Alex & Haruka & Hanna

Here is a little story of how I met this family:

When I was in LA last month for a workshop I stayed in a hostel in Little Tokyo to make my morning commute easier.  (I heard horrible stories about LA traffic)  Then I met Alex, the on-site hostel manager, and his almost 1 year old daughter Hanna.  I could not get over how cute this baby was!!  I went to my first day of the workshop, got super inspired, and did something completely out of the ordinary for me.  I called Alex and asked if I could photograph his family.  They said no due to baby's schedule, and it was dinner time, and I only had 30 min window before the sunset, etc etc… I was kind of bummed that I couldn't photograph them but I expected a no so I moved on and got ready to go out for dinner.  Then the phone rang again! (Ah… I did have a weird feeling he might call back)  When Alex told Haruka about my phone call she replied "You said no to baby photos? Call her back!" Thank god for Mothers! (ハるか！ありがとうございます) Haha! So here we are with these photos of this gorgeous family.  I'm really glad I got my courage up and asked! I think I will definitely visit them again when I'm in town next.  Thanks guys for making what could've been really awkward into something so memorable!