Category Archives: PHOTOGRAPHY

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.

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.

When I need the break from fast pacing life of mine, I go out to shoot landscapes.
I love photographing children and weddings but those are fleeting moments. It’s no joke that many photographers have ADD. I need to be grounded at times so this is my way of finding peace in my life. I find myself focused and centered when I am composing my shots on film cameras. I practice using zone system and pretend to be Ansel Adams for the day. I can now pretty much see things in B&W and control my exposures based on the effect I want in finished prints. I love printing in the darkroom even though I can easily do everything in Photoshop now. I learned to do alternative processing and printing and I would love to use same process creating fine art portraits for my business. There is something about “old way” of doing things. Few days ago, I found out my favorite film Kodak HIE ( high-speed infrared ) discontinued. I am so bummed. I called everywhere to find left over stock, but there were none left. I hope Kodak HIE comes back in the market just like Ilford SPX 200. Here are the few images taken with my LAST role of infrared film. (Zone system was not used for this specialty film) I know some will say that we can now shoot infrared with digital cameras or apply action in Photoshop but I still think it’s different. I hope you can see that too.

Boulder, Colorado March 2008 Kodak HIE rated at 100 ISO
Paris, France December, 2007 Kodak HIE rated at 100 ISO

I am a member of Wedding and Portrait Photographer International (WPPI) which is a fast glowing organization based in Santa Monica, CA. This was my first time attending this fun convention and I had a blast. Making talented, gorgeous and generous new friends and listening to industry’s most successful photographers definitely inspired and challenged me to next level.

I will be honest, I wanted to be where some of the photographers stand and I wrote it down on my journal to make myself remember this feeling. I’ve never wanted something so badly in my life. I am not a competitive person. I am horrible at playing games. I don’t like to be on the spot light so being third place was fine with me always. But for four days that I was attending many seminars. I found myself wanting to be on the top. “Dreams are like clouds and they need to be chased”-Matthew Jordan Smith said this in his seminar which was the last seminar I attended before I left Las Vegas. I think God is really telling me to really go after my dreams this time.
I relied my business on word of mouth until now but it’s time to change that. Because I really love my job and I want to be able to do this for a long time. At WPPI I saw what success brings to a photographer. It’s freedom to be able to do what I want. It is not the great fortune, fame or a receiving a glamorous title of being a master photographer. It is really about having a “Freedom” to photograph what I think is beautiful and to inspire other with those images. It means to be able to help others that are in need.

Photography community is very friendly and I love that I am a party of community that are willing to give back and pay it forward. Here are few fun shots taken with very first generation Canon Elph ( I think I can all it antique camera now), a point and shoot digital camera. Colors were not great so most are converted to Sepia. Thanks for the great time everyone!

from the top left: with Maureen Ford from Boston, my facebook friend Kenny Kim, with my hubby,
with Marianne Lozano and Julie Weaver , With Tanja Lippert and Kim, With Vanessa and June, with Laurel Mcconnell and Jenna Kaworski, with Jay Goldman

with Mike Lin, Gene Higa Speaking at Young guns, with Kim, Maureen and Marianne, With Robert Evans, With Jasmine Star, With David Jay, Matthew Jordan Smith Speaking at Sony Booth, Andy speaking with Jason Kiefer of Pictage, Jules Bianchi speaking at Pictage Partner Con headliners.After attending the convention, it was time for some girl time. My good friend, Jean who is a major airline pilot flew in just to drive up to LA with me. I am so proud of her whenever I think that she is actually flying the big plane. We had so much fun trying out desserts at the buffet ( told you I was a foodie!) and I won $250 as we were leaving the Wynn hotel. I have to say she is my good luck charm.

Last night, I attended Ed Pierce’s “Captivated by the Light” seminar sponsored by PPA. To be honest, I initially decided to go because I wanted to check out few vendors before WPPI- No offence Ed! I did not know of his work before this seminar so I just drove myself to Radisson Westside Hotel, with very little expectation. However, Ed Pierce’s seminar was by far one of the best. He is obviously a very talented photographer and gifted speaker! Not to mention he looked better in person than his promo photo. I often find out how little some photographers know about creating,controlling and seeing the light. Fortunately, I learned quiet a bit of lighting from my fine art and chimerical photography training at school. But this 4 hour seminar clearly helped me to see how I can apply quality lighting to my image more effectively. Ed Pierce’s PhotovisionVideos presents this really clearly. So I broke my promise to not to buy anything before WPPI and bought subscription to his DVD program. I am hopping that Andy can watch this with me so he can get a sense of what professional lighting is like.
Another inspirational topic that this seminar had was about the non-profit organization called “Now I lay me down to sleep” (NILMDTS), co-founded by talented portrait photographer Sady Puc. I first read about this organization years ago on news paper article. Basically NILMDTS provides portrait session with their child they may night bring back home. I thought of volunteering while I was a student, but I was afraid that I may not be qualified to do this job. What if I make mistake? This is by far worst than missing couple of important shots at the wedding!!! That was my excuse then. I am still afraid of that even though I’ve never made a single mistake on my weddings so far. Last night, Ed announced that NILMDTS is short of volunteers. I think, I am going to sign up with them once I finish branding my new photography business this spring. It will be emotionally intense,but I believe that God gave me this talent to share with others. Many people question people like me writing on charity subject here. This is not to boast about what we do. It’s just my small contribution to let the rest of the world know that we can still take small parts in helping others and paying it forward. So if you are reading this and you are a professional photographer and want to volunteer please click here to go to NILMDTS website, you can also make cash donation.

Today… I did it!!! I did it!!!
I opened my red coach wallet then took my VISA card out
and bought Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0!
I just download it off the web because they are offering promotional price of $199 until April 30,2007. Yes, you stil have few more days. You better hurry.
I’ve never thoght that I will get so excited over a new software! But this is really cool program just like Photoshop. I am in love with my PhotoshopCS2 and Lightroom definitely helps me to save my time infront of the computer. I love working on photoshop and I am very comfortable with it, but I only have limited hours each day so I’d rather take some more photos than to sit infront of the computer all day long. Plus, I prefer not to apply too much Photoshop effect to my images, so Lightroom is perfect for me.

Normally, I would hesitate to buy first generation product,but I already know that this is a great product and I have some sentimental value with this first generation Lightroom.

Last year, I was chosen to participate in Colin Finlay’s workshop that I adobe sponsered. In addtion to spending whole day with Colin Finlay. I also met Julianne Kost for the first time in Person! She is so patient and awesome, she stayed extra hours editing our work and going over key features of Ligthroom. I probably don’t need to tell you that she is the goddes of Photoshop.
Jennifer Stern,Senior Product Marketing Manager at Adobe is also such a sweet and down to earth person who fits so into her position and to this project that adobe is sponsering with emerging photographers. I am so glad that I got to know her little bit in person as well.

You can go to Project: Photoshop Lightroom website to see and inspire by emerging photographer’s work. You can also see my work at Santa Monica College Gallery. I went to big university, but Santa Monica college is where I found my passion.

My friends ask me all the time whether I am still in school. My answer is that I will always be in school. People may say that I am afraid of the real world. That’s not true at all. I make time to attend classes and workshops because I want to stay inspire. I can’t wait to share more of my personal work with you all!