Are you equipped for this season?

I found this image of me that was taken by my friend back in 2004 and I had a good laugh.
I promised that I will try to post something for many aspiring photographers out there so here is my very first attempt. I still consider myself as an aspiring photographer so it will be mostly about the lessons that I learned as I was starting out and something I picked up from watching other great photographers for past 5 years. There are many useful forums online nowadays, so I am not going get too technical with my entries. I hope you find it useful somehow.

So my very first post title is
#1 Shoot light
Shooting with minimum gear on yourself gives you mobility. This also allows you to focus on one thing and one thing only while you are on the job. That is to capture true moments. A good photographer captures the moments as the day unfolds.

Can you see the amount of gear that I have on me here? I was second shooting for my friend that day so I believe I had less on me. LOL !!! This Wedding was held in mid summer afternoon at the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. Greystone Mansion and Park offers many beautiful location to shoot, but the ceremony was at noon so we chose to use fill flash. But I probably did not need mighty Quantum Turbo power pack. (I will elaborate on fill-flash on another posting) When you are new in this industry it is nice to be over prepared then not prepared. And please bring your back up gears and leave them in the car safely. At the time we were new and we weren't able to instantly check what we were shooting with film cameras, so we equipped ourselves with everything we had then. Even now, I always bring my light meter with me even if I don't use it.

Here Tammie is wearing;

Nikon F100 with Nikkor ED 24-120mm f/3.5

Nikon N80 with Nikkor 85mm f1.8

Quantum Turbo battery pack with SB-80 Speedlite

and think I am wearing another not so fancy belt purse for films.

I think having two camera bodies on yourself as you shoot wedding is generally a good idea. Especially, if you are shooting alone. We can now just switch ISOs on digital cameras but I still do at times because I can quickly switch my lenses this way. I now have a cool Shootsac, so I try to go to my job in style now.

I am not a big fan of long lenses. Don't get me wrong, I own one and I love milky blurred look ,but I find that I don't get it out much unless I am shooting at outdoors where I have a lot of room to move around. I am strong and I can lift heavy things pretty well.( I move house furniture all by myself) But I am only 5'4" and having heavy gears on me for 10 hours is really hard on my body so I came up with a solution . That is to shoot with a fast prime lens. I can still get "bokeh" ( means blurred in Japanese also means demantia and senile- can you see the relations here?) and gain my mobility back. Prime lenses are now very popular among wedding photographers. Using a prime lens means that you need to zoom yourself in and out instead of a lense. This also challenges you to be more creative with your composition. Hey, I can always use more cardio! so this works for me.

Here are list of some good prime lenses to have: I will just list Canon lenses here. If you are on budget or own a different system you can just take notes of the length of lenses (mm) and the brightness of the lens (f-stops) then get similar items that fits your budget. I own few Tamron lense for traveling and I highly recommend them.

Canon EF 24mm f 1.4L

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 or on big budget 50mm f/1.2 L

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 or on big budget 85mm f/1.2 L II

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro (my favorite lens along with 50mm f/1.4)

Canon EF 135 f/2L

Please feel free to leave comments or e-mail me with questions!

Little office update: with extra Ram added to my PC. It's not flying but it's working fine. I've decide to maintain current condition until I finish editing all the images for my website. Andy is dying to build new PC for me, but I can't afford to not have computer for few days!

Office update

Some of you may already know that I have been working on my new workstation for a while. This is while I am tyring to build my new website, write blog entries, and keep up with facebook! -oh, I painted my dinning room for the second time! Things have been pretty hectic here and to be honest, I am really burned out now. I still have few albums to put together and upload edited images online. My PC (yes, I am still a PC girl) has been really bugging me lately.I been drooling over Mac Pro for a while now. I know the importance of keeping up with new technology now days. However, I have been trying to keep my overhead costs low and to spend my money where it will help my business to grow continuously. (I will share my experience on how to build your photography business wisely for the new comers in this industry so please stay tuned) Luckily, I can operate both PC and Mac ( assisted a photographer who had a Mac), so it won't be hard for me to switch over to Mac. I know that Mac users probably say other wise but honestly, I can't see that much differences. I can do everything on my PC as fast as I could on iMac (not Mac Pro). I can't really complain much about PC at this point. Andy is my genius guy at 24 hour Genius Bar. He makes sure that my PC doesn't crash and I've never lost a single file so far. (knock on wood!)
However lately, I've been noticing that my PC was running slower. So of course, I asked my genius husband why. Andy's answer was short " Your computer is too old and you just have too much stuff on your computer!" .... hummm a year old computer is old. I guess that's like 100 years in computer world? So we went down to Fry's to get some RAM. Despite of Andy's research, we found out my computer is too old to fit new memory!!! Now, My genius guy is backing up my data locally and tomorrow we are going to put my PC back together with brand new motherboard. I guess, I will just have to wait to work on those images. Andy is going to write more technical entries for you all, bright minds out there real soon.

This is how my PC looks now.

