As we say goodbye to 2011, we also say goodbye to the headache of renovating our photography
studio. We spent 3 months dealing with the fine white dust from the drywall, the teeth-shattering jackhammering, and the noise from dawn till dusk. Renovation is super stressful, especially if, like me, you’re someone who is meticulous about the tiniest details: light, color, the shape of the tiles, design, ambiance, and on and on.

But the good news is that our studio renovation is finally complete! Champagne all around, please! Happy New Year!!!

We decided to go through the remodeling process because we wanted to be able use the studio as an elegant backdrop in photos. Renovation of this proportion usually takes 6 months, but we
completed a majority of it in just under 3 months because we are utilizing the space as a studio and can’t have such a long downtime. We had to be extremely creative in making the renovations in sections.

We did all the interior design ourselves, and we’re so please with how it turned out! The studio used to be really dark, but now light pours in from skylights and windows. Glass doors open onto the yard, creating a flow between indoor/outdoor living space.

We created more light by adding 7 new skylights, and a bunch of new windows. We also installed at least 60+ new light fixtures into the studio, most of which are LED (energy efficient and non-toxic).

The interior has a wedding theme with a glamorous, contemporary, warm and extremely sexy feel. The furniture is modern and cozy, the perfect place for couples who are getting married to get comfortable, have some wine and cheese, and chat with us about their plans.

The fireplace is elongated, see-through and set into beautifully curved tiles, bordered by wood. The other side has a large black granite surround, sitting on a sensual red wall. The see-through fireplace is fun because it’s essentially 2 fireplaces in one.

The salon also received a facelift with new light fixtures, glass French doors and new flooring.

With its beautiful lighting, flowing design, comfortable furnishings and elegant touches throughout the space, visitors tell us the new studio has the feel of a high-end lounge.

We are very blessed to be one of Yelp’s highest ranked photographer in the bay area. Yup, with approx. 50 FIVE STARS reviews, we feel loved. However, today came an email stating that we now have a negative FAT ONE STAR review in Yelp! A one-star what?!!

We’re breaking the mold ! Making history and causing chaos in the industry. People officially now hate us on Yelp!

- Michael Soo
Sad Photographer of the Year

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 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!!!

Engagement sessions are not just bringing_a_couple_out_anywhere_to_photograph. It’s a big deal for us. We plan the locations (nature versus architecture), schedule (time and location for the sunset) and wardrobe matching with the couples. We’ll ensure that our most amazing makeup artist and hair stylist are on board for the shoot. At times, we’ll go as far as to invite our couples for a home cooked meal while we talk about the upcoming shoot while we psyche each other up for the fun filled day of shooting.

I’m a foodie. So, it’s not one of those mac-n-cheese dinner, but white truffle cheese, salad with drizzled pomegranate reduction dressing, shrimp bisque, medium-rare grilled tenderloin steak, banana fosters spread over grilled peaches-a la hot/cold/sour/sweet combo. Mmmmph..mmmmmph. ~ Did I ever mention that we also photograph food? So, imagine how beautiful your wedding cake will look.

I digressed… There are three important pieces to our engagement sessions that we always capture, which you’ll notice through the images in this blog.

1. Love – It’s about how he looks at her and holds her, how she plays with her hair when she talks to him, how she always laughs when he tells a joke. It is the most basic instinctive raw emotion. Yes, we capture the love and we know where to find it.

2. Fun – The above images tells it all. We have a blast when we go out photographing our couples and by golly, you should too.

3. Art – We play tai chi with nature. We utilize natural sunlight in combination with flash photography to create the most beautiful and natural portraits, with a gorgeous backdrop in nature (see images below). By posing you a certain way in relation to the light, we help you shred 20 lbs without breaking a sweat.

Engagement photography collection for us is to reach through the camera lens, pulling in the couple’s shared happiness, and recording that for them to remember.

Of course, the greatest fun with the engagement shoots is my collaboration with the couples themselves. They give me new ideas all the time. These collections of pictures reflect the freshness of relationships before the weddings, before the kids, before the mortgages. They are keepsakes as meaningful as wedding albums.

- Michael Soo

A beautiful day, 72 degrees Farenheit in San Francisco and we spent the whole day in Sintak photography studio. All is not lost! We have a team of fun and talented individuals to party with indoors! We’re shooting bridal gowns today!

Dresses are designed and tailored by none other than Jinza Bridal Couture. There are many bridal shops out there but if you are looking for custom-tailored dresses, using exceptional materials, look no further. Jinza uses only top quality fabrics, pure French silk, organza, crepe, chiffon for a smooth flowing look. Jinza is both down-to-earth and pleasant. Story has it that Kelly (the model and bride-to-be below, YES! She’s a real bride to be married in a few months!) tried over 65+ wedding gowns at Jinza’s with no pressure from Jinza. Now THAT is what I call “excellent customer service”!

Why let me tell you about it rather than checking out the shots…

(Click on images below to see them LARGE)

As with all weddings, I will only recommend the best makeup artists and hair stylists. Take a closer look (click on the image on the right) at the flawless makeup by Beauty Expert Tiffany and extraordinary hair styling by Mikel Sessions. You’ll now have a few phenomenal vendors at your disposal.

Many thanks to Margarita and Kelly for being such amazing models.

- Michael Soo

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

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.

All the images can be found in the Trash the Dress Gallery.

- MS