Usually, wedding photography is totally different from product photography. There are numerous times where our commercial & product photography skills really come in handy: when we’re shooting bridal jewelry. Part of getting up close and personal with many couples on their wedding day is getting close-ups.

A lot of couples ask for shots of their wedding rings, and brides who wear tiaras or other heirloom pieces passed down from generation to generation will ask us to photograph them.

Using a close-up macro lens is important for jewelry shots, of course, but lighting is the ultimate key. Natural lighting tends to work badly for ring shots, due to a reflective blend of colors that can mottle the jewelry. To really make the jewels sparkle, close-up photographs tend to need a LOT of light and they need to be well-placed lights.

For example, couple of weeks ago, we shot a wedding at the Ranch Golf Club in San Jose. The wedding colors were purple and green, and the bride’s flower of choice was purple tulips. When we shoot up-close with petals, getting the lighting right is super important—the rings in the purple flower would look dingy and purple, had the setting not been backlit with well-placed lights and reflected back. This shot took us just a few minutes, but could easily be used by a jewelry company for a full two-page spread advertising in a fashion magazine!!!

One of my other favorite jewelry shots was from a wedding at Far Niente, an amazing high-end winery in Napa. The winery has huge wine caves built into the hills, and their wines are in the hundreds. They do not usually hold weddings in the vineyard, but since the groom works there, they made an exception. The couple’s love is in its early phases now, but will age like a fine wine, so we honored the occasion and the spectacular setting by showing the rings against the ripening grapes.

The natural light outdoors made for great wedding shots, but we used lights for the ring pictures. Like the tulip photograph, this was especially important, because the light going through things like leaves and petals can leave a weird tint on the metal and jewels. By carefully lighting the rings in this shot, we made them sparkle and really pop against the green leaves and purple grapes.

One more that I LOVE is this stack of rings. This is from another incredible wedding, this time at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite. The groom has a son and daughter, and they decided to buy them rings for the wedding too, so that the wedding was not just about the couple, but also about the memorable and meaningful new bond between the kids and their step-mom. Isn’t that sweet?! It totally melted my heart. We stacked the rings together to show how the family’s rings were a symbol of their togetherness—all the separate rings became one.

Below is some of our commercial photography work, photographed for Brilliant Earth, a San Francisco conflict-free gem company that sells wedding rings to couples who are concerned about the source of their diamonds. As you can see, the type of work is not much different from the personal jewelry shots!!

When couples ask us to photograph their rings, we always look for creative ways to tell a story with the picture—it shouldn’t look like an ad for a jewelry store; it is personal and real. And it should definitely have the right lighting. ☺

A wedding day at San Mateo History Museum & Stanford Memorial Church, Palo Alto , filled with fun, art and dancing. And talk about dancing, Becca & Jed’s first dance is nothing short of spectacular. I’m particularly fond of Becca’s wedding dress that floats on the dance floor under the beautiful dome of the San Mateo Museum as she dance gracefully with Jed. Wowza!

And oh, we had to work with the Samuel L Jackson, I mean the officiant with the thunderous voice again. I love this guy.

Capture the Love team came out in full force, from photography to videography/ cinematography and even our makeup artist, Tiffany had fun.

Photographers – Michael Soo | Ed Tran

Cinematographers – Paul Ferradas | Viet Mac | Aaron Lee

Cinema Edit – Viet Mac

Makeup Artistry – Tiffany Chiang

We were here, just a mere 2 weeks ago for Yuanyuan & Mike’s Wedding at The Ranch Golf Club and now, we’re back again. This time with Candice and Charlie. Candice eminates of class and fun while Charlie has a calm demeanor about him. Calm or not, they were forced to gulp down a banana in 30 seconds to pass one of the the bridesmaids trials, in order to earn their right of passage to the bride.

Yuanyuan & Mike stopped by two nights ago to view their album design (you heard that right! We complete an album design within TWO weeks!!). Told Mike that we went back to The Ranch and he was curious about Candice & Charlie’s photos…if they are going to look the same as theirs…

Everything is new and fresh, even in the same venue! Crafting unique photographs is how we roll.

Donning on her shiny Jimmy Choo shoes, the elaborate and flamboyant dress and with diamond rings to match, C&C went off for their Buddhist styled wedding. The chants and prayers reminded me quite a bit about my heritage. Although I’m not a Buddhist, my parents were and I’m intimately familiar with it. ‘Nuf rambling, here are their photos!

Venue : The Ranch Golf Club, San Jose
Makeup and hair by Tiffany Chiang
Music and DJ by Woody of BigFunDJ

Rick, Leica’s Sales Manager couldn’t find a volunteer for the Commercial product photo & video shoot for Leica and C&D Semiconductor. So, he’ll have to step into the suit himself. We were in a nice air conditioning room but after an hour in the suit, he still came out full of sweat. I feel bad for the folks who work in the clean room, for companies like Intel.

We were photographing Leica’s microscopes, C&D’s wafer cleaner and robots. Leica’s heavy microscope was relocated into C&D’s clean room in San Jose to be photographed. We did both photo and video for this product shoot. With both medium, we had to bring double amount of strong lights to ensure that the background stays white instead of ugly gray.

