Christmas Family Photography – Thousand Oaks
This was my late Christmas gift. A day after Christmas, I had a quick family portrait photography session at Conejo Botanical Garden at Thousand Oaks.
Family members came from Colorado and elsewhere to Grandmother’s house in Camarillo. They had four generations in the family. There were a lot of kids in the group and they wanted some family portraits.
After breaking the ice, everyone was relaxed. I was able to capture every one’s energy.Â
It was a very nice day at Conejo Botanical Garden (Thousand Oaks). It’s been raining for several days. It even rained yesterday on Christmas Day. Today tuned out to be one of the best days of the year. Look at the sky on that picture. I didn’t have to fix anything on this picture.
I took well over 100 family photographs today.Â
The customer asked if they should dress up like the pictures they see on fancy websites, such as light colored tops and blue jeans. There were some members of the family who didn’t care too much for that look. So, I told her this (I will copy exact words from my email)
When it comes to “color coordinationâ€
You should do what’s natural for your family.
You should wear same colored tops and jeans ONLY IF that will represent your family
As long as your mother is happy, and most of your family members are happy, it will be all good.
People’s faces and love will shine from the pictures to satisfy your family.
Same colored shirts is secondary.
Anything will work as long as people look tidy.
Reception at RiverRidge
It’s Tuesday September 2nd 2:40am in the morning.
I never got to enjoy Labor Day. I worked all day.Â
My ribeye steak is still sitting in the refrigerator. I hope I will grill it tomorrow (after meeting a customer).
Below are the pictures from August 30 photo-shoot at River-Ridge Golf Club at Oxnard. This was my favorite spot on the golf club. Then the golf club staff came to me and said how dangerous it was to be in that area. But I had to take the chance and get this done fast. Actually, I didn’t really see people swinging clubs to my direction. I think they were being overly cautious. Anyway, nobody got hurt.
* On this wedding – I walked 6.2 miles and burned 2381 caloriesÂ
A lot of stories from this wedding
* Photographer’s Physical Activity
Burned 2033 kCal in 7 hours.
More data located at “Wedding Photography Fitness“
First of all, I went through a nasty traffic jam. I had a state of mind to photograph the accident scene. I was just glad it was not me in that mangle.Â
Everyone knew about the accident at the wedding. A lot of wedding guests went through that traffic jam. We thought our DJ was caught up in that traffic jam as well. Wedding was scheduled for 4pm, but there was no sign of a wedding DJ. 4pm came, and there was no DJ. Bride was crying (heartbreaking) and the wedding guests started call every possible friends and family to locate a DJ in the area.Â
Luckily they found a friend of a friend who was a DJ. DJ Tony Chan is located in Camarillo (20 minutes away from Saticoy Country Club at Somis). He was going to hurry up and come down to Saticoy Country Club. He could only get ready for a reception, not the ceremony. The wedding ceremony had to go on without the DJ. So, we came up with a solution to the music. A friend of the wedding couple backed up his SUV and played his car-stereo. I was keep telling the bride “I have had plenty of weddings with absolutely no music. Trust me, it will be good”.Â
Amazingly, the music from the SUV worked out perfect. Honestly, the music was perfect.
Wedding Music provided by a wedding guest – From an SUV
After the wedding ceremony we had a plenty of time for formal pictures. From the hill-side of Saticoy Country Club, we can look down the valley of Somis & Oxnard. There was a big tree. That tree was located in a perfect spot to provide me with needed shade.
Photography session went on smooth. The weather was great. The bride was beautiful. The bride had a face of an Olympic Gymnast (not the ugly one). The bride had the longest train I have ever seen in my life. Pictures came out breathtaking. By this time, bride was very happy. And she was happy to know that there was a DJ in the house setting up for the reception.  Everything turned out beautiful.
On the golf course of Saticoy Country Club, Somis, California
Under the big tree that saved the day, Somis, CA
Reception went on smooth. The DJ (Tony Chan) was fantastic. People had a lot of fun. The wedding was lovely. I didn’t want the day to end.
