My little one’s first birthday is coming up, and I have been thinking of ways to memorialize the day in a special way. There are baby smash cakes, celebratory jello, and maybe baby’s first refined sugar intake, but what are these moments if not captured and shared? Photos are a great way to forever embrace the most special moments the family share in celebrating the changes and progress of the little and not so little humans in our lives.

To do this, you need more than your smartphone camera to hand. Let a professional take hold of the lens and take home quality and unique images that you can cherish forever. Here are our top five Beijing based family and baby photographers who will help keep your memories alive in the most beautiful of ways.

Dave’s Studio

With a wealth of experience and background in producing photos for various commercial brands, Dave Hanssen is a dab hand at creating some of the most stylistically creative and memorable images of kids and their parents. Back in 2010 as a first-time father Hansen, went about capturing every moment of his newborn son’s life and so his passion for photographing children and families began.

Prices start from RMB 1,000 for a one-hour session, and families can choose from a number of different packages to suit their needs. (WeChat ID: dlhzao, 139 1026 8205)

Nicole Photography

Nicole Ni has been working as a family photographer in Beijing for five years and has been churning out sharply distinctive and organic photos of little ones in her Shunyi studio. There’s little that this fine photographer wouldn’t be able to capture with nuance. Ni produces artistic, vintage, and unscripted stills that will impress any family looking for something a little special. Whether to celebrate a special occasion for your little one or the whole family, or just because, you will walk away with something enchanting.

Prices start at RMB 3,500 for a studio session, or get in touch to discuss your requirements for a tailored service. (WeChat ID: nicolenz, www.nicolephoto.net)

Baxter Studio

Mexican photographer Priss Baxter has over 12 years experience and has collaborated with one of the celebrated big guns of photography, the National Geographic Traveller Magazine. Baxter has experience shooting weddings, journalistic-style photos, architecture, editorials, and more. Baxter offers pregnancy sessions, couple sessions, and of course family and baby sessions. Her work is seamless and classic, and really embodies capturing timeless moments that exude spontaneity and charm.

Prices start at RMB 1,500 for a 30-minute in-home photo shoot. (WeChat ID: prissbaxter, www.baxterstudio.net)

Chiara Ye Photography

Visual artist and commercial photographer Chiara Ye has been working in Beijing for six years and has recently been offering and taking private family commissions and other projects. Ye’s business focuses on tailor-made services that keep the client at the forefront of her approach to each photography session. Ye notes that she tries to understand the client’s needs and build upon those with her team to create bespoke packages for individual needs. Ye will talk through makeup, styling, location, etc., using a process similar to that used in commercial photography.

Prices vary depending on client needs. (WeChat ID: chiarayeph, www.chiaraye.net)

Elizabeth Albrecht Photography

Last, but certainly not least, is children and family portrait photography Elizabeth Albrecht. Whimsical and magical should be the words to best describe the adorable baby portrait photos captured by Albrecht, who has been photographing families and children in since 2012. Using fairytale-like accessories, her outdoor photography sessions with newborns and young babies are particularly impressive. Sweet as honey and cute as pie with a cherry on top, Albrecht’s striking creations will have you swooning for days.

Prices start from RMB 1,000 for family and baby portraits. (WeChat ID: LisaAlbrecht, www.lisaalbrecht.pro)

Photos: courtesy of featured photographers

What better way to relive summer memories rather than putting all the wonderful pictures into a scrapbook?  Scrapbooking is a method of showing and arranging memories in the form of an album.  This is a worldwide and venerable hobby, with the oldest scrapbooks dating from the 15th century.

Kristy Hart, art teacher at Beijing International Bilingual Academy (BIBA) in Shunyi shows us how to make scrapbooking fun. Hart hails from Wisconsin in the US and has been teaching for two years in Beijing, enjoying the nature and art scene that the city has to offer.  She showed two Grade 1 students, Miracle and Gaia, both seven years old, how to make paper more interesting by creating crayon resist, an action where two materials repel each other. In this art project, crayon and watercolor resist and repel. The space in between the crayon drawings will later be filled in with watercolor.

Both Gaia’s and Miracle’s favorite classes are art and PE, so they both had a great time, especially Gaia who was very focused.  She added pictures of the Great Wall and cut the paper with the edging scissors to remind her of her Great Wall adventure.

