Wedding in Santa Clara University Mission, Hotel Valencia and Maggiano's in Santana Row

 

View Kirsten & Marcos' Wedding Album

Mission Church Santa Clara de Asis

Maggiano's Little Italy, Santana Row

Hotel Valencia, Santana Row
August 16, 2008

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Before I tuned my life into wedding photography, commercial photography, food photography, and fashion photography, I was a computer geek…

There could be double entendre in this title, having grown up in an area that was a colony of the United Kingdom (Malaysia), but the job I’m going to feature in this blog has a twist that takes me back to the time when I was a computer guy with Sun Microsystems.

Kirsten (the bride) and Barbara (bride’s mom), a Sun Microsystems employee—whose husband, like me, successfully switched careers to become a lawyer—discovered me after I left the company. Kirsten found me via Maggiano’s Little Italy’s amazing Banquet Sales Manager (Thanks, Vicky!). I have photographed Maggiano’s entire staff outside the restaurant, a hefty few hundred employees; and one of my most memorable weddings in Maggiano’s was with Stacy and Harold.

In my new career as a photographer (with no dreams of going back to computers), I had the chance to get to know Barbara and her family. Happily, Kirsten met, and is now married to, Marcos. I worked on both the engagement and wedding photographs, giving me lots of time with the couple. I have the positive impression that Marcos has sparked a new sense of adventure in Kirsten. I think they’ll be very, very happy.

And in the sense of adventure, we tried for adventurous locations for the engagement shots. For San Francisco cognoscenti, see if you can recognize some of these locations in this clip! A couple of hints: Pulgas Water Temple in Woodside; and the Sutro Baths and Stockton Street Tunnel in San Francisco.

Fortunately for us, the famed “pulgas” (fleas), after which the Water Temple was named, didn’t try to get into the pictures. No itching on the way home!

At the old Sutro Baths ruins, we found a cave that presented a wonderful backdrop. One of these pictures was blown up, made into a framed photograph, and all the guests at the wedding later on got to sign it, making an interesting alternative to the traditional wedding guest book.

Of course, engagement photos can only mean a wedding coming up. Kirsten and Marcos’ day was a treasure trove of photo opportunities. Someone in the family must have a connection to Santa Clara University, because they were able to book their wedding at the historic Mission Santa Clara de Asis. I understand use of this church, the eighth oldest of the original 21 California missions, is restricted, and it can take more than a year to secure a date!

From the photographer’s view, the Mission was wonderful. The inside is fantastically colorful. Outside, with its old, adobe wall, gated walkways, and ancient garden plantings, we got some great pictures.

After the ceremony, it was off to Santana Row in San José for the partying. Carrying on the adventurous theme, Kirsten and Marcos have a shared/learned passion for travel. Their reception tables, rather than being numbered, were named for locations they visited together already or plan to visit in the future. You can see from these photographs that there were two different venues: Hotel Valencia Santana Row, and Maggiano’s Little Italy, directly across the street from the hotel. The food was great, the reception was great, and—if I do say so myself—we got some great pictures, too. I hope all their future journeys are successful and happy!

–Michael Soo

More than Beavers, Maple Leaves, and Shrinking Ice Caps…Canada has DIAMONDS!!

A recent photo shoot didn't get off to a very auspicious start. I overslept. How COULD I do that, with my reputation as punctual and efficient? Working until 3:00 am shooting the real nifty laptop from HP and trying to be an hour from home by 8:00 am the next morning did me in.

But this isn't the best part of the story...my day got better!

I got an education and some great pictures with a fantastic San Francisco business, Brilliant Earth. Did you know that Canada is the world's third largest diamond producer after Botswana and Russia?

No risk of blood diamonds here! Brilliant Earth only uses Canadian diamonds and renewed metals (gold, platinum) for their jewelry. They also ensure that all other precious stones they use are certified from conflict-free sources. And as if this weren't green enough, Brilliant Earth donates 5% of its profits to African communities suffering because of the diamond industry! Boy, is that some best practice or what?!

The customers of Brilliant Earth are double winners, proud to wear beautiful jewelry and proud to support the environment, as well as survivors of war-torn places.

In keeping with "green," a VERY green location was chosen to photograph the jewelry: the Strybing Arboretum (San Francisco Botanical Garden) in Golden Gate Park. For all of the jokes about never working with kids or animals, or if you think it's tough to get a model to smile perfectly...try coaching plants!

One would think that plants stay perfectly still. The truth is, not really. The wind (even the slightest breeze) can cause severe havoc to close-up macro photography. Shooting at a small aperture means that every bit of light needs to be coaxed into the camera. My portable Profoto 600R provided a lot of light for what I needed.

Shooting a shiny and translucent product in the studio is hard enough. Shooting outdoors in the park means that I would need to juggle light control, wind management, artistic direction, placement and replacement (thank goodness we have a stylist on board!) of the pieces.

I helped balance rings on very fragile blossoms. I inserted gemstones into very private places of VERY old trees. And I made a quiet succulent Queen for a Day...and the jewels look pretty good, too!