All in all, today’s wedding was more memorable than most weddings. It was like a little movie and I was in it. At the end, I told the bride that I was *almost* glad that the original DJ didn’t show up.  We all have a fun memory from this wedding. We all pulled together to make a wonderful day for the newlyweds. This was a good sign for the newlyweds (I told her all that at the end of the reception).  God bless everyone.Â
—————————————-
DJ Tony Chan – One who saved the day.
tony@tcscuba.com
Without Tony Chan, this wedding would have been a disaster. Everyone was thanking him for saving the day. He received about 3 formal applauses from the wedding guests. I talked to Tony a little and exchanged business cards.
Expect to hear more about the DJ Tony Chan in my future blog. We both live in Camarillo, and I like his style.Â
Saticoy Country Club
www.saticoycountryclub.com Â
4450 North Clubhouse Drive Somis, CAÂ 93066
Phone (805)485-4956
Pet Photography, Ventura Beach
Web album is open to public: Pet Photography, Ventura
This was my second pet photography gig in a month.
I’m trying to do more pet photography, see.Â
There are a few tricks on how to take good pet pictures. The number one rule is that you must not be allergic .   Unlike humans, animals don’t usually “Fake” what they feel about you. If they don’t like you, they will let you know. I mean, they will not get along with you forever. So the well-rounded personality (the vibe) is even more important in pet photography than in wedding photography.
Today was Sunday. I just had a wedding at Thousand Oaks yesterday. The first thing I did last night was to get all my camera gear ready for today.Â
Oh, before the Pet Photo-shoot, I went to Starbucks Coffee in Ventura to return a wedding album from the wedding at Ventura Fair Ground. Wedding was on June 21st.  So, the package was completed and delivered in three weeks.  The bride was very happy with the pictures.Â
Now I was ready for the pet photography gig.
I went to a nice beach community in Ventura. First we photographed the dogs. The dogs were full of energy. Those poor guys got yelled at a few times so they can behave, ha ha… Then we went to the beach.  The dogs had a lot of fun. These dogs were a handful. They were running around the beach and making friends with strangers (both humans & dogs alike). It was very cute.
After the beach photo-shoot, we went back home for the cats. There where two cats to be photographed. Both of them were shy and tried to hide from me. I quickly became friendly with one cat. But the other cat was a little upset (poor guy). We all set quiet and relaxed for a while.  That’s when the cats got ready for photography. After a while, both of them fell asleep, that we had to wake them up with the toys.Â
I had nice locations for pet photography, so all pictures came out nice. I didn’t have to use flash on all the indoor pictures. This house was made for pet photography. I am very happy with the results.
Mental Note: I need to buy a pair of casual shoes for pet photography jobs like this. Every single pair of my shoes are formal dress-shoes. I do not have a pair of sneakers. I take out trash in a black dress shoes.Â
Wedding..
Testing…
Web album coming… feel free to ask for a password to the client’s web album.
Sunscreen Report is Out
I saw a news report on Sunscreen lotions and their effectiveness. What’s more important was that they had a list of dangerous sun block lotions. They say some lotions may be Cancer causing.Â
It was exactly a year ago that I bought a half dozen bottles of Hawaiian Tropic sunblock lotions. I thought they worked pretty good. I wore it religiously before I leave home for weddings. I keep on bottle in my backup gear bag. Sometime I don’t put on Sun-block lotion when I leave home, because the weather is gloomy.  And then, when I arrive at the wedding site, there may be a full blast of strong Sun light. So, Sunscreen lotion is an absolute necessity for outdoor photographers.
Anyway, I am now finding out that all my Sunscreen lotions are listed in “dangerous” category. Yikes.. this is not good. So, I’m going to have to trash everything I have and buy a whole new batch. This time I’m going to have to buy expensive stuff, not just the ones that are on sale.
I have a wedding coming up in 7 days. I need to act fast and get something that will not kill me. I need to avoid Hawaiian Tropic and stick to “California Baby” or something that doesn’t contain poison. I cannot believe Hawaiian Tropic would sell such bad products.  The concern is with Oxybenzone. They say Oxybenzone “MAY” mess up your life.