Materials

• Construction paper

• Watercolor paper

• Crayons

• Scissors

• Dubbed sided tape

• Texture

• Watercolor

Instructions

1. Make a pattern on paper with crayon.
2. Paint the complete paper with water color and let it dry. 
3. Design the pages of the book; paper can be layered.
4. Cut the dried paper to size and stick on the paper.
5. Stick the photos on the paper with double sided tape.
6. Add captions by the pictures.

Photos by Uni You

This article originally appeared on p. 30-31 of beijingkids March Issue. Download a copy here.

“Why,” Noah asks, with the tone of one addressing life’s great mysteries, “do people dress up as Disney princesses for Halloween?”
“Yeah,” Joseph adds, “and superheroes. That’s not very scary, is it?”
“I suppose it’s just a festival of dressing up,” I suggest, but I’m not convinced myself. The growing importance of Halloween mystifies me too.
When I was a kid in England, Halloween, though recognized and celebrated, was not such a big deal. It was far secondary in significance to another annual event which falls a few days later. I decide to test my boys’ knowledge of their culture.
“What’s Bonfire Night?” I ask Joseph.
“A night when you go out and have bonfires,” he replies confidently. “And fireworks.”
“Why?”
This stumps him, and he shrugs.
“Have you heard of Guy Fawkes?”
“Oh, Guy Fawkes!” he says. “Of course. Guy Fawkes. That’s right, I remember now, Guy Fawkes.”
“Who was Guy Fawkes?”
“I don’t know.”
I recite a traditional rhyme to him:

Remember, remember, the fifth of November
With gunpowder treason and plot
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot

“What were they going to blow up with gunpowder?” I ask Joseph.
“A bank?” he suggests, then something stirs within his memory. “The Houses of Parliament.”
“That’s right! And who were they trying to kill?”
“The President.”
We’ve been in China for 15 months, which feels like a mere blink to an adult, but to 7-year-old Joseph it represents a substantial portion of his life; perhaps a third of his memories. I worry that he might lose touch with his heritage. Already there’s a transatlantic twang creeping into his voice, and a tendency to “uptalk”, that rising intonation at the end of sentences which is the mark of young international English.
Ten-year-old Noah fares better with the quiz: he knows that Guy Fawkes was a Catholic who plotted to assassinate the Protestant King, James I. The date, though, escapes him.
“Remember, remember… the sixth of September?”
On reflection it’s hard to see a reason why the fifth of November should be remembered, more than any of the other significant days in British history. It’s a strange tradition, and at root an unpleasant one.
However the anniversary has been celebrated for four hundred years, and it represents a deep connection to the country’s past. Traditionally people would make scarecrow-like effigies of the unfortunate Fawkes and burn them on bonfires; “a penny for the guy” was the equivalent of “trick or treat”.
Even in England though, Guy Fawkes Night is under threat from Halloween. It’s part of the much lamented but perhaps unstoppable Americanization of British culture and language. “Trick or treating” was once seen as an alien invader, like the gray squirrel, but is now the norm.
I want my children to grow up citizens of the world, respectful of other people’s cultures, but I don’t want them to lose their own. So I’ll do what I can to make sure my kids retain their Englishness, that they use taps and pavements rather than faucets and sidewalks. Guy Fawkes though might be a hard sell in Beijing.

“All right boys,” I say, “let’s sort out your Halloween costumes. Do you want to be Elsa, or Ariel?”
“DAD!”
Cheap, I know. But as a parent, you take your fun where you can get it.

About the Writer
Andrew Killeen is a novelist and creative writing teacher. Originally from Birmingham, England, he studied at Cambridge University and now lives in Beijing with his wife and two crazy boys, Noah (age 10) and Joseph (age 7). In between he was at various times a DJ, festival director, positive parenting practitioner, and homeless support worker. His critically acclaimed historical novels are available from Dedalus Books.

PHOTOS: Pinterest.com

The summer vacation is coming to an end and Shunyi is finally back to life. New and returning families have suitcases filled with mementos from all the places they visited while on holiday. Here are ways to preserve those collected shells, photos, and much more:

Photos
If you have countless photos then you can have them printed into nice books or wall hangings from Asia Life Images (check this) and Fresh Prints directly from you mobile device. The problem with technology is the limited space on the device, therefore keep the memories alive by having printed versions.

Scrapbooks
In the 798 Art District, Meishuguan near the Jiaodaokou hutong area, or in the university area in Haidian District (Wudaokou area) is perfect to search for a plain scrapbook. The idea is to have the cool looking books that can be the new home to the numerous mementos.

Empty Jars
You can buy colored sand and use empty jars, paint the lid, then fill the jar up with the items that are too bulky for the scrapbook. Label the  jars with a time and place then place all the things that you need in it.

