The days when I have to think about what’s for dinner are back. After spending nine months with us, my mom and dad went back to their home in Hong Kong last night. This officially put an end to my spoiled days, at the same time,  marked the start of a whole new era in my household.

Since I no longer know where things are in my house, I spent half a day today looking for kitchen towels, mac and cheese, paper plates, and the cleaning lady’s phone number. And then I realized that cooking skill is not like riding a bike, you actually lose it if you don’t use it, consciously or subconciously. Doesn’t matter. So instead of cooking dinner tonight, I proudly showed Ricky my accomplishment when he came home. I covered my kitchen counter with a layer of kitchen towels, then with another layer of paper towels. Woohoo! Keeping my fingers crossed that the counter will stay clean until the cleaning lady comes, without me cleaning.

Mom and dad, have a nice “vacation”! Don’t miss us too much. Just kidding. Please miss us. A lot!

We were quite happy with this tripod picture…

It was my honor to be invited by Danny Smith, Director of Purple Ark Ministries, to document their annual Thanksgiving Day Dinner event. Purple Ark is a ministry that focuses on helping the poor and the homeless. This was my second year to participate, with a thankful heart. Despite the rain, many volunteers from different churches came together, to ensure that anyone who walked in could receive a free meal, free bag of food, free prayers, and best of all, free salvation.

The hardworking food crew…

Signing bibles to give out to kids…

When I first came to America and crossed the street alone for the first time, I was shocked and felt helpless.  In Hong Kong where I grew up, cars are to stop completely without exception if the pedestrian signal is on. So after I came here, I didn’t know what to do when I saw the cars kept turning and going in front of me even when the pedestrian traffic light signals that it’s my turn to go. I stopped in the middle of the crossing and almost ran back thinking that I will get run over by cars if I don’t. This was how I felt when we did a studio photo shoot last weekend.

We went to a home studio put up by Ricky’s cousin Bill, and did I say cultural shock? For the first few minutes, I was holding my camera and didn’t know what to do. Feeling a bit lost in space, but yet so excited like when you go to a different country for the first time. Everything is a new and mind-blowing experience.

Since I am an on-location photographer, it feels weird to be shooting in front of a piece of paper. My mind is already pre-programmed to finding light and finding background as I shoot. When I don’t have these two things to do, I felt lost like an ant who loses its buddy in front. So after circling around for a bit, Bill’s family and us managed to exchange a few family shots. Since no kids will stand in front of a piece of paper for too long, and the men will also run as fast as they could from the front of the camera, I was left there by myself with these faces.

Despite the cultural shocks, I had fun! Thanks to Bill and Ricky who didn’t run away completely to take these shots of me.

Ricky in action…

My 2010 wedding season has officially ended. This means no more weddings until 2011. While I am still busy wrapping up the last couple of weddings, I do look forward to taking a short break from wedding work. Trust me, my home will be glad to get my attention back, for a little while. It will also be a good time to renew my mind, re-position my business, take some photos of my kids, and read some good books.  That’s the goal. What I have experienced in the past 6 months though, was beyond what these words can express.  If I have the time, I will share more in a later blog post.

I said it. Abused by amusement is the summary of our family day at Disneyland. I didn’t get to take a lot of photos because as I said, we were being abused. I hesitated to further torture ourselves, but managed to take a few snapshots and video clips. Here is a short slideshow that shows our not-so-adventurous day. (Before you hit “play”, turn down the volume on the video, somehow the music came out way to loud.)