A little goes a long way.
Dear all, (who am I kidding, no one reads my posts. lol)
Especially those on the DPreview retouching forum the last couple of days. I appreciate all the thanks you’ve given. If you wanted to, I provided a way that may actually bring some happiness on some dear kids. You may have read from the previous post – My images, out and about in San Diego – right before this one, that I had a chance to photograph for an adoption agency. The images are meant to promote the children, so that the public will consider foster care, or best of all, adoption for these children. If you would like to contribute in helping, there is a ChipIn widget that uses PayPal to securely forward the donation to me.
Here is what the money goes to. Aaron brothers have these adorable, and pretty mini frames that they sell for $3.99 on average.
x 4 + $1.24(tax) =$17.19 (the reminder on gas and prints).
(image source: Aaron Brothers)
I took pictures for 4 children on my day. It was a blast’o'fun. 
) Anyhow, that was my reward. But what I want to do is, provide these kids with a reminder (not specifically of me), but of the fact that there are so many people out there working, and thinking about them. Hopefully the mini framed pictures of them will serve as a reminder, that they do have people who care about them. I would definitely put a note, that there were others that donated their/your money to help out in this very endeavor. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Huy
and if this should actually fill up, I will make a ChipIn with an expiration towards the end of the year. I’ll think I’ll do that for every year; a good way for comparison.
PayPal, since I only signed up for the Personal plan, charges me a fee – $0.30 per transaction (you are not charged an extra fee)*. And the amount of times I can accept a card is really really low. I know that beggars can’t be choosers, but if you do decide to contribute, the best way is to choose to NOT use your credit or debit card. Anyways, that’s just a note.
*Here is their plan/account info if you want to see it:
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-pop-fees-outside
*******
I will document all expenditures, and post all my creations for you to see (in picture!). 
However would I get your trust that I’m not just fooling around with your generosity?
Take care.
Sincerely,
Huy
P.S. Oh! This frame, besides being awesome, VERY pretty, and awesomely unique and well designed, is also only $3.99 (well, + tax). ;P
DOH! I forgot. I bought this years ago. I don’t even know if I’d be able to find it again. Darn it!
My images, out and about in San Diego.
It certainly has been a while since I’ve posted on here. I had a chance to do some photography for some children who are looking for their Forever Family. There were two sets of siblings. One of the sets were two brothers (in blue, of which you see here), and the other set was an older sister and a younger brother (which aren’t here, but will be at the Padre game on May 16th).
These were also on display in the morning at a breakfast called STARS breakfast. The images below are in Vista during an event called A Day of Hope. Anyhow, I went to that one and took pictures of the display. Not all are my photography of course. There were about 5 other photographers’ works I think. Here, let me post them:
As you can see, the faces have been blurred. That is one of the reasons why I haven’t posted a lot more pictures. I had quite a few images from the Spring Fling picnic that I truly loved, but due to reasons of protecting the child(ren)’s welfare, I was advised not to post them publicly. These are posted because they are displayed for the public. But just in case, I’m erring on the side of caution.
Do you want to help these kids out? Please see my next post. But here’s a sneak peek.
1st time assisting IadoptU.org
Well, it was definitely a joy volunteering to take pictures of the 7th annual Spring Fling adoption matching event that was held on May 3rd, 2008. I’m finalizing the rough edits for the day, and, “Wow!”, I love the images that were captured. Some I don’t even remember capturing! Haha. So I’m excited to share, with www.IadoptU.org, what I got. Fun, fun, fun!
Foundation for a Better Life
I saw this quite a while back, but it has always stuck with me. I love the message it sends: R.E.S.P.E.C.T.
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There are many more from The Foundation for a Better Life (www.forbetterlife.org). Actually, you can view most of them below. The playlist has 27 of them. Just scroll down the list to ones you’d like to watch.
I love their positive and encouraging messages, and the very moving snapshots of life. I sincerely hope these messages reach as many people as possible. But more importantly, I hope it reaches my heart, and the hearts of those that view them. Wouldn’t the world benefit from applying all of these QUALITIES? I think so.
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Filed under Better Life | Comment (0)Mira Mesa High School evacuation – Fire 2007
Man I’m tired! This is what I’m thinking right now. But I really shouldn’t think about myself, but more of the people I’m helping.. in a tiny way that I am. I’ve met some people today, and quite wonderful they are. But to set a little bit of background, I will have to state some mundane facts.
I arrived at Mira Mesa High School at around 11′ish? I found the volunteer booth and signed in at 11:20 a.m. (if my memory serves me correctly.. I’m pretty sure.)
My first job, with Kevin (Indian; parents from India, but I think he was born in Fremont, CA.. or was it raised.. anywho…) was to tally and make a rough count of all the “children/teens/young adults” we could, that weren’t volunteers. Our count, with a duplicates here and there I’m sure, ended up to be 110 +/- 11 (haha. Yup, +/- 11). There was a group of teens that may have been volunteers, sitting at a sign (Welcoming evacuees in?), but without volunteer name tags to identify them. Then our next count was on Elite (hired security) & security guards in general. 4 Elite security, and 8 other security guards from another group… as far as memory serves me. Then the next was military personnel. From asking a marine, he states some exact counts, of which I have no memory of. ;P Can’t remember, and I will not even try to guess.
