Today I was invited to couple of my friends’ birthday parties. One was for Chris Sotelo celebrating his 25th – quarter of century mark! His birthday was actually on Thursday but since most of his friends are working, it was better to get together today. I got to spend a nice afternoon having lunch with the Filipino peeps (and some wanna-be’s). Those guys are so fun to be around. Here are some pictures from the lunch. Alex Roy was there with his camera so he took some other group shots which you can probably check on his blog or I’ll post them here when he sends me some.

What do I want for my birthday…

I should really just stick to normal smiles…

Group photos (courtesy of Alex Roy)

I love this picture…

Are all Filippinos good lookin’ like Rex?

Hmm…they are posing like they are engaged or something…

Doesn’t it look like I just photoshopped myself in between them from the top photo? Happy birthday bro. Go leave Chris a nice note on his blog.

Then I hurried off the Crystal Lake to celebrate Michelle Henke’s birthday. She has the same birthday as Chris and also turned 25…I mean 23 this year.

We thought it was suppose to be a surprise party so we were waiting for her to arrive in her Starbucks work clothes (She had just gotten off work there). But we realized she already knew about the party when she showed up all decked out!

Michelle pretending to act surprised…

Thanks to Tina Wei for organizing all this (I believe according to facebook, they are currently married to each other)

Here’s henke with some of her small group members and friends (Brian Royer – orange shirt – looks like he’s pregnant here)

Apparently she bet that Kansas was going to beat UCLA and go to the Final Four. Come on, we all know that was not going to happen. Here’s a group of guys she lost the bet to. So she reluctantly poses with the UCLA sign…

More pics with her friends…

Look closely… I think there’s something wrong Josh Cho’s face. Read all about it here

Happy birthday Michelle! Who knew good things can come out of Kansas?

Henke is now happy. Go leave her a nice comment!

Friday Night
It’s good to be back “home”. I finally got to relax for couple of days. I miss our church’s praise time, p.min’s sermons and even our worship band! It was so good to be part of the body again worshipping together.

Afterwards our small group went bowling with some other ISR small groups. It was fun to hang out with these guys again. These guys are so goofy and fun to be around.

On the way to bowling, I stopped by McDonald’s to grab a quick bite to eat. This is what I see pulling up next to me. I think this the rest of ABEL small group need to contribute to their small group fund and help this group get a car.

Getting ready for some pin action (I sucked today)

Cast Away part II. Wilson turns into a bowling ball

Check out Jessica Lee’s graceful form

Ed: Get off me Kenny. (Why do I look so lame)

Did she gutter or did she spare? Her reaction gives it away

David and I trying to intimidate the other teams. It obviously didn’t work. I got like 120 and David got…okay we won’t mention his score.

This is our booger/freshmen Pearl He

Chubby Bunny

Can bowling be this fun? I think so.

Good times! Thanks for the fellowship guys. Ok, I am tired like Yoda. Sleep I must. G’nite.

EDIT: Starting this blog entry, I will also be making a duplicate blog entry for wordpress blog. This one is nice because it allows you to leave comments without having an account. Plus all my colleagues use this so I wanted to be able to keep in touch with them with it. The link is: www.kennykim.com/blog/ :END EDIT

I’m so glad I got to attend this year’s WPPI Convention in Las Vegas. Since I spent few days in Vegas, you might expect be expecting to see pictures of the famous strip. But most of my photos will be of the people that I met at that convention. Going there I didn’t know what to expect. Part of me was nervous and part of me initially did not want to go because I was so exhausted from all the traveling I’ve been doing the past couple of weeks. But it was such a time well spent.

The people you see here might not be familiar faces to many of the readers here but they are some of the most iconical and influential figures in the photography industry today. I had the privilege of hanging out with them rubbing shoulders, making small talks and just build relationships. Not only that, I got to meet other fellow photographers across the nation. I will try to mention their names and links to their blog. They are such talented and fun guys to be around.

More than the good workshops I attended while I was here, what I treasured the most is the relationships and the network I was able to build with these guys. Who knows, we could be the next faces of photographers in the future wedding industry? Any ways, I’ll try to explain some of the photos here:

This is the only outdoor photo of Vegas you’ll see here. Paris/Bally’s was where the convention was held.

Everyone comes to Vegas to take a little bit of this home – but most people end up just contributing to the pile.

There were people everywhere dressed up in cool costumes such as this. I also took a photo with a showgirl but it might stumble some of you guys so I won’t post it here.

Here is Denis Reggie giving his talk. Denis Reggie is like the Michael Jordan of Wedding photography. He is responsible for coining the term “wedding photojournalism.” If you want to hire him for your wedding, you better have 50K saved up in your account.

Remember Joe Buissink from my previous blog? Passion? He still has it. How good is Joe? He was good enough to photograph Annie Leibovitz’s (one of the most influential photographer of all time) sister.

