I am here in Pittsburgh, PA to attend a seminar. I had my cup of Starbucks next to me getting ready to blog about my experience here so far when I heard of this tragic news on Jen Kroll’s blog.

Steven Curtis Chapman’s daughter, Maria Sue, was tragically killed in a car accident last night. She was accidently struck by her brother drivng an SUV. I cannot fathom or imagine what’s going on in their family right now. If you can please lift up a prayer for them.

Here is a link to one of the many articles that are currently out there right now: Link

Steven’s latest CD, This Moment, contains a song called “Cinderella” that he composed for his daughters to remind himself and to others out there not to miss the precious moments in your child’s life as they are growing up. I’ve been listening to this song over and over this morning wondering what he might be thinking and going through right now.

Here’s a video clip about Steven describing the song:

Here is the video him performing this song:

And here’s the lyric to that song:

She spins and she sways to whatever song plays,
Without a care in the world.
And I’m sittin’ here wearin’ the weight of the world on my shoulders.
It’s been a long day and there’s still work to do,
She’s pulling at me saying “Dad I need you!
There’s a ball at the castle and I’ve been invited and I need to practice my dancin’”
“Oh please, daddy, please!”

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
‘Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh I will dance with Cinderella
I don’t wanna miss even one song,
Cuz all to soon the clock will strike midnight
And she’ll be gone

She says he’s a nice guy and I’d be impressed
She wants to know if I’d approve of a dress
She says “Dad, the prom is just one week away,
And I need to practice my dancin’”
“Oh please, daddy, please!”

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
‘Cause I know something the prince never knew
Ohh-oh ohh-oh, I will dance with Cinderella
I don’t wanna miss even one song,
Cuz all to soon the clock will strike midnight
And she’ll be gone
She will be gone.

Well, she came home today
With a ring on her hand
Just glowin’ and tellin’ us all they had planned
She says “Dad, the wedding’s due six months away
And I need to practice my dancin’”
“Oh please, daddy please!”

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
‘Cause I know something the prince never knew
Ohh-oh ohh-oh, I will dance with Cinderella
I don’t wanna miss even one song,
(even one song)
Cuz all to soon the clock will strike midnight
And she’ll be gone

Here is a site that you can visit to get to meet Maria.

F-Stop Beyond Interview

When Ron Dawson, the founder and director of Cinematic Studios contacted me for an interview on his weekly online show F-Stop Beyond, I as floored. At first I thought he might have asked the wrong person. So I thought to myself, wait, is there another Kenny Kim that I know?! Any ways, it was such an honor to be included in the names that were on that show (Bob & Dawn Davis, Jesh De Rox, Jose Villa, Gene Higa, Jeff & Julia Woods, Jim Garner, to name a few). If you want a good laugh, feel free to click on the image above and listen to the interview. Please leave comments on his website and show some love for awesome Ron Dawson!

Big thanks to Ron Dawson for this opportunity!

UPDATE: You can listen to the interview directly here now:

This weekend was more than I had asked for. If you read my previous post, then you read about my fun encounter with Hugh Grant – but better than that, I got to meet with so many photographers in just three short days! Even if all the stars lined up, these meetings would’ve not been possible in this short period of time.

First things first, big congrats to Olivia & Andrew Lui! Andres Valenzuela, Vanessa Scavone & I got to photograph a fantastic wedding this saturday in Bloomfield, NJ. Thank God for the weather! Friday and Sunday was pouring in rain but Saturday God decided to take a break and graced us with an amazing day of sunshine and cool breeze! Here’s a sample of what’s to come:

Since my arrival here on Wednesday, I got to meet and hang out with so many talented photographers. It felt like WPPI all over again:

From L to R: Yours Truly, Phil Mantas, Katie & Chris Humphreys, Jason Groupp, and Andres Valenzuela.

L to R: Rebecca Crumley (The Knot photo editor), Moi, & Victor Sizemore

I also found out Jose Villa & Joel Serrato was in town. So bunch of us got together for some good ol’ NY style diner food.

After a nice greasy meal, we were a happy bunch! (From L to R):
Jason Groupp, Jose Villa, Joel Serrato, Moi, Mel Barlow, Carlos Varela, Andres Valenzuela & Jenn Davis.

