Once upon a time, I had aspirations of becoming a chef. No, not the pretentious stuffy kind (not with your dad’s credentials anyway), but one where people would visit me simply because my food was pretty frick’n awesome. And because I once believed that everyone in this world would be willing to teach me how to fish as opposed to giving me one , I asked a fellow restauranteur about her stock recipe. It seemed innocuous enough at the time, only because I thought to myself: “Hey, it’s just soup…right?”

Not really.

Apparently, it was that very stock that served as the basis for all of their other menu items. Even more intriguing, she said she didn’t even know the recipe. In fact, the cooks that she hired knew the recipe by heart, but never bothered to share it with the owners. Why? As she put it: “If they gave you their rice bowl, what are they going to eat out of?”

Makes sense.

If the cooks revealed all their secret recipes to the owners, they’d soon find themselves competing with illegal immigrants working for pennies on the dollar. That’s certainly no way to protect one’s livelihood, especially if stock-making is the one thing they knew how to do. It was either that, or my restauranteur friend was just being polite in her way of saying: “You’re insane if you think I’m going to give you the recipe!” Quite simply, if her workers weren’t going to give up their rice bowl, what could possibly compel my friend to give up hers?

Your eventual calling in life will be defined by your natural born ability, or sculpted skillfully with hard work and perseverance, or both. With the latter, you can achieve anything in this world that your heart desires, but it is with the former that will determine how quickly you’ll get there. Charity is an antiquated ideal that serves nothing more than a crutch for the lazy and extraordinarily hopeless (of which you are neither). When that day comes and you finally realize your true calling, don’t ever let anyone exploit it. Work hard to perfect it, and protect your hard earned wisdom with your life. The age-old adage of teaching a man to fish is does not consider the mind of your typical Chinese businessman: know that if you teach a Chinese businessman how to fish, not only will he empty out your lake with 10 of his cousins, but he’ll sell that same fish for 50% below market value. Ergo, you won’t be selling/eating fish for a while.

So if anyone asks you for a fish, you sell it to him. And if you’re feeling charitable and well-fed, give it to him. But by-God, don’t you dare teach him how to do it, especially not for free!

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Filed under: Dad Knows Best Tagged: Dad Knows Best

“Hey Dad! Guess what!?”

“Just making sure you guys didn’t forget!”

“Aww shucks, you guys shouldn’t have….”

“No really….you shouldn’t have…”

“What in tarnations!?!?!!?”

You’re gonna have to ask your grandma about that one, son.
Happy first birthday, and may you have many, many more so that you may one day
put hats on your own kids for their monthly “birthdays” :).

Love,
Mom & Dad
(and Halby and Halmy)

So I recently celebrated my 11th month of tormenting my parents.

And I was going to celebrate with a drink…

But my mommy says “no”, because I’m still just a miner.

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So it’s that time of the month again when my parents put ridiculous hats on me.

Wait a second, this hat actually looks normal for once!

We’re in double digits now! I demand a nicer hat!

You guys suck.

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My friend Savoeunn (also a budding photographer!) and I have at least two things in common: (1) Our fondness for clickity-click shutters and (2) our intimate familiarity with Columbia Mall and all it’s wonderful patrons and employees :).

So I invited her out on my little adventure.

These were her stomping grounds afterall :).

On most days, I like to convince myself that I’m mildly entertaining company.

Even though my primary audience on most days is a teething 10-month old.

And of course, this would be yours truly.
Note to self: backpacks > shoulder bags when embarking on photo-adventures.

Mucho thanks to Savoeunn for hanging out. We’ll have to do this again :).

Remember this adorable “I-need-to-feed-on-your-cheeks” face?

How bout her twin brother, who happened to also be born with the delightfully-tasty-looking cheeks?

There’s nothing more heart-warming to a photographer than to see his/her work neatly arranged in picture frames throughout the client’s home. Actually, it’s quite hard to describe in words the feeling that photographers get when they realize their clients genuinely enjoy their work, so much so that they put these works on display for the world to see.

So when I was invited back to capture this family once again, I replied with an emphatic “YES! YES! YES!”

They’re so adorable even Kayla’s in utter disbelief :).

*melt*

I remember the first time I photographed them, they were merely two weeks old.

Four months later, they seemed to have become pros at posing for the camera.

At least one of them managed to stay awake during the session this time around :).

After a quick beauty-nap, our little princess was ready for Round 2!!!

