It wasn't possible. Or was it? 

Ja's odds weren't good. In fact, as "Mayor of the Friend Zone" since 5th grade, they were bleak at best. More commonly recognized as the scenario where the female's begun to view a male as a friend only and not a potential suitor. It's a psychological classification supposedly exceptionally difficult to undo...even more so when said female is your older sister's confidante. During his sister's birthday bash years later, Ja threw caution to the wind, a shot of liquid courage down the hatch and attempted the exceptionally difficult. He exchanged his nine year secret crush for vulnerability. He got the girl and subsequently resigned as Mayor.

Ja and Bev are wedding photographers in their own right and run Ja Tecson Photography out of Los Angeles, CA.

It was love at first sight...for him anyways. Kiet spent the ensuing two months mustering up the nerve to ask out, an otherwise unsuspecting, Catherine. Once his nerves were summoned, they never left. Walking out of the house without his shoes on, forgetting his wallet, delivering roses and a nervous smile-all within their first few dates. They have almost nothing in common, yet it works. They work. "We compliment each other's differences," Catherine assuredly tells me. Laughter casts a potent spell over a woman. Catherine is no exception. He's pulled off her heart from her sleeve; even without pulling on his shoes.

Seasons of Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterlies carved out a corner of my room next to the foosball table. Bruce Weber's signature black and white photographs dog-eared, marked up, and thumbed through. I grew up on his depictions of young, beautiful, carefree adolescents running off lake docks half naked, lounging around a beach bonfire and every so oft, radiating an innocent sexiness through a hard look. There were no responsibilities in that world. No car payment, no homework, no after school job. Their world transcended mine. I became one of them.

I still want to live in that world today. As a photographer, these are the images I love to create. They remind me of vigor, hope and the pursuit of happiness. My youth is preserved in their creation.

She grew up knowing it was a conventional part of life-not necessarily a medical condition. Ivie's grandmother would birth Nigerian babies on her living room floor. No residency, no diplomas, no letter's behind her name. Just the weathered hands of experience. So it comes as no surprise Osa holds the hand of a skilled midwife as they stroll through Central Park this warm Monday afternoon. The city is a buzz-a sporadic chatter of yellow cab horns, cell phone conversations and catholic school children. Yet, it's orbit around the green sanctuary of earth between 59th and 110th is true. It's gravity great. It's a reflection of Ivie and Osa's growing relationship. Her extroverted orbit around his strong, quiet core is one of destiny...as if God himself set them in motion. This is quite evident as she dances around him, propelled by his gravitational pull.

Brook keeps making her way East. Raised in Hawaii, residing in Venice, bound for New York, and she's only pushing 21. She embodies the epitome of "Venice cool". Her sponsorship by Arbor skateboards is a testament to this. Although I had to knock on the dusty vendor's closed shop window, Brook, in her surfer drawl, convinces me to sip my first coconut juice-straight from the shell. It was very sweet. I let her have the rest since she looks better holding it.