The historically grand Hayes Mansion used to be a private estate. It now is a grand hotel with lush landscape and dramatic views. Yuanyuan & Mike’s wedding started in that estate and mansion and the ceremony was set at The Ranch Golf Club in San Jose with a sunset that casted a golden glow on the couple, literary.

As usual, Tiffany Chiang crafted a beautiful bride into a princess in both her hair styling and makeup artistry. Although we have never photographed in The Ranch Golf Club of San Jose…in fact, we have never been there but with 5 minutes of prep time and blessings of a beautiful sunset, everything beautiful was showcased in light.

Los Altos Town Crier interviewed my bride’s mother about the rain on her daughter’s wedding day in Nestldown, Los Gatos Hills, on the way to Santa Cruz. They probably also saw my article about raining on your wedding day in Nestldown.

Rain? What rain?! It was a gorgeous wedding that had the gods crying!!!

A few years two back, we photographed a huge group of Whole Foods Market employees in their Cupertino branch at Stevens Creek Blvd. Boy, it was a challenge especially the shot was backlighted and we had to raise to 5 stories high to take that shot for over 350 employees! The good part is that since the store was not opened to the public yet, we can photograph outside the store without having to disrupt the flow of business.

However, this year is different. Whole Foods Market raised the stakes on me on multiple fronts! Switching out hundreds of employees during business hours require significant coordination and they can only do it in the late evening.

Not only do we have to content with horrible light, we had to work in the the loading dock. This time, a rickety ladder became my only source of support that I hold on to my dear life. Beneath me, a large garbage container filled with organic fish, meat, vegetable and eggs, ready to sniff my non-organic diet. Yes, it probably wouldn’t surprise you that I have only 15 minutes. You really don’t want to photograph a large group in more than 5 minutes anyway as people do get restless. And you’d think a photographer’s work is glamourous.

Now, did you think we are done? Would corporate want a photo of their employees in a loading dock? Here’s the final shot after hours and hours of photoshop, removing the rails at the bottom and the background. Groan, I hate fingers…

If you know me, I always preach about being able to take a great photograph any place, any time. Location doesn’t matter as much. Being in Hawaii again makes me eat my words. I never appreciated Hawaii when I lived in Honolulu, HI between 1991 and 1994. Then again, I was not a photographer then.

I appreciate it more each time I return. The sunset in Kona, North Shore, Waikiki, etc. makes the sky glow hues of red, purple, blue and yellow in just about every evening.

Brian is an executive in Symantec and a art collector who loves the work of Peter Lik. He already owns four Peter Lik’s landscape art pieces in his home thus far and is looking for collections to match, in his wedding photographs.

Beyond his deep appreciation in Landscape art, the Hawaiian within him yearns for an escape to serenity and love. The latter, he acquired in abundance from Dee, his wife-to-be, in about a month or so, October 8th.

Capturing landscape and people well require a multitude of skills such as lighting, meteorology and people skills. Brian also wanted his dad’s home in Aiea, Oahu, Hawaii where he grew up to be photographed as well. That required the photojournalism part of me to emerge, to understand his story, his life in this beautiful home. A home to a large mango tree the he used to climb, growing up, a basement of dirt that he played in and a view from the entry to his home.

We were at Waikiki, Honolulu for a few night scenes and the next day, traveled north to Turtle Bay Resort, Oahu for some of the photos as well as an abandoned building that doesn’t even show up in Google map!! Then, to end the day, an unknown beach in the North Shore. It’s a beach that is filled with sea turtles, climbing up shore for a breather. We saw at least 10-20 sea turtles during our scouting trip there.

An amazing day with fantastic friends. Nothing beat the dinner after at Ige’s and the 19th Puka. Thank you, Brian & Dee for such an amazing time. Tiffany Chiang’s makeup and hair styling was beautifully done, as usual. Her help in directions and ideas made the day wonderfully pleasant.

What an amazing way to end the Engagement Session in the North Beach, Oahu, Hawaii with Brian & Dee. As I was going to pack up after the session, Brian and Dee are already cleaning up and Tiffany was about to collapse the light stand, two surfers walked right in front of us. My ninja skills snapped into action for this last but sweet photograph in our 10 day Hawaii extravaganza.

Photos from the Engagement session with Brian & Dee will be up shortly! Need to rest as we just returned from Honolulu, Hawaii mere hours ago.

So exhilarating is the experience of getting to know two people in love. We felt very blessed photographing Jed & Becca’s engagement session in San Francisco and San Jose. The photos are possibly one of our best so far. We strive for unique photos every time and it makes us super delighted.

Oh, about the best shot, here it is. Thoughts?

And here are the others shot in San Jose’s HIstorical Park, beach, Palace of Fine Art, etc. So MUCH fun! At the end of it all, Jed, Becca and I had a blast. They also decided that they also wanted us to be their wedding videographer. It’ll be fun doing photography and videography / cinematography in the Stanford Memorial Church in Palo Alto and the San Mateo County History Museum. Can’t wait!!!