As a father of just ONE little guy, I definitely need to give kudos to this family for raising TWO simultaneously! But as it is with parenting in all its wonderful incarnations, we all somehow find a way to manage. Thank you Ben & Carlie once again for inviting me into your home to capture this exciting time in your lives. From the looks of it, you guys are doing one helluva job! Keep up the fantastic work and I look forward to seeing you guys again in another 4 months perhaps? :)

(x-posted in my “work” blog at www.benlauphotography.com/blog)

So my wife cut our son’s hair recently. And while she didn’t do an entirely bad job, I was immediately reminded of the trauma I endured while growing up, when my own mother used to cut my hair. I remember sitting in a bath tub in our cramped little bathroom, pricked by millions of my own little hairs and sweating profusely underneath a garbage bag she had the foresight of having us wear. Though she’s only drawn blood once (and I’ve forgiven her since then, when the scars finally healed), we have to admire my mother’s ambition and creative license she took with her scissors and our hair. Because without it, I surely wouldn’t have developed the thick skin that I have today, figuratively speaking of course :).

But that was a quarter-century ago. My mother has since gone to cosmetology school to become a professional stylist. At the very least, we felt pretty certain that she now had the tools and training to “touch-up” the masterpiece my wife had created on our son’s head. My phone call to my mother went something like this:

DILFIT: Hey mom. Do you still have all that hair-cutting gear and doodads from years ago?
MRS. GDILFIT: Why?
DILFIT: Well, your grandson nee….
MRS. GDILFIT: I’ll do it!!!

The next day, I get a phone call from my dad:

GDILFIT: So Lil Monster needs a haircut?
DILFIT: Sorta. Probably just a touch up. Why? What’s up?
GDILFIT: Well, your mom doesn’t want me to tell you, but uh…(my mother’s screaming inaudibles in the background)
DILFIT:  What’s going on?
GDILFIT: She couldn’t find her old gear so she went to buy all this new gear to cut your sons hair! (laughs, then hangs up).

Well, at least my dad wasn’t the only one who found that mildly amusing.

There’s no pain that raisin bread can’t numb.

Lil Monster ponders whether or not he should get mutton chops.

Just one more reason why Lil Monster will hate his photographer dad one day.

All finished! That wasn’t so bad, was it?
Aaaaaand that would be my mom on the left, updating her status on FB and Twitter :)

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So I get to spend a week with my son. It’s been a while since I’ve taken a vacation.

My son’s convinced it’s all fun and games now because you know, since it’s “just Dad”.

He gets to play on the floor and pick at things till his heart’s content :).

And of course Mommios sends them out to do all the “fun” errands.

This automatically puts Daddios on the receiving end of Lil Monster’s silent treatment.

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For thrills, I simply take Lil Monster to the park.

He seems content enough.

Then I come to discover this is how he spends his afternoons with grandpa when his mom and dad aren’t around. This certainly explains alot…

(please do not try at home!!!)

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So I held a casting call for a newborn a little while ago, and I’ll have to say: the response was just simply incredible! I felt immensely humbled with all your positive feedback, and I really wish my schedule could have accommodated all your little munchkins – but my ridiculously busy Spring schedule only allowed for one lucky winner. And though I would’ve preferred a Baltimore baby for this session, 99% of the submissions came from the DC metro area (tsk tsk Baltimore. I was rooting for you!).  So without further ado, please allow me to introduce: Baby Jacob!

As I had mentioned in my casting call, the purpose of this session was to try out new poses, techniques as well as testing my new gear. Needless to say, the gear performed flawlessly as did this handsome lil guy!

I remember one of the first questions I asked the dad was: “Is your son a good sleeper?” Without missing a beat, his response was: “He most definitely is!”. We were going to put that to the test :).

While I enjoyed every second that I spent with the dozens of babies I’ve captured these past few months, I knew there had to be a better way to do these sessions. Not only were the babies’ cries breaking my heart, I could sense that they were breaking their parents’ hearts as well. There had to be a better/faster way to put these kiddos to sleep, and I was going to figure out how.

As soon as we were ready, I employed nearly every new technique I had learned from other baby photographers (which shall remain top secret!). We probably could’ve held Baby Jacob upside down by his ankles and he would’ve likely stayed asleep. The kid performed like a champ! But then again, his dad did say that his son was a good sleeper :).

I’d say mission accomplished! What do you think?

Thank you so much Steve and Sandy for inviting me into your busy weekend. I promise that when our schedules calm down a bit, I’ll make it up to you guys with the duck dinner you guys sacrificed for me and my camera!

(x-posted in www.benlauphotography.com/blog)

Filed under: Newborn, Photography Tagged: Newborn, Photography