Heart Rate Monitoring
I never stop thinking about doing something creative, unique, and fun.
Last few years, I’ve been trying to describe how physically intensive wedding photography can be. But there was no intelligent way to show it, until now.
I started to wear a very sophisticated heart rate monitor and a foot pod to the wedding. This system measures my heart rate, total calories burned, distant I walked, and more. It also prints out the data on various graphs.
Below is my activity data from the wedding I did at Redlands on June 28, 2008. I started to record when I got out of the car at the wedding site. I stopped recording when I got back to my car (to come home). The red line shows my heart rate. Blue line shows my walking speed.
Detail shown in gray table:
Calories burned: 2754
Average heart rate: 112 bpm
Maximum heart rate: 168bpm
Duration: 6 hours 19 minutes
Distant walked: 5.8 miles
* Temperature at Redlands: 90+ degrees
I am planning to keep monitoring my physical activities. I find this very entertaining at this moment. Here’s a link to my project:  Wedding Photographer’s Heart Rate Monitoring
heart rate monitor test at Redlands wedding
Wedding at Simi Valley – Hot
Sorry, I am too busy to keep up with my blog. I had three photography jobs this weekend, including two weddings. Heatwave is still the biggest news in Southern California. Today’s wedding was at Simi Valley. Look at the thermometer. It was hot.
Gunga Din, Bring water…
Above is my water supply I bring to every wedding during the Summer season.
With this; I can drink, wash my hand/face, cool down… it’s a life-savor. If I want to bring a soda, I make sure they do not contain caffeine (dehydrant). Caffeine will defeat the purpose of drinking water, because caffeine takes water out of your body (we call it dehydration).
John Park Saves the Day Again:
The bride was getting ready at the second floor suite at Grand Vista Hotel. I was taking photographs of the bride and the bridesmaids getting ready and having fun. They lost the groove when they realized that they didn’t have any bobby pins. The grooms mother was going to go downstairs to get the bobby pins. That’s when I produced my bobby pins for them. You see, I always carry some bobby pins and safety pins in my pocket. The bride also needed some safety pins as well. I wouldn’t say I “saved the day”. But I came in handy for sure. :) And we went on with the wedding.
Wedding at Ventura, beach photography
Good news: Web album for this wedding is open to public. Visit Wedding Album and see 422 “Proof Quality” images. This is my open book policy.  I don’t show you only a handfull of best of the best wedding photoraphs to you. But I show you over 400 raw images with no fancy fixes. Enjoy.
One word. HOT~!!
It was the hottest wedding day thus far. I was worried that bride and groom will sweat too much. I don’t know how they managed to keep clean and pretty. Also, I had somewhat challenging lighting situation during the formal photography session. I think wedding pictures came out just fine (look at below image).Â
Ventura Beach, Across the street from Ventura Fair Ground
In the beginning. Booked 2 weddings with 1 sales pitch:
There is a fun story on how I met this wedding customers.
I had a wedding last year (2007) at Wedgewood Banquet Center. I had a meeting with the bride and groom for that wedding at Starbucks Coffee in Ventura. As I was getting ready to make a sales pitch, a couple walked in and recognized my wedding prospects. They turned out to be close friends and neighbors. They were planning to get married next year (2008).  I invited them to join us for my presentation on wedding photography. They set down along with my customers. I made a sales pitch to two couples. And I booked two weddings. So far, this is the only incident where I scored two weddings with one presentation.Â
 
 
 
Never too Hot for wedding:
One requirement of being a Wedding photographer is a good physical condition. Today was the perfect example of how you should keep in shape. It was a very hot day. As soon as I got out of my car I started to sweat. The whole city was baking. From that point, my job went on for 8 more hours. I wore Sunscreen lotion. I had my supply of cold water. I was also wearing a heart rate monitor that I wear when I workout. I thought it would be fun to monitor my heart rate & calories burnt.