Then Kevin (he’s working on his Masters degree from Berkeley I believe; in engineering.. doh! Was it .. doh.. I forgot what exactly.. doh! Bad listener! Sorry Kevin.) left, and so I meandered… lol. No, I’m just kidding. … no wait.. before he left, we asked for what other things we could do before he would leave. We had about 30 minutes. We were pointed to Tom (I think) who was working in the cafeteria. He mentioned we could help with trash duty. WOW! This was during lunch. And woah, did those cans fill up quick. So fast that, after doing one complete round, the first one we started on, would basically be filled, and have to be replaced with another clean bag. We did this with plastic gloves, like the ones used to serve cafeteria food with. Not the best gloves to work with; made our hands sweat, and I’m sure Kevin would agree, wasn’t helping one bit in our dexterity department. I have to admit, it hindered me from tying knots into the bags to tighten the bags around the lips of the cans, so I did away with it only my later rounds. My skin’s my glove, and hey, a little bit of soap and water and, “good as new”. But yuck! Dripping juice, soda, liquid, whatever it was, onto my feet and sandals was no joy. hahahaha. Oh well, another trip.. this time to the showers… and… “good as new”… twice. Trash duty was basically all day for me. I did around 3 – 4 rounds, give or take, as some of those were mainly focus on the cafeteria area. The rest were to some areas I thought would be used, but not as often, and wouldn’t be filled. Okay, enough of my trash talkin’. ;P
By 3:45 p.m. There was a magic show. That was pretty cool. At first, I thought these tricks were pretty bad, as even the kids (5?) would even catch on, and question the magician. For instance, he had this container with a die in it. There’d be two doors. He’d hold it vertical, open the top door, and nothing would be there; no die. Then he’d turn it around, and have a little push down (e.g. throwing the die down inside) motion, and open the top door again. Well, “obviously” that’s the trick behind that prop. Well, the young kids caught on to this, and said, open both doors. Ha! The magician was caught! He stammered, and obliged, but with the doors towards him, so the audience couldn’t see it. Haha. I thought, wow, the kids really did catch him off guard, and he’s trying to cheese his way out of it. Then they’d turn, “Turn it around!” He thought, and thought, and then turned his whole body/spin. HAHAHA! “No, the other way. (or something to that effect).” So he spun his body the opposite direction. hahaha. Woah. Too funny. I’m guessing, but this was probably the point I caught a glimmer of his “ploy”. He really well make this die disappear. So he did finally open both doors, and yup, no die. Pretty cool… but I’m not gonna explain all the trick. 
Anyways, during the show, I took some pictures of the participating children he’d call out of the audience. I’m glad I did, because of the 4 families I did capture, I met up with two of the families. The other ones walked away before I could catch them. I gave them my card with the link to where I’ll be posting their images for download. Free of course.
I went to the free WiFi center, and was working on getting the gallery together, and resizing the pictures, sharpening , and all that “good” (boring) stuff. But that took longer than I had expected, and now dinner was coming. It was heading toward 6 p.m. quick. During that time at the booth, I got a chance to talk with Doug, and he asked what I did for work. Photography of course, and some him some of my work on the laptop. He mentioned he has an 8 year old daughter, and showed me some pictures. She’s a cutie. “She’s your life huh? (something like that, I asked).” Of course (something like that, he responded. … HAHA. I’m silly.. Why gee, THANKS! ;p). So chitter chatter, and it was a few minutes before 6, and so we prepared to do our thing.. him, going home; me, going to lunch/trash duty. .. yah.. still trash talking. Sorry. I ate, then set off to finish off that evening.
I was about to go home, and was really ready to drop. But I decided to go to the auditorium and check out the news. I’m glad I did, because that’s where I met some “pretty neat” people. Actually quite awesome.
(well. To be continued… a little too tired to continue tonight).
Filed under aside | Comment (0)Contact established with iAdoptU.org
So yesterday, I made contact with the supervisor at www.iAdoptU.org Now I’m just waiting.
Filed under journal | Comment (0)One child at a time.
Welcome to ReflectedLight.Org. This site is brand new, but the concept has been on my mind for quite a while. Finally I have the opportunity to give it a go. I am a photographer by trade, and would like to benefit those who I feel deserve our time and attention; the children in San Diego County whose desire is to be a part of a loving family.
There are now over 7,500 children in foster care.
I would like to assist in providing better than the usual mug shots they get for their case files, and/or that are used on the adoption agencies websites. I hate to even say “case files” because it’s such a disconnect, a number. That’s exactly how it shouldn’t be viewed. Each child is an individual with a personality that would benefit from photos that let their spirit & humanity shine through.
That’s why I have set up this website. My hope is that those who read this, and come upon this site, will be able to assist in the goal of finding these children a loving family that will love them.
You can help by donating your services:
1) Small donations for each child to have their own framed print.
2) Know a lawyer who would volunteer his time to assist me in setting up a not-for-profit organization.
3) Can arrange gallery space for the display of the portraits to give exposure for them.
4) A caterer for the opening reception.
Thank you very much for your time.
Sincerely,
Huy