Wedding photo albums | Guest Albums that WOWs !!

Wedding album design isn't a chore for us. It's an exhilarating part of our wedding package and photography process. It gives us a lot to look forward to.

Ever tried to buy a special gift for someone close to you, carefully wrap it and place it under the christmas tree? Despite Christmas being a week away, you can't wait to see the expression of that special someone when they open that present, right? THAT's exactly how we feel when we design wedding album.

This particular album is done for Christine and Ben. We were so excited about showing them the album that we photographed the albums and email them these teasers,

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(Ben wrote me an email within minutes saying, "We're on our way over") ;-)

Now, what makes the Queensberry line of albums from New Zealand, our selected album maker is beyond their scrumptious leather, suedes, silks, buckram and bengalines. It's their hand crafted treasures, an extension of style, design and absolute exquisite photographic albums that retain memories. Their albums are the absolute best out there and we are glad that we are a selected few in the country that carry these albums. Don't take our word for it, check out the guest album and engagement album that we created for Christine and Ben for their May 15th Wedding in The Ahwahnee Hotel located within the Yosemite National Park. Wedding photography in Yosemite and the Ahwahnee will be absolutely fun and exciting. I can't wait to photograph there again!

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Yosemite National Park & Ahwahnee Hotel Engagement Portraits | Christine & Ben

What turns a landscape/fashion/wedding photographer on? An engagement session in Yosemite National Park, California of course!!! I was like a kid in Disneyland, frolicking from one spot to another, having a field day!!!

This was for Christine & Ben's Engagement shoot. They are expert photographers themselves, in their very rights. Their home is sprinkled with amazing landscape imagery from wall to wall. Absolutely stunning work! Ben showed me his Phase One P45 digital back and a Mamiya 645AFD. For those who doesn't know what I'm blabbering about, these are Ferraris of cameras. Yes, if you were to sell the above two equipment, you can easily buy TWO Toyota Prius. Although with the current recall situation, I would avoid Toyota for now.

Being a photographer, Ben's awesome, he'd spot interesting camera angles to be photographed. I was impressed and told him that he should quit his job in Google to come be my photography assistant. For some unknown reason, he just ignored me. :(

Their wedding is set for May 2010 at The Ahwahnee Hotel, in Yosemite Valley. Being in Yosemite is fun enough but in The Ahwahnee Hotel? Oh my God! There is just no comparison when it comes to the Ahwahnee. With the distinction as a Four-Diamond hotel and designated as a National Historic Landmark, Queen Elizabeth II stayed in the Ahwahnee when she visited Yosemite. So did a host of celebrities and royalties; Mel Gibson (while filming Maverick), John F Kennedy, Herbert Hoover, Eleanor Rosevelt, just to name a few.

The temperature was 36 degrees Farenheit and Christine wore nothing more than a bareback dress. She is such a trooper. I do also have to say that she is possibly one of the most delightful person to be around. I'm not exaggerating when I claim that everything appears so much more joyous and lively when she walks into the room.

The amazing engagement shoot is featured in the below cinema. I choose Feb 14 to blog about this, not just because it's Valentine's day, but rather, they are on my mind and their Guest Album and Engagement Album JUST arrived. More on those in my next blog!

(View HD version instead)

Casa Real Wedding on Gentry magazine Feb 2010

Back a few months ago, we blogged about a wonderful wedding that we photographed at Pleasanton's Casa Real, Ruby Hill winery. It was showcased in Gentry magazine in August 2009.

The February 2010 wedding issue of Gentry magazine now provide that spread of info, using our photography. Woohoo!!

San Francisco Bay Area Wedding Photographer wishes everyone a Happy Holiday!

The scent of pine and the sounds of jingle,
Send my senses into a pappy tinkle,
A year ago, my tears a sprinkled,
My seed and I now, a laughter and a wrinkle.

