New hair, Geetar lessons, Cloud watching.

New hair, Geetar lessons, Cloud watching. All part of a typical Thursday... that is on top of the crazy amounts of editing. :)

This is Mr. Park from Scissorhands. I decided to let him cut my hair for the first time. He really enjoys his work.



While waiting at Scissorhands.



Love the decor with these mannequins.



The result? Not too different from the older look, but blunt cut.. no layers.



Knocking out both photography lessons and guitar lessons at the park.



I thought this sign was too funny, I really could not resist myself taking this photo! hehe But just to clarify, Walter plays beautiful music. There's Walter giving Alice a lesson. He is an amazing teacher, and you can get lessons for $40/hr! I would seriously recommend him. I'm already on my third song (Put your records on - Corinne Bailey Rae). ^^



Lastly, cloud watching. I could do this forever. Those were some interesting shapes.

Jean and Mike Wedding.

An unconventional wedding for the unconventional bride and groom. It was very cute, fun, casual, original, and very Jean and Mike, which is what counts the most!

Mike, waiting for the first meeting with his bride.



Check out that hurrr.



The bridesmaids. They look gangsta.



I just loved all the shoes, Jean's especially. ;)



Groomsmen.



What a beautiful moment. :) As soon as Mike was tearing up, I was snapping away. It's typical for the bride to cry, but I start getting really emotional when the groom cries.



Talk about lucky... with a rainbow in the sky?! Indeed, it's going to be a beautiful marriage.



Is this what a happiness looks like?



Air force ones. Exiting with style.



Noticed the reflection last minute while I was posing them. Glad I didn't miss it!





A big thank you to Jiyoung and Jinny for coordinating the day and making everything run so smoothly. And thank you, Jean and Mike, for being an amazing couple to work with! Even though it looked as if it was going to rain on their outdoor wedding, they were super laid back saying, "If it rains, it rains. What can you do? We're still getting married!' :) Of course, instead, they were rewarded with the most perfect weather - overcast with the sun peeking out and a rainbow promise in the sky. I am so excited about putting together the slideshow, because I absolutely loved all the images from their day.

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Sohn!

Jean and Mike Paebaek.

This was my first time shooting a Paebaek, a Korean ceremony, where the couple will bow to the parents and honorees present and pour tea. It's very similar to the Chinese tea ceremony, but they have their own variation. It's so interesting how in Korean tradition, the marriage between a man and a woman represents the joining of two families, rather than the joining of two individuals. I've attended several of these, but didn't learn what everything symbolized until last Saturday. It's good to learn new things!

Mike is all ready and waiting on his beautiful bride. For preparation for weddings, the men usually only take five to ten minutes to put themselves together whereas the ladies have to have an entire morning. I guess that's pretty typical even day-to-day. lol

And the bowing begins.

After they bow and pour tea, the honorees impart some wisdom or advice to the couple.

This is the part where the honorees throw dates for girls and chestnuts for boys which the bride catches in her skirt. It is supposed to symbolizes how many kids they'll have and what gender. I wonder why there are always more chestnuts than dates. A daunting number. If these numbers are correct, it looks like they can expect over 20 kids. hehe

Mike needed to good stretch before having her on piggy back. Anyone know what carrying her around the room means?

Good choice, Mike, with the anti-glare feature on the glasses. You can't even tell there's anything in the frames! :)

Paebaek is serious business. No smiling.

A little more old school look. I really like it. Reminds me of my grandparents photos.

Busy week, but I need to do a lot of work before I head out to LA next Wednesday. I'm going to try my best to blog every weekday before LA. Jean and Mike's wedding ceremony pics are scheduled to be up tomorrow. :)

Krystal and Michael E-session.

