I’m probably flying to Hawaii when you read this.  I’m so excited for all the travel that’s in store for this year!  I thought I’d leave you with this teaser for two reasons:

1.  It totally reflects how I’m feeling right now – excited, full of anticipation, and looking forward to the good stuff that’s lying just ahead.

2.  This is a teaser from my first 100% film shoot for a client.  I LOVE the feeling this image evokes… and the perfect skin tones that Richard Photo Lab hands back to me.

Have a fabulous weekend and next two weeks!  I’m going to be in Hawaii for a week, and then Paris for another week.  I’m thinking of taking a blog hiatus and vegging out for two weeks.   Then again, I’m a workaholic, so we’ll see. 

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Photo above was taken at a wedding a few months ago.  One of my favorite wedding portraits to date.

Happy Monday, all!  If you have emailed me and I have not responded, I’m on it!  Emails have been coming in faster than I can reply.  I’m working on them today though.  I just wanted to do a quick update to answer the most common questions I have been getting…

• My wedding calendar is booked through April 2011.  It breaks my heart to say no to a nice couple, so I’d rather not know what I’m missing out on.  It’s also in my nature to want to be helpful, so to tell someone that I can’t help them is really hard for me.  I naturally want to find a way to help.  So to make it easier for me, I am letting people know here that I am only booking weddings for April 2011 and on.
• My other favorite thing (besides weddings) is portrait sessions.  I love the intimate nature of them.  I shoot my portrait sessions (engagements, boudoir, family, babies, etc.) on weekdays.  The next available date I have is in June July.  Edit:  after this post, June filled up.  I now have a few more spots left in July – they’re filling up quick though!
• I have/will be traveling more these weeks than I have probably in my entire life!  I feel so incredibly lucky!  We just shot in SF two weekends in a row.  In the next month, I will be also going to New York, Hawaii (Oahu), & France.  Let me know if you’re in the area and want to meet up!  I’d love to try and set up a lunch date with you all!

Thank you for your continued support!  I have a lot of editing & emails to catch up on at the moment, but more blog posts are on the way!

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My first (and only) photo class was in my last year of college.  I had really hated my Physics classes by then (so hard!) and just needed some creative outlet to maintain my sanity and happiness.  My last 2 (of 5) years, I picked up an art minor and strategically spaced out all my Physics requirements amongst the much more fun art classes.  I’m not saying that art is easy, just much more fun.  And I guess compared to my upper division Physics classes, it was easier to comprehend for me personally.  That last year, I took a photo class and LOVED it!  My teacher, Dennis Keeley, was really inspirational.  I miss the days of developing and making prints into the wee hours of the night.  I borrowed a friend’s camera for this class and returned it to him soon after – I hadn’t touched film since.  Until… for my birthday last year, Jonathan bought me a Canon EOS 3.  I went around and shot 2 rolls of film.  One roll from my world, and one at a wedding.  I’ll just share the one from my world first.  Theses were all with Fuji 400h and processed by Richard Photo Lab.  All straight out of camera.

Those two above were taken at night in my house.  Probably with my 85/1.2 and probably hand held at 1/20th – I do miss having my exif data!  I kept around 2/3 of the photos I took, which is a better rate than my digital shooting.  With digital, I tend to take another, just in case.  Or look at my view finder and keep trying to make it better.  I end up with many duplicates.  With film, these were all just one shot.  I was more aware of my composition, exposure, etc before clicking.

I love my doggies!  These weren’t the best quality of light, so I really think if I had taken them in digital, it would not have been as interesting.  The photo on the right of her looking out the door, the outside would be completely blown out for sure in digital.

Thank you Jonathan for buying me the film & camera!  Photo above was taken during a wedding at The Parker in Palm Springs.

Thank you Shannon for the beautiful flower and vase (which I broke one after shooting it… good thing I have a photo of it).  And thank you for all your help as I grew my business & for helping me/inspiring me to shoot film again.  The photo above was taken in the parking lot as we were going to Aaron Brothers to buy mats.  I only took one shot, so I’m glad it all worked out!

