I have had the great redemption of being able to have my own sweet little girl right from the very beginning.

I hope I get the opportunity for more portrait sessions for adoptive families. I have such a special place in my heart for them and I know that I will be able to capture the beauty that they have within them that usually transcends everyone else's eyes because I know what it's like to be there among them, I know what to take note of, and I love being reminded of all it myself. It only makes me love my own family that much more. You can never have enough love, you know?

Daddy's little girl :: Maryland Wedding Photography

Will be delivering the final print wedding package of over 400 images to Chelsea and Brendan within the next couple of days. God bless them for being so patient!! And God bless Chelsea and her wonderful father, Larry. Here is one of my absolute favorite images I turned out of the whole wedding. I snapped this during the traditional father-daughter dance...

And also, I have a bit of a father's day story of my own to go along with it.

I didn't broadcast this before but on the night of Chelsea and Brendan's wedding, after I had taken my last shots and I was leaving, I ended up getting a flat tire on probably one of the most deserted country roads that might be. Because I'm a take charge type, I don't flinch at things like flat tires so I immediately pulled over, jumped out of the car and began to change out the flat myself - just the way my dad taught me how(!) - with only the light of the moon and the screen of my blackberry to help me see in the dark. Even when it started to pour down rain, I kept at it because I knew it would only take me a couple of minutes to just finish and be back in the car for the hours of driving I had ahead of me. When I got to the last lug nut I hit a wall. The nut was just about completely stripped (cheap scrap metal nuts!!) and the tire iron I had wasn't coming even close to being able to get it off the bolt. The only thing that would get it off would be pliers at this point.

In the midst of me figuring out what my options were, I tried to flag down the few cars that were traveling the road I was pulled over on. Each one stopped but didn't have any assistance to offer me in the way that I really needed. It continued to rain and despite the fact that I could have gotten very mad and discouraged, I didn't. Number one: I'm not the type who gets easily mad or discouraged AT ALL and number two: I've always been taught (by my dad, no less) to always be prepared and aware of the resources you do have even before you need to employ them.

As it happened, Chelsea's dad, Larry, ended up pulling over to assist me. He determined the same thing I did - I had a VERY stripped cheap scrap metal lug nut that just wasn't coming off even with brute force and I needed some decent pliers instead of the tire iron. He, being the man of slightly greater and more immediate resources than I, called in some help in the way of a very experienced wedding guest who was an Eagle scout. Fifteen minutes later, the lug nut was off, the spare was put on, and I was adhering to the 50 mph/50 miles to go in the direction of home.

Y'know? Even though I was there getting things done and working things out, I cannot tell you how good it felt being in the situation that was completely under control from the beginning. Yeah, I'm a real can-do type but ultimately? I know that the situation worked out the way it did because of the dads - my dad and Chelsea's dad, Larry. Had my dad never taken all the time to patiently teach me how to change flat tires "just in case," I would have easily freaked out standing there in the dark on that country road while the rain just poured down on me. And had Chelsea's dad Larry never pulled over? Well, I suppose I could have been OK but really? It was just so nice to have him there being the dad he is and in the way I know my dad would have been as well in just that situation. If you ask me, dads are the greatest. And I thank God every day for a heavenly father who knew from the beginning what an essential blessing they are in this life.

Happy Father's day, to YOU! Hope you're spending the day celebrating not just your dad, but ALL of the dads out there who are nothing less than awesome.

Now offering professional real estate photography services for DC, Maryland, and Virginia

This is just for the SENIORS!! [Don't you wish you were 1-2] :: Maryland Senior Portrait Photography

Click the image below for a full-size version of this year's senior portrait promotional. Thanks so much!!

Still at it! :: Eastern Shore Wedding Photographer

I'm just about halfway done with this wedding because it might be one of the most total images I've ever tried to turn out. I shared this teaser on my FB fan page and both the bride and groom offered a lot of praise for it so thought I'd share it here as well. They are almost to their one month anniversary and I confirm that they are indeed still just this much in love...

I've got answers!

Recently I was invited to present at a Career day event for some local middle schoolers about what it's like to be a professional photographer. Surprisingly (to me, at least) I was the only professional photographer there! (I don't know, it just seems like the market is so flooded these days that just about everybody is a photographer? Maybe I'm the only one who thinks/feels like this.)

Anyway, whether I'm at a career day or not, I'm constantly fielding questions about my line of work so I decided to (finally) put together a listing of inquiries I'm most often ask. There is a link over there =====> at the top of the right sidebar called F.A.Q. but for your own convenience, HERE IS A LINK directly to it.

Hope this answers some of the questions YOU might have.

Always camera ready :: Pittsburgh Wedding Photographer

Between yesterday and today, I have spent more time in the car driving across state lines than I have been doing anything else. It was all for a wedding but this time around it was because I am a guest and NOT the photographer. Still? I will always be armed with my trusty camera.

And even when I break a lens (let's NOT even talk about this and focus on the fact that I am finally being forced to upgrade a lens) and there is strobe lighting changing constantly in a venue that has super high ceilings because what it really is is a converted barn and if I really want to get the shot that I want I have to climb from my comfortable and safe seat in the loft out onto the rafters and I also refuse to use any flash because I don't want to destroy the gorgeous ambiance created by the crystal chandeliers *catching my breath*... well? I can still turn out a shot like this and that makes me SO happy!

People? People, people, PEOPLE! I will not go to a wedding and NOT try to snag at least one amazing shot of the bride and groom even if I am supposed to be just a guest AND all of the aforementioned stuff happens. It's just not gonna happen. I will always ALWAYS be there with camera at the ready.

Congrats to you, Mary Rae and Derek! I had a marvelous time at your wedding and wish you a lifetime of wedded bliss filled with only the richest of the Lord's blessings.

I should be sleeping

I'm in the throws of multiple wedding edits and after that I have some major marketing leg work that needs to be attended to - for a new photography venture I'm taking on as well as for my other business that I'm trying to formally lift off the ground (now, a decade after the idea was hatched *sigh*) (It's called Make and Take Masterpieces if you were wondering.) Earlier today I was ordering copious amounts of art supplies and studio furniture, closing my school studio/classroom for the summer, and "producing" my now three year old daughter's "Ocean" birthday party. Truth be told, I'm not a happy camper unless I'm working, working, and working. And now when I really and truly should be sleeping because I've got another big day ahead of me tomorrow, I'm still awake, I mean I'm just barely awake and I could probably fall asleep while typing this up but still? I'm fighting it. Because in the midst of my wedding edits I churned out the image you see below. And now I cannot stop sitting here, fighting my fatigue, just to look at it for a little bit longer.

It's certainly not the most ideal or classic or traditional shot from a wedding but I'm not concerned with that. I think it's beautiful. I love the visual texture and the values and the contrasts and the composition and they way it looks like a place that just couldn't really exist - but it does indeed because I was there and I took the picture to prove it!!!

Other photographers might pride themselves on taking good pictures but I'm here to tell you that too many of them have to stop there. A good photographer, a real ARTIST won't take anything - they will CREATE something out of what could otherwise be completely insignificant or even nothing at all.

Know this: when YOU team up with me and I've got my camera in hand. We're going to do more than just get a good shot. We're going to create beauty. And it's going to come in the way of elements of art and design that go far beyond a picture. I promise you that. I absolutely pledge that to you with the highest level of confidence.

I've been waiting for you summer!

By this point in my life I have learned that I am a terrible gardener. I might even fall in the category of having a "gray thumb." (Does that even exist?) But I always appreciate beautifully designed and composed gardens and home landscaping just the same.

Last year my husband and I tried our hand at flower gardening and landscaping. We went to our favorite local greenhouse, talked up the sales associates, and figured out some flowering bushes and flowers that seemed like they would work for us. We plunked down a lot (for us!) of money to do this. And by the end of the summer, we had maybe three (all the same kind) of flowering bushes that made it. Everything else was scorched by the sun and died a very sad and painful death. It was a disheartening experience to say the least.

As a last ditch effort, we went and bought one of those big bags of seeds of the wildflower and butterfly sort that you are only supposed to sprinkle and rake into a patch of dirt and then wait for them to grow so our toddler toddler would have a little something to pick from. Amazingly, our wildflower butterfly garden took off! And this year we added some more varied wildflower seeds to the mix and we have a flower picking garden that is - though not classically manicured and pretty - is at least a little ethereal in its own fashion and definitely pretty to look like. And within just the past few weeks, it's really REALLY taken off and burst into bloom so everyday - no matter how many flowers our little toddler lady picks - there are at least a dozen more in bloom the next morning.

This morning I took some time by myself to poke around the flowers and capture some of my favorite ones. I just love poppies and prefer the red ones but the pink ones seem a whole lot more abundant. Some of the other flowers just have such great colors and the visual texture in the images is terrific. And, of course, I always love the fat little bumblebees that buzz around...

Baby N :: DC Baby Portrait Photographer

There is little that brings me greater joy than doing baby portraits. I love marveling (through my camera viewfinder) at how big their eyes get with curiosity. Their squeals and squeaks of finding their voices is one of the most pleasant soundtracks to work to and you just can't beat the sweet smell that all babies seem to have.

Little Miss N is the daughter of a childhood best friend of mine who I have known for over 20 years now. Her mama came in town to go to a college reunion. As it turns out, sweet baby N had portraits done a week after she was born but they've still not been delivered. Well, to me, that kind of thing is completely unacceptable and since this IS my best friend in the whole wide world, I just had to take care of the issue in my own way.

So here are the fruits of the hard work done by both myself and gorgeous baby N. I know I've got some decent skills, but seriously? N is such a precious beauty, I know that she's the one making ME look good.

Oh, sweet little baby N! Come back and visit me any ol' time you like. Can't wait for our next visit together.