Christine and Tommy - San Diego, CA (Teasers)

Just got back from San Diego shooting a beautiful wedding with hot, male photographer, Jon Chan. Sorry, ladies, he is taken. I've worked with him in the past, but he is always a lot of fun to work with. I heart Cali and getting every opportunity to go out there. They were a gorgeous couple and super easy going. The wedding ran smoothly.. maybe a little too smoothly? lol They were just so laid back throughout the day! Awesome couple! :) Here are just a few photos to tease you for now.





I looved this shot. I've been doing some closer crops on the details... and I'm lovin' it.



It was so relaxing the short time I was over there. I don't know if it's the sunny weather or because everyone seems so laid back, but even in the midst of all the crazy work I needed done, it was so very relaxing. I even got to catch up on a little TV! lol I forgot how much I've been missing the Office. I completely forgot that the season premier was last week and that's the only show I actually keep up with! Okay, I lied... Grey's, too, but I only got to see a quarter of it. :(

I am glad I got to watch the Office though and see... (***WARNING* I'm about to ruin it for you)



Jim propose to Pam!!!! <3 style="font-style: italic;">real over some over-the-top proposal.

HyoJung and Don Trash the Dress!!

I'm very excited to present to you my very first first post-wedding aka Trash the Dress session! :) It was A LOT of fun to shoot. If I could have it my way, these would be all I'd ever do. lol

Usually most of the wedding couple portraits I do have been on the wedding day when it's very rush-rush. Having a couple hours as opposed to maybe as little as ten minutes makes *SUCH* a world of difference. I would definitely recommend anyone to do a trash the dress session. The photos come out so beautifully and more natural when you don't have to worry about keeping your dress clean the entire time.

Wow! There were a lot of photos that I needed to weed down because there were so many that I liked. :) :) :)





This was definitely not the wind doing the work. I owe Don a big thank you for helping me with some of the bridal portraits. ;)





The flare is so yummy here.



My fav. She was really dizzy afterwards... but I think she will find it worth it ;)



These were too cute.



A formal one. I love the old school look.


I think I've definitely gotten over not liking sunflare. ;)








Personal:

Yesterday, was my dad's 58th birthday! :) I took him to go eat at my faaaav Korean bbq place. The food was sooo yummy! I think I could eat there almost everyday. Here's a photo of Dad and I. It took my mom literally ten shots to get a decent one. lol She kept cutting our heads off or getting the ceiling. I guess art and photography must have ran more on my dad's side. :P Happy Birthday to the best Dad ever!



Everytime I spend some quality time with the family, they always get on my case about when I'm getting married. Sheesh! I haven't hit 27 yet, I still have some time and the clock is NOT ticking. lol Here's a bit of the conversation in the car ride back:

Grandma - You know that guy that stopped by last time, I think he was really handsome.. why don't you date him?
Me - Seriously?? ...........
Mom (to my grandma) - Why so interested? It's not like YOU will be marrying him. lol
Grandma - I know, but I have to check them out first... and I really liked that one friend you brought over. He was good looking. You need to marry someone good looking.
Mom - Who's she talking about anyways?
Me - .............

Why my grandma is adamant about me marrying a really good looking guy over maybe a really nice or really smart or any other qualities...? My grandma is really too funny. She was telling me a few weeks ago how back in the day when she had to do the arranged marriage, she really didn't like my grandpa because he wasn't good looking at all. Now she wants to live vicariously through me. lol

-------------------------------
Gas crisis --- Craziness! I had no idea that there was no gas in Atlanta until today. How do I live oblivious to these things? We had to drive around to as many as five or six gas stations just to find a place that wasn't out of gas, AND I had to fork up an arm and a leg to pay unleaded premium. :(

Here's a helpful tip I got from Hillary if you live in the Atlanta area (Thanks Hillary!)

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/ajccars/articles/gas-prices.html

You can use this to find stations near you that still have gas! Just change the time limit in the bottom right hand corner to 4 hours!

HyoJung and Don E-session

Last Friday, HyoJung and Don drove up to Atlanta right after their honeymoon to do an engagement and trash the dress session with me. Originally, they wanted to have me do their ceremony in Florida, but I was already booked that day. Too bad... because I would have considered taking a full week off to go down and do their ceremony and also to hit the beach and play in the sun! Seriously, a beach trip is due. I feel like I'm not getting to see enough sun as it is with all this editing I'm doing these days. lol

I was very happy to hear, though, that they still wanted to get photos done through me. Here's a few from the e-session. I'll post the TTD session later on this week. ;)

