NLCD's Wedding Floral Academy: San Francisco

Nancy is a great friend of mine. She is extremely talented in what she does - floral designs. This year, Nancy is offering a Wedding Floral Academy in San Francisco in November of 2009. If you are looking to getting into the field or just a refresher, this is the academy to head to!

Click here to learn more



photo by: Ricky Wong from W Photography

Personal Work (Part 3) - Perri

This is the last part of my personal project for Perri. I love love love this set of photos. She looks so natural at this farm near my home. The goal of this shoot was for me to work on my lighting techniques. As many photographers would use reflectors or lights to achieve even lighting, I opt-ed to not use any artificial lights to light her face and body. This requires a good understanding of light and how it gets translated into the "right" images through my lens. This was very challenging but yet very fun and satisfying. I miss the opportunity to work on these personal projects.

Here, I was working with extremely harsh lighting. It was probably around 12:30pm when the sun was literally above both of us.






Here, I worked on the backlit situation. Getting the perfect exposure on her face was difficult, but you see how beautiful the result is when that happens.





Even open shade...ah!! total photographer's dream lighting situation.





Instead of fighting with the sun, I tried to incorporate it into this picture to create drama. Sometimes, in my opinion, a flare can be overdone, so becareful when you are working with flare.

Thi Cosmetics in Palo Alto

Today was my first baby shoot of the new year. The shoot was in Palo Alto, therefore after the shoot, I dropped by Taylor Pham's latest store, Thi Cosmetics in downtown Palo Alto. Walking into the space, the first thing I noticed was the airy and contemporary space. The overall theme of the store is vogue chic. I've known Taylor for years when we both first got into the wedding business but this was the first time I met Taylor's business partner Mimi. Mimi is just as nice and fun as Taylor. They definitely make a great team.




Taylor was in the middle of a "class".




Here is Mimi, my new friend.

2009 Assistant Open House

It was a successful Assistant Open House last night. The group was energetic, fun and loud! Haha. I love it. Everyone stayed til 10:30pm!! Yes!! From 6pm to 10:30pm! We talked pretty much EVERYTHING and ANYTHING. Needless to say, beer and wine were flowing too.

Thank you everyone who took the time to visit my studio for this year's assistant open house. Based on the talent I saw from last night, my 2009 assistant team is going to rock!

I also invited the talented and sexy photographer Jen Skog to my open house. Everyone of course was in-awe that she was here too! Jen is a great friend and I am sure she'll work with a few of my assistants in 2009.

(thank you Kevin and Tammy for taking the pictures for me!)



My good friend Jen.

Year End Get Together

Wedding vendors in the San Francisco Bay Area usually have a lot of fun over the "slower season". We are usually VERY busy over the summer until this time of the year. This is the time of the year when all of us have a little room to slow down, get together and catch up.

This time, the Chins (that is Kevin and Nancy) hosted a year end dinner. It started small, then slowly everyone invited everyone to this get together. We had Thai food in SoMA, then we all went up to the Chins' great loft for tea and dessert. We even played a little bit of Wii bowling and tennis! I can't wait to have more get togethers in the next few months.

Here is Gloria from Sash and Sugar events planning and Beverly from Especially Yours Chair Covers. Ha ha, we had to do the tourist "peace sign".




Here are my buddies Justin from Justin Fone productions and Kevin from Kevin Chin Photography



The ladies (including Justin ... haha) were "talking shop" all night. On the right is the great event planner Jubilee from Jubilee Lau Events



Left, I have the creative floral designer Nancy from Nancy Liu Chin Designs. Right, I have Jubilee and a great cake maker Sonya from Butterfly Cakes.



Now, on the left, the funny and great to be around Justin. Also, I have Megan from Enhanced Lighting and Sound.

On the right, we were fighting it out on Wii bowling!

Lunch with the Kim sisters

I met Kelly and Susan at Kelly's wedding last July. Susan was a student at my 6/29/08 workshop, so we were able to talk and get to know each other more. I ran into Kelly at Karen and Calvin's wedding last month. That night, all we talked about was Korean food. Korean food is one of my favorite. I can eat that all year long if I have to. Kelly (who is Korean herself) and I agreed that we should meet up and have a Korean feast. This is what we did today in Santa Clara. Kelly, Susan and I met up at the Choi's Kitchen on El Camino (and Lawrence Exp) for a nice meal. Whew, I was stuffed. When we were done, I reached in to my bag for my wallet, but I was such a dummy that I left my wallet at home. So embarassing!! Susan was kind enough to pay for all of us. Thanks Susan! I promise it is going to be my turn next :)

My Posse

Many couples are hiring these photo booth companies for their receptions. I think it is totally fun. My team and I couldn't control ourselves and HAD to do a few funny shots.

See! we do have fun at weddings :)

Here's Jason (my associate) and Cissy (my assistant)

Photographer Dinner

Gene called a bunch of us out for dinner this evening in San Francisco at Americano Restaurant. Great atmosphere, love the outdoor patio area facing the Embarcadero. Reason for the dinner is because Becker and Jessica Claire were in town for a shoot so he wanted a few of us to get together and have a great time.

Gene and Justin chilling near the windows


Michelle and I just ham-ming it up.


Me, Michelle Walker, John Griffin, Becker


Here are all the photographers, well, and a videographer (who wants to be a photographer - haha, I am totally kidding). Clockwise - Michelle Walker, Me, Becker, Jessica Claire, Anna Kuperberg, Ann Hamilton, Justin Fone.

Swing, Chip, Putt

This week is all about getting back into my exercise. Justin from Justin Fone Production asked if I would like to play golf with Kevin and him, so I jumped on the opportunity. It has been over 3+ years since I played golf. Actually I can't even remember when was the last time I held a golf club. I always enjoyed golf but ever since I had my two boys, opportunity to play this game has diminished dramatically. If you are a golfer, you know what I am talking about. To play an 18 hole game, it takes hours to finish. Who has time to do that when you have 2 kids?! ;)

Awesome day with awesome company. Thanks KC and JFone!

Hanging out with...

...my new photography friend Kerry Rodgers. I met Kerry at Courtney and Kit's wedding a few weeks ago. She is one bundle of energy (when she calls me that!!). We met up at my studio, hung out, talked shop, then had a great sushi lunch together. It is always awesome to meet nice people in the industry. Thanks Kerry for the time!

Kerry and I, self portrait in my office


This is a contagious smile!


Thanks Kerry for taking a picture of me when I was talking to Maria Chang from PMA!!