My Thingymabob
This is where you can literally bring your child’s favorite drawings to life in the form of a toy or rug. Get in touch with My Thingymabob founder Graci Kim and she’s going to turn your child’s drawings or your drawings into a toy or rug that they can place in their room and always be a reminder of their summer.

Carton Suitcases
There will be a lot of carton boxes around that you can find available from all supermarkets, your Taobao addicted neighbor, people who just moved, or at school as the new swanky things begin to unpacked. Using one of the smaller ones turn this into a vintage looking suitcase by painting it to look like a treasure box or trunk.

My childhood bedroom is preserved in its original state; the clay mask I made at art camp, the books I loved as a student, old journals, folders of drawings and paper dolls. Around the house on shelves, walls, mantelpieces, and furniture tops the cream of the photo crop is lovingly displayed.  I have to thank my mother for her role as family archivist. Those artefacts create a powerful sense of self, place and most importantly, family. It’s all there in our family home, waiting to be pored over and shared with the next generation.

Sometimes the old ways are the best ways, and with the advent of the Internet, it’s become so much simpler to preserve all those sweet childhood memories. Let’s take a look at some old-fashioned and new-fangled ways to put childhood on record.

Measuring Wall
Portability and durability are important concerns for any childhood documents, but for the measuring wall they’re a must! The wall which displayed all of our growth spurts and plateaus unfortunately ceased to exist when our reception rooms were knocked together and remodelled. And of course most Beijing families are nomadic; Beijing today, Oman tomorrow.  Modern global gypsies don’t always have the luxury of space and rootedness.
So rather than marking up your paintwork and losing it all when you move home, make a height measuring board or chart.
On birthdays, the first day of the school year, or just because you know they’ve notched up another inch, draw a new line for each child, noting the date and occasion.

Digital Refrigerator
Artwork, graded papers, and handmade valentines all compete for space on the family fridge. Galleries of your children’s creativity and achievements are ever changing, and the old must make way for the new. Boxing and keeping everything they create adds up to a storage nightmare. Keep the standouts in hard copy and scan, photograph and store the rest. Your kid’s digitized masterpieces can be uploaded to instagram, flickr or Facebook.

Photo Books and Scrapbooks
Many families have reams of beautiful family memories, all frozen in digital amber on their hard drives. Release your memories by making photo books and scrapbooks. You can make beautiful pieces to gift or cherish at Shutterfly, Snapfish, Scrapjazz, or Scrapbook.com.

Photo courtesy of archetypefotographie, flickr.com

Last October, we took an eight-day tour of Yunnan with China Culture Center over the National Day holiday. Our itinerary was jam-packed; there were places to be and things to see. Since our family can be a little lackadaisical about pushing ourselves out the door and exploring new environs, we decided that a small group tour was just what we needed.

Going with a group meant we wouldn’t have to do any of the planning ourselves, but we would still get to visit many parts of a region we might otherwise not be able to discover on our own. During this trip, we explored Kunming’s karst rock forest, Dali, the UNESCO-protected town of Lijiang, and Shangri-La, which inspired a novel. We picked up a lot of information and trivia about each place we visited.

Sometimes, things just clicked. We genuinely liked the people we were touring, including our tour guides. Two of the kids in the group turned out to be my sons’ schoolmates. They were traveling with family friends who had children as well. Without any planning, there turned out to be a small group of similarly-aged kids.

The people without children turned out to be very fun. We enjoyed exploring together and winding down at the end of a long day with cold beers at the local bars. One lady in the group was such a charmer that she made friends with bar owners wherever she went. In one of the locales, an impromptu party broke out with Tibetans, Chinese, Germans, Polish, an Australian, an African and Filipinos all dancing together to world music.

Discovering Yunnan Food
One of the highlights of the trip was Yunnan’s many regional specialties. There was yak meat, fried red beans, local goat cheese, potato string pancakes, crickets for the adventurous, plenty of wild mushrooms, and lots of fresh green vegetables that were simply sauteed in garlic and a little bit of oil.

After returning to Beijing, we suffered from the usual vacation hangover. We were tired and in need of a vacation from our vacation. We missed the good food. So it was a pleasant surprise to discover that Europlaza had a really good restaurant that serves up Yunnan cuisine.

Although Treescape is not new to Shunyi, it was a new addition to our repertoire of restaurants. With a lounge in the front and a playroom for children, it is a popular choice among Shunyi families and sees brisk business for weekend lunch.

