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I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Bui Brothers Photography Lighting Workshop, organize by Gustavo Fernandez of the SF East Bay Photography Meetup Group. The Bui Brothers  (Lan and Vu) are photographers and videographers specializing in online media and promotional photography from Southern California.  They are also the pioneers of video blogging. I feel extremely fortunate for having this opportunity learn some great lighting techniques from them since their upcoming WPPI lighting workshop is already sold out.

The workshop was at Sara and Chris’ house, where we had few GTGs that I organized in the past year. Gustavo (who’s also a former drug rep that went to my pharmacy before he became a full time photographer) got us four amazing models to practice different lighting techniques, which included natural lights and studio lights. BorrowLenses generously sponsored us with the studio lighting equipments, which includes some Prophoto lighting systems (very expensive and powerful) and some Canon speedlights (which is what I work with). This was the first time that I got to play with the Prophoto strobes.  I was super impressed with the power that it generated, but Lan and Vu also mentioned that the similar effects can be generated by two or more Canon speedlights. All I need is just an adapter so I can place two speedlights on one lightstand.

When Misty was trying to come up with places for her engagement session, she wanted her session to be glamorous and different, something with the ‘WOW’ factors that ordinary engagement photos don’t have. Having me as her photographer gave her the unique factor and her glamorous Vogue outfits made the entire session unbelievably fantastic. The first part of the engagement was mainly shot with natural lighting with some artificial lights to fill in some of the dark areas.  With the second part of the engagement session, I used mostly off camera lighting (if you’re familiar with my blog you know that I use it a lot).

We met up after Alamo Square at the Ferry Building down at the Embarcadero right after the sun went down.  Both Misty and Rey were cool to do some shots against some of the store fronts (which were closed by the time we got there) as well as in some of the walkways.  Setting up these glamorous shots was pretty cool and the look from people walking by was priceless.  They were probably thinking we were shooting an advertisement for Chanel or something.  Before it got too cold, we made the decision to go outside to the pier railing to get some shots with the Bay Bridge.  The cool thing was that when we turned around, the Ferry Building sign was on and it was a really cool backdrop too.  After shooting a little bit more inside since it was getting cold and windy outside, we wound up the session.

Thanks for Misty and Rey for this opportunity for me to photograph this glamorous engagement session, and thanks my husband Jeff for being a great assistant and holding the lightstand. I’m looking forward to photographing the wedding in September.

The last stop for Winnie and Ryan’s engagement session in San Francisco was at City Hall.  This was my first time to shoot in City Hall despite all of the other wedding and engagement sessions that I’ve done in San Francisco.  City Hall was so big, four floors which allowed us to get past all of the tourists that were roaming around.  Winnie and Ryan had some time to look around before I got there and they had some good ideas of places to take some photos.

Just to get away from the tourists, we started from the top and worked our way down.  There were some really cool doorways and areas in the hall that gave some great shots.  Winnie and Ryan were so fun to shoot with!  Ryan was smiling so much that it got infectious to everyone.  Winnie and Ryan kept smiling and giggling throughout the shoot and having fun.  One of the best shots was at the end of the engagement when we made our way back to the elevator that we saw at the start.  Even though everyone was getting a little tired at the end, they were still able to give me an awesome intimate session at the end.   Thanks again Winnie and Ryan for a great engagement session.  See you at your wedding!

On a quiet President’s Day I was lucky enough to shoot Misty and Reynaldo’s engagement session in San Francisco.  We all met up at the Asian Art Museum but with the holiday it was closed. The good thing though was that with all of the big buildings closed, we were able to get some great pictures at the front of City Hall.  Both Misty and Rey were a little bit nervous but after we started to take some pictures they started loosening up.  We took a small break at a local restaurant (Soluna) and it was really cool looking.  They were really nice to let us relax a bit with some drinks but to also use the bar and restaurant for some really nice shots.  Misty and Rey were so nice on letting me try some different and very seductive shots.

The sun was beginning to go down and I wanted to get some other shots over at Hayes Valley which was a few blocks away.  My husband told me about this place which has some really cute shops and restaurants.  Misty and Rey were starting to get a little cold but they were really good sports as we kept taking more shots.  Unfortunately the sun went down when we got to Alamo Square park.  They were both good sports on taking some photos but it was getting way too cold for them.

To be continued…