Los Angeles | San Francisco Bay Area | Napa Valley | Wedding and Portrait Photographer | Hannah Suh

There are so many things in my personal life that I was thankful for this past week as I celebrated Thanksgiving with the people I love most in this world.

I’m thankful for my family, even with all our little dysfunctialities. I’m Thankful to my lovely friends, who brighten up my days in so many ways. I’m thankful for the two most beautiful doggies in the world. And I’m thankful for my amazing Boyfriend, who makes me better, makes my life better by being in it. While I was being crushed under the weight of having to create a Thanksgiving feast and basically freaking out because OH MY GOD, where is the rice pilaf?! He was there to ground me, look me in the eyes and convince me that the world wasn’t going to end.

But mostly this past Thanksgiving I mused on how grateful I am to all my past and current clients who let me into their lives and allow me to be a part of such an important day. A day full of love, laughter, joy, and CAKE! What could be better? I’m doing what I love and I can’t believe how lucky I am. I am surprised and humbled by how Bay Area brides have welcomed me with open arms into this new unfamiliar (and colder) part of California. Who have given me helpful tips on where I can go to find Korean BBQ and shown me new and beautiful places around the Bay as we shoot engagement sessions together.

I have only 1 more wedding left for 2009 (looking at you Min!) and then I’m launching full speed ahead into 2010. I’m so incredibly excited for the coming year, and I have lots of ideas brewing in my head to benefit me and my clients. I can’t wait.

And one more thing I was especially grateful for this past Thanksgiving. A warm happy kitchen full of family and friends with Me and the Boyfriend excitedly dropping little pillows of dough into piping hot oil and watching them magically turn into crispy, sugary beignets. What fun, what deliciousness. Thank you Paula Dean.

While in Seoul, my Aunt got me a Fuji Instax Mini camera and I fell in love with these pint size little polaroids that this camera would spit out.

Some of my favorite photos from the trip came from the Instax. The thing I always loved about Polaroids and what I love about these cute little mini instax photos is the singularity of each photo. Makes them seem all the more precious.

Full blog post on my trip coming soon!

I was up at 6AM this morning watching the light slowly drape over the city of Seoul and decided that this might be a good time to do a blog post. My body is still trying to get the hang of the time difference, but 3 days in and I still get sleepy at around 6PM local time.

Korea is truly a stunningly beautiful country and I can’t wait to do a full photo blog post when I get back to California, but for now, here’s a little taste of the colors of Korea. Colors like I’ve never seen before.

You know all those horror stories you hear about the high school experience? Malicious gossip, thuggish bullies, backstabbing frenemies etc etc. Well I must have been one of the lucky ones because the enduring memories I have of my High School experience is that of the wonderful friends I made. Wonderful ladies whose friendship I was lucky enough to earn and who have since become like sisters to me.

And one of those friends, turns 23 today!

I usually can’t remember the beginning of the friendships I’ve made over the years. Can’t remember the precise moment we met and started developing that relationship. But with Val, I remember and I remember it CLEARLY. Probably because there I was, a scared little freshmen when all of a sudden this strange and excited girl jumps right in front of me and exclaims something along the lines of, “I KNOW YOU!!” And proceeds to talk about how I was Hannah, the Asian cheerleader from Orange Grove Middle School. Oh yeah, she freaked me out at first.

But Val has this magic quality about her that oozes warmth and friendliness. She may be super hyper at times, but she makes you feel at home. There are times when we go out and meet new people and I’m so glad to have Val by my side because I swear, the girl can make friends and carry a conversation with perfect strangers with perfect ease.

Last week while I was in LA, we treated Val out to an early birthday dinner and while on the way home I mentioned how much I love her chocolate chip-less chocolate chip cookies and what does she do? She proceeds to go home, grab all her baking equipment and ingredients, brings it all over to my house and bakes me the most delicious cookies right then and there. That’s the kind of wonderfully giving person she is and I love her for it.

This isn’t a recent photo, but I love it anyway because I think it perfectly captures Val’s open and warm personality.

Happy Birthday Val! Let’s keep on growing old together.