Seattle, Friends, Food and Wine

After spending a week in San Juan Island attending Rod Dresser workshop, I met Andy in Seattle. Our dear friend Jen & Barry kindly invited us in to their beautiful home in Bellevue. (*please check out Barry's blog if you enjoy reading about marketing and advertising.)This was a wonderful treat after spending a week at the UW Friday Harbor cabin.
Jen & Barry are both foodie just like us so Jen made several reservations at their favorite restaurants. Friday night we went to the Wild Ginger in Seattle for Tyler's birthday! Sleek and modern atmosphere. Delicious Asian Fusion food and nice service. Then Saturday Morning we went to Salty's at the Alki beach for the brunch. Loved Fresh Oyster bar the most but you gotta try their waffle station. If you sit by the window you can enjoy breathtaking view of Seattle downtown. Sunday night, four of us went out to dinner at the Cafe Juanita in Kirkland for nice and cozy adult only dinner. Jen and Barry shared their Aubert 2006 Chardonnay with us. Very fruity and smooth Chardonnay. I prefer little fruity over dry Chardonnays. I had the halibut dish so it was perfect. For the appetizer, we had "Seared Foie Gras with Bing Cherries, Candied Ginger and Cocoa nibs" was delicious! You have to try this one if it's on the menu when you go there. Cafe Juanita offers five Star service and the quality. And of course house made desserts are to die for. Please make sure to reserve your table in advance. Okay, There was more than just food & Wine during this vacation. We went out to see the Tropic Thunder (not my kind of movie but I had a good laugh), shopped and of course did little sightseeing. I couldn't have asked for better vacation. Great food, wine and the wonderful friends to share the table.
With Jen at the Cafe Juanita

Mike is a very good entertainer!
watching them wasn't enough of course I tried to photograph!
To me outdoor market represents "Life"
You must line up for "Daily Dozen" and don't forget to tip :)
Jen took this shot of us.
Andy's new girlfriend, Kiley
My favorite family at the Salty's.

Back from the Friday Harbor

I am back from my two weeks journey. Refreshed and encouraged. For next few days. I am going to try to tell you little more about my trip but I need to catch up on my life here in LA. For now, I am going to have these photos to tell you the story.
This is the last image that I captured in workshop before I left the island.
Friday Harbor is the kind of place that you would like to just sit and soak up on the beauty of life.
Wonderful people I met through this workshop - It was great meeting you all.

This shot of Rachel I love so much, I wanted to leave it in color.
We saw the Orcas! Many Many of them!-I need to get myself a one of those big white lense someday.
Friday Harbor right before the rain in the late afternoon.

Above: Paul kindly took us out on his awesome boat that was named by his son. "Just Because" Below: Rock formation from the Sucia Island University of Washington Friday Harbor Lab

Ferry Landing
Few postcard photos...
I wish we had those clouds in So. Cal
another postcard image
I did not want to do anything with this image because this is exactly how I remember it.

Out of Town until 9/6/2008

I still have few more things squeeze into my carry-on bag and I will be leaving in few hours. There always is so much to pack when you take your camera gear. Not to mention trying to take 20 rolls of film in your carry-on. I've been running around like a mad woman last week just to get few things done before I go out of town for two weeks. It's little scary to leave everything behind for 2 weeks but I know everything will be okay. Okay, I have been to Passport agency and my passport disaster has been resolved. I can finally leave. Because I recently took Andy's last name and I did that before I change name on my passport, Agency has suspended processing name change on my passport. They are now asking for additional documents. I shipped them over night but when I tried to confrim with them on the phone they told me that I won't be able to get my passport back for another 2 weeks! So I rushed in to get an appointment with the Passport agency in Los Angeles. I was lucky to be able to get an appoint in such a short notice. Last friday morning in 405 traffic, I drove down to agency. A nice supervisor lady at the window #12 said "NO" at first but she took pity on me when I told her I really really really needed to take care of this before I leave so my husband can bring passport with him next week. ( They won't give your passport on the spot unless you are leaving the country on that same day!!! ) She said maybe she can get around the rules and see if she can get my information transfered by next Tuesday. I can finally take our anniversary trip with Andy to Canada after Rod Dresser workshop. Here is my advice to future brides, if you are going to take your husband's last name, do that first on your passport then change everything else. It will make your life so much easier. So I am off for two weeks, please bear with me if I cannot get back to you right away. My dear clients, you know where to reach me for your photo emergency! I won't be able to post things here until I come back so please bear with me.

Happy 7th!

