I know that Valentine’s Day is when we tend to think of that romantic type of love and I hope that everyone had a good one, but the other day I saw on Facebook that my friend’s father pasted away last week. My prayers and thought are with her and her family.  It made me sad to hear that news, it usually does, but I guess I am a bit more sensitive right now since I lost my own Dad this past June.  Like so many other Asian Dad’s mine was not always the best at sharing his feelings.  I know that he loved us and always did things in his own way to show us, even if we didn’t always get it.  I am hopeful that my Mom and Dad got to spend their first Valentine’s together in years.  I realized after speaking with many of my Dad’s friends just how much he missed her.  

I am sad for my friend’s loss, but am glad that I got the chance to meet her Dad when I shot some family portraits for them a few months ago (I am not posting any here for their privacy).  Even in that short encounter I could see his fun and joyous nature, and he did a great job of hanging in there as we walked around in the hot sun.  It was a great honor that they allowed me to share a piece of their lives and record some images for them. 

One of my favorite things about shooting family portraits is the time I get to spend with the family and enjoy their company.  I hope that the experience of going out to create the portraits is as much a part of the memory as the images that we come away with.  Please don’t take those around you for granted, cherish each moment because each one is special.  Hope everyone had a good Valentine’s, give someone close to you a big hug!  Here are some images from some family sessions I was privileged to share in.

As I mentioned when I posted images from their engagement session Laura and Brian are just two of the nicest people you could work with.  When I first met with them we sat and talked for quite awhile but it seemed to just fly by.  In addition, to just being easy going Brian is a total crack up and makes me laugh, although, as he knows that also sometimes makes it harder for me to get serious images of him.  So as one might imagine I could not wait to be  part of their special day. 

As with any wedding day there were a few little bumps in the road but in the end Laura was gorgeous, Brian was still a crack up, and their big day was filled with emotion and special moments.  I wish them all the best and thank them for all the graciousness and kindness they extended to me right after the passing of my Father.  And although I value each of my clients Laura & Brian will always hold a little extra special place for me.

 I first met Karen & Alden face to face when I went down to Orange County earlier in 2010 to shoot their Engagement Session.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, they totally made me comfortable and were great hosts.  So I was very much looking forward to being part of their wedding day.  Karen and Alden met through a co-worker of Karen’s who was friends with Alden.  They shared that much of their first contact by e-mail and phone.  They started to build a connection and then it dawned on them that they had not even met in person.  I think that is pretty cool!

Well their wedding was no disappointment as it was one classy and exciting event, filled with fun little details.  As you can see Karen was gorgeous and Alden had his best special agent thing going on.  Congratulations, and I wish them all the best in their marriage.

Assistants – Ellis and Brian

Venues – Hotel Vitale, Yank Sing, Rincon Center

Cake- Napoleon Bakery

Bride’s Hair & Makeup – Angie Pham, info@angiepham.com

Bridesmaid and Mother’s Hair – Mina Tran, makeupbymina@gmail.com

Florist – Joann Cai

<CLICK IMAGE TO SEE SLIDESHOW>

When I first met with Patti and Rob and heard about some of the plans for their wedding I already knew it was going to be a very nice event. Then when I shot their Engagement Session and saw how fun they were as a couple, I really knew it was going to be one heck of a celebration. Well the Westin St. Francis on Union Square sure held up its end. The venue was spectacular right from Patti’s suite where she got ready to Alexandra’s Ballroom up on the Imperial Floor, which I believe I mentioned before was one of my favorite venues that I saw when I was getting married. Leslie was an awesome Catering Manager and the menu that they put together was first class all the way. I was lucky enough to get a chance to eat that night as the fare was out of this world. If you want to read more the Westin’s Events blog has a very nice write up from Leslie. There was so much stuff going on my head was spinning, but a couple highlights for me was one to see how much fun Rob’s Mom is and just how proud she is of him and how much she loves him. And the other was to see that in the midst of everything Patti and Rob took the time to celebrate Patti’s Mom’s Birthday.

So here it is their full slideshow, an abbreviated version was circulating for a bit and was linked to the Westin’s Blog. Congratulations again to Patti & Rob! And I hope that everyone is having a great New Year. To see the slideshow click on the image above.

2010 was filled with activity.  Of course a good chunk of that was spent with my family and two little girls who are a ton of work but are the light of their Daddy’s eye.  We also finally finished up a house addition/remodel project that spanned a year and a half.  Sadly I had to say good-bye to my Dad who we lost back in June.

In terms of photography I feel like I was blessed by my clients who all were fantastic to work with.  As an artist I  have been growing and evolving constantly.  I have been honing my technique and use of light and although I believe there is art and value in post processing I also desire to capture images in artistic and innovative ways and have them be able to come straight out of the camera and look amazing.  Stay tuned for more on this in 2011. 

Thanks again to all my clients and supporters, 2010 was a great year and I look forward to an exciting 2011.

Here are some of the clients I was lucky enough to work with this year.

Connie & Wayne

Kameisha & Emmanuel

Yvonne & Louis

Meghan & Tim

Arlene & Kirk

Sandy & John

Laura & Brian

Patricia & Robert

Maysie & Edgar

Luisa & Allen

Jackie & Jerry

Karen & Alden

<TO SEE SLIDESHOW CLICK THE ABOVE IMAGE>

Okay, normally I really encourage couples to have an Engagement Session because one, it gives them some nice images of themselves to use for the wedding but if nothing else to help record this part of their lives.That is one of the nice things about shooting a family sessions; it helps record a moment that will all but move on too quickly.