Shot an engagement session with Krystal and Michael this past Saturday. They met at a NAAAP networking event, which I checked out for the first time the Thursday before their session. ;)

It was probably the earliest I have ever shot an e-session. I woke up at 6:30 to drive down to Centennial Park by 8 with maybe less than an hour of sleep. I really needed my coffee that morning. Again, I am so not a coffee person, but sometimes you need an extra kick to get the creative juices flowing. Between the rain holding off until after the session and the early time to avoid the crowds, we managed to have a great shoot! I love when you can walk away completely satisfied with the day. :)





Looking good! I think garages are always so much fun to shoot in.



The yellow worked perfectly.





Love me some legs. :)



Yes, a heart shaped chair to frame the couple. :) Kinda reminds me of Europe. Just a tad.

Day trip to Portland.

We took a day trip up to Portland, Maine last week to hang out, see lighthouses, and eat lobster. Portland was soooooo beautiful. There were many jaw dropping moments at the coastline. And with two beautiful ladies at my side, I really can't ask for more. Well, maybe.... if it was 20 degrees warmer, we would have stayed outside for longer than 10 minutes at a time! hahaha All three of us are true southern girls spoiled by warm weather, Hsiao and I from Atlanta and Sophia from Houston.

Maine... the way LIFE should BE. Breathtaking, isn't it?





Sometimes it's easy to overlook beautiful things that come in small packages. Maybe I like to give credit to small things, because it's easier for me to relate. ;) These cute little flowers were hidden in a huge field of grass... but it's not only in Portland that you can make these kinds of discoveries. When you're willing to stop yourself from the day-to-day agendas, and take a look around, you might discover that some pretty awesome things surround you... which brings me of the thought of the day from my new journal: Don't hurry, don't worry. You're only here for a short visit so be sure to smell the flowers along the way. Okay, back to Portland.



Thanks to yelp we found ourselves a place where the locals go for lobster.



Whole lobsters kind of remind me of giant bugs with all their creepy legs, so I settled for a lobster roll instead. lol



I don't care if that bar in the middle distracts and ruins the photo, and I refuse to photoshop it out today. I will just love you the way you are, flaws and all. :)



Trying to master the self taken photos. This was try 3948235. Or maybe it was just 3.



New profile pic taken by Sophia. Talk about awesome job!


Sister love.



More on flickr and facebook.

A Peek into Boston.

I think this is the fourth time I've visited Boston, and each time I visited I've photographed different pieces of the city. I probably have several hundred photos of this city. I will always love capturing details whether it's the details of a wedding or details on a stroll through the city. I've never been much of a landscape or cityscape photographer, but I could see myself venturing into it in the future. Maybe the near future since I'll be going to Yosemite and Big Sur this June.

This is a peek into Boston from my walk on the freedom trail. lol It wasn't because it was the touristy thing to do, mind you. I've done this tour before. We really just wanted the exercise. Why not follow those red bricks and make a lot of stops at tourist traps? :)

I was sure I'd fit right in with this hat I found.



I've been in the mood to start planting my own herbs so I could have fresh ones to cook with, but I keep forgetting to buy seeds.



Interesting napkin holder.







I keep missing the Cherry Blossom festival in DC. Sophia and I were hoping to track down the last bits of cherry blossoms in Boston, but we missed our window of opportunity. Next time.



The remnants.



These remind me of balloons. :)



The view from below at MFA.



For more pics of Boston, you can view them through facebook, or I just joined flickr!

Sam Headshots.

Did a few headshots for Sam's work, but I couldn't resist doing some fun casual shots on the side... especially when there's such great light. :)

The perfect Mother's Day gift?

I feel extremely blessed to have the mom that I do. She is the most amazing person, and has taught me so much about life and love. You think the Proverbs 31 woman is too good to be true? Well, I'm going to tell you that my mom is the epitome of that woman: hardworking, compassionate, selfless, strong, kind, etcetera etcetera etcetera. What a rich inheritance. One day I may grow to have all these same qualities. :)

Oh, the wonderful journey we travel. Mom, you truly are an inspiration. <3 I love you.





