Katie

This photo shoot was so much fun! I had a great time collaborating with Katie DeLuca and Terry Alabata. Katie is from Miami, Florida, how cool is that! I was super stoked about working with a model from the east coast, but now that I think about it, I really wish she lived here. She was just way awesome to work with; so much energy and really photogenic too. I also love that she went along with my crazy ideas. Can’t forget about Terry either! I have collaborated with Terry many times. She is definitely on my top five list of people I love to work with. She’s a fantastic model and her makeup artistry is so fabulous. Just look at the awesome makeup and hair she did on Katie! Yay! Another great team, another great shoot. ^_^

Engagement | Natasha & Eugene

This engagement session with Natasha and Eugene was a lot of fun and very adventurous. They chose to do their shoot at this abandoned naval station because it reminded them of some scenes that are typical in a zombie apocalypse. I really like the location, so much that I want to shoot there again and again! I rented out an 85 1.8 lens for this shoot to test it out and see if it was worth purchasing. I must say, I really like this lens! I was able to capture a lot of sweet moments between Natasha and Eugene, without me being in their face either. The lens gave the photos a really nice milky blur to the background. The photos from this session would not have looked the same if I had used another lens to shoot. Natasha and Eugene are also absolute naturals in front of the camera. They were just in their own little world, occasionally looking over at me but mostly very into each other. I really enjoyed photographing their engagement photos and I’m so thankful that they introduced me to another cool location to shoot at! Justin and I actually explored the location for another two hours after the shoot ended. Thank you Natasha and Eugene for a great engagement session!

Shoko + B&W Photography

I got the chance to meet and become friends with Kaila, Phoebe, Jaymee, and Shoko during this past spring semester at DVC. We took a black and white photography course with Jamil Hellu and it was a great experience. I really enjoyed my time in the darkroom, developing prints and chatting with my classmates. I also really enjoyed seeing everyone’s work and getting critique on my own work. Kaila’s photography is very experimental. She always thinks outside of the box and her photographs really complement her uniqueness. Phoebe is really good at photographing nature and I like how she prints her photographs. There’s a good amount of tonality and contrast in her prints. Jaymee’s photography really makes the viewers think about the story behind the photograph. Her prints always makes me curious to know more about the photographs that she takes. It’s intriguing. Finally, Shoko’s photography style is very much like photojournalism. The way she captures New York City feels like we are there in the photos. I am so used to my style of photography that sometimes, I forget there are other aspects of photography. I am really glad that I decided to take this photography course. It was so much fun and I learned a lot. If you are a photography enthusiast, you should definitely take a black and white course. I hope you enjoy the photos that I took of Shoko and also of photos that I took for my photography class.

Alison

I forgot how much I enjoy photographing models at the beach. Whenever I think about models and beach, I think of the same typical bikini summer photo shoots. You know, with the season’s latest swimwear and the typical poses with that beautiful sunset in the background. After a while, shooting at the beach seems very bland and boring, since it’s always the same old stuff. I guess I rarely shoot at the beach for this very reason. When Alison asked me to do a shoot with her at Baker Beach in late May, I was actually really excited about it. The last time I photographed Alison was probably in 2008 or 2009. That was ages ago! Plus, because I rarely shoot at the beach, I occasionally have an itch to shoot at the beach.

Well, it turned out to be more than just an itch. Alison and I decided to shoot early in the morning, so we can avoid traffic on the way there. It was a very cloudy and cold morning, but that didn’t stop us from getting down and dirty in the sand and water! As you all know, my style of photography has been very posed for the past few years, especially when it comes to portrait photography. I am so happy that I got to capture so many great candid moments of Alison playing in the water! Such a nice change of pace for me. I definitely want to do more shoots on the beach! I had so much fun!

Nina

Sigh. Another photo session that should have been blogged sooner. I was thinking the other day and I realized how long my turnaround time for trade shoots are. It averages out to about three-four months. The reason it takes so long for me to get started and finish trade shoots are because I am focusing on my paid work first, but it still frustrates me with how terrible my turnaround time is. I am just really thankful that I’ve worked with a lot of patient models, like Nina. She is my ideal person to work with: she’s photogenic, she varies her poses, she’s fun to talk to, and she’s very understanding about my time management. I do trade shoots with models to relax, have fun, and get creative. This shoot was definitely relaxing. With school and the work aspect of photography, sometimes I forget to breathe and really enjoy my job. Well, I definitely enjoy the shooting aspect of my job. Being outside of the house, talking to people, and actively photographing people is a lot of fun. Editing, however, is fun until I get stressed out from being short on time. I never had a problem with editing in my earlier years of doing business, but I have been primarily focusing on wedding photography in the past year. It definitely takes a lot more time to go through thousands of photos for weddings then just a few photos for my portrait sessions. This past year was my first year of pushing myself towards become a specialized wedding photographer and I believe that I will be able to speed up my work flow with more experience.

Thank you Nina for your collaboration and patience!
It was great working with you and I really hope you can work together again soon.

