Rory and Charlotte were planning a trip to California from the UK, but what Charlotte didn’t know was that we had been planning Rory’s proposal to her for over two months! Rory knew he wanted to propose at a beach with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge so we discussed the best beach to shoot from and the logistics of the shoot. Armed with our cell phones for some sneaky texting and a photo of the couple, I arrived early and waited for them to arrive at Baker Beach. Charlotte was so caught up in the moment when Rory got down on one knee that she had no idea that their special moment was being captured for them to treasure for the rest of their lives. It was such an honor to be one of the two other people that knew what was going to happen (the other being Charlotte’s father)! Congratulations to you both, and don’t forget to come back for anniversary photos!

See more of their images on my Facebook page!

I can’t think of a better site than For Awesome People to feature Kara and Max’s engagement session! ]]> http://www.jkuophoto.com/2013/05/featured-on-for-awesome-people-kara-and-maxs-engagement-session-stanford-wedding-and-engagement-photography/feed/ 0 http://www.jkuophoto.com/2013/04/jane-george-san-francisco-golden-gate-park-engagement-photographer/ http://www.jkuophoto.com/2013/04/jane-george-san-francisco-golden-gate-park-engagement-photographer/#comments Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:54:51 +0000 Jeff http://www.jkuophoto.com/?p=1753 NOTE: The images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

When I met Jane and George last year, we got along immediately. We have very similar interests (Jane’s a foodie and George loves cars and Gran Turismo 5) and it’s so easy to hang out with them. We decided to head to Golden Gate Park for their engagement session and started at Shakespeare Garden. We were lucky and caught the cherry blossoms in Shakespeare Garden in full bloom! Then we went over to Stow Lake for some time on the lake and ended with a beautiful sunset. I don’t think the day could have been more beautiful for them!

Visit Jeffrey Kuo Photography’s Facebook page to see more images!

I wasn’t the only photographer that day! Jane was nice enough to snap this photo of us following them by paddleboat!

Jake was one of the groomsmen at Brent and Seneca’s wedding back in 2011 and I was happy to hear that he was getting married! Jen and Jake are avid gamers and we immediately hit it off when I heard they wanted to incorporate some Final Fantasy themes into their wedding. He also showed me their online save-the-date, which he designed in RPG Maker. As you’ll see, their brother-in-law custom painted some amazing Final Fantasy figures out of Kidrobot MunnyWorld figurines (Rooz to be exact), which basically merges two amazing ideas into one pretty epic cake topper!

During Jen’s dance with her father, they started playing a song of her singing along with her dad when she was a kid. I’m so lucky I can hide and click away behind a camera because otherwise everyone would get to see me teary-eyed during their dance. Thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of your beautiful wedding day! Congratulations Jake and Jen!

There was a horse right outside of the house Jake was getting ready in! I loved the decorations inside the home including this vintage telephone.

I’m always a sucker for pets and animals and this cat was so friendly!

Congratulations Jake and Jen! Thanks to my 2nd photographer Christina for the shots!

Got a chance to say hi to Brent and Seneca! They’re now expecting a baby so congratulations and best wishes to your new family!

Assistant Photographer: Christina Liang
Hair Artist: Heile Gantan
Makeup Artist: Elisha Bonifacio
Dress Designer: Natalie Mendoza
Ceremony Venue: Saint Maria Goretti
Reception Venue: Lions Gate Hotel
Cake Designer: Etorre’s

Wen Shu is another friend from the college days that’s working at a startup in the Bay Area. He wanted to get some updated images for both personal and professional social networks so we met up in Mountain View recently to get a variety of headshots for him! ]]> http://www.jkuophoto.com/2013/04/wen-shu-bay-area-headshot-and-portrait-photographer/feed/ 0 http://www.jkuophoto.com/2013/03/top-10-things-i-learned-at-wppi-part-1/ http://www.jkuophoto.com/2013/03/top-10-things-i-learned-at-wppi-part-1/#comments Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:37:24 +0000 Jeff http://www.jkuophoto.com/?p=1510 NOTE: The images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

I’m back from WPPI! This was my third straight year going and I generally returned too drained to recap the experience so I’m making it a point this year to talk about some takeaways from the experience.

10. Stay hydrated

The first thing that always happens to me at WPPI is that my lips get chapped and I feel drained almost immediately from all the dry, circulated air and cigarette smoke in the hotel. Knowing that I’m not going to be leaving the hotel for 3-5 straight days, I make sure to pack some chapstick and try to stay hydrated. Bring a water bottle or stock up on a pack of water!

