Behind the scenes in the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers photoshoot by Soo Photography.

The past two months has been nothing but a truly humbling experience for us. We have been blogged, reviewed, voted and published. Here are some of our recent delightful encounters that made us blush to no end…

• As of today, we’ve been voted to TOP THREE of the BEST Wedding Photographer in the entire San Francisco Bay Area by San Francisco Chronicle. Help us Capture The Love become #1 !!!

• Queensberry saw our work and they love what they saw!

• Profoto, a high end international professional lighting company interviewed and blogged about us

• James Robinson, a fellow photographer found us via the Profoto Blog and went ahead to interview us

• Our work was published by both Gizmodo AND Engadget at the same time!

• We got into the front cover and numerous pages of the highly successful Nesting Newbies magazine!

• We’ve taught in several highly successful workshops in Santana Row and were requested by Smugmug to be the South Bay’s Smug Leader, proceed to give talks and organize activities for hundreds of local photographers!

We feel really blessed and we’re definitely counting our blessings and appreciate all the support and love we have gotten over the years from everyone!

(Click above to read the blog, retweet and comment)

So we are truly blessed to be blogged by Profoto. They are possibly the highest end and one of the largest lighting company for commercial and advertising photographers around the world. Their reach is quite phenomenal. We were working in Intel Developer’s Forum in Shanghai, trying to rent light for an on-stage demonstration to 10,000-20,000 attendees. We searched high and low in the metropolitan city for dependable lighting packs. The only ones that we are the Profotos.

We used to use monoblocks; however, our work on fashion, product, commercial and advertising means that the light source’s color rendition needs to be highly accurate. You really don’t want your blue dress to look magenta, do you?

Good Lighting is….definitely Priceless!

What a super fun weekend!! Over 100+ photographers attended our Photography Made Simple workshop in Maggiano’s Little Italy in Santana Row, San Jose.

Everyone loved the breakfast and lunch!

We got some great comments and emails from the attendees. Here are some great ones,

1. “Michael, the workshop exceeded my expectations. In addition to being very informative, it was also most enjoyable. From the first minute to the very end I was captivated. Thank you” – Trevor Ngo
2. “I especially liked Michael’s philosophy that to make pictures stand out, they have to be taken from the heart, and it shows in his work”…read more – Michelle Ma
3. “It was like 10 years of professional skills of composition, lighting, creative view, crop, portrait demo, to some photoshop retouching techniques packed into an injection. Voila!” …read more… – Dee Lee
4. “I want to give a huge recommendation for Michael’s photography workshops. I took Michael’s portrait and lighting workshop a few weeks ago and it was great! Whether you are just starting out or are an experienced photographer, there is much to be learned from him…”read more… – John Harrison

Here’s a shot of the back of my head, facing my class in Maggiano’s Little Italy, Santana Row, San Jose.

Now, doesn’t it reminds you of this product?

I’ve been really privileged to photograph NFL and NBA Cheerleaders for their swimsuit calendars for the past few years and have always look forward to the assignment. These sessions have produced gorgeous individual portraits and calendar shots. And I’ve had a fabulous time. The cheerleaders are just as nice as they are great-looking, and the energy, from start to finish, is totally positive and fun.

Maybe it was that energy that attracted the attention of MAXIM, the international men’s magazine. I was delighted to learn that 20 of my portraits of the Buccaneers cheerleaders recently appeared on its website. This is huge for a couple of reasons. First of all, Maxim usually features only 1-2 images from a photographer. And second, the Maxim website has content that never appears in the magazine. Because of that, it’s become very popular with masculine viewers around the globe.

In this positive spirit, I want to offer a few tips from my experience in photographing women. These tips work, whether you aspire to appear in a magazine or just want to have a great picture of yourself taken. Here goes:

Tip #1 – Unless you haunt the gym and have amazing abs, never face the camera head on. Always angle your body slightly away. You’ll appear slimmer and more buffed.

Tip #2 – Turn your face toward the main source of light, which could be the sun, a lamp, or a bright wall. That will throw some of your face into shadow, which is not a bad thing. This brings me to tip #3.

Tip #3 – Show off your strengths and minimize your weaker points. For example, if you think your face is too large, use the shadow created by the light source to make it seem smaller. You can also use your hair to hide parts of your face. Or, if you have beautiful hands, use them to cover areas you don’t want to emphasize. The possibilities are endless.

Tip #4 – Chin up! Yep, your mom was right. Lifting your chin just a bit will give you an automatic face lift and help you look self-confident and happy! Very appealing.

Tip #5 – Forget the camera. It’s not there. Yeah, right, that’s really good advice… The camera and the photographer ARE there, which is why you’re there. So here’s a trick to help you feel and look more natural and relaxed: Use your thoughts to create an environment that you love, like the beach or the mountains, and “go” there. You did that time and time again when you were a kid, and your imagination can serve you just as well now.

- Michael Soo

A bag that I recommend if you are photographing using portable lights, a light stand, battery pack, reflectors and a few other loose equipments. It’s a light stand holder, a carry-on lugguage, a battery pack holder, lightstand strap, a sandbag and much much more. No, not affiliated with them but they are quite amazing.

This is a specialized bag that they put together for me. If you want one, call Susan at Tutto and tell them that Michael Soo sent you.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNEnIdUlDLQ]

Behind the scenes footage of the NBA Warrior Girls’ swimsuit calendar shoot. Photographed in Napa Valley’s own The Meritage Resort. If you have not seen the Trinitas Wine Tasting Cellar of Napa, you have to check it out, it’s a cave, a wine tasting bar, a cellar, a spa and a huge traditional banquet hall, all in one.

(View in HD)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr9H-knq6YI]

Some shots from the calendar:

After the long wait, the 2009/2010 swimsuit calendar that we photographed about 3 months ago for the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers has been released during Training Camp! It’s definitely a hit as the calendar was sold out during the first week of release!!!! Woozah!!

Well, what are you waiting for? Order the calendar NOW! It makes a great gift! I’m getting 50-60 of them, one way or another.

- Michael Soo

Roseanne, a Buccaneers’ cheerleader takes us behind the scene of Soo Photography’s photoshoot with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ cheerleader’s team shoot.

(Video by Ed Bottger)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ke6avEoBlg]

Photographing bathing suit calendars with scantily clad models is exciting, the haute cuisine food photography has ruined take-out food for me for life, and my happiness for the ecstatic brides and grooms and their families I photograph already warms my heart on lonely winter nights into the next century. I do love my work, but when a photographer REALLY wants to have fun…

Gentry Magazine has recently exposed my vice–Trash the Dress–in their February 2009 Annual Wedding Issue. (full issue here)

I know it takes courage for women to sacrifice their treasured, expensive gowns, and my best efforts go into transforming the memories of these perfect wedding dresses into dramatic, whimsical, permanent art, elevating the dresses to importance equal to the lovely brides inside them. There is extreme contrast in style for featuring these wedding dresses between the precisely programmed events of the wedding day and the let-it-all-go, wild-and-crazy freedom of these photo sessions. And the gowns shine in both settings.

The brides tap into their imaginations as they collaborate with me, hatching the plan for these photo shoots. And if you look at my series of pictures, you’ll see the mischievous thrill on the faces of these lovely women. If you could see a behind-the-scenes collection of pictures of me, you would see that I am having spectacular fun, too.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZmYrD5fqL8]

You are invited to share my Trash-the-Dress images to enjoy the happy faces in these out-of-the-box wedding mementos, and remember, on the other side of the lens, my smiles were even broader. Thank you, ladies, for making my day!

- Michael Soo