I ran to upstairs panting, looked under our California king size bed where he told me to look. At first, I didn't find anything. The mattress was heavy and I began thinking that he probably took it with him. I gave up searching initially then I went back searching after few hours. There it was in between the mattress, carefully chosen for the occasion and filled with his sweet words. Andy called me this morning from UK and told me that he left me a card under the mattress that he was sorry he couldn't be with me on our anniversary. Andy's been writing cards on every occasion for past 14 years that I have known him. There were very few times that he didn't and I would demand that he should write me a card. Andy would just smile. I don't' mind not getting presents, but it feels weird not to receive a card from him on these occasions. They are always filled with his small and neat writing. I would tease Andy saying that he is not the most romantic guy but how men do really write a lengthy cards to their wives? Well- my husband does.
Andy, here is my card for this year over the world wide web. It has been wonderful being your wife for 7years. Your easy going personality and growing love transformed me to be more like you and life with you has been easy sail with the cool ocean breeze. I am proud to be your wife. You are a honorable man and you will always be my genius.
I miss you a lot and can't wait to see you on Friday!
Not only you are my best friend, but you are my hero that enables me to do things that I couldn't even imagine. I know that your job has been tough on you lately, but I do really believe you when you tell me that you are working "SO HARD" for me. So cheer up baby! Thank you for your unchanging love and trust.
Can't wait to go on our anniversary trip in few weeks!
With Love, from your wife who's been forgetting our anniversary since 5th

For those of you haven't met my sweet husband. Here is us at the Boston Harbor, MA

Smile, somebody loves you!

I am so sorry that I did not keep my promise to update this blog regularly, but I am a very good excuse. I spent 48 hours with the angels last week. Though I was deprived from my beauty sleep and gained 3 pounds by loading myself with Mc Donalds and Pizza, I am pretty sure I went to the heaven. Flexibility of my work schedule allows me to volunteer for something fun like this once in a while and I cherish these moments. I was not an official photographer(?) for this event; I acutally enjoy not having this responsibility once in a while. But I couldn't help but to snap few candids. I enjoyed being a group counselor for my 1st grade angels.
I love these children...and I know that God loves them more.

The reason to love my job

Today, I received a very encouraging and sweet e-mail from Robin. I shot Robin & Johannes' wedding last may. She sent me other notes before and I've been meaning to post them here for a long time. I have gotten many e-mails from clients before but it's always nice to receive something in the mail. On today's e-mail, she wrote such a caring and personal message it made me cry. She was worried about how my shoulder was, she complimented my B&W work and she did not forget to encourage me with bludomain situation. She's must have been visiting my blog.

I always dreamt to do something good with my talent that God has given me. It is still unclear what that is but I think God has been leading me to right direction so far. Yes, Job is something we need to have to make a living. But it's nice when you know you are delivering something that makes others smile.

This is first year that I am trying to develop strong business identity. So far I have been working basically through word of mouth. When I was in photography school, I shot a small backyard wedding for Katie & John who trusted me with their beautiful wedding. Since then I have been shooting many intimate weddings. I would like to extend my sincere thank you to my previous clients who trusted me and my talent. Without you, I will not be here today.

In my last class at the photography school, my instructor gave a nice realistic speech to my class.

"Once you leave this school, two third of you will no longer be the photographers in two years. Only elements that will help you last are the passion and the persistence."

I am still a photographer after 5years later because I have a passion for my job and I've been doing everything I can to keep my job as a photographer. I assisted others when I needed to and I did not mind shoting small jobs. I know there are many aspiring photographers out there trying to shoot just high-end weddings. I am not saying that it's a bad thing because I would love to shoot one of those weddings myself because they are just gorgeous. but I am a photographer that delivers heart-warming images. That is good enough for me now. Therefor my "special big thank you" goes out to Robin today who made me realize why I love being a photographer. It is such a rewarding job. In the midst of shooting family events and the weddings, I love becoming friends with my clients. I hope they get the same kind of impression from me that I always personally care for them as well. Thank you Robin you have made my day!

Accepted to Rod Dresser San Juan Island Workshop

I haven't blogged much lately because I was following the doctor's order to refrain from using my shoulder including using the computer mouse. I have a small tear that inflamed after last weekend's wedding. I feel much better now and I am back in front of my working station. Besides shoulder injury there has been numerous of bad things happening in my life "when it rains, it pours" To be honest, I was little discouraged to do anything for a while. I knew that the things will always get better in the end so I waited patiently.
Today, I received an e-mail that I was accepted to Rod Dresser workshop which I applied few months ago. I am so thrilled that I am going to spend 5days with him, Maggi Weston and 5 other great photographers learning more about Fine Art B&W photography. My dear friend Jennifer Lepkowski will be there as well so I am very excited. Rod Dresser takes six students on tuition free B&W photography workshop at the San Juan Island every year. If you are passionate about Fine art B&W photography, you should definitely try to take one of his workshops.
Here is one of my favorite image from the B&W portfolio that I submitted to him.

