Sneak Peak :: Jessica and Brandon :: East Village

A quick sneak peak at the gorgeous Jessica and Brandon – shot in the eclectic and colorful East Village. LOVED IT!!

I have 2 shoots coming up this weekend, so lots more posts to come!

 

Danielle and Nathan :: Engagement :: The Highline

Danielle and Nathan are the most charming couple ever. They met while abroad in Japan, their love crossed oceans abound and they now reside in Brooklyn, NY. We met up at the brand new Highline park overlooking the west side of New York City, stretching from Gansevoort street, and extending up until 23rd street. Future extensions of the park are scheduled for the near future, and if it’s anything like it is now, New York City is going to have the premier oasis overlooking the west side highway!

My inspiration for this shoot was Old School Summer in New York

Don’t they just take your breath away?

 

     

 

 

As we were walking around shooting, a ton of people were stopping to stare. I felt like paparazzi!

 

I guess you can’t help but be stared at when you are both this good-looking.

 

 

Love this next one! So romantic!

 

There was a covered area which had some pretty purple stained glass backdrops. I wonder what this place was at one time.

 

I thought a bit of dancing was in order

 

I thought Danielle’s colorful dress contrasted nicely with the industrial gray walls

     

 

This was a funny shot. They both brought mirrored sunglasses, and you can see my reflection in this one. Danielle made him take them off. =)

 

We exited the highline at Gansevoort street, and we snapped a few pictures around the cool Meatpacking district

 

 

     

 

 

A quick outfit change! I admire Nathan’s ability to wear long sleeves and a hat when it was a sweltering 85 degrees out. But he looked cool.

 

 

Love cobblestone streets!

   

 

A pit stop at El Faro restaurant

 

 

I saw this yellow wall, and although the light was a little harsh, I really wanted to get a shot there.

    

 

Love the next series

 

 

 

We came across a wall plastered with hearts. It was a bit too sunny but it was the perfect time to break out the mirrored sunglasses!

 

Ready, set, JUMP!

    

 

We ended with one last shot but the colorful apple sculpture.

 

Danielle and Nathan, I hope you had as much fun on the shoot as I did. You guys were great, and I can’t wait for your wedding in September!

Trouble is a friend…

I launced my new “kids” section on my website a few days ago, and it features a little girl named Sophie who is naughtiest girl I know. Sophie is my best friend, Kelly’s, daughter. At 19 months old, she’s quite small for her age but manages to pack a ton of energy into her tiny frame. For those of you who are my friend on Facebook, you’ll notice that I have tons of pictures of my little friend because I spend a LOT of time with her. Some of my relatives who recently joined Facebook even asked me if I had a daughter that I didn’t tell them about. Ha ha. Sophie and I are like BFFs. She knows I’ll rescue her from the confines of her stroller, chase her around shopping malls and stores to stop her from getting into trouble, which doesn’t always work. Regardless, she is still my favorite baby and I miss her when I am not with her!

Here are some pictures I took of Sophie last year when she was about 8 months old. She used to be so pudgy and cute, with rolls of fat everywhere, and check out those cheeks!!! Somehow within the last year she’s lost some of her fat, but is still just as cute. And she hasn’t lost those cheeks yet. They are just part of her now.

        

 

Here is one taken earlier this year in Central Park.

 

This past weekend I went to Hoboken, NJ to capture some images of Sophie and family. Kelly and I had thought about some cute ideas for Sophie, like tutus, lollipops, and having her run through some sprinklers in the park. We thought it would be so much fun and easy. We even purchased an elaborate tutu from the Disney store to complete our look. Needless to say, naughty Sophie had other ideas of what she wanted to do that day.

We started off at their apartment where I snapped a few pics of her while I chased her around the living room.

       

 

She has the cutest smile and laugh. She is actually laughing all the time. She especially likes to hit or pinch someone, and then she’ll laugh at it. She also likes to laugh if you trip or fall, or if you say “ouch!”  What a bully!

 

Check out the dimples!

 

I shot the above in black and white, well, because I thought it’ll be fun. But most of the rest are in color. I especially like the next one because she’s looking right at me. And to get toddlers to pause for a moment, while you try and focus to get the shot, is not an easy task, especially with Sophie who runs around a mile a minute.

 

So we went outside to take some pictures in the back yard

     

 

I got Sophie a colorful large lollipop to use during the shoot. She started to eat it like a sandwich and then decided she didn’t want it anymore, so she gave it to her mommy. Oh well, so much for the lollipop!

 

Her mommy had to end up holding it in the family picture.

 

I managed to maybe get 2 family pictures before Sophie decided she didn’t want to part of them and stormed off. We decided to change her into her tutu, but she threw a fit too.

      

 

Apparently she just wanted to be naked. No matter what cute outfit we dangled in front of her, she refused to wear it. We even tried to get her to wear her flower girl dress again, which she loved, but to no avail. Naked it is.

    

 

We went back up to the apartment. She still didn’t want to wear clothes. Not even a cute bikini. She pretty much only wore her crocs and a diaper.