It was a Catholic wedding at “Our Lady of the Assumption” in Ventura. The priest was very nice. I was allowed to use flash all I wanted. You see, flash photography is usually not allowed in Catholic weddings. Some catholic priests would forbid any kind of photography during the wedding ceremony. The wedding was very impressive with about 200 guests and the Mariachi band playing loud. By the way, I know this Mariachi band. We worked together at number of weddings. This was a Spanish wedding ceremony.
After the wedding ceremony & the usual hugging session, we headed out to Ventura Fair Ground. We all parked at Ventura Fairground parking lot and walked across the street to the beach. The Sun was so intense that taking photographs under the full Sunlight was not ideal. Everyone would squint. Also, people would sweat bullets under this weather. With this kind of weather, some people become hard to manage (especially the young ones).  So, I located tiny patches of shades under the palm trees. I setup the remote flash system there.  Setting up lighting system was a little tricky. It’s somewhat technical to explain.. all that matters is that I know customers will like the results.
The bride had some specific posed shots in her list. We took care of all her list first than I took charge. Then we moved onto some couple shots. I did all I can do to keep the bride and groom in the shade. Despite the temperature the bride and groom looked very fresh. Soon, we were ready for grand entrance.
During the reception, I begged the bride and groom for “One last pose for 1 minute”. And I photographed that Fish Truck shot.
Ventura Fair Ground:
Ventura Fairground has a lot of halls to rent. Today’s bride and groom rented Santa Rosa Hall, but there are more wedding halls at Ventura Fairground. Ventura Fairground is located right by the beach. Also, you get an ample parking space. Wedding guests can park their cars at the parking lot and walk across the street for formal wedding photography session on the beach. The beach has a sandy area as well as grassy area with a lot of palm trees.
Burned 5100 Calories?:
My heart rate monitor measured that I burned 5100 calories in 8 hours. Considering most people burn 2500 calories in 24 hours, you can see how active I was. It was indeed a very physical day. Most people just don’t realize how much work it is.
On the second thought. I think 5100 calories is too much. I cannot trust this heart rate monitor. I shall purchase a better heart rate monitor for future wedding photography use.Â
Our Lady of the Assumption
3175 Telegraph Rd., Ventura 93003
Ventura Fair Ground
10 W. Harbor Blvd, Ventura, CA 93001
Adoption Photography
Adoption Photography
(My first adoption photography job)
The client contacted me for adoption photography at Ventura County Juvenile Courthouse in Oxnard.  They were finalizing an adoption of a baby boy. The adoption finalization was scheduled for Friday 1:30pm.  I have never done an adoption photography before so I was looking forward to this job. Some of my friends also showed special interest on adoption process in Ventura County. They wanted to know what the adoption process was like.
County of Ventura Juvenile Courthouse – where adoption ceremony took place
Everyone arrived at the courthouse plenty early. We took care of the formal photography before we went inside. I looked everywhere for possible formal photography location. I also asked people who worked there at the courthouse. The only suitable location for formal photography was the front lawn with the Courthouse as a background. The baby was very cute, he had his mother’s hair. He was already fitting right in with the family. He was demanding his father to stand up while holding him. So the father had to stand up during the adoption finalization process (cute).
Adoption Photography – Formal Session
Above Picture: Photography wise my job was straight forward – “Deal with the situation.” It was very hot, over 90 degrees at Oxnard, and the Sun was piercing my skin.  Heatwave was the top news in Southern California. I told everyone to stay in the shade while I was setting up the light. The only existing “small” shade around the Courthouse was at the entrance of the building (shown left side of the picture). The flash had to be strong in order to get rid of the deep shadows on the faces. A wireless flash was setup manually with a light-meter. White balance was adjusted on camera, so above image is pretty much straight out from camera. It may look simple, but above image was highly technical.
Soon the ceremony (court process) began. The whole process was quick. The judge was very funny. After signing some papers everything was complete.  The Judge gave the baby and his sister candies and toys. I took the group pictures with the judge as well. Then we went go to a different office to take care of some more paperwork. The entire event took about 2 hours.
Web album was completed within 24 hours for the client to review.
*Â It was REALLY hot today.
Ventura County Juvenile Court
4353 Vineyard Ave. Oxnard, CA 93036Â
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