Melissa and Paul E-session Slideshow

Melissa is a graphic designer who happened to have graduated from the same school as I did! The first time I met with Melissa and Paul, we instantly connected and I think we chatted for two hours non-stop over Suno. All my suno dessert melted before I could even finish it! Melissa graduated from Tech and Paul is from Auburn. They had the cutest engagement story that involved stealing some furniture to setup a beautiful breakfast on the beach. lol

She was telling me how she had been searching for a wedding photographer and that she hadn't seen any work that really impressed her. I was thrilled when they ended up booking me that day of our consultation. :) I wanted to exceed their expectations and give them one amaaazing session. These days, I feel like I've definitely gotten into a groove of things, which has allowed me to just execute out my vision much better. I really enjoyed every bit of this session: the shooting, the editing, and putting together this slideshow. This is some awesome turnaround time, though. I had to pull a couple of all nighters to finish it. haha Hope you guys enjoy it! :)



Click here! :)

Hotspots in Hotlanta!

My earlier post mentioned Daniel who was in Atlanta over the weekend to visit. He's from New York/New Jersey, but he kept saying how ATL are all tobacco chewing, banjo playing, square dancing people, so I had to come up with a full tour of the city to prove to him there was more to Atlanta than the country-side. I mean we call it the dirrty-dirrrrrty for a reason. lol Well, obviously, there is less to do here than in in NYC, but we always have our fair share of fun.

I compiled a list of "hotspots" from places I have visited and other people's recommendations, and I think it was overall a good taste of Atlanta. If any of you decide to visit, I can honestly say these are worthwhile places to go. I was trying to browse through photos from the weekend, but it looks like we only took photos at a few of the locations.

Out of all the touristy things to do, I would probably say the only place worth going is the aquarium. This was just a reminder that we parked on the fourth level.



Jellyfish are always so photogenic. I took hundreds of photos. I'll have to do a second post of all the fishies.



Back at the garage as we were leaving. Always love it when people around me are not too shy to do a little modeling for me when I see good light. ;)



If you want some southern cooking, I would recommend OK Cafe. This was the first time I've been in all the years I've lived in Atlanta, but the food was so yum!



Definitely would recommend the country fried steak (what Daniel ordered as main dish) and squash souffle and three-cheese macaroni (my two sides).



The place is so cute on the outside!



If you want some Korean bbq, Honey Pig is soooooo delish. I am always camera ready. AND I managed to throw up a peace sign (totally unintentional) while I was munching down.



Oooh just looking at it makes my mouth water!



Last but not least, my photo from Waffle House. lol So originally this was not on my list of hotspots, but if I moved up north, I think I would definitely miss it. These were my smart hashbrowns.



So far we have in no particular rank/order:

*Ga Aquarium
*OK Cafe
*Honey Pig

Other places we visited without pictures or just places that are great to visit:

*Brickstore Pub (Get the Fish n' Chips and Brunswick Stew! Plus they have such a huge beer selection that even people like myself who don't like beer can find one they like)
*Chocolate Bar (for wine and dessert)
*Fat Matts (BBQ)
*Whiskey Park

Maybe, I'll come up with a more extensive list as I discover more places, but these were sufficient for one FULL weekend since we also had an engagement session on Sunday.

By the way, I just retook the Myers-Briggs test again, because a friend and I were talking about it over lunch. I guess my personality is always evolving. Seems like now I am a EIFJ (Extrovert-Intuitive-Feeling-Judging) rather than EIFP (Perceiving). There are diff versions, but you can take one here.

Melissa and Paul E-session (Sneak Peak)

Sunday, I had an amazing time shooting with Melissa and Paul. We started off at a cafe where they had their first date. This happens to be one of my favorite dessert spots. ;)





I loved how the colors they picked out help set the mood. I've been loving a lot of dark purples and greens lately.



Then, we they went to go pick up their dog, Roxie, while Daniel and I headed over to a park to scope out the scene. Talk about a super cuuute park with tons of great photo ops. This next shot is of Daniel, who came down to visit ATL and happened to be conveniently available to assist me on my shoot. I love how the leaves frame him!



So, naturally, I had to use it again for the real thing!



Paul kept telling me he was no good at modeling, but I think he's a natural. Intense.



At first, Roxie didn't want to cooperate so much with us. She just wanted to run around and discover new landmarks at the park. Still liked how this one turned out.



Eventually after we ran around with her, we were able to get her to give the camera some love. ;)







The day was overcast, but for a short moment the sun peaked out for us to get some flare. This is probably one of my favorites. Love the mood. ;)



Sweeeeet! This last shot was taken by Daniel, while skillfully running backwards. Thanks for being such a great help on the shoot! Daniel is a photographer based in NYC, and if you're from that area, you can check out some of his work here. ;)