- Michael Soo

Trend Zoom 2008 Elumen Colorist North American Winner

If you remember back in April, a local Vietnamese hairstylist, Allan Ngo of Allan's Salon, approached me to photograph his work for a huge competition, namely, Goldwell's Trend Zoom 2008 Color Challenge. This is very much akin to the Grammy award for hairstyling. (The blog can be found here)

Allan has previously entered in the annually held competition, to no success. For him, it's really about the exposure and not much else. A month ago Allan called me, "I made it into the semi finals!!!" he exclaimed. He was elated.

Then a week ago he called again, "I WON !!!"

He went on to explain that the image I created for him showed the proper shape, texture, color, depth and lighting of the hair that is crucial to become a winning image. On top of that, makeup artist Aimée Lam really brought home the matching colors of the eyes and accentuated the look with her tedious 1-hour makeup work on Danijella, the model.

It just pleases me tremendously that I am able to help Allan "uplevel" his business and reputation a big notch. What used to be an underdog local hairstylist is now a big name. A true "American Dream" success story.

Allan is now sponsored to compete internationally in October. This time, in Spain. Congratulations, Allan!!! I'm rooting for you! We all are! ;-) (The winning image is on the right.)

- Michael Soo

NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheerleaders 2008 / 2009 Swimsuit Calendar Photoshoot

How I Spent My Summer Vacation…

It might be difficult for some of you dyed-in-the-wool football fans to believe there is more to summer than training camp…but there is. It's cheerleaders-calendar-photo-shoot time! Boy are we excited or what!!!

This July, I wrapped up the photographs for the upcoming 2008-2009 NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheerleaders Swimsuit Calendar. I am the photographer for a few other cheerleading calendars, but this was my first season with the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers' calendar, and, as with all of my photo sessions—from brides to bananas to business environments to cheerleaders' bodies—this shoot was exciting.

The locations were the first plus to this project. We worked exclusively in Southern Florida, the Buccaneers' neighborhood. The hours were brutally long hours each day of the week-long shoot. And as the physique wears down, the creative mind slips away along with it; hence, we began our location scouting hours, if not days, ahead.

With 32 girls in tow for the calendar, avoiding similar-looking locations was challenging. This was especially so with the restrictions we had to adhere to: e.g. not too many waterfall shots, because they used so many waterfall shots last year; constraints of only outdoors; non-cheesy spots; etc, etc. We had to squeeze every last drop of creativity we could muster.

We began the photography work weeks before the calendar shoot with the team and individual shots. That allowed us to get to know the girls a bit better before the calendar shoot began.

Another plus was having the rookie cheerleaders assigned to me as gophers and assistants. Yes, I remind you…I was paid for this gig… ;)

The models began their days at 4 am and we wrapped up about 11 pm. Keep this in mind as you admire the twinkles in the eyes of these ladies. As I mentioned, the cheerleaders themselves helped out at the locations. But there was also an enormous team working on this project, over 20 people in all.

This shoot had its drama. On the way to an island location, we serendipitously passed a sunken, abandoned sailboat and decided to use it as a backdrop.* The models risked life and limb to reach the boat and board it—there was a reason it was a shipwreck!

You probably are wondering, does getting up close and personal with 32 beautiful women, all in bathing suits, over the course of a week change a guy? Be sure to check back to see my continual evolution. ;)

And of course, the final bonus is the collection of wonderful, eye-catching, colorful, memorable pictures of a fantastic team of talented, patient, and hardworking young women. Enjoy!

(Click on an image, then use your RIGHT and LEFT arrow keys to go through all of them)

There are so many people to acknowledge, and they were all terrific; however, I will specifically mention a few:

1. Sandy Charboneau, the Buccaneers' cheerleading manager, juggled twenty tasks on her fingertips (with Michael Jackson music playing in the background), and was tireless, efficient, organized, and a dream to work with;
2. Cathy Crooke, coordinator assistant, with a keen, intuitive knowledge, made things happen with a single phone call;
3. the Makeup and Hair Stylists, did not seem to need any sleep (unlike the photographer);
4. Ed Bottger and Shawn, the videographers, were exceptional team players;
5. Paul Ferradas, photo assistant, helped with bouncing off idea after idea (all during his birthday, too, no less!);
6. Marriott's Omelet Lady fed us ultra-delicious breakfasts nearly every day while singing her omelet song ;-);
7. and, of course, the troop of highly disciplined Cheerleaders.

My sincerest thanks to the ENTIRE Buccaneers' staff!

And now I'm back in Silicon Valley, returned to the REAL world.

- Michael Soo

* The adventure with the sunken boat deserves some elaboration. As I mentioned, the cheerleaders and staff had a terribly difficult time actually boarding the wreck. Things photographically were going well, when a Coast Guard vessel pulled up to force us to leave. We identified ourselves as representatives of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. While the Coast Guard crew were radioing their base to learn what to do with us, I began quickly taking shots to try to squeeze every opportunity left to me before getting kicked out. In the end, we were allowed to finish our work, the Coast Guard ship stuck around, and one of their crew pulled out HIS camera to snap off some shots, too! Real high seas adventure.