 
Just came up with the above...it has a deeper story of my family and my life embedded within. But I'm really just writing as a San Francisco, San Jose photographer family, wishing you all a wonderful holiday!

Yes, there is still time to get a family portrait! Give us a call!

Casa Real, Ruby Hill Winery Wedding Photography - Proposal in Paradise

I got totally Gentrified photographing the intimate story of a wedding proposal in Casa Real at Ruby Hill Winery, Pleasanton.

The “Entertaining” section of Gentry Magazine the Gentry South Bay August/September edition features a great article entitled "Carpe Diem" is about how to celebrate in style even in today’s tight economy. Which is exactly what Corina and Alex did.

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Alex hired Lea McIntosh, the South Bay events designer, to stage his girlfriend Corina’s birthday party at the Casa Real event space at Ruby Hills Vineyard. Except, unbeknownst to Corina, he planned to propose to her as well.

Lea put together an awesome team to do hair, make-up, lighting, and provide limo transportation. Stacie Tamaki of the Flirty Guide even showed up to crown Corina’s birthday cake with a beaded, pineapple-shaped topper containing a necklace. And we got to go along for the fun. We shot lovely candids of Tiffany Chiang and Armando Sarabia helping Corina look her absolute best with beautiful make up and an elegant hairstyle. And we captured the moment that Alex proposed, kneeling gracefully and offering Corina an engagement ring from Dilek Sezen Fine Jewelry.

I got a little misty during many of the special moments of this evening and all the preparations leading up to it—and especially at Corina’s surprise and delight when Alex popped the question. If you want to read more about this charming young couple and Lea’s ideas for creating your own magical event, check out the article. And get inspired.

Zooming into the wedding first dance

You have rehearsed your first dance for the twentieth time. You want it to be elegant, beautiful, perfect. Your veil and wedding dress will drift about you in a whirly waltz. Not any different than the father-daughter dance or the mother-son dance, your expression and emotion changes from second to second. As you reminisce your life that lies behind you and look forward to your amazing future, an emotional modulation from happiness to sadness; flow and ebb, flux within your soul.

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This is possibly one of the most beautiful and elegant sliver in weddings that I adore. Yet, this is possibly one of the hardest part in a wedding to photograph (other than the kiss in the church, which is all about timing). You see, lighting for photographers is akin to water to fish. Dance images are always a challenge to shoot, due to how badly lighted the dance floor is, the continual movements of bodies in motion, shifting dance lights and video lights (that the videographers uses-can cause the brightness to veer from too bright-to too dark), the different angles to capture, and most of all, all that to be photographed within 2-3 minutes.

If lady luck smiles upon you, at the end of most weddings, your photographer will hopefully end up with a good 1 to 2 decent but underexposed (aka dark or badly lighted) images. They will most likely processed it into black & white, and claim it as art, or make it into a brownish sepia and chalk it off as creative. The pictures are usually very grainy and if you danced slow enough, the images will just be a little blurred.

My recommendation? One of the biggest question to ask your photographer is to have him/her show you A DOZEN of their dance images from A SINGLE wedding. That's possibly one of the best indicator on his creativity, lighting skills and how well he can tango! To start off with the challenge, here are my dozen, shot a mere few days ago, last Saturday, for Jenn and Matt in Maggiano's Little Italy's lovely banquet room.

- Michael Soo

Our 8 feet lightbox at Smugmug's Mountain View entryway

I gotto say, I can never get enough of a photograph on a beautiful lightbox. It just enhances the image so beautifully. That's also why we were so thrilled to have our image showcased in the main entryway to Smugmug's headquarters in Mountain View, California.

Not only that, it's enlarged up to a life size of 8 feet tall !!! With me being a super tall guy, standing at 5 feet 5 inches, that monstrous light panel is almost twice as tall! Well, almost. ;-)

Chris MacAskill had to use a double lightbox (I seem to be using the terms interchangeably due to how similar they are to each other these days) for the image. Check it out below, with the image on the right being the original image. Whee!!!