Los Angeles Wedding Photographer: 03/01/2008

3/27/2008

Bye Bye Kodak HIE

When I need the break from fast pacing life of mine, I go out to shoot landscapes.
I love photographing children and weddings but those are fleeting moments. It's no joke that many photographers have ADD. I need to be grounded at times so this is my way of finding peace in my life. I find myself focused and centered when I am composing my shots on film cameras. I practice using zone system and pretend to be Ansel Adams for the day. I can now pretty much see things in B&W and control my exposures based on the effect I want in finished prints. I love printing in the darkroom even though I can easily do everything in Photoshop now. I learned to do alternative processing and printing and I would love to use same process creating fine art portraits for my business. There is something about "old way" of doing things. Few days ago, I found out my favorite film Kodak HIE ( high-speed infrared ) discontinued. I am so bummed. I called everywhere to find left over stock, but there were none left. I hope Kodak HIE comes back in the market just like Ilford SPX 200. Here are the few images taken with my LAST role of infrared film. (Zone system was not used for this specialty film) I know some will say that we can now shoot infrared with digital cameras or apply action in Photoshop but I still think it's different. I hope you can see that too.

Boulder, Colorado March 2008 Kodak HIE rated at 100 ISO

Paris, France December, 2007 Kodak HIE rated at 100 ISO

3/21/2008

Las Vegas WPPI 2008

I am a member of Wedding and Portrait Photographer International (WPPI) which is a fast glowing organization based in Santa Monica, CA. This was my first time attending this fun convention and I had a blast. Making talented, gorgeous and generous new friends and listening to industry's most successful photographers definitely inspired and challenged me to next level.

I will be honest, I wanted to be where some of the photographers stand and I wrote it down on my journal to make myself remember this feeling. I've never wanted something so badly in my life. I am not a competitive person. I am horrible at playing games. I don't like to be on the spot light so being third place was fine with me always. But for four days that I was attending many seminars. I found myself wanting to be on the top. "Dreams are like clouds and they need to be chased"-Matthew Jordan Smith said this in his seminar which was the last seminar I attended before I left Las Vegas. I think God is really telling me to really go after my dreams this time.
I relied my business on word of mouth until now but it's time to change that. Because I really love my job and I want to be able to do this for a long time. At WPPI I saw what success brings to a photographer. It's freedom to be able to do what I want. It is not the great fortune, fame or a receiving a glamorous title of being a master photographer. It is really about having a "Freedom" to photograph what I think is beautiful and to inspire other with those images. It means to be able to help others that are in need.

Photography community is very friendly and I love that I am a party of community that are willing to give back and pay it forward. Here are few fun shots taken with very first generation Canon Elph ( I think I can all it antique camera now), a point and shoot digital camera. Colors were not great so most are converted to Sepia. Thanks for the great time everyone!

from the top left: with Maureen Ford from Boston, my facebook friend Kenny Kim, with my hubby,
with Marianne Lozano and Julie Weaver , With Tanja Lippert and Kim, With Vanessa and June, with Laurel Mcconnell and Jenna Kaworski, with Jay Goldman

with Mike Lin, Gene Higa Speaking at Young guns, with Kim, Maureen and Marianne, With Robert Evans, With Jasmine Star, With David Jay, Matthew Jordan Smith Speaking at Sony Booth, Andy speaking with Jason Kiefer of Pictage, Jules Bianchi speaking at Pictage Partner Con headliners.After attending the convention, it was time for some girl time. My good friend, Jean who is a major airline pilot flew in just to drive up to LA with me. I am so proud of her whenever I think that she is actually flying the big plane. We had so much fun trying out desserts at the buffet ( told you I was a foodie!) and I won $250 as we were leaving the Wynn hotel. I have to say she is my good luck charm.

3/13/2008

Serena Project-6 months

I have been documenting Serena's first year. This project was arranged before Serena was born. I saw Serena's older siblings and I knew that she was going to have the gorgeous set of deep blue eyes. My first meeting with Serena was when she was only 3 weeks old so I did not get to see her blue eyes. When Melissa brought Serena out in her pretty blue dress, I thought I saw most beautiful baby in the whole world. Well, all babies are beautiful! but this one is special.... Don't you think?
So here is image of her with no retouching or enhancement.

Her eyes are really that big and blue

Miss Personality!

Here is Serena at 3 weeks while she was dreaming in her mommy's arm.

All she wanted was to eat and sleep as what babies supposed to do. I had to walk away with one roll of 120 film, that is 16 shots. I wanted to document her on my medium format camera, Mamiya 645 with Ilford HP5 film which I have been testing extensively in the past for my fine art work. When the film retured from the lab, I was thrilled to see this image.

I still love film, I am not denying digital but I think film captures nostalgic essence of things.

3/08/2008

e-session Mary & Benny

When Mary & Benny told me that they have decided to hire me as their wedding photographer, I was thrilled. We, photographers always love to work with clients that respect our work and would be willing to do anything that we ask them to do. Benny first told me that he was not really into being photographed, but he was doing it ALL for Mary. Today, Benny not only came up with few ideas for our shoot and did charming job as a model. These two weren't feeling not so well today, but we had a blast. Thank you guys for being such a good sport about everything! Andy & I really enjoyed spending time with you two. Thank you for sharing precious moments in your life with us. Let's do Korean BBQ dinner soon!
Here are some of my favorites of the day. - Click Here to see the slideshow

so cute!