I was a bridesmaid for a traditional Chinese/ modern Western combo wedding yesterday. Far more comfortable wielding a camera than a bouquet, I enjoyed the insider benefits of photographing preparations in the bridal suite and such, to which the hired male photographers didn't have access. Yet, without the pressure of having to properly cover an event. As I lack photo editing programs here in Hong Kong, I'll save people photos for a later post.

The western ceremony was aboard a Chinese junk - a boat with large red sails, often featured in tourist advertising for Hong Kong. The truth is, these boats are only ridden by tourists and hired for special events. The view of both sides of the harbour were excellent, and I kicked myself for not bringing a wide angle lens with me (when traveling, there's only so much I want to carry). Above: the view from the top deck of the junk. There's a ferry crossing our path. I became very conscious of passing boats, as our boat bobbed in their wake - try standing on heels on a sloping, bobbing surface in the wind while holding a bouquet or camera & champagne glass. Anyways, If I had photoshop, I'd bring brighten and warm the pic, bring out the reds. And straighten the horizon.

It was my first experience witnessing a traditional Chinese wedding ceremony. Ideally, the bride wears close toed non-strappy gold shoes, but the wedding planner and bride compromised on red shoes. When perusing a western female wedding photographer's portfolio, there will inevitably be photos of the wedding accessories. I learned why: it's fun! And shoes, dresses and jewelry are such easy subjects; they don't move, I can pose them, I don't have to talk to them. OK, all that and they're pretty and important to most brides.

I donated a free photo session to a friend's kids' school fund-raising silent auction, and today finally got around to doing the shoot.

There's a wide range in what people expect in a photo session. There are those who want to be posed, others with concrete ideas, and those with no ideas. Today's shoot was 95% candid shots, of the family members interacting in games, story reading, joke telling; all sorts of playing, as if I wasn't there. It was more of a documentary day-in-the-life-of sort of shoot than portrait session. This little one looooved being upside down.

I made use of my beloved 50mm f/1.4 lens for this photo - good for dim lighting, fast for action shots, and limited depth of field for nice background fuzzing and very crisp where I want the focus.

Today was another full day of photography, starting with some portraits of a brother (aged 2) and sister (aged 4). The girl was a perfect model; smiled sweetly and posed patiently. The boy was a whirlwind of energy, barely ever pausing. He was the real challenge.

After about 100 shots, we placed him on a wooden bench with a backdrop of bamboo (happened to be someone's outdoor parking space, I believe) and I think he stayed still because he couldn't figure out how to get down off the bench by himself. Here not only is he smiling, looking up and staying still, he's struck an almost GQ-ish pose and expression. You can tell right away he's a mischievous one!

It is wonderful to work with someone who has professional modeling experience. When I arrived, there was a flurry of make up application, hair styling and outfit ironing. I cleared the living room of distracting furniture, swept the floor clear of dog and cat fur, and we were set to go. I didn't have to suggest poses, but I did have to shoot constantly, for many 10s of minutes on end. It was a matter of reacting to her poses and composing the shot as quickly as possible, before she moved on to the next. I took a grand total of 759 photos.


















Even the family dogs (4 of 'em!) and cat (just one, but he thinks he's a dog and runs in the dog pack with the rest) were great at striking poses. I photographed the pets while my subject was getting her make up reapplied (for a progressively vampy look), or during outfit changes.

I definitely had a lot to learn from my model, who had much more photography experience, albeit from the model perspective, than I.

The Arboretum in Golden Gate Park is full of picturesque nooks. I brought my subject there today, and we didn't have to wander far to find some very pretty spots for portraits. The sun had set beyond the trees, and the light was just right for flash-free photos. As always, it takes a short while for people to loosen up, and to stop posing like one normally does for photographs. As we moved from tree to flowering bush to pond to Japanese stone lantern, Lydia's playful personality emerged. It was great to see that, as the I take the best shots when my subjects are feeling relaxed.

One of the funnest, most challenging, and most exhausting photo shoots in my experience. Four sisters, all different interests. I spent the morning photographing the youngest in her first horse show. Then, onto head shots for each of the girls, and then group photos. Furniture was dragged into the back yard; they wanted to do a "Twilight"/ Vanity Fair scene. I'd seen enough fashion spreads of this genre to get what they were going for. A sort of decadent bohemian look, like rock stars hanging out in the back yard. And I'd actually heard of "Twilight" through NPR movie reviews; a vampire movie aimed at teen girls; it's rare that I know of things that teens are interested in these days.

