Although this blog has served me well, the first change I am making is my current blog now has MOVED!!  My blog now has its own domain name.  Please make note of this new address:

www.JoyfulHeartByUyenBlog.com

If you have subscribed to my blog, I have added you onto my new blog address so you should still continue to receive updates of recent sessions from me.  For others, please note of my new blog address and visit me there!!  This will be the last post at this address.

I LOVE my new blog design and excited for you to see it.  I think it will showcase the pictures better and also much easier to read.  Also, it reflects my style much better. Please make sure to hop on over there and bookmark it or subscribe to it so that you can get the latest sessions updates and thoughts from me. I’d love to get your feedbacks too!

The other change I am also making is JoyfulHeart also now has its own Facebook page.  I have started making this transition several weeks ago and soon  I will no longer post any photography-related stuff on my personal facebook account.  You can now see sneak peeks on my new photography facebook:

Be sure to visit me and become a friend by clicking “LIKE” when you are on the page.

http://www.facebook.com/JoyfulHeartPhotographybyUyen

I am very excited to approach the season as these changes will enable me to communicate better with you.

Thanks so much and see you over my new blog page!

Uyen

It’s been a much-needed Winter nap and I am so excited to start up my season again!!  I love this job because  I have the opportunity to use this time to rest up and do a lot of behind the scene in my work.  Most importantly, it allows me to take a break and spend that time with my family.  Now I am ready to come out of hibernation, excited to start my season, and I can feel my creative juice flowing again…

What I have been up to this Winter…

As you can see by some of my postings this winter, that I took on a side project going to several locations at Women’s Care Center to capture “A Day in the Life”. It’s been a wonderful opportunity for me to capture images that are raw and real.  It’s also been a great opportunity to collaborate with this great organization and  to help them share their message using pictures that represent joy that exists in these centers. I am also happy to announce that they will be using 20 of my images enlarged in big poster size for an upcoming fundraising event.

On the educational side, I took a Lighting class.  As a Natural Light Photographer, I depend heavily on the natural scene and environment for my lighting.  Since I am on-location, most of my work is outside and I want the feeling to be very natural; therefore, I rarely use flash.  This was a great class to help me learn more about lighting. I am planning on taking more classes like that.  I have to say, I do look at light now in a brand new way.

On the business front, I have launched a business page on Facebook for JoyfulHeart Photography by Uyen.  If you get a chance, hop on to my new business page and “like” me to become my friend.  I will no longer post pictures of my Photography business on my personal page so I am encouraging everyone to become a friend of my new Business page. When I first started my business, posting everything on my personal Facebook page makes sense. As my business grew quickly, I think there needs to be a healthy separation between the two so starting a business page just makes sense.  I am really happy how my business FB page turned out so check it out if you get a chance.

Lastly, I want to announce that there’s a new arrival to our family. She’s so perfect.  She makes me an extremely happy Mama. Yes this is true….she doesn’t cry much, she doesn’t need her diaper changed, and she doesn’t need to be fed.  She’s beautiful and does exactly what I want her to do.  My heart just goes pitter-patter whenever I hold her.  She arrived Wednesday, May 4 and she’s sooooo perfect for me.  I want to welcome Betty Lou, my ohhhh ohhhh so perfect 50mm f 1.2 lens.  Oh yes!  This Mama is in love with her beautylicous baby….   I am nuts over her!  I think only a photographer who reads this would ever understand me!!  That’s okay….just know that I always strive to give you the best quality pictures and this baby is so beautylicious and I can’t wait to introduce you to her at my photoshoots!!!

Finally, I am busy meeting clients for initial consultations and customizing their sessions for this Spring-Summer.  I want to mention that because it is very important to me to give my clients the utmost of my time and service, I only accept a limited number of clients each month; therefore, my schedule fills up quickly and my availability is very limited.  If you are interested in a session with me, please do not wait if you have a specific day in mind. 

To end this, I can’t do a post without more pictures.  I am including some pictures of my Info Pkts that I’ve been working on.

Enjoy this beautiful weather and be sure to stop by my new FB to say hello!!

