Trash the Dress with a Wedding Photographer

Your flowers have died. The cake has been consumed. All the alcohol bottles, emptied. You are left with hundreds, if not, thousands of dollars worth of fabric and lace. What to do with your used wedding dress? That has been the ultimate question for brides for decades! Some decide to donate it to a charity. Some go the eBay route. Others pack it away in hopes that their daughter will one day wear it, although you know your daughter will politely decline as she secretly cringes. Why not take that dress out before it begins its asphyxiation process in its bag. And then, have some fun with it? So, there you have it, the fine art of trashing the wedding dress. I have shot high fashion, glamour and have taught a large variety of photography and photoshop workshops but this one, is by far the funnest photoshoot. Download and view the HD version. (30 MB) All the images can be found in the Trash the Dress Gallery. - MS

一山還有一山高 - There'll always be someone better

一山還有一山高，强中自有强中手。is a Chinese proverb that my dad would preach to me over and over again throughout my childhood. The direct translation speaks of mountains that will always be dwarved by taller mountains. No matter how strong, smart or how successful you are, there will always be someone stronger, smarter or more successful. The lesson here, really, is about humility. It's about how we should never let material success overwhelm our ability to think and to improve. The idea of success is not the ability to climb to the top. Rather, it is about getting there and staying there. While I'm not trying to teach philosophy here, it sprouted from being around really tall folks in the NBA team, cheerleaders, tall models and basketball players (not so much the latter) that I've been shooting this past weekend. Here, Alicia is the coordinator of the Golden State Warriors. She is a whooping 6' 6" in height and boy, I've never felt shorter in my life standing next to her. However, when it comes to creating an amazing portfolio for her, I always have a chin-high, stand tall attitude, for I know what was needed to be done. Here's Alicia on the left, during the golden hour where the sun and my bare bulb strobes shines upon her eyes, bringing out much beauty and colors in her eyes that entices the hearts. This brings me to my new company slogan, Touch the heart, via the eyes. In this case, it works both ways, the eyes of the model and/or the eyes of the viewers. - MS

Fashion shoot at de Young Museum

I had a spontaneous fashion photography photoshoot in de Young Museum this past Monday (during a work week, yeah baby!). Nope, I did not plan where I was shooting nor what exact time the shoot should begin. For those of you who knew me well since 10+ years ago, you must be gasping with horror. No planning??? Imagine the horror of Michael Soo doing something without planning for it thoroughly. "My name is Michael Soo and I was an avid planner. An obsessive compulsive I_got_hit_this_spot_by_2pm and_do_that_at_3pm planner." I used to strive to be impeccable in my timing and mind you, my timing was accurate to the minute and I was the perfect manager in corporate America. But that has changed over the course of the last 10 years. I won't be going through my life story here but as a libra, I have been moving into my subconcious center to find that balance. Sarah Abramson was my guinea pig...I mean beautiful model. She was amazing in every way. Very responsive in email, phone calls and texting; professional, and of course, tall and gorgeous. I gave her some directions on the type of poses I was looking for and she snapped into them like peas into their pods. I just wished we had time to run through more looks before the sun went down but that's nothing I can or want to control. Erica Carr did the makeup and a bit of hair work. I really like her positive attitude, very easy going and does wonderfully clean makeup work that made my job easier in post. Timing was unpredictable. We started late, Sarah lost her way. She was probably making a U-turn from the Mexico border. ;-) Erica, on the other hand, didn't even know where we were meeting. The sun droop down the horizon fast. Going back 10 years, I woulda flipped. LOL. But no! I did not even flinch! No brah. I was relaxed with my grande soy latte in hand, planning my week. It's all good. ;) That said, the past 5 years have been a wildest ride that few has the stomach to swing through. The Good

I was promoted twice in Sun Microsystems, Inc.

I was awarded the highest possible title in the photography world, Photographer of the Year 2005 by the largest photography magazine in the world.

I pulled together a local photography forum that has grew from a total of 10-20 members to what now appears to one of the largest photography forum in California.

I started Soo Photography, specializing in wedding photography, commercial photography, food photography and modeling photography. Today, I found myself standing at a crossroad. I no longer have the full support of full-time engineering jobs in large corporations, i.e. America Online, Sun Microsystems, amongst them. What will the future hold? I wish I knew. Then again, if I did, it would suck the fun out of it and I'd be left a dull man. Bring it on!!! - Michael Soo

The Mythical Photographer

Before meeting with a client, they sometimes wonder who's the mystery man behind the camera. So, I figured that if I should enhance the mythical nature of my existence, I'll hype it further using imagery, smoke and mirrors. Ok, there's no mirror involved, just one flashlight, is all it took. The smoke you see is actually humid sea breeze, mixed with fine sand in the cave. Folks in my forum then got really creative and started doing the Sprint commercial thing writing out the name of my personal website/forum, i.e. the SooCool in the soocool.com/forum. SooCool Forum is the largest local photography forum in California with over a thousand members who post/read/browse the forum on a daily basis. I found plenty of great photographers/friends in the forum than I thought I would. Fantastic guys/gals who love photography with a passion. In my last pose, I made full use of the floating dust to create a lightsaber look. I call it, The Explorer - Michael Soo