Cushions, throws, feathers, plastic candelabra, guitar, poinsettias, a zebra print ottoman, hammock and deck chair were presented to me. And so began my first real styling experience. I covered as much as the hammock as possible, and placed a piano bench under it (hammocks are very unruly otherwise). I wanted to create different levels on which the girls could sit. If you look at any Vanity Fair spread, you'll note that all the people are sitting or standing at different levels, some closer, some further from the camera.

Meanwhile the girls put on black dresses and metalic jewelry. I directed them to their spot and let them lean this way and that while I took photos. It was a lot of composition to think about, as there were so many elements as well as three subjects. In the end, I think I achieved the look they were hoping for.

The family also had 4 breadbox sized dogs. Two jumped in for a group photo.

My first experience with a professional bubble maker! This performance took place at the Randall Museum Holiday Craft Day. I once again volunteer-photographed. Not as may kids as the Halloween event, but fun nevertheless.

It took me several shots before I figured out how to photograph bubbles. At first, I focused on the people, then took the photo when the bubble emerged. They turned out over-exposed, and slightly blurry. However, the bubbles were long lasting enough that if I focused on the bubbles, and then took the photo, the pic turned out great.

This young man was very apprehensive about being in a bubble. He backed up into the purple curtain when it was his turn, and almost gave up his turn. I just think he has the best expression in this photo.

Considering the recession, I expected people to spend less at ReadyMade craft fair, and they did. It's really not a great time to be a seller right now! Table rental cost $60, and I sold $180 worth of stuff. Which means I made $120 "profit" - but consider all the materials, plus countless hours of making stuff and prep, not to mention skilled labor. I thought I'd share numbers with you, dear reader, to give you a sense of the harsh reality of how unprofitable often is, at least for me, to do craft fairs. Perhaps it is the current economy, but even a year ago, when people shopped more enthusiastically, I quickly learned that I ought not be in the craft fair business for money.

However, part of the purpose of craft fairs is to have fun, and that I did. The design and fabricating process is fun, as is designing my display. It's fun to meet other vendors, and to talk with friendly shoppers. And it is gratifying to talk to the few people who happen to adore what I've made. It's also fun when friends swing by to say hello. The fun aspects are what have kept me coming back to do an occasional craft fair.

A - B - C
D - E - F
I have an upcoming shoot with an actress who wants head shots. She's hiring a hair stylist and make up artist, and I'm pretty sure she knows way more about head shots than I do! I started researching head shot photography online, and realized I need to work on my lighting. So I enlisted model Charlotte, who agreed on the condition that she could nap through the whole thing. Note: all photos are unaltered, ie. no photoshopping to edit colors/brightness etc.

{see B} Currently, I rely on my external flash, mounted on top of my camera. I add a diffuser to it, one called a "lightsphere" which is not unlike a tupperware box of cloudy white plastic mounted atop a flash pointed towards the ceiling. This has the effect of producing a pleasant, soft light coming from the direction of the camera. You can't see much shadow, which flattens the image.

{A} Natural, window filtered indirect lighting is great, if it happens to be coming from the right direction, but in this case, I wanted her face to be lit from the left. The colors are rather muted.

{C} Direct camera flash is the Worst lighting option! Here, the flash points straight at Charlotte, no diffuser or anything. Unfortunately this is the only option available to point and shoot digital cameras, and DSLRs without external flashes. Harsh light, like deer in headlights. I do use this lighting for nightlife photography, but that's a different story.

{D} I read several articles that recommended bouncing camera flash light off a reflector. In this case, a large piece of white foam core, balanced on my tripod. I turned my flash to shoot in a 45 degree angle to my left, placed the reflector so that the light bounced and hit Charlotte's face. In the process some light is lost, so I upped the power on my flash. This method gives form to her face, and feels natural; it's not obvious that a flash was used.

