We all arrived early to San Francisco to find that the Legion of Honor was closed! There were people cleaning the floors and we couldn’t find a “creative” way to get in, so we made the best of what we had! It was such a beautiful day and Kristen and Austine were such a fun couple. Kristen’s laugh was infectious and we all had a great time while going around the city.
Photos taken for Joo Pyo Photography.
I’m back from my trip to Asia! This was a very much needed break for me since I left my full-time job and started pursuing photography as my primary focus (something that I didn’t write about at the time, and am hoping to revisit since it’s almost been a full year).
In the last part of December thru January, I was seriously suffering from a lack of focus on anything photography-related. Heck, on anything anything-related! I had just finished an incredibly fun and creative stop-motion shoot and had intentions of revamping my site (which is still on-going, I swear) and finishing up some blog posts about sessions I did with other photographers. With so much to do, how was it that I couldn’t seem to get any of it done?
Meg Perotti’s post (which is beautifully written here) on the winter burn out let me realize that I wasn’t alone in this and helped allow me to admit that I was, indeed, suffering from burn out. As a photographer whose work I enjoy, I hope she doesn’t mind me drawing inspiration from her post!
Coincidentally, I was already in Asia when her blog post was written, yet still stressed out from all the stuff I thought I should be working on. While on vacation. This was a first for me, since previous vacations were vacations away from my full-time job, away from my boss (which is now myself), and away from the obligations and responsibilities associated with work. As with any other business where everything falls on one person, I was allowing my pursuit in photography to consume every waking hour of my life.
Now that I’m back, I’m excited to get back to work! Being away and not being able to do any work was a blessing that I’m glad I allowed myself to take. I have a few exciting engagement sessions coming up (one in Hawaii!) and WPPI in just a few days to look forward to. I’ve also been toying with some ideas for some personal projects, and I’ve realized that I need to shoot these personal projects for myself in order to stay creative and enjoy my photography for myself. I also realized that I need to allow myself to live a more balanced life (something that was oddly easier when working for someone else). I’ve started reading Outliers, an incredibly interesting and stimulating book about the story of success. I can’t even recall the last time I’ve sat down to just read a book (long internet articles aside). Nobody can be in-the-zone 100% of the time, and by allowing myself time to enjoy other things, I think my photography will benefit from it as well.
If you’ve had a time where taking a break away from a project or work has helped, please share! I think we’ve all heard generic advice about how much it helps, but personal stories have so much more impact compared to having clichéd advice thrown at us.
Looking forward to sharing a few shots from my trip to Asia soon, but for now, here’s one shot of the famous Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, Japan.
Just a quick post today to show off something Gayle and Ken did with one of their images from their reception!
I got to see the actual credit card and it looks so awesome! It’s great to know that they enjoyed the photos enough to make it onto a credit card they’ll be holding onto for a few years
By the way, the card numbers are fake since this is a preview image of how their credit card should look, so don’t bother ordering anything from Amazon with it
Thanks again for allowing me to capture such stunning images at your reception guys!
Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful and crazy-yet-safe holidays!
As we all take more and more digital photos on our cameras and phones, how many of us end up going back to them? Or going back to them only every now and then, rediscovering our memories on shiny and glossy screens or when deleting old e-mails because our mailboxes are full? I used to feel the same way – thinking that prints took up physical space on a bookshelf or gasping at how expensive it was to buy a frame or print a canvas to hang. In a world where an iPad costs almost as much as a nice large print and frame, it’s understandable to see that more and more people are choosing to pass on purchasing prints.
I recently came across a story shared on Facebook by another photographer (thanks Eric Fung!) and it tells an incredibly emotional and sad story of a woman who decided to cancel a photo session that she had scheduled. I don’t think I could have written it better than the original author and don’t believe summarizing it would do the story justice, so feel free to read the story here. It really hit home for me that portraits are indeed more than just paper.
Needless to say, I gain more and more appreciation for the products and services we photographers offer every day though stories like the one above or through the new products I continue to research and offer. By seeing not just the joy, but the significance, our work can bring to a client and knowing that they will cherish and share their images with friends and family, I continue to see how our work brings these memories alive.
I recently delivered Jeannie and Henry’s wedding album to them, and I know they will cherish and share the beautiful memories protected within with their friends, family, and children for years to come.
Here are some shots of their beautiful leather-bound flush-mount (thick pages!) coffee-table album!
Here are some pages of their album before it was sent to a professional print lab to be print and bound!
[...] new offering from Visionart really must be seen and felt to really appreciate the quality. Unlike a flush mount album, the art paper is glued back to back. While the pages are thicker than normal photo paper, this is [...]
Hope everyone had a great Christmas and is looking forward to a wonderful new year!
If you saw two posts down, the photo posted was the location of the shoot we did for Denise and Alex’s save the date!
Denise and Alex had a request for me: To make a stop motion save-the-date video for them! This was something I have not attempted before, but it sounded like it would be a fun new challenge for me. We spent quite a bit of time over Google video chat discussing the concept of the idea, locations for the shoot, and planning for the props and outfits to be used. Denise and Alex decided that the video would show the story of how they met and got engaged. We ended up shooting the stop motion at Alex’s old elementary school!
You’ll see four different outfits throughout the video in this order:
1) When they first met – They were both in track and field but Denise didn’t think much of Alex yet!
2) When they were at separate colleges – Denise was an art student (look at what she creates in the video!) and Alex was having a good time
3) When they met again in Hawaii! – They seemed to hit it off!
4) The present – Now they’re engaged!
If you want to hear the long version of their story (one story from each side!), visit their wedding page here.
I had so much fun with this project! I would love to do more of these as a creative and fun way for couples to announce their engagement! Feel free to watch the video fullscreen in HD!
Denise is Melinda’s cousin, so Melinda was at the shoot helping us all out! She did all the chalk writing on the floor for their save-the-date message! If it wasn’t for her, that process would have taken much longer since I’d be the one doing it!
This video, although only slightly over 2 minutes, took us over 4 hours to create! Even if we’re in California, it’s still fairly chilly in the winter, and we all had to endure a bit of the cold. Poor Denise and Alex decided on outfits that weren’t very warm! We had to improvise a bit on the spot due to how cold they got, so weather definitely plays a part in how much and how long we can shoot.
As we walked back from the shoot, we had to pass through this tunnel that looked like a giant rain gutter. Being inspired by a photo I saw from the amazing photographers at Lin & Jirsa, I asked Alex and Denise for a quick photo of them inside the tunnel!
Here’s what the tunnel looked like originally so you can try to recreate the scene too!
[...] out their teaser photos! And go back to enjoy their stop-motion Save-the-Date we shot late last [...]
This is so cute and creative! That tunnel shot is awesome!
Thanks so much Jeff and also my wonderful cousin Melinda for assisting!!! It was very nippy but we had such a blast and the outcome of everything out-weighed the cold and 4 hours!!