9. Bring a portable phone charger

While it seems to get better every year, the reception (mostly with AT&T) isn’t the best at the conference areas and the outdoor tradeshow area has no reception at all (with most carriers if I’m not mistaken). The problem is your phone starts to wonder where all those delicious cell phone signal went and boosts the antenna power to find it, which is absolutely brutal on battery life. Switch your phone to “Airplane mode” to conserve battery or bring a portable battery pack to charge your phone so you don’t miss that text later in the day to go grab dinner or hang out with friends. I got the Sony CP-A2LS (4000 mah) portable battery on sale but do some research and get what works best for yourself.

8. Narrow your scope for a productive tradeshow but keep your mind open

The trade show has tons of amazing products and services on display and there’s no way you’re going to have time for it all. Customer service is very important to me and having had some issues recently with a sample I made with an album company, I spent a lot of time talking to lots of other album companies about how they deal with customer service issues. Each year, pick a few top-priority categories that your business needs to improve on and tackle them, while still talking with other vendors briefly to see what you may want to focus on for next year’s WPPI trade show. Here’s a photo of the awesome mosaic frame by Moo!

7. Bring your camera

This sounds like an obvious thing for photographers to do but I use my camera not just to take photos with friends but to remember which unique products I thought were worth a second look at the trade show. It also helps to take photos of speaker presentations since sometimes they go through slides much more quickly than you can take notes. Here’s a great slide from one of the presentations I attended.

6. Do your research on speakers

All of the speakers at WPPI are there for a reason: they’re all accomplished photographers and business owners. They all want your attention but you can only attend one speaker’s class per time slot (or two if you split your time). Every speaker’s class tagline and description is meant to be catchy to lure you in, but I’ve found that some taglines are deceiving (no bad intentions I’m sure). I was drawn to a speaker’s class that said something along the lines of “How to maximize your business for the upcoming year” until I googled him and found out he’s a high school senior and portrait photographer, not a wedding photographer.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Kara and Max’s adorable engagement session has been featured on Wed Over Heels! I was at WPPI when I was notified of the post and what better time than when I was surrounded by thousands of other creative and talented photographers! Thank you to the editors over at Wed Over Heels for the love!

If you haven’t already seen how adorable Kara and Max are together, see more of their engagement session here!

Bowei and I have known each other since our days at Carnegie Mellon University and both of us have gone on to do drastically different things than we were doing when we first graduated. Bowei’s started a few companies before and now he’s moved onto the World Startup Report with the amazing mission to meet, identify and document startup ecosystems all over the world! Let’s all show him some support during his travels!
]]> http://www.jkuophoto.com/2013/02/bowei-bay-area-headshot-and-portrait-photographer/feed/ 0 http://www.jkuophoto.com/2013/02/kara-max-stanford-university-bay-area-engagement-photographer/ http://www.jkuophoto.com/2013/02/kara-max-stanford-university-bay-area-engagement-photographer/#comments Thu, 21 Feb 2013 18:42:25 +0000 Jeff http://www.jkuophoto.com/?p=1470 NOTE: The images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

There are way too many favorites to share from Kara and Max’s engagement session at Stanford! I had so much fun during our session and both of them were so photogenic! I absolutely loved the fun moments when they were goofing off between shots. Kara and Max are both creative writers working at video game companies so it was perfect that they shared books they had written and that there was a word wall at the Graduate School of Business.

Each of the books they’re holding were written by one of them (Surviving High School by Max and Eastridge Academy School for Adventurers by Kara and her friend). Kara just recently completed a Kickstarter for School for Adventurers which did exceptionally well. If you enjoy reading fantasy novels, show them some love on their Facebook page!

If you enjoyed these images, connect with me on my Facebook page to see some extra bonuses from this session!

Credits:
Gorgeous makeup done by Chau Nguyen of A-List Makeup

We had originally planned to shoot Jake and Jen’s engagement session at the beautiful Muir Beach, where Jake had proposed to Jen. Unfortunately due to the weather forecast predicting a 90% chance of rain that day, we looked into some other options. It broke my heart knowing that we couldn’t go back and revisit such a beautiful place that held such important memories for them.

Due to scheduling conflicts, we were unable to move the session and this would be the last day before their wedding that they would be available. We decided to meet in the city, brave whatever the weather would impose on us and make sure to get some great shots for them to share with friends and family. I came fully prepared to deal with the rain, and even get some nice shots in the rain. And it turns out that… it didn’t rain. AT ALL. How lucky were we?!

Jake and Jen love bowling and own their own gear so we also stopped by a bowling alley to capture their love of the game. Jake even had a Superman t-shirt on so we had him transform into his secret identity! They’re also big gamers, having made their super awesome save the date announcement with RPGMaker and even getting little competitive over a game of Pacman we found at the bowling alley!

Since they’re a long distance couple, they each have a stuffed animal that represents the other so they’re never alone. They named them Jake 2 and Jen 2! How cute is that? I had to get a picture of them together with their stuffed counterparts.

Here are some favorites from our time together, enjoy!
Their bowling balls say Heat and Freeze. Fire and ice, I love it!