Carlos had a high-tech polaroid film camera that apparently even Jose “Mr. I Shoot Film Only” Villa had hard time using. (j/k)

Here’s Jason using the good old traditional point and shoot

Then we hung out at Jason Groupp’s cool studio for a bit. Here’s Joel & Jose chillin’ on the couch…

Incase you didn’t know, Jose was just awarded as one of top 10 wedding photographer by American Photo. His work is breath-taking. If you get a chance, do yourself a favor and go check out Jose’s work. By the way, why is Jose not smiling here?!

Here are some more random shots from NY.

I think this is a dog?!

Couple of child models from Milan, Italy

An Italian photographer that was shooting the kids. He was shooting with a Mamiya – probably doing some fashion shoot. Nice camera!

Good times… I think my flight’s about to take off soon so I better sign off. Until next time!

Future’s so bright we gotta wear shades

Three blind photographers….ummm, not good.

JK!!

This was from Andy and Olivia’s rehearsal dinner last night. Good times at a really great authentic Cuban restaurant! All the groomsmen got some sweet shades, so we decided to borrow them for a bit. (This is Vanessa Scavone reporting live from NJ!)

I’ve been in NY for the past couple of days. I flew in on wednesday to cover an awesome wedding this weekend in NJ. I’ve been staying at my fellow photographer and friend Andres Valenzuela. He lives upstate new york in a small city called Nyack. It’s a great little town actually and I’ve enjoyed my stay here so far. Just wanted to quickly update you guys with some photos and captions of what I’ve been up to:

As soon as I got off the plane, Andres was waiting for me at the airport – we headed straight into Soho area and met up with Jason Groupp, Chris & Katie Humphreys, and Phil Mantas. It was awesome because I’ve always wanted to meet Chris & Katie. They are photographer couple from Santa Barbara and I’ve been following their blog. They just happened to be in town that weekend so having lunch with them was a treat. We ate at a local joint pub/cafe place called Fanelli’s. It’s been around for a long time and apparently lot of folks enjoy coming here for a nice meal…

Eating Lunch w/ Hugh Grant…
So at the restaurant there was someone sitting across from me sitting at a bar. I didn’t realize who it was until he turned around to get up. It was Hugh Grant. So I got up and told Andres to follow me w/ my camera so that I can get a photo with him. I asked him and he politely declined. I found out after folks in NY don’t generally request for photos. Andres managed to get a photo of Hugh as he was walking away. Well, u don’t see much but that’s Hugh Grant. I wanted to tell him one of his movie inspired me to be a wedding photographer but he never gave me the chance to explain. Oh well, it was still good times.

Here’s our group after lunch. From L to R (me, Phil Mantas, Katie & Chris Humphreys, Jason Groupp & Andres Valenzuela) After lunch some of us went back to Jason’s cool studio to hang out for a bit. That night I met up with Tim Eunice for dinner along with Seonhae, one of the bridesmaid from the wedding. Sunny Tsang was there too and sat next to us during dinner. Talk about small world!

Then on thursday I had a lunch appointment with The Knot Magazine photo editor Rebecca Crumley. I went back to Soho area (Grand & Broadway) and we went to a nice local restaurant called Spring Street Natural. Victor Sizemore, a fabulous photographer from Orange County also happened to be in town this weekend. When he found out I was in NY, he contacted me and joined us for the second half of our lunch.

Here’s a photo of me, Rebecca & Victor. Good times!

Victor had an engagement session to shoot that afternoon and he let me tag along – I thought it was a good idea to watch how he does things since Ill be shooting a wedding with him next week in Chicago. It was fun and insightful to watch him in action! Here are couple shots that I captured today.

Victor in action…

Can you guess where this is?

More random photos from Thursday…

Tribute to Hard-working New York citizens
Today I also got to meet two New Yorkers that work hard and love what they do. I have so much respect for guys, regardless of what they do, that love their work. I met Donald, the bus driver. He’s 48 and has been driving the bus for over 22 years. He was nice and we chatted the whole time on my way back from Manhattan.

The other person is Frankie. He’s the owner of Tarantella, a local pizza restaurant. Everyone that walks into his shop calls him by his first name and you can just tell by the smile on his face that he love what does. He’s owned this restaurant for over 12 years now and still having fun. To guys like Donald & Frankie, we salute you!

