Thursday, July 31, 2008

I GOT KISSED!!!

Ah yes, it was back in the 7th grade, spring. "Like" was in the air, and the lucky girl was... WHOA! Wait, wrong story! Sorry!

What I mean to say is that I received my first Kiss wedding book! Hooray!!! It's my first album, and I'm so impressed by the quality and build of it. Kudos go out to the gang at Kiss Wedding Albums for doing such a fantastic job. You guys ARE rock stars!

This album is for Michelle and Rene, and I am so eager to get it to them for them to keep and share with future generations, particularly since Michelle is due pretty soon! I am honored to have been that person who photographed their wedding for their offspring to experience and enjoy. Thanks again guys.

Okay, and now for the Kiss Album!!!


You can tell I'm a geek cause I actually photographed the entire box opening.
Here it is after the bubble wrap and foam pop-corn.


It has that new leather scent and is so elegantly made!



Nice thick pages make for heirloom quality!


Seamless center folds make for nice transitions from spread to spread.
Oh, and this spread of Rene and his best buddy Jake is one of my all time favorites
(Jake is the four legged guy in the photo)


Ah, sweet, luscious, Italian Leather. Awesome. It's... Incredible.

I am so happy with Kiss that I'm certain to be using them again for my future albums. What's cool is that they also come in different colors! Not just black! Red, lime, etc. I'll post my sample albums in the future.

Now go get kissed!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Man, I GREW UP in the 80's!!!

Yes, as the title of this post implies, I was a child of the 80's. The 1980's. It was a decade of the Los Angeles Olympic games, my first real girlfriend, graduating from high school, getting a scooter to get around L.A. with, and heck, even starting college happened in the 80's for me. It was an era of Michael Jackson, MTV's birth, and Reaganomics. Ah, what a decade... I do miss those days. Gas was under a dollar, and my family and I were driving around in this cool orange Toyota Corolla. Memories, like the corners of my mind.

Okay, enough reminiscing for now.

The reason I bring all this up is because I was asked to photograph for my friend Jenny these past two days for the company she works for - Eventworks. They do major event planning, and they needed coverage of their events happening at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. These guys are top notch and spare no expense when it comes to events. Plus, not having worked with Jenny before, it was great to see her "large and in charge" - seriously! She was awesome to work for/with! You rock Jenny! And thanks for inviting me to the events :)

Here are three photos from Sunday and Monday's events. You'll see why I reminisced about the 80's in the second photo:

Living in L.A., we always get to see Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin hanging around at events. Don't these guys ever age?!!!


It's not even funny how big of a Prince fan I am, but to have him stand next to Cyndi Lauper and Boy George in full 80's gear?!!! That's BITCHIN' DUDE!!!


And as for Eventworks? This is how they ROLL!!!

Oh, and if the decorations weren't enough for Monday's event (not pictured) they even had Hall & Oates perform for the guests! I should have stayed and got my Hall and Oates on! Sadly I had to leave though cause I was hungry :(

Alrightee then. That was my weekend. You gotta love L.A. Now the countdown begins to Kevin and Tina's wedding on the 16th of August - woo hoo!!! Can you believe it's almost August already?

Have a great day everyone!

Friday, July 25, 2008

There's Disney, Lego, and NOW YOGURTLAND!

Okay, so you're thinking, "What does Disneyland, and Legoland have to do with Yogurtland?" Well, it is now one of my favorite, all time (nutritional) amusement places to visit! Last week, my friend Denise introduced me to Yogurtland, which basically is a yogurt shop where YOU get to fill these tiny buckets up with different flavors of yogurt. Everything from Taro, peach, Cookies and Cream, Peanut Butter, Blueberry, Mango, etc.! Talk about sweet tooth overload! Then after filling your little bucket up, you head over to the condiment bar where you pile on the nuts, toppings, fruit, etc. to you heart's content! From there, they weigh your new found creation, and after damages (about 4 bucks), you sit down and enjoy your heavenly yogurt bliss. And OH YES, it IS heavenly! Dare I say, I'm an addict? Thank goodness I went for that two hour bike ride yesterday afternoon, whew!