Happy Mother's Day!

Google Analytics tells me that I have increasing number of visitors daily!
I can see that my friends from Sendai, Japan are reading my blog. How cool is that? I e-mail them as often as I could but this way they can see what I am up to pretty regularly. That is enough for me to continue to write on this blog even though it really scares me because my writing in English isn't perfect. It's little frustrating for me at times because I can write pretty well in Korean. I used to win national essay competitions as a student. So bear with me if my writing isn't perfect or not so entertaining. I promise you it will get better. Thank you everyone who has visited my blog either by accident or by referrals. Please come back to read more and make comments. Everyone is giving away something on their blog to thank their blogger friends so I am going to give away something.
Mother's day is around the corner and I would like to giveaway, one family portrait session for free. All you have to do is send me a little story about special "mother" you know of and if you can attach the photo of you with that special woman. I will have my mother pick the winner on Mother's day! I would love to inform the winner on Mother's day, but I am shooting a Sunday wedding so it will have to wait. *****As a prize You will receive a portrait session + favorite images on CD.*****

Let me tell you little bit about my amazing mother. Her name is Bona and she immigrated to United States in 1988 with her two children. In Korea, She worked as an esthetician since I was about 10 years old. She needed to get licensed again in the states so she got her license in 6months. I still don't know how my mother managed to go to school here in United States and got her license because she did not speak any English. She probably did impossible for us. She has been a small business owner since then. Recently, I have been complaining everyday how hard it is to manage business side of photography, but my mother has been doing this for 20years all by herself. I am so proud of her and I am so thankful everyday that God allowed me to be born as my mother's daughter. She raised me to be strong and she taught me to share. She turned 60 years old last year so we created this family portrait with the help of my tripod. LOL We have fronzen faces, but she displays this photo at her shop and point it out to her customers saying "My family, my daughter is a good photographer!" I hope I make her very proud one day. Like making the list of American photo's top ten best wedding photographers in the world will just do that. I love you mom!

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.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

I just wanted to take time to thank my clients and friends for being faithful supporters of my work in year 2007. And to my family who enables me to do what I love to do.

I promise to make 2008 more exciting for Ambient Photography Studio.

Every year I make list of things that I want to achieve for myself and for my business, but this year I am just going with one. (don't worry there still is a "things to do list")

I want to be truly a "g-o-o-d person" - Does this make me sound like a bad person?, but

I came to believe when I achieve this goal of mine, everything else will follow.

It is just one resolution, but I think I have a lot to work on so please send me your encouragements through out the year.

I wish you the best of luck in year 2008!

Happy Thanksgiving !

After we bought out first house three years ago, we started our own tradition of having my side of family over for Thanksgiving lunch at our place because Andy's family have their traditional Turkey Dinner every year. It's busiest time of the year for me, but I had a great time cooking for my family this year. I am not a big fan of turkey meat and so are my family, but what's Thanksgiving without roasted turkey so I decided to make turkey this year. I used french reciepe for my turkey this year. My lemon cheese cake with lemon curd was big hit. I am so proud of myself for making my first cheesecake so perfect. I enjoy cooking, but I am not experieced baker because I really don't like sweets. Here are some photos of my non-traditional thanksgiving meal. Bear with me for not so professional photos. I was busy cooking!

Lemon Garlic Herb Turkey- My first turkey deserves photo!

Few side dishes;

Honey Roasted Acorn Squash

Asparagus with Orange Sauce

Green bean with tomatoes

Roasted bell peppers with lemon juice (Spanish tapas style)

Fall Cafe at HANACC

This is for those of you who were not able to attend. Enjoy the slide show.
Click Here!

Lola Fair & Baby J.

I am in my busiest season of the year where I stay up until 3 am editing and out to work again in the morning. I don't know when is last time I did anything for myself, but I had a very refreshing experience last Sunday. I got to see Lola Fair & Baby J. perform live at HANACC. What a talent!

I have known Baby J. for a while now and every time I hear her sing, I am just in awe.
As you can see she is a very beautiful and talented young lady. She is very humble and kind. She definitely breaks your perception of a "pretty girl" who wants everything her way. She isn't materialistic and I don't sometimes even think that she wants fame & money. She is so real. She just wants to be able to do what she loves! I truly hope that her dreams come true. If you are a talent agent out there and looking for a real thing, here is your chance!

Please support Lola Fair & Baby J. Please check out Lola Fair & Baby J. online! Jeanie (Baby J) & Youmee (Lola Fair) has been doing this for a long time and they just produced a new album "Digital Love". If you would like to purchase their "Signed" album, please contact me, I will forward your message to her. Their music video, "Inspiration" is already on Youtube and will be available on iTune store soon!

Youmiee