A few weeks back, my little niece turned three.  She had a huge party with tons of gifts.  Here’s some pictures from the party.  Lily had a Disney themed cake with Minnie and Daisy on top.  For a three year old, she had enough presents to open over a whole year.

This is my favorite image from the party: the three cousins: Lily, Jordan and Jett.  I was finally able to take a portrait of the three together.  They all get along pretty very.

Sincerely,

Kien – contact me if you need a portrait or wedding photographer in Orange County, Los Angeles, Inland Empire or other areas  in Southern California.

During the wedding season and throughout the year I regularly visit what I consider a wedding photographer’s best friend, my chiropractor and massage therapists.  Dr. Kevin Kroes, DC of Irvine Chiropractic Center and his team of massage therapists take extremely good care of me for those aches and pains after a hard day of shooting those weddings.  When I’m not shooting weddings, engagement sessions or family portraits, I’m editing photos, programming websites, databases and work other computer projects where my neck will get stiff and my muscles ache.  Before visiting Irvine Chiropractic Center, I was getting headaches every day, but recently I noticed that I wasn’t getting headaches frequently like a couple months ago.  So, I decided to talk to Dr. Kroes about being an Orange County Chiropractor as well as helping those with their problems.

** Please read.  There is a discount located at the end of this blog post.

Irvine Chiropractic Center
18017 Sky Park Circle
Suite F
Irvine, CA 92614
Office Hours: Mon-Fri, 9:00am-6:00pm
(949) 862-7499

How long have you been an Orange County chiropractor?
Dr. Kroes wrote: I have been in private practice now for 16 years.  Its gone by very fast.  In that time my practice has grown from just me (and my wife running the front desk) in a small 2-room office, to now having 6 employees and 7-treatment rooms.

Did you ever see a chiropractor when you were younger?
Dr. Kroes wrote: I myself started seeing a chiropractor when I was a freshman going to UCSB.  I suffered through high school with severe headaches but just assumed that weekly headaches were “normal”.  My morning routine was eat breakfast and take excedrin.  I did this for 3-years and probably consumed hundreds of excedrin and tyenol pills.

Then one day my brother who was working as a grocery clerk at the time, took me with him to see his chiropractor.  He was dealing with a lot of back pain due to his job.  While I was there, the chiropractor did an exam on me and discovered that the top part of my neck was out-of-alignment. He explained that my headaches were related to my neck being misaligned and he recommended chiropractic adjustments to fix it.  I decided to try it and it really worked!

Within two months my headaches were almost completely gone. Within a couple more months, they were completely gone.  That was 24-years ago and to this day, I no longer get headaches!  That early experience changed my life.

At the time, I was a pre-med student working as a surgical orderly at the hospital with plans on getting a medical degree.  Instead, after graduating I applied to chiropractic school and like they say…’the rest is history’.

What type of patients do you have?  Do you see any other wedding photographers?
Dr. Kroes wrote: I have many patients who now see me for all types of problems.  Many of those suffer with chronic back pain due to being on their feet all day.  One of my patients, who is a wedding photographer, is often on his feet for over 12-hours at a time.  He gets very little rest and must carry his photography and video equipment around for hours at a time.

Because he is self-employed he cannot afford to pass up jobs even when his back is hurting.  What I recommended to him as I do with others, was regular chiropractic care to keep his back in alignment, massage therapy to help reduce the stress in his muscles, and specific exercises and stretches that he can do at home to help strengthen his back and core.

For him, these simple recommendations helps reduce his back pain significantly and allows him to maintain his very rigorous schedule.

I am visiting Irvine Chiropractic Center on a regular basis.  When should someone visit a chiropractor regularly?
Dr. Kroes wrote: In my opinion, it is very important for everyone to see a chiropractor on a regular basis.  Chiropractic care has been proven to be very effective for so many conditions, including back and neck pain, headaches and migraines, dizziness and vertigo, and pinched nerves. The philosophy of chiropractic care is to try and help the patient without the use of prescription drugs and pain pills.

Chiropractors try to get to the root cause of the patient’s problem and correct it. Too often, prescription drugs and pain-killers simply cover or “mask” the underlying problem.