UPDATE: LORD OF THE RINGS

Kenny, Shane & I had fun shooting another wedding on Sunday. I let these two guys loose with the wedding rings and they disappeared. When I found them, this was what they were up to:

They were having so much fun but I had no idea what they were trying to do until I saw this later that night:

Not bad huh? Good times! Ok, I have to drive Shane to the airport in like 5 hrs so I better get some sleep. Nite!

END UPDATE

We just got back from shooting Brian & Annabelle’s wedding. It’s late and I have another wedding to shoot tomorrow w/ my friends Shane & Kenny Nakai, but just wanted show you some images from today’s wedding. Brian and Annabelle had such a beautiful wedding.

Annabelle was stunning!

She was working the camera!

This shot can be turned into a Korean Drama Poster!

Shane & Bob were enjoying themselves little too much. Joking aside, Bob showed us some amazing lighting techiques. We applied several of them for some creative shots with the couple.

Here’s a group shot of us. Can you say good times?!

I would love to show you some more photos but I need to sleep/get ready for another wedding tomorrow. Good nite!

Due to last minute change in plans, I ended up having a free weekend. It was nice not having to work on a weekend to just enjoy some time because starting next week, I have a gig every weekend until August. It worked out perfect also because my good friends from college were having a mini-get together for some basketball and dinner. We’ve been buddies since college and we still try to play some basketball here and there. I can’t believe some of these guys have kids now and are running around every where.

Meet Jonathan – Tom’s oldest. I never met a kid who’s so happy. So fun to play with.

Joe Jun thinks he’s a celebrity… at least he acts like one every time I point my camera at him…

Meet Jaiden – a.k.a. Joe Han Jr. He’s got these long eye lashes that will make any ladies jealous. He also has the cutest smile. (Believe it or not, he reminds me of myself when I was a baby – I was darn cute, just like him. I just don’t have any photos to prove it.

Uh….why is dad rubbing his nose all over me?!…

I can get any wedding party to laugh but when it comes to my friends, it’s little more difficult. I think because these guys knew me before I became a photographer so it might be weird for them to see me as one. This was the best I could do. All of us outside of Joy Yee’s restaurant after dinner.

Sometimes the best moments are the ones you capture right after a regular posed shot.

Melissa loves to laugh. Joe loves to make people laugh. But Joe will not give you a normal smile. Good luck to whoever is going to photograph their wedding.

Meet Ella & Ashley. These two munchkin’s have been staying at my house with their mom while I was gone most of this past month. I have a house in Champaign that I barely use. I was glad they were able to stay and take care of it.

Ashley is a very outgoing, friendly and funny. Her personality reminds me alot of her famous dad.

Weather was amazing this past week so I decided to walk around U of I’s campus and take some random photos. It’s good/fun to take photos for yourself. This is when I try to sharpen and practice my skills. I was experimenting with photoshop. Here’s a before and after photo:

BEFORE

AFTER – For this photo, I made two layers and then used combination of actions made by Totally Rad Actions. Their PS actions are pretty amazing and save me so much time! This particular image probably took me about 3 mins to render.

Now here are some really random shots around campus. The challenge was to use only one lens – my 24mm f/1.4L. So I had to really move and compose my shots.

This was as close as I can get before the squirrel said “ENOUGH!” and ran away. Who does he think he is? Joe Jun?

I made my friend Mike Lee drive me around that day.

Future clients?!

With a 24mm, you have to really get close to the subject to get shots like this. It’s a good exercise to do this in front of strangers. It helps you over come your fear – and makes it much easy to do during weddings! But you’ll find out most people are much more willing to be photographed than you think. Just smile and approach them!

I used to sit out on the quad like this gal all the time – except I didn’t study like her.

Just a random guy passing by me. Shot this one from my hips w/o looking.

Ok, hope you enjoyed these photos. Let me know what you think.

This weekend, I have 2 weddings to shoot. They are both going to be amazing weddings. I can’t wait. My friend Shane Melenbacker will be flying in to shoot with me, Bob Davis & Priscilla O’Sullivan. Then on Sunday Shane, Kenny Nakai & I will shoot another one together in the city. Can you say good times?!