Portrait of Grandma

As a wedding photographer, my schedule tends to keep my busy during times that I normally spend with family (weekends). I've come to accept this sacrifice, as it comes with the territory of pursuing my passion in photography, but I must say it's been tough at times. My family normally has dinner with my grandma every Saturday at her place, but with weddings normally being on Saturdays, I've missed most of these dinners over the past couple years. Grandma Moriyama is 93, and since I don't see her too much nowadays, one project that came to my mind was to take portraits of her in her apartment as a way of documenting her life. As kids, my sisters and I would sleepover her place, eating dinner, playing cards, and watching Japanese cartoons, while eating the delicious home-cooked food that we loved so much. Because of this, I have a lot of memories at my grandma's apartment.

A few days ago, I visited my grandma with my dad to shoot some photos of her to renew her State ID (there's a new option that allows for senior citizens to do a mail in application, so they don't have to stand in the long lines). After finishing the ID photos, I decided to shoot some environmental portraits of grandma's day-to-day activities, like working on crossword puzzles, going for short walks, and watching Korean dramas. It was an afternoon well-spent :)

One moment that I really wanted to capture was when my grandma waves bye to us as we leave her apartment. It's always been a tradition, but I never had been able to get a photo of it. As we were leaving, I had my camera in my hand, and metered for the area right outside her door. I gave her a big grin, and waved bye. As she responded, I quickly snapped off a few photos. Moment captured :)