Washing DC

I also included some friends from the party, a sleeping baby, Lucky the dog, Tuan goofing off,  and some behind the scenes of in preparation, the reception games and the bride and groom crossing of the threshold. A special photo session of the cute couple: Steve and Anna is also in this set.
Overall this was a truly entertaining event. Enjoy!

Congratulations and much love to Karen and Kenneth!

(Click the image below for the full screen album)

[seo_gallery id="648" view="fullscreen" ]

Weddings take lots of time and project management as well as a good support staff for each role: wedding coordinator, the make up artists, photographers, musicians, religious ceremony personal, decor staff, hotel hospitality staff and catering staff, to various other vendors involved. Shooting this wedding as a guest photographer was fun, however it proved to be take a lot of effort and passion to create such beautiful memories.

The WaterFront Hilton was beautiful and the concierge helped me contact the brides ready room.  In addition, decoration team (Nancy Guan) helped me contact to Karen’s primary support team’s (Karen’s Mom and bridesmaids) cell. Karen’s Mom was amazing and got me the location and info quickly to meet up with bride and wedding coordinator, later during the event she also helped host the family shoot after the wedding.

The make up artists were  amazing, when I arrived at 7:10 AM, the two make up artists (MUA) were already working on the bride and maid of honor. The two MUA made beautiful women look even more accented with beauty, especially for photography.

With most productions I needed to rely on the April Cenora’s (wedding coordinator) agenda for a road map and timing. Likewise, I never wanted to be in the primary photographers way or shot. Jeff Yoo’s team was friendly and did many interesting posing and angle shots. I would love to see their work when they post team. Most of my shots were from afar using my flexible EF-S 15-85 mm zoom lens or a 50 mm lens.  I tried to get different shots from the primary photographer other than shooting the bride and groom, such as the lovely bridesmaids, maid of honor, wedding details, guests, people, children, and overall ambiance.

I had a chance to talk with Mike Gonzo the music DJ guy, he was pretty cool with the mixers and play lists. I applaud him for playing a nice group Cha-cha dance song during the reception. It really motivated the crowd to start dancing.  My kudos to Karen and Ken in finding a very hip religious Father for the wedding ceremony who was able to toss a joke out every so often the made the audience laugh.

I loved the photo booth idea. It gave the guests a take home souvenir as well as a guest list photo book for the event! Very smart and hip! Me and my friends had a blast with that photo booth. Another excellent idea was the chocolate fountain with fresh fruit! Yum!
Talking about food, the food was buffet surf and turf style + sushi. Cooked well and tasted great. Double YUM!
The table details and decorations for the chapel were simple and elegant.

Overall I was really glad I was a guest shooter at Karen’s wedding. It was a 7AM to 7 PM event which for the experience, new found friendships, and overall excitement factor brought everything home to things I enjoy doing.   Please enjoy the photos of the support teams, see the gallery below.

[seo_gallery id="600" size="medium"]

Click the image below to start full screen slide show.

[seo_gallery id="538" view="fullscreen"]

I was glad I was able to make it to the LA Artwalk as I missed it the last time. It was an eventful evening filled with a couple of protests, contemporary art, good laughs, food trucks, and hippos.  I was going to meetup with a group of photo friends and got there too early and saw a protest with the Gas Company.  About 1 hour later I met my friends and we had a quick meet and greet before setting off to a interesting night of exploring LA’s new contemporary art.  The entire event was fascinating, however it was not the art or music that caught our eye, it was the 1920s-1970s architecture of the buildings and decor. People watching was also very good. The array of people ranged from the sleeping homeless, metro dwellers, students, flashy people, vendors, artists focused on their artwork and art performance…and the two hippos at one exhibit. Here was what I experienced:

[Show as slideshow]

1234►

]]> http://sterlingwong.com/2011/10/la-artwalk-nightlife-art-and-hippos/feed/ 0 http://sterlingwong.com/2011/10/first-time-photographing-dogs-and-cats-for-adoption/ http://sterlingwong.com/2011/10/first-time-photographing-dogs-and-cats-for-adoption/#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:28:53 +0000 Sterling Wong http://sterlingwong.photographyblogsites.com/?p=373

 I had an interesting opportunity to help out my local animal shelter this past Sunday. I normally enjoy my time walking the dogs and getting the exercise to relax, however I figure I use my skill set to help the furry friends get adopted.
Normally the dogs and cats I take photos of  are of my friends or family, located at their home. Photographing dogs and cats, who didn’t know me, was an experience!

It was good to shadow the lead photographer get a better understanding of the routine and process. My assignment was profile, portrait, and side body profile shots. After assisting with a photo shoot for the local animal shelter, I realize coordinating animals and the lighting correctly is key.

The animals at the shelter were great to work with. Capturing the images required matching the subjects energy levels especially action shots. For calmer shots, catching them while they are almost done walking was a good time.

Generally, a fast lens was not really necessary during the day light, so a versatile zoom kit lens will do. I noticed I was shooting from 50-85 mm range from afar to decrease wide angle distortion, retain sharpness, and visually cropped in camera. Shooting at near eye level or lower was looked the best in my opinion.

For indoor photographs of the cute cats, I had to use a 50mm f/1.8 fast lens to shoot in low light with out flash. For my later shots, I used a flash and a 9 inch softbox hand held or bounced off the walls.

Speaking of bouncing off the walls. If you are interested in adopting a cuddly or cute furry friend, please drop by your local animal shelter or their website and adopt!

Its always good to volunteer to help the needed and less fortunate. While you are visiting a humane society, look out for ways you can help by volunteering: dog walking, socialization, etc.

Or you can visit my local animal shelter, and out more about these furry friends. find more information at www.sgvhumane.org.

Thanks for reading!

-Sterling

Sparkle of the fence., a photo by Sterling Wong on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
There is beauty in everything in life, even a fence detail.

Squirrel! , a photo by Sterling Wong on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I heard a strange animal chirp today and found that it came from a squirrel.

Egg and Toast – swong10k-2987, a photo by Sterling Wong on Flickr.

I liked the morning toast and fried egg with the morning window light.