My Lucky Star!
Meet my nephew Ethan! He recently turned 2 and the two families planned a playdate at Princeton University. Ethan is one of my best friends’ son. Both me and my BFF are single child. We treat each other like siblings, and each other’s kids like nephew and nieces.
Ethan is the lucky star of my photography business. Till today, I am still thankful for my BFF’s trust and confidence in me. She handed her first born to me for newborn pictures. They turned out terrible, very few good ones. I felt deeply embarrassed. Ethan’s newborn session helped me realize my weaknesses as a photographer. And that became the turning point of my business. After the session I put myself in a boot camp to beef up all the necessary skills as a photographer in general and as a newborn photographer in particular. My hard work gets paid off. It is not how long you are in, but how fast you can improve. Back in June this year, I was nominated as one of the 2017 National Association of Professional Child Photographers (NAPCP) Best New Emerging Child Photographer (BNECP).
Ethan’s newborn picture at 6 weeks old
Ethan is one of my favorite portrait faces. I also did a lifestyle 100 Days and first birthday cake smash for him.
For Ethan’s 2nd birthday portrait, my BFF was looking for relaxed, outdoor, not formal but candid shots. “He likes to laugh and smile but camera shy, so works well when picture captures the moment.”
A quick capture of Ethan having fun walking up and down the stairs
Ethan’s outfit is from Rags to Raches. His Daddy picked out a pair of black shoes from Jordan so the outfit matches with the shoes, “plus it looks really good on him”.
Ethan was a premie but his afterbirth weight has been in the 90 percentile for a long time. He learned to sing before he learned to talk. He is a split image of his dad.
My BFF was concerned about Ethan not cooperating, not meeting the agreed upon time since they couldn’t predict his nap schedule. “The session turned out great, there were other kids (MuSen: my girls) so made this more like friend and family outing rather than a formal photo shoot. The location was perfect, weather and timing were perfect too.”
“Afternoon session worked out well for us, after nap, before dinner. Bring snacks just in case. Follow his lead, plan to visit a few different spots.”, more advice from my BFF.
Prospect Garden, which lies behind Prospect House, was designed by Ellen Wilson, who lived there with her husband, Woodrow Wilson 1879, while he served as University president. (Source: Princeton University Campus Attractions)
Fountain of Freedom
MuSen: My BFF told me she has noticed incredible improvement in my photography skills in such a short amount of time. Ethan’s session caught lots of social media attentions. The collage I made for him stayed as top posts of many popular hashtags on Instagram for days.
It also help me to get identified by Model Citizen Media and I was invited to give their interview a try. I am deeply motivated by their quote:”You can’t fall if you don’t climb. But there’s no joy in living your whole life on the ground”.
Fun Fact: As I am drafting this blog I went check out Instagram hashtag #princetonuniversity out of curiosity and found out my random shot of my oldest that day at the arcade has become the #1 top post among 41,872 public posts. Wow!
Thank you Ethan for continuing inspiring me!! Auntie loves you very much!
To find out what my BFF thinks of me as a photographer? Click here.
To learn more about the Oak pacakge, click here.
- L. (maternity and newborn sessions customer)
I had an extremely anxious pregnancy after my miscarriage, which is why I didn't reach out to you until so late, but you really went out of your way to accommodate and make it happen for me and my family. I'm so glad that I have all these photos of this special time in our lives and the captures of (our) brand new baby. I'll be forever grateful for the perfect moments you captured. Thank you again, so much."
"Hi Karen. Just wanted to really say thank you again for everything with our sessions. I could not be happier with how they both turned out."
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- ZHAO FAMILY
We have gotten many compliments from visiting guests. The photos you took are candid and captured true moments of joy. The product has amazing quality and yet very easy to install. I can’t wait to get another great collage for the upcoming family shoots. Thank you Karen.
"We absolutely loved the wall collage you designed for us. It has become the focal point of our great room"
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- JESSICA JACKSON
She listened to what type of photos we were looking to achieve and offered suggestions since she is in fact the professional! Karen was always very responsive if I had any questions leading up to the actual photo shoot and was an absolute pleasure to work with the day of our session. Everything went very smooth, and our proofs were delivered very quickly. After the selection process, our final images were delivered also very quickly and looked so amazing. We have received so many compliments and will be using Karen again in the future. I highly recommend MuSen Photography to anyone looking for quality professional photography!
"Karen was amazing to work with from the very beginning through to the delivery of our final photos"
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- SUE COLON
I hired her to do my daughters first birthday party photos and she captured the moment perfectly. I was so pleased with her work I hired her again to do a mother and daughters photo shoot for Mother’s Day. She NAILED IT one of the most beautiful photo shoots I have ever seen. Karen picked the location, lighting, told us how to pose her eye for perfection is beyond words she saw my vision and made it come true. She also was very easy to contact and communicate with. The turn over time to receive the photos was fast and easy. Karen is also very sweet it was truly a pleasure working with her. I highly recommend her and if perfection is what you seek Karen is definitely the one. I look forward to working with her again. Thank you so much Karen you rock .
"Karen is absolutely amazing."
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- STEPHANIE
Truthfully from the beginning when we met in the diner to the very end of our day to stay to capture all of our memories. You were a pleasure to work with and we will be using you again for sure for our family photos and every event we have. I love most about you that your attention to details and making sure you get everything right and perfect for us.
"Karen what can I say but you are fabulous"
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- JESS
Once again I'm so grateful that you managed to squeeze us in and did such wonderful work with our newborn! We absolutely love the prints and can't wait to put them up around house! I can't wait to book you for his 1 year shoot!
"Hi Karen, thank you so much!"
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