^_^

Jo | Carousel Lolita

My carousel lolita shoot with Jo and Terry was a  wonderful collaboration! I recently wrote a post about my boudoir session with Terry, who is a make-up artist and a model. Terry did a fantastic job with Jo’s make-up, which was inspired by Gwen Stefani’s Harajuku Lovers look. We did two looks, a soft ‘little girl’ lolita and a colorful ‘adult’ lolita. I provided the outfits for both looks. The first outfit is actually available for purchase on Etsy. I came across it at a thrift store and absolutely had to buy it because I wanted to do a lolita inspired shoot and it seemed so perfect for it. The second outfit is a Halloween costume. Mad Hatter, to be exact. I added a tulle bubble skirt to give it so poof and in the tulle skirt, I added some glittery Christmas wire wrap for some more color and poof. It was so much fun to work with everyone again. I really enjoy collaborating with Terry and Jo. They add more to my ideas and we all create beautiful work together. Go teamwork!

Here is a photo of the three of us:

Jo recently got published in Gorgeous Freaks magazine which featured a few photos from this shoot!

Terry & Jo, thank you for the great collaboration!

Engagement | Jessica & Dan

Justin and I drove up to Clear Lake and we spent an amazing day with Jessica and Dan for their engagement session. We went to three separate locations, all of which were very sentimental to Jessica and Dan. Our first location was at a gorgeous barn. I really like the country feel of this place. There was one open barn with little barn houses near it, a nice brown fence with a beautiful background of the mountains behind it, a lot of nice trees, and cute little house with a white picket fence surrounding it. I really enjoyed photographing Jessica and Dan near the white picket fence. I was attending a black and white film photography class at DVC when we did this e-session and I was taught to be aware of lines, shapes, and natural frames when I am shooting. Here is an image that I printed in class that was taken at the white picket fence:

I love film photography and I am really glad that I brought my film camera with me because Jessica and Dan love classic and vintage stuff. Their wedding is going to be vintage-inspired! It would have been very neat if I had done the entire shoot in black and white photography, but I am not that confident with my skills in the darkroom. Making perfect prints is totally different from producing great digital images!

After the barn, we went four wheeling up a steep hill that overlooks Clear Lake. I got to take some great photos of Jessica and Dan with their dirt bikes! I really like to take my time and get to know my clients. I think it is so awesome that Justin and I got to spend a whole day with Jessica and Dan. We shared so much laughter together and we got to know their hobbies, their story, and their personalities. I want to share their wedding day with them as a friend, not just as a photographer, and I feel that I can really do that! They got to know Justin and I as well, like how I am so mean to him.

Yael

Zakovia & Kareisha

I am really behind on my blog posts, so I decided to do a two-in-one blog post today about  two separate shoots with two lovely sisters. I swear, their family is made up of all good genes! I’m seriously dying to do a shoot of them together, but I’m satisfied of these solo shoots for now. Let’s get started with Zakovia’s boudoir session. My previous shoot with Zakovia was done outdoors at Old Borges Ranch, so we wanted to do something different for our second shoot. Although I shoot a lot of boudoir sessions, I don’t have much photos to show in my portfolio since most of the sessions are done under client privacy terms. People are constantly asking me if I shoot boudoir and if I have example photos for them to see. Since Zakovia and I wanted to shoot again and I needed some boudoir photos for my portfolio, it was a perfect match. I like my boudoir sessions to be feminine, sexy, and very classy. As you can see in my previous sessions with Terry and Jenna, I often go for a soft look. I did both a soft look and a hard look. I experimented with the editing for the softer look and the lighting was very basic. Zakovia wore a neutral color outfit with a lot of soft fabric and placing her against a black background created a lot of contrast, so I edited the images with some soft brown colors to complement her clothing. For the hard look, Zakovia wore a sexy see-through black dress and the style of the dress was very glam, so I placed her against a white background and converted the images to black and white for a classic Hollywood glamour look.

Now, we go on to our next shoot with Kareisha!

Kareisha and I decided to do our photo shoot at night. It was a challenging shoot cause I rarely shoot with artificial lighting and I also rarely shoot at night in dim lighting. Justin and I played around with the flash settings and placing it here and there for a good hour before we started getting photos with decent lighting. I really need to play around with nighttime portrait photography more often.

Genevieve & Kasraa | October 2nd, 2011

Genevieve and Kasraa’s wedding was simply beautiful. Every detail of their special day was filled with so much love and meaning. Genevieve’s wedding was every little girl’s dream. She had, not one, but two Oscar de La Renta custom wedding gowns for her big day. A beautiful historic lodge overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge booked for her wedding night. A romantic ceremony at a park near her home where she shared many memories with her friends, family, and especially her prince charming. A classic 1960′s Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud acting as her shining white horse. & Of course, a warm and exciting evening reception with her most precious friends and family, celebrating the union of two wonderful people. It was a small wedding, but there was so much love and warmth in the air that made Genevieve’s wedding more special than any fairy tale wedding out there. I am so happy that I was able to be a part of Genevieve and Kasraa’s special day. I know these two lovebirds will totally live happily ever after!