{E} A mini-reflector (ie, small piece of cardboard) can be taped directly onto a flash. In this case, the flash pointed upwards, and the cardboard was placed perpendicular to the flash direction, facing Charlotte. As light doesn't have to travel far before being bounced onto the subject, the result is a rather harsh lighting also, but more diffuse than {C} ie, more evenly lit.

{F} Finally, flash pointing upwards towards white ceiling, light bounced off ceiling. It's a pleasant, soft light. This option only works if you have a white, low, ceiling. Has the disadvantages of creating shadows under eyes and chins, and seems less natural than a light coming from the side.

I think I like {D} the best. I can work on getting a larger piece of white board, so as to reflect more light, perhaps producing an effect like that of the ceiling, but from the side.

I made the trek down to Palo Alto to do a photo shoot for a new senior home care company. Thus far, the owners had been using stock images, but decided they wanted a more personal touch. So they looked up photographers on Craigslist, and contacted me.

Owner/care giver on the left, recruited a senior friend to come over and model. It was nice that she was relatively mobile, so we could move from couch to armchair to garden to piano bench without much hassle. I liked the outdoor photos the best, using a combination of natural and flash lighting. Our senior model was a very good sport; she leafed through gardening books, held photos of kids and perused a home care brochure for candid shots, while smiling the whole time.

A few more cuffs for the ReadyMade craft fair.
ReadyMade Winter Ball & Gift Fair: Thurs Dec 4, 6:30pm to 11:00pm
2424 Mariposa St. (Verdi Cub), San Francisco

I biked to Bazaar Bizarre in Golden Gate Park today. I'd considered driving, as I was hauling camera equipment, but decided to bike in case parking was a pain. I'm glad I'd followed my hunch, as roads had been closed off for a fund raising race - Run Wild for a Child, or something.

The most noticeable trend in crafting are plush toys of random things, like human organs and cuts of meat. I'd seen plush toy monsters, fire logs, vegetables, desserts and even viruses and bacteria, but meat was especially novel. Unlike the other plush toys, meat toys did not have faces.

Other than plush toys, there were many letterpress artists, fabric accessory stores (with simply made wallets and bags), soap makers, scarf knitters, screen printed clothes designers. Another trend is appliqued baby clothes, for the indie baby. Many artists made use of reused / recycled materials.

Pre-photo excursion, I have a choice. Which camera body, and which lens? I could bring them all, like I do for photography jobs, but I find that carrying all that stuff takes away from fun when I am on a casual outing. Today I opted for the lightest equipment: the Rebel Xti and 50mm f/1.4.

This prime (ie fixed; no zooming here) lens makes for beautiful portrait style photos. The bokeh (Blurriness of background) is so great - makes the foreground so crisp. The colors come out richly, and you can see even the texture of black fur. Notice how that spots of light in the blurred background come out as circular shapes, rather than octogons, or some other polygonal shape; that's a mark of a better lens.

I made it into Readymade Magazine craft fair on Dec 4th. It's an evening craft fair, from 7 to 11, which will make for a different atmosphere. Readymade is a popular publication amongst the DIY (Do It Yourself) and craft crowd. It's packed with all sorts of projects for making cute and kitschy things. I often peruse its pages in bookstores, as it's too expensive to buy. Anyways, they have a following, so I'm hoping there will be a lot of shoppers.

As always, I start amassing things I'll need for display. I recently found these mini wooden table top easels at a Japanese homeware store in J-town. About $1.50 a pop, they are much more elegant and less bulky than the cardboard versions I'd fashioned at home. The bamboo tray and push pins are also from the same store - Ichiban Kanm for about the same price. Clothespins are always useful in displays. I also spend the week before a fair making items of which I'm low on supplies. Above, the cut out fabric bits that I'll use on cuff bracelets.

Another small batch of dog pendants. One of you dear avid readers may recognize one of these pups as your very own! (I'm sorry it took so long!) The hardest dogs to draw are the fuzzy ones. I think the one to the far right is a bichon frise; extremely fluffy and sheep like, looks like a stuffed animal. Hopefully encapsulated his likeness alright.

And an update on the craigslist photography situation; I've posted twice, and have a grand total of 3 inquiries, 2 of which sounds like they're going to work out (the other wanted a photographer on a day I was unavailable). Also, the responses have only come in within a few hours of my posting. Thus, it's advantageous to be at the top of the pile (ie, doesn't take much digging to find my ad). I can only repost every 48 hours however. But given how many photography ads are posted (every 15 mins it seems), I'm pleased to get any response!