We like any of their fish dishes, which are prepared with a yummy combination of spices. We order a different one each time. All the mushroom dishes are sure to please me, while the truffle-infused dishes are a popular choice with my husband. My boys get a kick out of their standard order of bamboo rice, a sticky rice cooked inside a hollowed-out bamboo stem. The bamboo is split open at the table to reveal freshly-cooked rice peppered with peanuts.

Oddly enough, our favorites at Treescape are not necessarily dishes that we actually had in Yunnan. This was just another reminder of Chinese cuisine’s diversity. And yet, tasting Yunnan food brought us back to our favorite family holidays.

Bizarre News from Yunnan

Because we had such a good time in Yunnan, anything related to the region that comes up in the news catches our attention. I still chuckle over the amazing drama that has emerged from that part of China. The circumstances were strange and read straight from a comedy of errors.

Apparently, a couple in Yunnan was unhappy about being served from dirty bowls at a local restaurant. One complaint led to another, and the couple got into a full-blown fight with the servers when the woman was told they were short RMB 5 on their bill. The argument got physical and the couple ended up in the hospital, he with broken ribs and she with head injuries.

The woman sued for damages and reimbursement of their hospital bills, which amounted to a total of RMB 68,000. The restaurant owner came up with a creative solution. He paid back most of the amount, but reserved RMB 10,000 to pay back in 1 jiao coins. It took 18 bank clerks nine hours to count and roll up the 100,000 coins.

One year on, we are still regaled by Yunnan and its people even in our little remote corner of Shunyi. Not to worry; I’m pretty sure us waiguoren will not have this kind of experience at Treescape or elsewhere in our neighborhood.

Treescape 千景树云南菜馆
Daily, 11am-10pm. Shop 213, 2/F, Europlaza, 99 Yuxiang Lu, Tianzhu Town, Shunyi District (8046 7133) 顺义区天竺镇裕翔路99号欧陆时尚购物中心2层213

Photo by Dana Cosio-Mercado

Dana is the beijingkids Shunyi Correspondent. Originally from the Philippines, she moved to Beijing in 2011 (via Europe) with her husband, two sons and Rusty the dog. She enjoys writing, photography, theater, visual arts, and trying new food. In her free time, she can be found exploring the city and driving along the mountain roads of Huairou, Miyun and Pinggu.

When something significant such as national triumph or tragedy occurs, it tends to paint a permanent picture in your mind. I’m American, so the things that I can recall as if they happened yesterday are things that happened in my homeland. I remember precisely where I was on September 11, 2001 and what I was doing. I remember watching the fallout of the Columbine High School shootings. Gosh, I even remember exactly where I was when I learned Elvis had died, and that was more of a pop-culture shock than anything else. It was news.

Recently, the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger marked its 25^th anniversary. This tragedy was significant in so many ways. The crew included, for the first time, a school teacher. Because of the educational aspect of it, more children around the country were watching the event take place than perhaps ever before. It was a live event witnessed just as it happened — not filtered — to a vast audience. It also highlighted a huge failure on the part of NASA, and many believe it was the beginning of the end of space shuttle missions.

I was in college at the time of the explosion, and I happened to be taking a Journalism course. It certainly became a real-life lesson in the field of reporting. We were all gathered in an auditorium to hear about the coverage by a local city newspaper and our own college publication. The dichotomy of “teacher” and “student” was interesting, I admit. We were to ask questions about their coverage, sources, fact-checking, etc. The big “ooh” and “ahh” moment came when the professionals were only able to get a black and white cover photograph, while the college paper was able to secure a color version, much to the chagrin of the professional editor.

I was bothered that the “news” wound up being a competition of coverage between two newspapers, and that the actual tragic event somehow got lost. I know it was a journalism lesson, but that’s when I realized that a hard reporting profession probably wasn’t for me. I love to write, but separating myself from the event itself wasn’t my forte.

I wouldn’t have been able to report on 9/11, either. Instead, I sat there in shock glued to my television set with a one-month old baby in my lap and a husband stuck in Canada because he couldn’t get past the tightly-secured border. I remember many other major events in my lifetime, both large scale and more personal. Sometimes I even “remember” events that I wasn’t alive to witness personally, I’ve just heard about them so many times it feels as though others’ recollections are my own.

Untimely deaths of various famous people, grand finishes in major competitions, unthinkable tragedies, shocking scandals, historical achievements — all of these have a “Remember when?” feel to them, and all have embedded themselves in our personal history. What are some of your own life-altering memories?