The other reason and actually quite an important one is that it gives me time with the couple before the craziness of their wedding day.Unless you are like a supermodel you are most likely not used to being in front of a camera as the main subject for long periods of time.So what is nice in our time together is we all get to know each other.Most importantly to hopefully connect in some way but also important is that I can then see how a couple will react and also they can get used to the way I work.I can tell you that in most cases you can really see the payoff on the wedding day as couples are more at ease and know what I am going to have them do.And most of the time it is not as stressful for them since they know what to expect.Even in the photojournalistic type shots you can see that they are much more at ease with the camera and it really does come out in the images.

Well okay what I stated is for the most part the rule, but as we know there are always exceptions.We were scheduled to shoot Meghan & Tim’s Engagement Session but unfortunately my father passed just days before.They were quite gracious and completely understood that we needed to reschedule.Well unfortunately with all the things going on in their lives and mine we figured out that we probably would be better off shooting their E-session after the wedding…I guess it would be a post wedding session then.=)So the wedding day came and we had not shot together before but you know Meghan & Tim are a totally fun couple and have such great personalities that they really just fell into the mode and did great.I think you can see that the day was filled with so much laughter and fun yet still had those heartfelt moments as well.Congratulations Meghan & Tim.

To see their slideshow click on the image above.

<CLICK ON IMAGE FOR SLIDESHOW>

A little while back I posted a preview of Patricia & Robert’s Wedding.  They had a truly amazing wedding at the Westin St Francis on Union Square.  To add to this Patti & Rob are just a great couple and fantastic to work with.  One of the things that made my day was as I was packing up my gear and getting ready to finish up, Rob comes over and talks to me.  The thing he said that hit home was he commented that my “thing” for photography and getting their images went beyond passion but really was more of an obsession.  That meant a lot to me because I feel I always give each shoot that 110% and my hope is to give my clients images that are more than nice and fine but to get something special and inspired.  So by him saying that, it really let me know that he could see how much of myself I put into my photography.  The funny thing is you know I must be working hard because most parents at weddings seem to love me and thank me for doing a great job…I find it funny because at that point they have not even seen one image.  But I think it goes to them seeing the effort and passion that goes behind what I do.

Well sorry for being a bit long winded but mostly I wanted to post to let you know that the Westin St Francis put up a very nice post of Patti & Rob’s Wedding on their events blog. 

http://www.westinstfrancisevents.com/

The entry features my images and there is also a link to a quick preview slideshow of the wedding.  It is also linked here, or click on the image at the top. 

Again congratulations Patti & Rob that was some party!

Went out with my man Mike again, it was time for him to get a different look for his portfolio.  A few things have changed with him since our first shoot together.  One is that he has become much busier with his acting…I like to think that my photos have helped get him a few more looks.  The other thing is that he has taken to photography and is even taking classes.  I really appreciated him sharing with me that as he learned more and literally looked at different photographer’s sites daily he actually appreciated more what I was producing.  Definitely better than him saying, “Hummmm… now that I have some knowledge I realize your stuff is no good.”  So it was definitely a nice bit of encouragement for me. 

Well here are a few shots from our time together.  Hope that everyone is doing well out there.  Feel free to leave a little comment or say “Hi”, it is nice to not feel like you are in a bubble sometimes.  =)  Take care and have a great day.

<CLICK ON IMAGE TO SEE SLIDESHOW>

Awhile back I took a little jaunt down to Newport Beach, CA to shoot Karen & Alden’s Engagement Session.Originally we had thought to shoot it up in San Francisco since their wedding will be here later this year, but after some thought they felt it would be nice to have the session shot down there since that is where they are living.I was game as I figured it would be nice to have the engagement pictures from down there and then wedding pictures from up here.

I flew down and actually met them face to face for the first time at the airport when they picked me up.To that point I had only communicated with Karen over e-mail and a couple of times on the phone.Interestingly it semi-mirrored how their relationship started as they were set up by a friend, so with their busy schedules, Karen and Alden first got to know each other without seeing one another.They shared with me how they had been talking and e-mailing and then suddenly realized that they had not even ever seen each other yet.

Well, as soon as they picked me up they made me feel totally welcome and they were great hosts.Needless to say they took care of me the whole day.It was a great time as we ran around Balboa Island, had some lunch.Then took a quick visit to UC Irvine and finished up at Crystal Cove.They were both totally great sports about the whole shoot and did great.Here is a slideshow of our adventures (click on the above image).Congratulations to Karen & Alden and I am genuinely looking forward to seeing them again recording their special day.

|

<CLICK ON IMAGE FOR SLIDESHOW>

For those of you who don’t know Louis is the owner of Noodle Theory, located in Oakland at the corner of College Ave and Claremont Ave.I met Lou many years ago and I always thought he was just a funny guy and really good natured.Well in recent years I discovered that he was an awesome chef as well. Occasionally we he would cook something up for us and we would be amazed at how tasty it would be, it would almost be like drugs since we would want more!

Well I always thought that Lou needed to find someone great since I thought he was a good guy.Well one day he comes over to cook for some friends and…well…there is this girl tagging along with him.My wife and I are wondering who is that?Well it turns out that it was Yvonne and you know what she is great.It was a joy to see them together since they share the same passions and are so funny together.

They had their wedding at Healdsburg Country Gardens and it was just beautiful.I’ll admit it was a bit of a challenging photography location with all the spots of shade and sun mixed together but in the end it was awesome to be there recording all those moments filled with so much love and fun.Congratulations Yvonne & Lou, may your marriage be bless beyond what you can imagine.

Assistants: Ellis and Brian

Venue: Healdsburg Country Gardens, Healdsburg, CA

Make-up: Jocelyn R. Gomez (www.jocelynthestylist.carbonmade.com)

Cake: Michele’s Corner Custom Wedding Cakes (www.michelescornercakes.com)