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!

Connie and Steven has a grand wedding reception in The Westin St Francis, San Francisco at Union Square a day after Christmas. They want an intimate wedding in the San Francisco City Hall on Christmas Eve. The huge Christmas tree before their ceremony on the Rotunda, right above the grand staircase, creates the most romantic and sensational background for their beautiful wedding I’ve seen in a while.

Because our package includes 4 hours of photography, this leaves ample time for us to drive down to the Legion of Honor for some romantic night photographs.

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

Why do I say this is the Best Engagement Session in San Francisco? Perhaps this is one of the times when I am most relaxed, blessed to be a friend to my clients. That is also the time when we get the best images.

You see, this couple are not just any clients, they are now close friends of ours. We met them during our wedding consultation for their 2011 wedding. Jenny is an architect and Josh is an engineer. When we found out that Jenny is a meticulous architect, she soon became the architect who drew our photography studio addition! Check out a page (out of 17 pages) of her drawings for our permit submission toward our upcoming photography studio remodel!

Not only that, she wrote me a super sweet Yelp review after the session. I went all red when I read it. When it comes to photographing people who are so special, we go doubly above and beyond for them. Their wedding will be held in Hotel Valencia, Santana Row, San Jose. I’m looking forward to photographing their wedding!

We ended our shoot in a sea cave. A supremely exciting and fun-filled day. Here are a few of the images.

Josh, now he’s a cool looking guy. Look closely and you’ll realize that he resembles Edward, the main character in The Twilight Saga…

The scent of pine and the sounds of jingle,
Send my senses into a pappy tinkle,
A year ago, my tears a sprinkled,
My seed and I now, a laughter and a wrinkle.

 
Just came up with the above…it has a deeper story of my family and my life embedded within. But I’m really just writing as a San Francisco, San Jose photographer family, wishing you all a wonderful holiday!

Yes, there is still time to get a family portrait! Give us a call!

Almost three days have passed since their two-days wedding at Hotel Valencia and Maggiano’s Little Italy in Santana Row of San Jose.

Roya and Todd have not left my mind. They are now honeymooning in Waikiki, possibly splashing in Hanauma Bay. All our photographers have already sorted through 2290 images to come up with a slideshow for them when they return!

- Michael Soo

View Kirsten & Marcos’ Wedding Album

Define crazy. If you have been following my blog, you woulda noticed that I have always recommended a food stylist for my food shoots, for more reasons than one. On the other hand, one should learn to be flexible when need be. I guess balance is one of my strength, being a Libra. Jay Meduri of Poor House Bistro is a strong believer of food photo should be food served philosophy. Now Jay, he’s a real great guy. Great attitude, very personable and willing to lend a hand anytime during the shoot, may it be carrying a table around or sprinkling some spices on the food. He recently signed up with the new amazingly wonderful online take-out eCommerce site called, All Appetites and he needs just a few images for the menu on the site. So, there I was, selling my food styling ability (or lack, thereof) to compensate for a non-existence food stylist for this shoot.

As luck would have it, I have secretly learnt a trick or two from all the previous stylists I’ve worked with, from using tampons (don’t ask) to using a cotton swap, I’ve picked up a few tricks along the way. By no means am I a substitute for a full blown stylist mind you; but I can still stand my ground when the need arises. Maybe.

I arrived a few minutes early, scouted a location for the shoot and setup right away. It wasn’t easy, no photography assistants, no food stylist, no help whatsoever. On the bright side, I’ve been a mule on a lot of other non-commercial shoots I was in, so this isn’t new to me. Being anal and a perfectionist doesn’t help either. Last few assistants I hired inquired on why I even hire them since I like to carry the heaviest photography equipment and setup everything to my specifications. So, this is a head-scratching dilemma. Life is tough. I’ll deal with it.

Gallery of images from the shoot.

- Michael Soo

Work-a-Scene is a series of monthly articles in Popular Photography & Imaging that teaches a photographer on how to fix a situation during shoot. For example, taking multiple HDR images and fix them in Photoshop do not count, whereas, changing the contrast or using a filter does. I wrote a total of 6 articles for Work-a-Scene in 2006, 3 of them has been accepted, two of them do not fit the category well and the other one may need more work). None of them were not published due to some shuffling of articles. So, I figured that I’ll just lay off from doing more of them until they start to get published. Then one of the article got published in the January 2007 issue (page 52). It’s about using aperture to create starburst effect.

Senior Editor, Pete Kolonia of Popular Photography sent me an email two weeks ago stating that their Work-the-Scene articles that I have been writing for them has mostly been published (in the publishing world, magazines get prepped to be published at least 3-4 months in advanced) and they need new material, and they need it NOW. “Sure!”, I said, let me run to the wand shop in Diagon Alley first.

After a week or so of sitting around being a bum cracking my brains off for a concept and trying to schedule session with a Angelina Rika, whom I’ve shot before, I figured that Angelina isn’t really that serious about modeling. Right at the same time, I got a message from Libby over myspace. Libby probably got my info from Paul Ferradas. I absolutely loved her images that Paul took of her a while back by Alviso. Libby is a natural beauty, gorgeous and has a great personality. We booked off a time for a shoot in a within a day or so. One of the fastest, come-shoot-with-me-right-away type of request. She got all excited and we’re off to a great start.

I decided that we should shoot in 2 locations in the South Bay, around the region of Mountain View, Sunnyvale, San Jose downtown, maybe more depending on the mood and situation. The first location is shot for the magazine and in order to compensate her for her time, I’ll shoot her a strong portfolio in the 2nd location, a rooftop.

You can find the images in the Fashion and Glamour Gallery.

- Michael Soo

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