 

 

We finally got her to wear underwear

 

In the end, we never got to take pictures in the park because Sophie fell asleep, but we did get to go eat some yummy German food. Sophie had a lot of fun climbing the tables in the restaurant, and eating nothing but rolls and chips, her favorite foods.

Here she is having fun with her daddy, Honyee

 

And Mommy

     

 

Doesn’t she have the cheekiest smile??

Guess we will have to try the tutu pictures some other day Sophie, but thanks for giving Auntie Su-Lynn a workout!

Note: You can view more pics of Sophie on my website under the kids section.

Laura and James :: Engagement :: Central Park, NYC

Laura contacted me through weddingbee, and even though her and her fiance James were  having a destination wedding in Hawaii in October, they wanted to do some romantic engagement pics in their home base, New York City!!!!

We shot in Central Park and I had a great time. I brought along my second shooter, Cindy, who is also busy building up her portfolio. Even though it was the first time meeting Laura and James in person, I felt we had a lot in common, and it made for a great shoot. I think we ended up shooting for 2.5 hours which was a record in my book! We got carried away because we were having so much fun. I had a wonderful time capturing their love for each other. I was inspired, with all the greenery in Central Park, to create some sort of “enchanted garden” theme with a modern twist.

Now onto some of my favorites!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love the backlight shot here.

   

 

 

 

 

 

There’s just a few for now, but I have plenty more on my Featured galleries under Laura and James. Enjoy!

Sneak Peak :: Danielle and Nathan :: Engagement, NYC

I will post the rest of Laura and Jame’s engagement soon, but here’s a sneak peak at Danielle and Nathan’s engagement session today, which was shot on the Highline and Meatpacking District. They were so much fun to photograph because they had some wonderful yet playful expressions and we had a great time together.

Sneak Peak :: Laura and James – Engagement :: Central Park, NYC

Myself and Cindy shot the lovely Laura and James in Central Park, New York. We walked all around the park, and shot in some beautiful light. I can’t wait to post the rest of the pics, but for now here’s a sneak peak.

 

Thanks to Cindy for second shooting with me! I am sure she will post some teasers as well.

Digitial Photo Academy Photowalk

On Sunday, June 28, I joined a few dozen avid photographers on a Photowalk sponcer by Digital Photo Academy, Trek Tech, makers of sleek tripods for the active photographer, and Baked by Melissa, a small bakery that specializes in mini, pop-in-your-mouth cupcakes deliciously decorated with icing and other yummy things.

Photowalks are just gatherings of professional and non-professional photographers to come together, walk around parts of NYC, and photograph interesting subjects, while talking shop and sharing ideas. Part of this photowalk’s appeal was that it included a contest for the best general photograph, as well as the best photograph that includes at least one Baked by Melissa cupcake. The winner gets a couple hundred dollars, and 100 cupcakes!! Anyways here are my entries into both categories. You are allowed up to 10 total. I didn’t do too much post processing because I wasn’t sure how much we were allowed to alter them but I did do some work to spice up the pics. =)

The following were taken on our first leg of the walk, in Soho. We walked down there to pick up our 6 complimentary cupcakes and began photographing them all over the place. I was surprised how tiny the cupcakes were at first. I ate about 2 of them before I realized I was eating my subjects. Whoops. I was really tired that day! I had shot the Bridal Lounge on Friday, and Angela and Ed’s shoot on Saturday, so by Sunday, I was pretty zapped. Plus, the photowalk started at 9am, which is pretty early for me. *yawn*

Here’s the raunchiest photo I took with a red velvet cupcake (my favorite)

 

I saw this cool stoop in front of the building and the little circles were the same size as the cupcakes.

 

A pretty simple composition. I lost the brightly colored red velvet cupcake. It had an accident on the middle of the road. =(

 

The chocolate and vanilla ones were just as yummy I must say

 

Emergency center. Call police. Sit back and enjoy cupcake as you wait for response.

 

Breakfast of champions

 

We broke for lunch back at the Academy, where I managed to wrangle another red velvet cupcake for this shot

 

Our second leg of the walk took us to Washington Square Park and Union Square. I took all of these at Washington Square Park. I have an obsession with round things, so tried to find things that were, well, round, but photographed with interesting perspectives.

 

Tires on a John Deere

 

Park benches

 

And the last image was just a simple one of a flower. There were such pretty blooms in Washington Square Park!

 

Hopefully one of my pics will win me some cupcakes. The cash prize would be great too, heheh.

Stay tuned for a sneak peak at Laura and Jame’s engagement session in Central Park. Post coming soon.

Angela and Ed :: Engagement :: Tribeca, NYC

Angela is the little sister of my “little sis” Cindy. That’s “little sis” of my sorority, Sigma Kappa! So I guess that means we’re all family! We decided on a fun urban shoot down in Tribeca, and finished off at the beautiful Hudson River Park. Angela and Ed were so cute together, you can totally see how much they are in love. Here are some of my favorite images from the shoot.

Aren’t they just so ridiculously good-looking?

                   

 

I like how this looks like am photographing a quite moment between the two of them:

 

Tribeca has some beautiful cobblestone streets which added a vintage feel to the images below. The best part about shooting in this area on weekends is that it’s not as packed as Central Park, Time Square and other popular sites so we were often alone in most areas!

