EDIT: Happy Valentines Day (belated). If any couples out there got engaged that day, be sure to look me up at kennykim.com. Hee hee, this is a shameless plug-in for my photography business. I’m finally back in chi-town. Strange to say, but I kinda missed the cold weather.

Big shout out to my small group down at Champaign to took time to visit my house while I was away to clean the snow off my driveway! Of course they then crashed there to study but I don’t mind that at all. Thanks guys!

I’ll be in the city all weekend shooting at the NCAA national indoor tennis tournament. Give me a shout if you want to hang out at nights. I’ll post some tennis pics from the trip later on.
END EDIT

I decided to take some time during this trip to spend some time in San Francisco. “Frisco”, as the locals call it, is a beautiful city. Here you get the best mix of the ocean, mountain as well as the metro life-style. Big props to my new friend Ling and my old college buddy John Lim for showing me around. Because of them I got to see some cool parts of Frisco that I probably wouldn’t have discovered on my own. I’ll try to add some captions with the photos:

Apple’s headquarter (aka Mothership) is located 2 minutes from my hotel. I took a short visit
to their campus and bought some sounvenirs.

I think my favorite attraction was Alcatraz

Welcome to The Rock!

The locker room

This building reminds me of a building in the movie The Rock

   

From the warden’s office, you can see the entire Bay area

This is the real shower room. The one you saw in the movie The Rock is hollywood-made.

About to experience what solitary confinement is like…for 1 minute – the guard shuts the door really hard creating a banging noise – when you hear the slam, you almost get goose bumps.

In 1962, group of 3 guys successfully escaped the prison – but no one knows what happened to them. Here’s the cell that they broke out of – noticed the hole under the sink? It was dug w/ a spoon.

People listened attentively as the guide told us many stories about the Rock

The famous Fisherman’s Wharf
   

This guy at the Houdini shop made a card levitate. I couldn’t believe it.

Sea Lions hanging out by Pier 39 – they are hilarious!

Inside an actual submarine

Believe it or not, I witness the coast guards pulling a dead man out of the water. You can’t really tell here but here’s a link to the article that talks about it.




   

This is the Palace of Arts – place where Chris Sotelo proposed to Marah Catanus – this place was enchanting and impressive I must say…Good job Chris!

Sunset in the Pacific Ocean…

John took me to a hole in the hall Thai restaurant on corner of Geary & Leavenworth – the food was awesome & cheap!

By the way, congratulate him. He just got engaged over the weekend! Way to go!

And I leave you with a view of Frisco from Twin Peaks

PS. Does anyone have any images of snow from Champaign storm? Please post or email them to me. I’m really curious to see it for myself.

EDIT: Snow Day – Will someone post photos of the winter snow in Champaign or send me some over email? I’m really curious to see what caused U of I to close school. Thanks. END EDIT

Life Changers International Church – Hoffman Estates, IL

Despite the freeeeeeezzzing weather, over 3,500 gathering at this beautiful church auditorium to the much anticipated concert. Chris Tomlin has risen exponentially in popularity over the past couple of years – not just in Christian industry but across all streams of music genre. I had the privilege of photographing the event. The night opened up with a special guest Johnny Park who came from Ireland. The crowd fell in love with his irish accent and sense of humor. He warmed up the stage for Chris Tomlin to enter. After few minutes, Tomlin came on and he rocked the house. Then came the message. Louie Giglio delivered a powerful sermon on How Great is Our God, illustrating his main points with stars found in the universe and comparing earth to them. The purpose was to point out the fact that we are not that significant in this world and that we need to see the majesty and the greatness of our God. As the message soaked into the audience’s heart, Chris quietly re-entered the stage and ended the night drenching everyone’s soul in worship.

I think everyone there would agree that it was a great concert/worship. Word of God and praise mixed together results in powerful worship. I got blessed watching people worshipping God for who He really is. I also ran into lot of familiar faces (my previous and future wedding couples, alumni’s, a cute youth group girl name Claire, old friends, etc.) I even ran into the entire Cho clan!

And I apologize to others who I didn’t get a chance to talk to. There were so many people there! I also couldn’t take any photos of Chris after the concert as he had to fly out to LA to attend the Grammy’s immediately after the show.

Okay, now that you’ve been prepped about the concert, here are some photos to help visualize the event. Please do not use these without permission. Thanks!

   
   

   





















2007