The fact is, your spine requires regular maintenance care.  The absence of symptoms (pain) does not always equal good health.  The best way to illustrate this is by reviewing the statistics on heart attacks.  Research reveals that in approximately 33% of all heart attacks the first symptom of the attack is death!  Many conditions in the human body develop silently and without notice.  Conditions such as heart disease, arthritis, high blood pressure and high cholesterol can take years to develop before you notice any symptoms. So on your “outside” you feel fine, but on the “inside”, things are not as healthy as they seem.

My point is this, there are many chiropractic conditions that develop in your spine “silently” and without notice.  The absence of symptoms (pain) in your spine does not always mean good health.  Think of chiropractic spinal adjustments like maintaining your car.  It’s recommended that you change your car’s oil every 3,000 or so miles.  For how long you ask?  For as long as you own the car!  The same goes for caring for your spine.  Whether to get a chiropractic adjustment weekly or monthly depends on each person’s specific health condition.  Remember, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.

Irvine Chiropractic Center is offering a new patient special.  If you mention my name, Kien Trinh and the “family and friends” special, you can come in and receive either:

A new patient examination and chiropractic treatment for only $45.00.   Irvine Chiropractic Center usually charge $150.00 for these two combined services so this is a great deal.  Or receive a free 1/2-hour massage gift certificate valid after your first visit.  You can only choose one of these offers, sorry not both!

Kien – contact me if you need a portrait or wedding photographer in Orange County, Los Angeles, Inland Empire or other areas  in Southern California.

As clients of a photographer, whether it would be a portrait photographer, an engagement photographer or wedding photographer, you need to understand the different types of images that are delivered to you at different stages of the delivery process. The three types of images are:

• SOOC
• Proof
• Final

The first type of image that your photographer may never let you see is the picture that comes straight-out-of-the-camera otherwise known as SOOC.  The SOOC images are untouched and they are not in their final form. The second type of image is the Proof.  Proof images are the ones that as a client of a wedding photographer, you will get to see and review.  You get to select from these images to go into your wedding album(s).  Proofs are often color corrected, have contrast boosted, cropped and/or sharpened.  Final images are those that are fully touched-up and are of higher quality.  These images may go into your wedding albums, signature album or blown up onto a canvas print.

The image below was taken with my backup camera, Canon 30D with the Tamron 28-75 f2.8 lens while we were at Legoland in Carlsbad.

The left image below is the SOOC image.  It came straight out of the camera with no corrections.  The image to the right of it is the Proof.  The SOOC image is darker than the proof.  Although it doesn’t look bad, it could use a little work.  The Proof was lightened, had contrast boosted and sharpened.

The image below is the Final version.  It is ready for professional printing.  This image took a bit of time to process.  Blemishes and dark circles were removed, skin was smoothen, the face and shoulder was lightened, flare from sun was enhanced, image was then converted to black and white, then whole image was sharpened and finally the eyes, nose and lips were enhanced.

I had a fun time at Legoland over the Labor Day weekend and hope you now have a better understanding of the different type of images available.

Sincerely,

Kien – contact me if you need a wedding photographer in Orange County, Los Angeles, Inland Empire or other areas  in Southern California.

A few week back, my friend John Leocadio and I photographed a beautiful outdoor beach wedding at The Yellow Umbrellas located at San Buenaventura State Beach in Ventura, CA.  The weather was a very pleasant 75 degrees making it extremely nice for us and all the friends and family members who attended Trisha & Joseph’s beautiful beach wedding.  Here are some photos from their lovely wedding.  The wedding venue info is located below for your convenience.  Be sure to check out The Yellow Umbrellas  if you’d like to have a beach wedding in Ventura.

The Yellow Umbrellas
San Buenaventura State Beach
Harbor Blvd & San Jon Road
Ventura, California

(805) 794-8427
info@theyellowumbrellas.com

Here are some photos from this very special wedding day for Trisha & Joseph!  If you’d like to have me photograph your wedding, click here to contact me!

We had the cutest flower girl for this wonderful wedding.

I love the way Trisha had her hair up.

The bridesmaids were absolutely gorgeous.

I had an awesome time shooting this wedding.  Congratulations Trisha and Joseph!  Thank you for having me as your wedding photographer.