                   

                     

 

There were some wrought-iron cafe tables and chairs outside of Chanterelle, a landmark 5-star New York restaurant which serves delicious French cuisine. I love the romantic curtains in the window.

                   

 

We headed over to Bubby’s, a popular dining spot serving great southern food and delicious pie. My favorite is the sour cherry pie! Bubby’s has some really cute pastel benches outside so I couldn’t resist a few shots here.

                   

 

Love the next two because it shows how fun they are. They went from romantic and serious to playful and silly so quickly!

                   

 

We stopped off at the Franklin street subway station for some quintissential NYC subway shots.

                   

                   

 

Some fun street scenes:

                   

                    

                   

 

Loved to colorful flowers at the corner deli!

 

I really like shooting at fire stations. The bright red doors and walls are so much fun!

                   

 

I found this quaint little spot right before you hit the west side highway. There are some beautiful brownstones and tree lined corners. It didn’t feel like we were in NYC, we felt like we were in some tiny seaside village.

                   

                   

 

We finished in Hudson River Park, which was renovated over the years, so it’s become a beautiful place to hang out and take pictures! As we were walking over, it started to rain! We weren’t sure whether to head for shelter or continue on. Luckily Cindy brought her umbrella so we asked to borrow it!

                   

 

It stopped raining soon after so we were able to continue on. The weather in NYC for the past month has been dreadful: hot, sunny, then rain, wind, clouds and back to sun in a span of 15 minutes!

 

Love this next one! I was trying to acheive a very modern shot with the clouds in the background. Luckily the crazy weather provided me with some interesting overcast days.

                   

                   

 

Love the next two as well:

 

Angela and Ed, thank you for being such great models! Thanks again for the yummy dinner at Bubby’s. LOVED the pie. Congrats on your engagement!

You can view more pictures of Angela and Ed on my website under “featured” galleries!

Bridal Louge presented by By Your Side Events

Last Friday, I was invited to photograph a chic bridal and make-up soiree presented by By Your Side Events, a team of event and wedding planning specialists based in NYC and Atlanta, GA. It was a great way for people to meet some great people in the wedding industry,  including makeup artists, photographers (me!), DJs, and specialty vendors. The event was held at Salon Fringe, a newly opened salon in Amityville, Long Island. I braved the looong Friday evening traffic out to Long Island, and luckily I made it in time, as it was a lot of fun! Now on to some pictures from the night:

This is the front of Salon Fringe, which was decorated with posh boudouir-esque furniture.

 

Here are some details from the night:

                    

 

 

                   

 

 

 

Some yummy florals always make events look goooooood:

 

Food and champagne doesn’t hurt either!

           

 

Guests arriving and signing in

 

A bride was getting her hair done at Salon Fringe, I think it was a hair trial. It looked great! Love the messy grecian look, I am inspired to do that for my hair if I am ever in a wedding party again.

                   

 

The lovely Sharon Gray had some amazing pieces of jewelry for sale. She also does custom pieces for bridal parties and weddings, gifts, etc. and can work with any price points, which is great. I loved some of her big flower cocktail rings.

                   

 

 

 

Some details from the makeup area:

                   

                   

 

Here’s Mia from Bridal Lounge at work. Mia specializes in making you look great on your big day. She gave mini makeovers to attendees all night, and they looked great. She really knows how to accent your best features with the best colors.  A lot of attendees were very happy with their looks!

                   

                   

 

The finished results: classic and polished yet sexy!!

                   

 

                   

 

Eating the food! Yummy. There was a great spread of crudite, fruits, cheeses, charcuterie, and candy!

 

Here’s the event as it was just getting started, you can see my little vendor display right in the middle of the room! I had a picture frame with some prints, my business cards from MOO, and an album of recent work.

                    

 

I like how we used the seats with the hoods above them. It was so cute.

 

 

Having a drink and checking out the pretty jewelry

 

My Treasure, Your Pleasure, gave a rompy demonstration with some items I can’t mention on this G-rated blog. It was a big hit with the girls. They even have pole dancing classes you can take. They also do Bachelorette parties and showers.

 

There were games and prizes too during the presentation. Everyone had a good laugh at some of the games.

 

On a side note, this was the dramatic sky outside, right before it poured. Isn’t it nuts??

 

Thanks Rashida and Elizabeth of By Your Side Events for inviting me!

Here’s a list of vendors:

Organizers: Rashida & Elizabeth from By Your Side Events

DJ: High Voltage Sound

Makeup/Hair: Mia from Bridal Lounge

Jewelry: Sharon Gary

Presentation: Adrienne and Sharon from My Treasure Your Pleasure

Photographed by Moi

Happy 4th of July!

This picture of Joanne and Terrence really evokes the spirit of the 4th of July. Wonder if the flags have anything to do with it LOL. Me and the hubs are gearing up to have a clambake of our own then watch the fireworks on top of our building’s rooftop. So glad the fireworks are on the Hudson this year! You can view more of their e-session on my website.