Then I went to visit one of my favorite little girls.  This set is where I had the most discards.  The sun had just set when I arrived.  The combo of my 1/20th shutter speed and an active girl makes lots of blurry shots!  I love blur though.

This was before Christmas, so they had these pine cones laying around.

I love blur.  These next two photos would not be the same if they were tack sharp.  I’m not sure if I could achieve the same feel digitally.  I’m not sure if I’m just being biased.  What do you think?

I then visited one of my favorite little boys:

I am totally in love with the richness of these photos.  There’s more depth to me.  Again, I’m not sure if I’m just biased.  I’d love to hear your thoughts!  (You can see I’m doing a lot of experimenting lately… it’s fun.)

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I just got back from a 5 day adventure at WPPI in Las Vegas.  I’d like to make a huge shout out to Nikon!  Thank you for sponsoring this trip and for letting me play with lots of fun new toys!  I’d also like to thank SanDisk & Lowepro.  SanDisk is the only memory card I use and it has never failed me!  I also love Lowepro bags & rollers!  We use two Lowepro rollers for weddings & their backpacks when we travel/snowboard.

The above photo was taken on the D700 with the not-yet-released Nikkor 24mm f1.4 lens.   If you haven’t yet, you should pre-order it now!  The 24L is one of my most used lens, so I was really curious to compare.  I was very impressed with the sharpness.  The above was taken at f1.4 and handheld with a shutter speed of 1/25.

The next lens I played with was the 50mm f1.4.  I love how lightweight & compact the lens is.  It’s a great walk-around lens and I can shoot almost anything with it.  If necessary, I could even shoot an entire event with just it.  Of course I had to test out the bokeh!  All of the above were handheld at f1.4.  The left photo was handheld with a shutter speed of 1/20!  I normally don’t go that slow, but I had no problems in this case.  That left photo was taken practically in the dark!

The above was also taken with the D700 with the 50mm f1.4.  I love me some DoF!  And the pizza was amazing too.    This was at our little meet & greet with Nikon.  I met some amazing photographers and amazing people from Nikon.  I learned more technical stuff than I can comprehend!  Everything I’m showing you here is pretty much straigh-out-of-camera.  I had to adjust exposure on some, but for the most part, all auto-white-balance & no levels/contrast/colors have been messed with.  I am really impressed with the colors that I’m getting from Nikon so far.  After the dinner, I reunited with my fun roommates:  Sarah, Serena & Adrienne.  This next photo is completely straight out of camera and I just LOVE it to bits.  It’s so nostalgic to me.

The next day, Nikon got us early access onto the trade show floor.  I love the little classroom setup Nikon had going on.  They had a lineup of amazing speakers and always had a crowd around the booth.  On the right is the fun Mike Corrado from Nikon.

We even got to sit down and casually talk to Tony Corbell.  He has such amazing insight!

I then switched my D700 with someone for their D300s.  I used the 85mm DX for these next few photos.  It’s not the ideal lens for low light conditions since it’s f3.5, but I think it still did quite well!  These next two photos were hand held at 1/20.  I normally would never hand hold a 85mm at 1/20, but the VR really worked!  These were also shot at ISO 3200.  Again, not the ideal lens for this condition, but I think it still performed well.  If you’re looking for a lens to shoot flowers in broad daylight, you will be very happy with this lens.

My schedule was so packed that I barely got to see the trade show!  I had a small break so I made sure to go visit my favorite album company, Cypress albums.  Their look fits my style perfectly and I just love the handcrafted artisan quality of their books.  They combined booths with Richard Photo Lab, who I just got 2 rolls of film back from and they are amazing!!  Those photos coming soon!  These next set of photos were taken with the 35mm f1.8 on a D300s.

And the most amazing part for me was to see my day in the life photos used in one of their samples!  I remember attending WPPI last year and oogling at the amazing Cypress books and photos by Jose Villa & Elizabeth Messina.   I never would’ve imagined that the very next year, I would have some of my photos on display too!  I was so excited to see my work there!