I may have been the only female attendee of the SF Autoshow that didn't arrive with a male. I'd pitched the idea of photographing the autoshow to a certain online SF city guide, with intentions of highlighting the new hybrid and high mileage models.

I realized right away that I should have brought a wide angle lens, but I made do with my 28-75. It was hard to make cars look exciting, well, to the average person with average car interest. There were some interesting displays fortunately, such as this cleaved Toyota fuel cell hybrid. The most excitement buzzed around the Smart Car display: pocket sized and brightly colored cars. I did my best to jump in and take photos while people posed with vehicles for photos taken by their own friends.

Many attendees were armed with their own DSLRs, but yet I was approached three times with questions about my camera/lens/ flash set up. I suppose it is rather curious for a lone woman to be carrying a bigger camera than 99% of the men at a car show.

I originally intended to photograph the SF Hiphop Dance Fest rehearsal for an online SF guide. When they changed their minds, I asked the Dance PR person if I could photograph anyways, and give the pics to the performers or dance fest organizers. They said Sure! Often all it takes to get into fun gigs is to ask nicely and offer something nice in return.

I'd never been in the Palace of Arts before. It's a grand theater, with lots of flowing red velvet curtains and plush red seats. I staked out a space in the front row, out of the way of the videographer. There were lots of excited kids in the seats further back, performers waiting for their turn to rehearse.

The biggest challenge was photographing without flash. This is where my 50mm f/1.4 lens shone (shined?) This lens is great at several things: portraits (fuzzing out the background), quick autofocus, and ability to focus and photograph under dim lighting conditions. I used sports mode on my camera, allowing for machine gun fire of the shutter - best for capturing unpredictable movement. Still, many dance moves were still too quick to document without blur. I also had a hard time with dancers in dark costumes against dark background; too hard for the camera/lens to figure out what to focus on. More pics to come soon.

I've out together a flier style ad to email out to friends. The big seller, I expect, will be the custom designed pendants, featuring pets or what ever else one might want on a pendant.

I just received notification that my application was accepted at the ReadyMade Magazine Winter Ball and Indie Gift Fair. I'm not sure that there really is a "ball" of any sort. But RM is a huge name in the crafting community, and so I'll probably do it. I have old inventory I'd like to get rid of, and so I won't have to spend much time preparing for the fair. Except for making cuff bracelets, which were very popular at the Indie Mart Craft fair, and I nearly sold out.

As for the craigslist ad, the image did work in the end, and I got one response. May or may not follow through though. I'll have to be diligent about re-posting, as there are tidal waves of photography services posts.

This is an image I put together for a craigslist ad. I finally decided to post on CL and I assumed it would be easy to upload an image to accompany my description. But actually, one has to code it in using html, so that it links to an image already uploaded on another site. I didn't want to buy online space, and it occurred to me that this blog stores my photos. And when you click on the photo, it opens in its own page, with its own link. But all is not so straightforward - I must be using the wrong coding, because this photo isn't showing up. I shall seek the advice of someone with computer programming experience.

In the meantime, here's my image-less ad:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/crs/926401881.html

I wanted it to be friendly and straight forward, without pointing out how affordable I am/ what a great deal it is/ irrelevant comments on how other photogs push albums and prints on you/ how good a photog I am/ what awards I've won (none). Like museum exhibit labels, I figure ads should be easy to read. And a picture paints a 1000 words, which is why I want this image to be on there too. Anyone who links to my homepage will get my kelp illustration, which is not photography, and thus may be confusing. I may have to remedy that for the time being...

I finished going through my Jayden photos today. I took a little over 200 photos. Then I went through each and picked those that I thought were the best, resulting in 43 photos. There's no goal for "best photos" - I usually hope for at least 25-30. Those 43 were edited in photoshop, to correct for color balance, to be brightened and to be subject to cropping and resizing.

This sequence shows some of the hard work that parents have to do during photo sessions. Parents have to spend 45 mins to an hour being as entertaining as possible. Jayden had a plethora of toys, but some of the simplest games were the most fun, such as collecting leaves and peek-a-boo.