This all came about because our good friend Pam (my cover girl on my wedding website splash page) was in town visiting from Las Vegas. It was so nice to see her again and her little bun in the oven (yes, she's half way through her gestation - that sounds weird to me). We had dinner at one of our favorite Little Tokyo haunts, Mr. Ramen (SUPERB food BTW, plus the owner is one cool guy who loves reggae, so he has it in the background while you enjoy your meal). Joining us was our friends Lane and Akiko, and later in the evening, Contrary Mary herself, gearing up for yet another night of Karaoke with Helen (Some things never change).

So here's a few photos from last night, sans moi cause I'm always taking the photographs:


The Yogurtland Gang - (L-R) Akiko, Lane, Helen, and Contrary Mary, Denise.
See the buckets?


Helen and Denise in front of yogurt utopia - Yogurtland!
I love Helen's "cheese" expression


This is our friend Lane. I know he'll hate me for this, BUT, ladies, he's single, he CAN dance (quite well), is a budding chef, and has a steady job. Did I mention he's single? Plus, despite being Japanese-American, he looks Filipino (like moi) which is another plus!
He gets the paparazzi in his face a lot, hence the "please, no photos" expression and hand gestures.


So that's it for last night's outing! Well, that and a few hundred more unneeded calories, but I'm working out today, so hopefully, it'll be gone (yeah right).

I'm shooting tons this weekend BTW, just got hired by Eventworks.com to do a two day stint at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown L.A., along with a reception I'm shooting tomorrow! Good times!!!

Have a great weekend!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

A Few More From Kevin and Tina's E-Session

Before you scroll down to see the photos, I have to say that I've been shooting like a madman lately! Had an E-session shoot with Liz & Ed my favorite Trojan Alumni couple, shot at no other than the universe's greatest college ever built by man kind, the University of Southern California. These guys came prepared with props and ideas! What a couple!!! Good times indeed!

This upcoming weekend I'm shooting a post wedding reception in the valley. Northridge. The HOT valley. Just ask Contrary Mary. She knows. Should be fun.

Lastly, is it just me or do people NOT adhere to laws? I'm still seeing a whole bunch of people holding their cell phones to their ears while driving! Sucks!

Okay, on with the photos:


Didn't I tell you before that I think my brides are hot?


And when you combine them with the groom, they get even hotter?


Lastly, I attended a wedding recently of some good friends of ours, and noticed their photographers working the ceremony. There were ONLY two of them. As a photographer myself, we make it a point to find new and interesting angles to shoot, preferably, DIFFERENT angles to shoot from. I thought that this photo was kinda funny considering that they are both standing in the SAME place.

Hmm...

Okay, that was cruel. These guys did have some great images though. For the sake of protecting the innocent, I'm not mentioning their names nor my friends who got married and photographed by them. Sorry!

Have a SWELL Thursday everyone, and shouts out to Liz & Ed, Kevin & Tina, and just for the heck of it, Contrary Mary.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

The A-Team

For those of you "old" enough to have watched the popular 80's show "A-Team", this post isn't about that. It's about Cold Tofu's Advanced Team members who are our "development" squad, or perhaps even considered the"farm team" of improvisers still learning the tricks o' the trade. Confident and capable of course, but are still in the "A-Team" to help their progression to the core/associate group - the regular performing cast.

Last night I sat in with them to work on my fundamentals as well, plus, we had the ever so spectacular Tracy Burns guiding the class! She rocks! Seriously!!!

Before class, as always, I had my camera with me and decided to do a few shots of some of the members of the class. It's great having "acting" friends, cause they're not camera shy, plus, they live to be in front of the camera!


Here's the gang hanging out before class - (L-R) Jason, Mike, Shanon, Carin


Jason and Shannon (rear) getting their spook on with Carin (front)


This is Carin. And behind her is Shannon.

