Reflection

I finished retouching the family photos I took from Ocean Shores a couple days ago and just got them to my client. She wrote me a really sweet email and also blogged about me on her site. I am really relieved and so excited that the family loved how the photos turned out. It's nice.

In other words, today I plan to spend many more hours editing. I made the mistake of accidentally deleting some of the retouching I had already done the other day and it completely stressed me out. After returning from a run (hoping I could get it off my mind), I returned to my little Mac and started these batch of photos again. I'm trying different things and am enjoying how they are turning out. 

Thank you little Mac, you have been so faithful and I'm sorry I overwork you all the time. (I had a horrible dream the other day that I dropped and broke my laptop- it was depressing).

Yvonne / Portraits

A week ago, a friend of mine from the San Diego area flew up to Washington to spend a week with me. We pretty much did something every day and during that week, my sleeping patterns were way off from the hectic wedding week before. The only really nice place to take photos in my small town is a place called Tumwater Falls. I was knocked out that day and as I was looking through the photos, I was pleased to see that some of them actually turned out decent despite the fact that I was totally out of it.

I first met Yvonne last November... the story of how we met is actually really funny and the two of us laugh every time we recall it. She added me on Facebook a couple months before because she was friends with my best friend, Chi Huyen. They had gone to the Philipines/Vietnam that last summer on a missions trip. At that time, I was already in California starting college at Brooks. Chi Huyen suggested I go on the Mexico missions trip with them in the winter since I was already in California. I was way excited. The only thing was that I really didn't want to drive 4 hours down to San Diego. That's when I messaged Yvonne asking if I could maybe carpool with her. Keep in mind we hadn't said anything to each other before this. She was going to school in Malibu at the time. I could drive there and then carpool with her back home. She called me a few days before we were going to make the drive and to me, she didn't sound too excited, which is hilarious, because she thought the same thing of me. The thing is, we had both prepared ourselves to sound friendly/excited on the phone. So funny.

On the drive down to San Diego, we got to know each other quickly and I could tell that a friendship with her was going to be easy. The rest is history. I am amazed at how much our friendship has grown. Her love and zeal to grow in the Lord is something to look up to. I can easily say that is she one of my best friends. Love you Evo! :)

Shalom / Portraits

My favorite part of being a photographer is photographing, and the reactions of my clients after they see their photos. Retouching is fun, but after awhile, it really does get tiresome. I needed a break today so I got one of my best friends to model for me today. Shalom and I used to live about a 10-15 walk from each other back in middle school and during the summers, we were always at each others' houses. In high school, she moved to a 15 minute drive away. Recently, she just moved back near me. She is now literally a 5 minute walk from my house! Yes!

Anyway, today I wanted to do some experimenting with an off- camera flash and my umbrella. I was going for a summer, breezy kind of look. These were taken right off the road before turning into my neighborhood. I love that road. It was a pretty short shoot (I was getting so hot out there), but I got some incredible images from it. Plus, it doesn't hurt to have a gorgeous friend to model for me :) I am way happy with how they turned out!

Brotherston Family / June 13, 2009

How to begin this post? I just want to say that I am so excited as to how some of the images from this family session came out. I went to high school for three years with Alex Brotherston. He and I were really good friends, especially during marching band season (I was a band nerd- don't laugh). So when he told me his family was interested in having me take their family photos I was kind of shocked, because here I am, just an amateur looking for experience. Wouldn't they want someone with more experience? So if you're reading this, thank you soo much for trusting me. I had a lot of fun shooting this family and I can honestly say I wish we could've had more time together. 

These images were taken at Ocean Shores. I had trouble driving out there, because I was so tired from lack of sleep. (Thanks to Yvonne for keeping me awake by calling me! I love you to death.) Once I got there though, it slipped away for a bit. I thank God for giving me strength and keeping me alive on the drive back.

This family get- together was for their grandma's 80th birthday. One family from Alaska! (Sweet!) Her four kids, their spouses and three grandchildren (one of which was Alex) made up this family session. Looking through these photos and editing them makes me so excited. Ellen, Alex's older sister, wanted some couple shots with her husband, (Couple portraits are my fav!) so I was more than excited to comply. You can see these at the end.

I hope you enjoy these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them! 

PS: Even though I prefer using natural light, I just want to express how much I really do appreciate TTL flash every now and then! 

Lam & Tonya / June 6, 2009

The last two weeks have been insane and I've just finally had the chance to breathe and take a moment to just relax. It seems as if when things happen in my life, it all happens at once and then I get super busy... I've just been running on a bit of 'crazy' as my friend likes to say. About a week and a half ago, I had the opportunity to shoot another wedding. Lam and Tonya flew me down for a week and I had the chance to spend time with my San Diego friends. It was so much fun/super stressful. 

Before I left Brooks, I had mentioned to my friends that I would be in California again in June to shoot a wedding. I jokingly asked my good friend Stephanie (who also has the amazing gift of photography) if she'd second shoot for me and surprisingly she said yes. It was great- I had the chance to see her again and we caught up for a bit. The wedding day was INSANE. I was up at 5 (thanks to Stephanie) and didn't go to bed until 2 the next morning. We shot from 6 AM to 4 PM and I resumed shooting the reception by myself from 7 PM to 11 PM. Stephanie had to head back to SB. By the time the afternoon rolled around, I was really tired and slightly agitated. (I need to work on this) But the reception was a great time and I had a lot of fun shooting it. My friend's uncle had lent me another body so it was quite useful to have two cameras on me.

Things I've learned from this wedding: BREATHE and RELAX. I would most definitely say that I've grown a lot since I shot my 'first' wedding back in May. Most importantly, have fun. I let a lot of things get to me that day and it honestly didn't help. Having a second shooter is also a great idea... I cannot thank Steph enough. Together we shot over 3000 photos... but I have yet to go through them all and sort them all out. I have a lot of editing left to do, but here are some of my favorites. 

Enjoy :) I'll continue posting some more here at my flickr.