And oh, yes! I must update you on my 5k that I ran-walked yesterday. I should have worn my incredibles shirt, because I was dashing through the crowd at the beginning. Being small really comes in handy sometimes! I was filled with energy from the crowd, so I was even sprinting for some of the time keeping a pretty steady pace. It felt really good.... well, until we looped back around to the starting point, and I thought we were finished. My mind completely checked me out by then, and it was only at 4k. Tricky tricky. I guess it really is a matter of mind. I ended up walking the rest. lol It's okay, though, there is next time for this couch potato. The P'tree Road Race is the 10k in July and the Buckhead Sizzler is another 10k in September? I need other people to join in to motivate me. C'mon people, let's do this! Yeah, yeah??!

Few pics from yesterday. Thanks Fuze for the capes to help facilitate the dorkiness. :D



Thanks, Stephen, for taking such an awesome group pic of us! :)

Stephanie Scarlet Live.

It was such a pleasure getting to watch the beautiful and talented Steph play. :) Look familiar? I did a photoshoot with her back in August of 08. You should check out her music @ www.stephaniescarlet.com. I believe you can find more details about getting her CDs there. :)

Jean and Mike E-session Slideshow

I think this was the most fun I've had on a photoshoot so far this year. Everywhere I took Jean and Mike, it was a playground full of photo ops! Especially running rampant in target in the toy section. I love how they were completely down for anything. Even hanging upside down on monkey bars, even though it's probably been over 20 years since any of us have had monkey bar experience. :) For purposes of fitting into the song, I had to narrow down the photos, but there were so many I really liked. But without further ado, here's the slideshow.

http://www.estherjulee.com/showit/jeanandmikeesession/

30 before 30.

Lately, there has been so much I've wanted to do and so little time to do it, I've decided to prioritize my list. I started a list of 100 things to do in my lifetime (sounds more positive than 100 things to do before I die lol), and stopped maybe a quarter of the way back when I started it. It's always good, though, to re-evaluate where you are and set new goals and remind yourself of old ones, so I've decided to pick it back up where I left off. The first thirty on the list I'm hoping will be reached by age 30. So here we have it.

30 before 30

1. Learn to do an oil change and change out a tire.
2. Second shoot a wedding for someone I admire.
3. Buy a guy flowers (edible creations works).
4. Do a photog mission trip.
5. Go to Italy and eat real Italian food.
6. Break 100 in bowling!
7. Run a (half) marathon (maybe after a 5k and 10k lol).
8. Finish the last piano piece I was playing before I quit six-seven years ago.
9. Take a cooking course: http://www.foodnetworkclasses.com
10. Cook a 5 course meal for someone (special).
11. Commit to fully financially support an orphanage.
12. Learn guitar so that I can at least play 5 of my favorite songs.
13. Learn to throw a football.
14. Be decent enough to hit some balls back and forth in tennis.
15. Take salsa classes.
16. Take swing classes.
17. Take a beginner improv comedy class.
18. Perform at an open mic.
19. Go to Death Valley.
20. Go to Antelope Canyon.
21. Kill a spider (a very small one... maybe more like on a microscopic scale).
22. Get my wedding photography published somewhere awesome.
23. Plant a tree.
24. Take tango classes.
25. Be the best friend, girlfriend, (wife) ever! hehe How this will look... I have no idea.
26. Skydive.
27. Learn conversational Spanish.
28. Do a photoshoot for a rising actress/singer/group.
29. Go to New Zealand, Australia.
30. Go to Southern Africa (S Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe).

Hopefully, this will encourage or inspire some of you to start your own list of big yet realistic goals. AND... of course, it wouldn't be a photoblog without the photos.

First, I needed an opinion. There seems to be a grain-phase, and I'm not sure if I want to hop onto the bandwagon just yet. Which is better?

Less:


More:



And then all the activities! Yes these are velcro bowling shoes. How awesome is that on the scale of awesomeness. I actually miss velcro!



Tennis, too! I've been inspired to be more active lately. So for all you active people out in California, thanks for being my inspiration! ;)



Guitar lessons at the park right before our run... before I looked all sweaty and icky: