Just wanted to quickly blog about today’s super fun (and hot!) e-session with Monique and Aaron. These two crazy love birds were a blast to work with. They defined what I mean by “all about you”. My favorite part of the session was photographing Monique and Aaron at their apartment, where they had everything from Nerf guns and Guitar Hero games to Transformer action figures and a killer workstation room. I’m very jealous of Aaron; not only because he gets to design video games for his job. But he has Monique, who loves to play games just as much as him!

What really caught my attention with Monique and Aaron when I first met them was simply how happy they were to be with each other and how sincere they acted towards me. I can’t ever be thankful enough for being blessed with wonderful couples like M + A. It’s what drives me to stay up all night after the e-session/wedding and get these images up on the blog within 24-36 hours. To Monique and Aaron: thank you both for inviting me not just into your home, but also into your lives. I can’t wait to photograph your wedding in about a month!

First off, please let me send a belated Happy Mother’s Day wish to all the mothers in this world. They are the heart and soul of who we are and what we do in our life. I hope each and every one of you had a chance to celebrate yesterday with your mom or at least let her know how awesome she is :).

As for me, my mom and I decided to have a two-in-one celebration on Mother’s Day. We had my closest aunts and uncles over at my parents’ house and threw a very small party to celebrate both Mother’s Day and me graduating with my Masters from USC this coming Friday. I won’t be attending my graduation and actually already got my diploma a few months ago.

But my mom wanted some nice images of me in my cap and gown with the family. The deal was I wouldn’t have to walk on stage if I took these photos :). Special thanks to one of my uncles for taking the shots of me with everyone else. Here’s just a few of the many (and I do mean MANY) different group permutations we tried heh heh. I felt like a bride in a wedding dress taking formal shots :P.

With my lovely parents and sister:

With the young lady that raised me when my parents went to work:

With my family, uncle, aunt, and cousin (from my dad’s side):

Thought I’d let everyone else be a graduate/wizard/Jedi for a day, especially the little ones here:

My parents actually never had a chance to finish high school back in Burma. They had to leave school and start working at a very young age to support their siblings and parents. So it meant the world to me that I got to see them in a cap and gown. I dedicate all my academic years and so-called achievements to my parents :). Don’t they look very smart and young?

The yellow thing across the front is to symbolize a Masters’ gown. If you work towards a doctorate (Ph.D), then you also get this super cool looking staff/wand that you can smack people around with. I saw all the engineering professors hold one at my undergraduate commencement in 2005. That alone is worth going to school for another 2-4 years; NOT!

My mom and one of her younger sisters:

A few details shot…

So it may appear as though Mother’s Day turned into a graduation celebration, which seems pretty unfair to my mom, right? And you might be wondering what I got her anyway. Well, it’s been 25 years in the making, but I got my mom a 24×30” enlargement canvas with one of her favorite 25th Anniversary images. She also got a 9.5×13” 50-page flushed mount, metal cover, leather bound, album! If this sounds like some product ad for these products…it is ;). Just kidding. We took these photos in the master bedroom:

Thanks mom: for being a product model…and pretty much paying for the canvas and album too :).

Before Henry the “photojournalistic wedding photographer”, there was the Henry that just loved taking random photos and putting one up per day on his old blog. It was around May of 2007 that I ventured into photographing weddings after a year of doing photography for fun and working with the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team as a photo intern. I can say without a doubt that the last year of my life has been the best one so far, mainly because of the wonderful individuals I’ve met and have gotten a chance to work with/for. It’s truly a blessing to have a “job” that you absolutely love and means the world to you.

To commemorate the one-year anniversary since I started weddings, I’d like to post up some of my favorite photo-a-day shots back when photography was just a hobby for me. Some of these were featured on my website that is now purely for weddings. Maybe you can see where I’ve drawn some of my inspiration for the wedding images from :). Could you take a guess on which places I went to take these photos?

As some of you may have heard over the weekend, a huge cyclone (named Nargis) hit Burma’s capital Rangoon last week. Rangoon, also known as Yangon in Burmese, is the birthplace of my parents, their relatives, and myself. The most recent update on CNN has the number of deaths exceed 15,000, although I’m praying it’s not nearly that high. I sat down with my parents at a computer yesterday reading the articles and watching the videos online. They recognized many of the places in the images shown on CNN, Yahoo, and many other sites.

What’s even more disturbing than the number of deaths is the amount of help the survivors are getting from their government, which is very minimal. You can see from the images the amount of devestation and destruction Cyclone Nargis has left in the Southeastern part of Burma. Rangoon is home to many of my relatives, including over half-a-dozen of my mom’s siblings. And of course there are thousands of starving children and adults. I can’t even start to imagine how things are right now.

At this time, I’m pleading each and every one of you that visit my blog to to help out in anyway you can. I’m making this post a “sticky” and will be at the top of my blog for the next several weeks. I’ll also be updating almost every day with updates on how all of us can help. Your time and any help you can provide (donation, spreading the word to others, volunteering in any services to aid the restoration of Burma, commenting or e-mailing me with links to anything new that you find, etc.) will be GREATLY appreciated by me. Please, please, please from the bottom of my heart, help my hometown country get back on its feet. Thank you SO MUCH!

Updated on 5/5/2008 at 11:10PM: I’m still looking for non-profit organization websites that are accepting donations but haven’t found any yet. In the mean time, I’d like to start things off by offering a few photography services where all the money will go towards helping the Burmese victims.

- Half-day portrait session for a single person or family with multiple locations and outfit changes (normal price of $500 but discounted to $350). You’ll get all the high-resolution images on a DVD with your favorite 20-25 retouched. Please go here for some samples. 100% of that amount will go towards this cause.

- Senior special: for yourself, with your group of friends, or for prom (thanks for the idea Shelly!). What better way to remember the memorable times with your closest friends from high school than a fun photo session at the places you grew up and hung out together? Only $50 per senior for 1-2 hours of photography. And you each get a copy of all the images! 100% of that amount will go towards this cause.

- Half-day engagement/bridal/day-after session for any couple; you don’t necessarily have to be getting married (normal price of $500 but discounted to $350). You’ll get all the high-resolution images on a DVD with your favorite 20-25 retouched. Please go here for some samples. A full-day session is also available for $500 (normal price is $800). 100% of that amount will go towards this cause.

- Wedding photography services and products. I’m pretty much booked for 2008 but still have a few days open. Please inquire about your wedding date because I still might be available! I’m also willing to extend this to any couple that’s getting married in 2009. You’ll get 10% off all final package pricing and 50% of the profit I make will go towards this cause.

If you or anyone you know is interested in any of these offers, don’t hesitate one second to contact me via e-mail: henry[at]henrychenphotography.com or phone: (626) 664-6735. I’ll post more later so please check back often!

Updated on 5/6/2008 at 12:02AM: I’d like to thank my sister Shelly for finding this site that’s not only accepting donations, but is also collecting all the latest news on this event: http://uscampaignforburma.org/cyclone-nargis-devistates-burma.

Updated on 5/6/2008 at 6:51PM: My friend Jeff sent me a few e-mails today with links to more sites: UNICEF and World Vision. Thanks Jeff!

Updated on 5/6/2008 at 11:42PM: My mom just called and told me that she got through to her siblings in Rangoon today, and that they are all OKAY! Yay! Although their homes and streets are damaged, all my relatives are still alive and not (severely) injured. Thanks to everyone that asked me about my relatives back home. It meant a lot and I really appreciated it.

Updated on 5/8/2008 at 11:22AM: Fellow DWF member Tamera posted a link with the latest news on one of the forums (thanks Tamera). According to the SFGate and many other news companies, the Burmese military and government are NOT allowing foreign aid to their citizens. Can you believe that? To quote U.S. spokesman Richard Horesy, “What is critically needed at this point is for Myanmar authorities to open up to a major international relief effort,” said U.N. spokesman Richard Horesy. “If that is not done quickly, there is a major risk that there will be a second phase to this disaster where large numbers of people will die of communicable disease.” I encourage you all to read this latest update.