I never offered a mat album, but now want to!  I love the ribbon binding & the timeless presentation of the photos.

And then the show came to an end.    It was an amazing 5 days.  I got to hang out with some awesome photographers.  I saw old friends & met new ones.  It’s an amazing feeling to be amongst tens of thousands of people all in the same industry!

On our way home, we stopped by the mad greek cafe.  These photos are straight out of camera!!  Aren’t the colors & contrast just perfect?  I didn’t do any adjusting to them!

The sun was starting to set as we drove home, so we pulled over in the middle of nowhere to shoot some photos of each other.  I must say, it was strange (in a great way) to not have to worry about permits and stuff like here in LA!

Above is a headshot of the adorable Adrienne!  Of course I had to test the Nikon equipment in conditions I normally shoot in!  It performed very well!  The focus was pretty much dead on.  If I have flare, it may be difficult, but as soon as I block the flare, it gets right in there and focuses very accurately… and these are with the non-center AF points too!!  Currently with my 5dm2, I can only rely on my center AF point (or manual focus) in backlight situations.

And this is my long time friend Sarah.  Isn’t she beautiful?  Pretty much straight out of camera.  Only thing was I had to adjust the exposure.

And then cute Serena!  I love flare and the D300s + 35/1.8 performed really well for me.

I had such an amazing trip.  Totally inspired and ready to kick butt in 2010!  I can’t wait until wppi 2011!  I am testing out the D700 + 85mm f1.4 next, so stay tuned for those reviews!!  Have a fantastic weekend!

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Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!  Hope you all had a great one!  I originally was planning to blog a steamy hot boudoir session today, but so many people have contacted me asking how our weekend trip went that I felt I need to blog this now.  Stay tuned for some hot boudoir later this week!

Let me start off this post with saying that no, this is not how we normally eat!  Eating at The French Laundry has been one of the things on our bucket list.  Jonathan was just explaining to me the very few (and difficult) ways of getting reservations – if you’re curious, you can read about it here and on the cute gastronomy couple’s blog.  We were thinking of trying within the next few years when Ngoc of Sky Box Events announces that she is giving away her reservations!  Jonathan wakes me up one morning last week to tell me that we’re going!  whee!  Luckily, I purposely didn’t book anything this long weekend (in case we wanted to go snowboarding), so we immediately booked our flights and off we went to Yountville in Napa Valley!

They grow all their own produce in this charming garden across the street.  I love that tree & bench!  We spent a lot of time sitting there before and after our nearly 4 hour meal.

I think garlic was their most abundant crop, which would not be surprising at all.

They also have a quaint little courtyard for you to hang out in when you take a break from your meal.  (no joke!)

The pretty blue door entrance:  (see us in the reflection?)

First up were these cheese balls (please excuse me, I don’t remember the proper & full names).  They were really warm and fluffy on the inside and slightly crispy on the outside.  Up second was salmon tartare on creme fraiche, wrapped in a cute cone.  The food tastes as good as it’s presented!

Cauliflower “panna cotta” – with island creek oyster glaze and california sturgeon caviar:

Salty, creamy, and a little sweet!  The cute little spoon (made of mother of pearl?) was the perfect size to enjoy this delicacy.   I LOVE this next photo:

And next, we had bread (from Bouchon Bakery) – it was to die for.  It was crisp on the outside & fluffy on the inside.  Slightly buttery like a croissant.  We were also given two choices of butter:  plain butter locally made or salted butter from Vermont.  Both were good, but I absolutely LOVED the salted butter.  (salted butter in the silver dish.)  I also love this next photo:

Up until this point, Jonathan and I have had the same thing.  This next dish is where we each got something different off the chef’s tasting menu.  I got the Sacramento delta green asparagus:  buttermilk-fried onion rings, Jidori hen egg & frisee:

Jonathan got the moulard duck foie gras en terrine – yogurt glaze, hosui pear, scallion, hazelnuts and vanilla-bay leaf essence.  The brioche alone was heavenly!  And the vanilla-bay leaf essence jelly thing was so so good!  The subtle sweetness was incredible.