I enjoyed this challenge so you may see me doing more of this on Fridays!!!

This is the Before picture. By looking at this picture, the first thing I would want to do is bring out the vibrant colors in this pictures.  The background has great textures but it also took the attention away from the subject. By cropping in, and blur the background slightly, the eyes are now drawn to the subject and his beautiful blue eyes.   

Here’s the final result after I played around with it. I also edited a little funky to reflect the mood of his cool shirt and attitude!! I started in Lightroom to slightly enhanced exposure and then did the rest of my image processing in Photoshop CS5 to paint on the colors.

To get ideas of how other photographers edited this photo, hop on over to IHeartFaces! 

From time to time, I join in on the fun at I Heart Faces.  If you are not sure what it is, check it out!  If you have a love for photography,  it’s a great place to learn and be inspired by many great photographers.

This week’s Photo Challenge: “Anything but a Face”. The Photo must have a person in it but should  include  “anything but the face’. 

This is a photo of my daughter who makes our hearts flutter with joy.  

 lyrics from “Better than a Hallelujah”

by Amy Grant

Sometimes we are in a stage of our life where things may not always lined up perfectly like we had hope for.  

Sometimes our situation just gets more difficult.

Sometimes we do not know how to deal with the unexpected.

Sometimes we have no one to turn to.

In these moments ….

We just want to be heard.

We just want to be loved.

We just want guidance. 

We just want someone to hear the honest cry of our breaking hearts. 

God truly works in miraculous way providing love for those who desires Him.  In our darkest moments, God hears us. As we pour out our miseries, God just hears melody. 

I love that we don’t have to be perfect for Him to love us. 

He loves us and provides for us and all we have to do is have the desire for Him.  He just wants us to seek Him and the rest He will provide.

This couldn’t be more true what my heart feels for all the Women’s Care Centers that I have visited.  

As you recall,  I visited the Elkhart location back in August, and visited Notre Dame Ave last month to capture “A Day in the Life” at each of these centers.

As I drove up to a cute blue house situated downtown, Niles, Michigan, I felt an instant warm and inviting  feeling the moment I walked in.

What a beautiful organization Women’s Care Center represents for those who come there to get help. 

A kind place that takes you my your hand and gently guides you through a difficult situation. 

I saw the beauty of Life.

I experienced true Joy that resides in these centers.

I heard  melody.

I feel blessed to be part of this project capturing “A Day in the Life” at these centers. 

To the silent angels who have contributed financially, to the volunteers and staff for their unconditional love and time, to the talents of individuals who have created a vision for this center… I hope this video and all the videos I have created for the Women’s Care Centers help you truly see the life you have blessed, and the joy that you bring to these individuals.  Please continue to support this wonderful organization.  Your giving continue to spread in so many ways that you will never realized.  Life.Joy.These exist there everyday.

Click below to view video: Please make sure your sound is on.

 Women’s Care Center {Niles, Michigan}.

Mark Harris—Lyrics from “Find Your Wings”

The quote above couldn’t be a more fitting quote of what Women’s Care Center represents.  This Winter, I am honored to be collaborating  with the Women’s Care Center to visit 3 more of  their centers and to capture “A Day in the Life” at each of these centers.  If you recall, last August,  I blogged about my experience at the Elkhart center. The pictures I captured at that center were then used in a video at a Benchmark Fundraising event to raise awareness of the center.  Together with the leadership from a group of amazing women, the help of volunteers, financial contributions from donors, and talents from local artists—– using their  time, treasure, and talent  the evening  generated close to $300,000 and in  the last 6 years brought close to $2,000,000. 

When I was  approached with capturing “A Day in the Life”  for 3 more locations , I asked them to share with me their vision as to why capturing “A Day in the Life” was important.  With this response, I felt a leap in my heart and knew right away that this was a project that I want to collaborate.  

 “The purpose of the images are to tell our story, to show the joy that often exists at our centers and to encourage people to make contributions.”