Jason.


Mike V.
(We have two three Mike's in Cold Tofu, and this is the only one with the last letter of the last name being "V")

I'll be attending the A-Team classes regularly, so I'll try and get some portraits of the other members so you guys can see them. Till then, go A-Team!!!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Kevin and Tina E-Session and no less than FIVE wed photogs!


I had an amazing time this past sunday photographing Kevin and Tina for their upcoming August wedding! Time literally flew by as we spent the afternoon in downtown L.A. getting these fun, cool images! By the time we looked at our watches, we had already spent three fun filled hours shooting in some of L.A.'s cool downtown spots. Below are a sampling of some of the day's "work" (not work really, but FUN!)


I absolutely LOVE this photo of Kev and Tina.



I wonder what kind of "work" Kevin does?



A "stolen" moment.


Gotta dig those stainless steel walls! Another stolen moment.


These two are really going places!


The sign says it all.


I think all my brides are HOT!


And my grooms aren't too shabby either!


Once again, the sign says it all. These guys are great!


This being L.A. and all, plus having some of the coolest buildings on the west coast, we literally ran into four other wedding photographers at some of the locations we shot at. They were all doing their thing, creating some pretty cool looking images. But then, while in the Little Tokyo area of downtown, low and behold, I ran into Joe Photo! How cool was that! He was shooting in downtown for the first time and enjoying the many unique places to shoot. Here's a photo of Joe, his couple, with Kevin and Tina. A shout out goes to Joe, great meeting you and your couple! You rock!

Joe's in the middle!


I really can't wait for their wedding in August. I'm certain it's going to be a blast! Thanks guys for the great time on sunday, and here's to you!


This is what it's all about isn't it?

Monday, July 7, 2008

Our Happy July 4th Eat-a-thon and other stuff

It's Monday and I've since recouperated from the nutritional debauchery that was July 4th. Ah, holiday food, isn't it great?

We spent the day at our friend Denise's house and "celebrated" with some of her friends. We didn't really celebrate the 4th per say, heck, we didn't even see any fireworks, but we gathered for this momentous day in U.S. history to eat and relax by her pool, just like any other American would.

I was even able to photograph Denise in her garden. Yes, the same garden she blogs about on her site. You have got to check out the photos below to see her in action.

And what's the fourth without a baby? Denise's friends Heather and Christopher brought their cute little baby Nathan to the party and I went snap happy with him. Who could resist!

After all the eating, and pool time (none for me thank you, I'm dark enough!), we hit her TV room and watched the olympic swimming trials and a 20/20 feature about how to be safe this summer. The one thing I really got from it was to wear sunscreen! One that covers both UVA and UVB rays, and has some zinc oxide in it. I wish I could link the program, but I can't. Basically just wear sunblock! I wore some today before going to the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center pool, and I looked scary! But then again, it'll keep me looking non-leather faced when I'm 93. Go figure.

And now, on with the photos!

Here's "Contrary Mary" in her blog famous garden giving Helen and me a tour!


Here's Denise with one of her non-deformed vegetables. Oh, and the dress she's wearing?
That's her special "gardening" outfit. It makes her blend in with her vegetables so she can kill off
any threatening insects. Hmm...


The eggplant on our left is from Denise's all organic garden. The one on our right is from her friend Rhonda's non-organic garden.
We enjoyed eating the one on the right.


Even when these two songbirds aren't out singing, they still EAT karaoke!
(click on the photo and read the label on the ice-cream)

Ah, this is what July 4th is all about...
(Note Rhonda's large egg plants in the upper right)


Helen trying to get some sun.


Why not end with this adorable photo of baby Nathan.
Aren't babies cute?

Well, it's back to no more holidays until Labor day. Hope you all enjoyed your three day weekend.

I'm shooting a lot in the upcoming weeks! Beginning with some movie unit stills for a project for IKEA, then two engagement sessions, and a reception! I can't wait! I'll post them up when I get a chance.

Till next time!