We also got a selection of fancy salts, perfectly presented of course.

I forget which salt is which now.  From what I remember, one is called Jurrasic.  Maybe it’s the one in the oval container?  Really ancient and fine, so it tastes saltier.  The gray one is from deep under the sea, so it has a more mineral flavor.  And I forget what the third is.  Educate me if you know please!

Next I had a sauteed fillet of Japanese blue-fin tuna – young coconut, pearl tapioca, English cucumber, cilantro and madras curry… pictured left:

On the right is Florida everglades frog legs – green garlic gratin, San Marzano tomato compote and Spanish capers.  The crispy frog legs were my favorite of the above two dishes.

And what you just saw above was an unbelievable “blanquette” of Maine diver scallops with French Laundry garden white carrots, celery branch and black trumpet mushrooms.  I savored every last bite of this.  So so good!

The above left is the four story hill harm milk-fed “poularde” – navel orange, nicoise olive, piperade and pernod “nuage”.  Very tasty!  The navel oranges mixed really well.  On the right is “mosaic” of devil’s gulch ranch rabbit – Hobbs’ bacon, royal blenheim apricot, arrowleaf spinach, sunchokes, sunflower seeds and tarragon jus.  This was a saltier dish compared to the poularde.

Okay, so why is this random photo of the farm here?  We were starting to get full, so we took a break.  We took a little stroll around their garden and watched them prepare all the vegetables. 

And then we were ready to resume.  The breads from Bouchon was so yummy!  Above is a walnut bread and below is a black currant bread.

And up next may be my favorite of the main courses.  “Chateaubriand” of Marcho farms nature-fed veal – “pommes darphin,” red beets, Brussels sprouts, horseradish, and sauce borscht.  The veal was so tender and juicy.  It came with a little hash brown like thing too that was so crispy and yummy!

This next one is one of my favorite photos from the day.  It’s an “Idiazabal” – basically a baklava with green apples, Sicilian pistachio, white honey & watercress.  I forget what kind of cheese it came with.  Anyone can educate me?

Next is not the most photogenic dish, but it was Jonathan & I’s absolute FAVORITE:  “Pisco Sour” – Persian lime sorbet, frozen marshmellow, passion fruit pulp, and Angostura bitters.  It was so refreshing!  Tart, cold, and just divine.  It was the perfect treat to cleanse our palettes to prepare us for the flurry of desserts that was about to come our way!  The first of them being this pineapple tart.   There was cake inside too!

This next one I’ll go a little backwards.  On the left is a bakewell tart – huckleberries, marcona almonds and creme fraiche sherbet.  Tart and sweet!

Above left and below is the peanut butter “bavarois” – cruncy feuilletine, maralumi milk chocolate whip & Gros Michel banana sorbet.  Very delicious!  And the inside of the chocolate ball delicately housed two peanuts.

And as if that wasn’t enough, they brought out truffles!  Pictured below is a citrus one.  The also had a hazelnut one (to the left) that I really liked and a peanut butter one (centered left) that could send me to heaven.

Below is Jonathan’s plate at the end… he doesn’t like raisins.  My plate was clean!  Sadly, they also gave us these AMAZING toffee covered macadamia nuts but we were too full!  I forced myself to eat two of them because they were so darn good, but my stomach was filled to the brim!

And I love how everything is so novelty there.  Our bill even came as a laundry tag.  Though I must admit, the novelty was ruined a little bit for me towards the second half of our meal, when some VIP regulars ended up sitting at the tables beside us.  We were in a small room with 3 tables, we were one, and the VIPs occupied the other two tables.  The staff and even Thomas Keller knew them and they talked like they frequent The French Laundry quite a bit.  It took the “specialness” out a little for me, but nonetheless, it was still an amazing experience!   I’d do it again!  *looking at Jonathan’s reaction*  haha.  And lastly, a self portrait of us.  hehe.

Thanks Ngoc for the reservations!!!

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