What does Personal Training mean to you? For some, it’s about building muscles
and competing, while others, it’s the simple pleasure of keeping fit and staying healthy in a lifestyle that is protected against illnesses. Your body is your temple and here, Matt Chmelka showcase his knowledge and is raved by his clients as the to-go personal trainer for San Jose and surrounding San Francisco Bay Area.

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…

Bram has the largest eyes a baby can have while Cade tore up and down the bunk bed with a jedi saber. Keeping up with them is one thing but photographing bad moments are impossible with these children. They are absolutely adorable. I had my super duper assistant with me, Ethan. My 10 year old whose main job is to hold my reflectors while playing with the kids. haha! He barely makes minimum wage but shhhh….don’t report me. He still needs his dad.

These are the children of one of my buddies, Terel Beppu of Intero Real Estate. Terel is definitely not your typical realtor. He is the type who goes above and beyond for his friends and clients alike. You can’t help but trust this guy. I remember a story of him buying groceries for his sickly neighbor whom he does not even know, and checking in on her for her son, who soon became his good friend.

Another story from his wine-loving clients, was that he took them out to Alexander Steakhouse in Cupertino and presented a surprise gift to them, none other than the wine they always wanted to try, the 2000 Lafite Rothschild. The record price at auction for a Lafite Rothchild was $156,000, for a 1787 Chateau Lafite which was once thought to be owned by Thomas Jefferson. [/end winesnobness]

Photographing children that will end up in a baby album is very different than just shooting say, fashion. It’s previsualizing what can go into the album. One thing to keep in mind is the consistent lighting and color rendition. Interior lights tend to be yellow (2900 Kelvin) while outdoor window lights is a bit more neutral (5500 – 6500 Kelvin). So, you’ll have to make sure that the lights you bath the child in, is much stronger with one than the other.

Kids love to run around and at times, so, be spontaneous. Not all good photographs need to be sharp, as it showcase the fun factor of the photos themselves of the child’s character.

Bram & Cade brought a lot of joy to the few hours I spent in their beautiful home. Thanks to the Beppus for such a great opportunity!

I always thought I’m getting a little old. But standing next to possibly the oldest person in Canada, Mrs Fung, a good 112 years old, I felt like a baby, still in diapers. Born in 1899, Mrs Fung lived in 3 centuries. These family portraits that we photographed in Los Altos, California during Mrs Fung’s visit are now all over the web. They were first published by The Vancouver Sun. As for photographing a legacy of a beautiful family, multiple generations of amazing people, I only have Dr Barry Fung and his lovely wife, Dr Lien Nguyen to thank.

My father passed away five months ago. Guilt flowed through me as the funeral was in Malaysia and I couldn’t fly back in time to attend it. My brothers took the time to photograph the funeral and sent me the images. When I first saw those photographs, a flow of overwhelming emotions passed me and I was drenched in tears.

I have never photographed a funeral before. The thought of photographing one was never something that made me feel splendidly excited about, for obvious reasons. Last week, my ophthalmologist that I shot a year or so ago, Dr. Barry Fung of Los Altos wanted my help to retouch, repair and extract an image of his father-in-law from their archive for the funeral.

Soon after, my assignment was to photograph the funeral itself, held at Spangler Mortuary in Los Altos. The slideshow I created for Dr Fung made everyone cried and yes, my mindset towards photographing funeral did change after the event and especially so after reading what Dr Barry wrote below.

I guess Capture the Love seem to capture an deeper word of love in it. Not very different than how one love one’s spouse but a much more profound love, existing within us, towards our fathers, daughters, friends, neighbors and even our pets.

View the slideshow!

Hi Michael:

I was just thinking about what you said about doing wedding shoots. Obviously, it’s more fun to do weddings than to do funerals. However, I would argue that the pictures from a funeral may have a far more important function than those from a wedding. If one’s life is like a book, then a wedding is just one page of many more pages and chapters that are to come in one’s life….

One’s death is the coda or last page of that book – there will be no more life pages forthcoming. That is why it is so important to record the funeral. That is why it is also a time of high emotions, and why pictures can have such a profound effect on loved ones. The pictures therefore serve a much more important function than to just preserve a memory.

How do I know? Well, they say one picture is worth 10,000 words, so just have a look at this picture I am sending you. It was taken when we were at the temple this morning performing the last rites, and I was showing the monk and the family your slide show. Look at the faces and see what impact your photos are having on the people behind the faces. And to think that most of the people in the picture have already seen the slide show the day before! There is no doubt in my mind that you performed a function way more important than just being a photographer that day. Thanks again, Michael.

Regards,

Dr. Barry Fung

I started seeing my new Ophthalmologist, Dr. Fung about a year or less ago. The first time I saw him, he asked the usual questions and about what I do. I told him that I am a photographer, showed him my business card, asked him to visit my website, etc. He seemed impressed with what I had to tell him. Yadda, yadda, the usual doctor/patient small talk you’d encounter when you visit your doctor. That’s what I thought at the time.

About a month ago, I received a phone call from Dr. Fung himself. Not his receptionist. I was worried for a minute. No, it wasn’t to schedule an appointment nor telling me that I’ll go blind in 3 days. He’s interested for me to help design his website and have a photoshoot of his 3 offices around the Silicon Valley and headshot of him and his wife. Hi s wife, Dr. Lien Nguyen is also a Ophthalmologist, graduated from Harvard School of Medicine, no less.

We scheduled it for Oct 29th, 2006 but it got postponed a week later, due to time conflict to Nov 5th. I met Dr. Fung and Dr. Nguyen in Dynasty for lunch. They bought me lunch. It was good dim sum! We then adjourned to their offices in San Jose off King Rd. Ran through various shooting condition, mix lightings, headshots, office shots, gosh, you name it. Almost did the unthinkable of putting them next to the optometry equipment. I was lectured to differenciate Ophthalmologists from Optometrists. So, instead of shooting them next to the popular lens testing device, I shot them in their Operating Room with operating lights shining directly at the camera. Really cool, no?

Check out their images here!

- Michael Soo