Golden Years Through my Lens

At the beginning of this year, Emily (one of my brides from 2009), whom is an executive director at one of the most established retirement community company (Aegis Living) asked if I was interested in working with her on a marketing initiative at her retirement home in Fremont. At that moment, I really didn't know what to say because I am a wedding and children photographer and I didn't know what to expect from a retirement community. I thought it was a great opportunity for me to learn more about the senior citizens and perhaps have some fun in between!

The goal of this project was to change how people feel (and view) about retirement communities. In today's world, there is a stigma around retirement homes. People think about retirement homes as a "dumping ground" for old people. That's indeed NOT the case for Aegis Living communities. Their philosophy is to create a pleasant, caring and fun environment for their residents, so they can happily enjoy their golden years.

The people at Aegis Living care about their residents. They are not there to "collect a pay check" per se, but they are there because this is where their passion lies. From helping their residents with reading, to helping them walk down the hall way to get to their room, people who work there at Aegis Living are among the kindest and most genuine people I've met. They are in my eyes - angels.

This experience has opened my eyes to the world. This experience has made me appreciate life in a deeper level. This experience has given me hopes in many ways.

Listening to stories after stories from the residents made me appreciate life and understood how unpredictable life can be.

The initiative that Emily worked on in Fremont was presented to the Aegis Living corporation. The project was LOVED by all of their executive directors from Northern California. Now, Emily, Maria Chang (best make up artist in my opinion) and I are the official team to create marketing materials for all of Aegis Living Northern California! I am beyond THRILLED to be their official photographer who is going to document and help change the way people think about the retirement communities as a whole.

Today, we completed a day-long shoot for Aegis of San Francisco. Here are two pretty funny pictures that I would love to share:

He was being silly and showing me his denture when I pointed my camera at him :)



Here's a loving couple that is spending time together at Aegis. They have a long love story which I have to share at a later time (trust me, very romantic!) for now ... here is a picture of them dancing during "happy hour"!!