Alot of the clients who come to “the Women’s Care Center have lives that are messy.  They are typically single and without resources.  They don’t see a way for a baby to fit in. Sometimes the counselors don’t even know what to say as they listen to women whose problems seem insurmountable….they listen and love unconditionally.  And in the process, somehow, young women fall in lofe with their unborn babies.  When women fall in love with their  babies, their babies are saved from abortion.  In the process, the mothers are saved as well.”  A. Manion, President.

This video is a glimpse of what my eyes saw that day at the Women’s Care Cemter, Notre Dame Ave location. I hope that all those who have contributed to this organization realize what a huge impact you have made and that you truly have been their angels. I look forward to visiting 2 more of their locations and blogging about them in the upcoming months. 

 Click below to see video

WCC: A Day in the Life.

These are some of my favorite images from that day to let you see the true beauty and joy of life.

This week’s theme: Best Face in 2010. 

The hardest thing about this week’s challenge is that I can only submit one photo as my Best Face in 2010.  I had a hard time narrowing down to even top 10 in 2010 let alone just pick one as my favorite. After just going back and forth between all the pictures, my heart kept gravitating towards this particular photo.

There’s something so fresh, pure,  sweet and nice about this photo. Her face reminds me of an American Girl Doll.  It makes me think of the saying, 

What are little girls made of?

What are little girls made of?

Sugar and Spice,

And all that’s nice;

That’s what little girls are made of.

If you get a chance, click on the link below to see other wonderful face submissions.

When my client approached me with this idea for her family’s Christmas card, I loved the inspiration!  She had purchased a pair of knickers for her husband the Christmas prior and thought we could some how incorporate that into the session.  We decided that we should go for a vintage-inspired golf theme and the rest was history!

These are the types of sessions that I enjoyed. I loved it when there’s a theme or inspiration. It keeps me challenged and I love a good challenge.  I post edited this session very subdued colors to create back in time feel. 

On the Christmas card it said: ” Best wishes FORE the Holidays and a TEE-rific New Year!”.

Here are some of my fav photos from the session:

I am a little behind in my blogging of some of my Fall sessions due to rush of Holiday orders and custom design Christmas cards for my clients. I have 2 sessions I will be posting to catch up. Also, look for a post on some new updates I will be introducing for Spring as I am updating my informational package.   

This session was one of the last ones I did in November.  We’ve known “S” for awhile and he and his sister used to babysit our children.  I was looking forward to this session and photographing “S”.

It was a chilly day when we did this photoshoot.  Surprisingly we still had alot of colors and the leaves were still on alot of the trees.  ”S” was so patience with me as I made him run numerous times so that I can test out a photography technique I learned that I knew he would like for his Senior Portrait session with me.

In each of my sessions, I try to reflect it to my client’s personality.  Since running is a big part of S activities, I wanted to try out a technique I learned with my camera to show motion and movement called Panning.   

Below are some of my favorite pics from the session.

Good luck to you as you are finishing your senior year, S.  I wish you a wonderful year ahead as you head into a year full of new adventure.

“I’ll have tears as you take off, but I”ll cheer as you fly.” ~Mark Harris from Find Your Wings

I recently came across this song,”Find Your Wings” by Mark Harris and fell in love with it. Here’s part of the lyrics:

“May passion be the wind that leads you through your days…”

“And conviction keep you strong, guide you on your way…”

“May there be many moments that make your life so sweet…”

“I pray that God will fill your heart with dreams…”

“And that Faith gives you the courage to dare to do great things…”

“I am here for you whatever this life brings…”

“I”ll have tears as you take off but I’ll cheer as you fly…”

These children are the most hug-giving kids. They must know that I love love receiving hugs! I enjoyed every moment playing with them.  I am so blessed with so many loving families in this photography journey.  I look forward to my photoshoots like a little kid because I get play with them.  The G Family received me with such warm and loving hearts.  I feel so loved as I keep getting hugs from the kids while taking their pics. What more can I ask for in a “job”?  

Thank you so much for blessing me with the joy of affection from your family. Thank you for trusting me capturing your family’s beautiful moments together. May God bless you and may He continue to guide your children as they soar high in their wings.