Cypress Fine Handmade Albums & Boxes Anniversary Open House

When I first saw Cypress albums about 3 years ago, I thought they were the most unique and beautiful albums I've ever seen. Recently, I discovered that I research things pretty extensively before I make my decisions. (And sometimes decision making takes too long just like i can't seem to make up my mind on whether I want to show big images or small images on my website?) I think, I am pretty resourceful because I am always working on something new. Then why did I wait so long to visit Cypress Album? -for a long time my clients did not really ask for "professional" albums. I used to buy unique scrapbook albums whenever I found one and gave them to clients that I thought were good fit. They were happy with my albums so I never really got a chance to make album samples through Cypress. Now that I am re-branding or should I say starting Ambient Photography Studio, I think Cypress album will add something beautiful and special to my business. I can feel it! and I am so happy that I got to meet the founder Dena and the cool staff at the Cypress Fine Handmade Albums & Boxes.
I am noticing that I am keep bumping into photographers whose work that I've been admiring for a long time like Yvette Roman and Jose Villa. And they use Cypress! Hummm....thinking I am a copycat? Maybe I am, but Cypress caters to unique group of photographers who want something outstanding and unique to present their work in. So if you ask me, yes I want to be want of them. Thank you Cypress for inviting me to celebrate your 10 year anniversary and allowing me to tour your company. Your products are beautiful and it is comfort to know that all of your staff are so cool! Dena Robertson, Thank you for following your dreams and sharing your talent with us! I look forward to working closely with you in the near future

chic cypress showroom

Dena, founder of Cypress giving group tour

beautiful fabrics

I love this matted folio

the Cypress album

I spotted this mural on the wall of Cypress showroom for my portrait, Photography courtesy of Sandra P.

Indian Springs Ranch

I met Gail from Indian Springs Ranch at Brides.com party and she invited me to her beautiful Ranch in Sylmar, Ca last Thursday afternoon. This 40 acre ranch is going to make someone's wedding unforgettable. I love being in outdoors so being invitied to Indian Springs Ranch was like a vacation to me.

I met with more talents in the wedding industry; My Wedding Blooms, Wedding Jeannie (I love this name!), La Creme Bakery , The Venetian Palace and Open Box Designes This ranch has so much potential, I can't wait to see how Jeannie Ward from Wedding Jeannie will transform this place for one of her weddings in the future. Jeannie kindly shared her knowledge with us during the party and I just read PDN article where she was interviewed!
Gail has a warm smile and sexy British accent!

Nicolette Janssen from Jenssen Photography and the harpist,Vonette Yanaginuma Here are some photos from the Ranch.

Brides.com Party

I apologize for my delay in blogging lately. I am still working on developing my new website. Brides.com hosted elegant party at the molaa in Long beach last week. a team of beautiful ladies at the Details & Details did awesome job of planning this party with Brides.com
My brides, you should definitely check out Details & Details blog for more details on awesome vendors that helped to put this amazing party together.

*all photos are used with permission by brides.com*

I met Sandra P. at Jose Vila's workshop and we immediately connected! so when she invited me to be her date for the Brides.com party, I leaped for the joy. I love this fun shot of Sandra Pan. When I meet people I see only one thing, genuineness of their heart. She definitely has a good heart and she is so talented. I am glad we became friends! Attending networking events are definitely helping me gain more friends that I keeps me grounded.

In this photo: from the left Jacqueline Phung from Brides.com, me, Marianne, Sandy and Roberto Valenzuela
photo provided by Sandra P.photography

photo of us from Marie's Canon 5D! Marie, me, Marianne, Sandy and Marissa Lopez

A+ Jose Villa- PPA Super Monday

I came across Jose Villa's work many years ago and I fell in love with them at first sight. I am so happy to see that he is featured in PDN magazine this month because he is the most talented photographer that I know of. He "knows" photography and his work is just simply beautiful. So when I saw his name on PPA Super Monday , I told everyone about it. It was so much fun driving up with Marie & Rowena and we spent awesome day in Solvang, CA with Jose Villa. He delivered A+ workshop. I believe that photographer's heart and soul translates into his work. Let me just say that the man behind his beautiful work is also as beautiful in person.

I tried little bit of Jose Villa + Me on these images.

Simply beautiful bouquets were provided by Renae's Bouquet

Stunning Make-Up and hair service was provided by Mar from T.E.A.M make-up & hair. I wish I knew Mar when I got married. Her style is so elegant. I just love her! I am thinking of an excuse to get Mar to stylize me. Super fun and beautiful Lacie was wearing dress by Jenny Lee collection. I am happy when I capture true spirit and personality of a person I photograph. There were other gorgeous shots of her, but I think this image is my favorite of Lacie. Hope you like it as much as I do Lacie! Shelbie and Gerado was our couple of the day. Sweet Shelbie was wearing this elegant dress by Melissa Sweet. Shelbie, I hope you enjoyed your modeling debut. Thank you for being so accommodating and patient with us.
There is a big advantage of having talented photographer as a friend. They know how to capture you more beautiful than you really are! I love this picture of me, Marie shot. Can't you just feel how happy I was that day? Thank you Marie!