Sincerely,

Kien – contact me if you need a wedding photographer in Orange County, Los Angeles, Inland Empire or other areas  in Southern California.

We met Kathy and Andy at Jenny’s house in LA for their baby shower and decided to have a maternity session.  The party was small, but very enjoyable.  Most of the invited guests were not able to make it.  What made this baby shower funny was that all the kids who came were all boys.  We had a bunch of little monsters running around the house creating havoc.

Kathy and Andy are expecting two bundles of joy this summer.  As you might have guessed by now, they are expecting TWIN BOYS!!!  So after chowing down on some food, the kids decided to take a swim in the pool while we went outside to capture some lasting images for the two of them.

Today is Jordan’s second birthday.  Jordan is an extremely energenic and happy guy.  Last weekend we took the family to the Griffith Observatory.  It was a very cloudy evening, but we were able to see Saturn from the telescope.  The light from Saturn traveled almost two hours to get to our planet.  We’ll have to go back and enjoy it another day since it was pretty hard with Jordan running around.  Here are some pictures taken from the observatory.

The year is Nineteen-Eighty.  I had just landed in Orange County via a year-long journey that began on a boat in Vietnam to the Philippines to Orange County, California.  The first friend I made was Hieu.  We were in the first grade.  He lived a few blocks away.  We used to cut through a long alley to get to our homes.  Over the years we grew up together collecting the first print of Transformers No. 1 to Spiderman, played video games and hung out.  There were good times and some bad times.  We went to the same junior high and part of high school together.  During college, we worked together and learned the ropes.  Since then, nine years past by.  We lost touch along the way before reuniniting again.  This past Saturday Hieu finally got married and I was there to capture some special moments of Elaine and Hieu’s special day.

This year we decided to take Paul to Disneyland for his birthday.  Only problem is that his birthday  was back in early March.  With all of the family being pick for most of the winter (I got sick three times) and with scheduling conflicts, our trip got delayed until this past Sunday.  Has anyone look at how much it costs to spend a day at Disneyland lately?  We purchased 2-Day Park Hopper Tickets for Southern California residents for the four of us plus free admission for the toddler.  Face value was a whopping $266 just for admission.  Don’t forget about the $12 parking fee.  Lucky we saved a couple dollars on the price of admission.  We packed a bunch of water bottles in the baby stroller and thus saved ourselves another $2.50 a bottle!  None of this includes food and merchandise we purchased!

Looking back at the first three plus months of this year, it’s been a crazy year so far with everyone getting sick and tons of doctor visits for the kids and me.  Luckily, we are all in pretty good shape right now.  We have a lot of to be thankful for.  The state of economy has been pretty dreadful, but we are still marching forward.  Every week of the year has gone by so quickly; we are all guilty of not taking the time to enjoy our family and kids.  Starting with this visit to Disneyland, we are trying really hard to make more time for ourselves and the kids.

Today, the wife and I visited a friend in the evening.  We haven’t seen here for more than six months now.  She has gone through a whole lot the past 5 months.  In a span of less than two months, she lost her brother, an uncle and then her father.  Losing a family member is really tough, but when you start losing them at a rate of one every other week, it just drains on you.  How she survived through this ordeal is beyond belief.  She is a real strong trooper.  It has been rough, but seeing her back to normalcy just makes our day and all our troubles go away.

And now… a picture of our little soon to be a terrible two at Disneyland…  You can find more pictures on my facebook page.  Click on the “Find us on facebook” icon at the top of this blog and I’ll add you as a friend.

Last weekend, I met up with my buddy Francis to take pictures of Harmony and her one month old puppies at the time.  Harmony’s mate and father of the puppies, Smokey dropped by to see his puppies for the first time.

The first time I saw the puppies they were between almost two weeks.  At the time, the puppies were learning to crawl, eyes still closed and very tiny.  At one-month old, these puppies are alert, up and about and just as cute as ever.

Here is the proud papa, Smokey.  If you rub under his chin, you better run to the sink and wash your hands.

Harmony and Smokey, side by side:

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to photography two members of the Hip Hop & R&B band, Tha Bliss in Irvine.  Lead singer, LK and Fran-CHIZE were kind enough to spend some time with me in Irvine snapping some portraits.