Here’s Kevin Kubota giving demonstration to his action tools on photoshop. Kevin, Denis and Joe were all on American Photo’s top 10 best wedding photographers list.

Here’s Gary Fong talking about his new product Whaletail. He convinced me to buy one. He is one of the most innovative, brilliant and successful photographer. He doesn’t shoot weddings anymore but he focuses his business skills to promote other things.

Here is David Jay giving his talk in front of hundreds of photographers. He is young but a key leader in this industry (not to mention a great guy). Check out his blog.

Joe Photo is a well respected and recognized face in this industry. Joe came into David Jay’s seminar and sat right next to me. He’s a unique and genuine. We talked softly about some things while David gave his seminar (sorry David). At the end he gave me a big hug. What a cool guy!

I also got to meet Mike Larson. Him and his wife run his business together and you should check out their work on their website – it is phenominal! He invited me to his photoshoot workshop on top of Bally’s rooftop! Unfortunately I couldn’t make it b/c of my flight time.

Here’s a guy that everyone will probably recognize. Mike Colon is such an open and honest guy. Even though he’s a big giant in this industry, he is very humble and has been influential in my life. I am definitely looking forward to attending one of his 4-day workshops in the near future.

Here’s Shannon Bryant – fellow talented photographer from Texas! We got to hang out and attend few classes together. Shannon got to meet our group under, shall we say, “interesting” circumstance. But she was really cool and all of us got along with her.

Here’s bunch of us hanging out with David Jay and just being goofy. Guy in the front is James – he popped in the very last second and made everything blurry!

One more photo with David Jay and Mike Colon’s assistant photographer Roseanna. (I do not know her last name – sorry Roseanna!)

I also got to attend Becker’s party. He threw this party to celebrate the opening of his online [b] school. I was one of his first students to attend his event “party of 5″ back in December. I got one of these shirts which I will be proudly wearing.

Becker’s a sharp guy with an eye for success. His work will leave you speechless.

This is Keats Elliott – I met her at Becker’s Party of 5. She used to be Gary Fong’s assistant but now works for Becker and Jessica Claire. She is super cool and it was great catching up with her again.

Another fellow Party of 5 attender Matt Sloan. Matt’s a great photographer from Phoenix. He works with his wife (video) and together they make a great team and couple!

Here’s Dane Sanders. He is the founder of Simple Photo TV (YouTube) of photography. Dane asked me to take some photos of him while he gives his seminar. You might see some of them on his blog in the near future.

Dane is part-time photographer and full-time pastor! Talk about being busy!

Jules Bianchi – photographer and fellow friend of Dane walked right up to him and took a photo of Dane during his talk. I think it took him off guard.

Here’s Dane showing us how he records most of his videos for his Simple Photo Minute updates.

Dane also took some time to chat with us afterwards. It was great getting to know him. This is David Burke by the way. He’s a good friend of mine and also a talented photographer from Pittsburg.

Lexar company invited Denis Reggie and Mike to come and speak about their work. Mike asked us to come and support him (as if he needs any) so the group of us went there and filled the seats – it was a sold out crowd! Mike thought it was cool that his name was next to Lynn Goldsmith and Denis Reggie. He wanted this photo taken.

Mike talking away about his images and his approach to photography

Everyone listening attentively to Mike…

Then Denis came on. I think more people showed up for Mike’s talk (thanks to us…kee kee)

These are the guys that attended (most of them – some of them I think just jumped in for the photo) Mike’s 4-day workshop. I got to spend most of my time with them and they are all gifted photographers. They helped make the WPPI experience unforgettable.

This is Mike’s assistant photographer Roseanna. I was so excited when I found out from she was from Chicago.

This is Mike’s close friend and photographer from Miami – Ray Santana. Ray and Mike team up together for big weddings. It was great getting to know him little bit.

I liked this picture of Corey McNabb and Ray. Corey’s renown international photographer that I got to meet through Mike Colon’s workshop group.

Finally this is Andrew Peterson. I know this is a bad photo of him – but it was so funny. He was the “leader” of our group. He’s a caring guy with sharp mind for business. He was generous and shared much about his business knowledge with me. I’d say in about a year or two, he will be one of the main speakers at WPPI. Mark my word!

One thing I forgot to mention is that I was shocked my how many fellow brothers and sisters (in Christ) were in this industry. Many of the guys I mentioned above honor and love the Lord. They have been my inspiration and example to live out my faith through my work!

With this, my 2 week trip comes to close. As I sit behind my desk at home, I’m just thankful for this opportunity that this trip brought me. I need to think, chew and pray about many lessons learn and see where things will take in the near future.

One final note, I have to give a BIG shout out to my buddy and tennis star Amer Delic. He recently make a loud splash in the ATP tour by ousting the current #4 player in the world Nikolay Davydenko. This win should boost his ranking to about #60 in the world. Go leave him a nice comment on his blog. Congratulations Amer. So proud of you!

2007