skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Wedding and reception at Wedgewood at Crystal Springs Golf Club in Burlingame.
I'm very grateful that past clients like Michelle and Bob who refer me to friends and family! Joanne and I met a few years ago when Michelle, her sister, was married - who incidentally now has a very cute baby girl nicknamed "Fancy" pictured below. When she gave me a call I was of course interested in photographing her wedding. It was nice seeing some familiar faces in the crowd again :D
Pulling a few strings got Joanne and Alan some private portrait time before the ceremony at the Pulgas Water Temple in Woodside. Its a wonderfully peaceful location that is secluded and well maintained. Perfect for more romantic imagery. Tip: plan your visit wisely because this place is only open until 4:30pm Monday though Saturday. They perform weddings there so weekends might not be the best time to go. Sundays, are off limits for that entire stretch of Canada Road.
Joanne and Alan hosted a wonderful event at Crystal Springs while keeping things low key. The bride arrived in a '55 Chevy with a large bouquet of incredible pink Peonies. Fog rolled in as the short and sweet ceremony ended. The gazebo area proved to be too breezy and cold for family formals so we grabbed a few frames of just the couple before they drove to Crystal Springs in their nicely restored Chevy Apache pickup (it possesses a most desirable growl).
During the toasts we were treated to a walk down memory lane by Alan's sister complete with large photographs. Check out a few of the shots below - hilarious!!! Alan and Joanne are currently on their honeymoon in Hawaii. Aloha!
Floral Arrangements: Rosedale Floral Design
Cake: Satura Cakes
Music: Shawn Storm
During a conversation last year Diana and Alex mentioned that Diana was going to bake her own wedding cake a few days before the event. This was a big deal for me - it's a pretty major component of their wedding tale. How could someone NOT capture this? I made sure I was there and if you follow this blog you may have seen some images when their wedding was posted. It was a beautiful multi-tiered cake.
Fast forward to Spring 2010 when Diana tells me the Bay Area newspapers (Bay Area News Group) are calling for DIY wedding cake stories. She submitted hers and the story ran yesterday, May 5th, in the Food and Wine section of the San Jose Mercury News, Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times, etc. Congratulations Diana and Alex and thank you for making me a part of this!
Check out the article for some terrific advice and a dash of humor. Here's a couple images that ran with the story as well as a picture of the final product.
. Intel Core i7 860 quad core processor
. ASUS P7P55D Deluxe motherboard
. 8GB OCZ DDR3 Dual Channel RAM
. 64-bit Windows 7 Pro OS
. Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5750 1GB VaporX graphics card
. six Western Digital Black 1TB hard drives (configured as a RAID 10)
. one Western Digital Blue 500GB hard drive
. Samsung Super WriteMaster 24x SATA Litescribe CD/DVD drive
. Thermaltake BlacX hard drive docking station
. Antec 900 enclosure
. Antec TruePower 650W power supply
>>> Total cost: $1900 (approx.)
The i7-860 processor is midrange these days and more than adequate for imaging work. Selecting a matching motherboard was easy but with the caveat that you must be sure the dual-channel RAM you buy is on the compatibility list. The GPU is again midrange and I went with the ATI because, according to my limited research, it supports a different LUT for each output. This allows me to run 2 monitors and calibrate them independently. The Sapphire VaporX version was chosen because it has also shown some superior cooling abilities which is a big plus. With everything being SATA getting the right power supply and enclosure with 8 drive bays was required, thus the Antec solution. Bonus, there are plenty of cooling fans in the enclosure.
Larger hard drives storing more data means a failure could wipe out a couple years of work. I went with a RAID to reduce the frequency of required backups. Intel's Matrix Storage is configured as 2 volumes (small and large) spanning 2 and 4 drives respectively. Since storage is so cheap, using a RAID 1 and RAID 10 is sensible and easier to maintain and rebuild in case of a drive failure.
After 2 days of moderate but sporadic effort, the system is ready and stable. One lesson learned, the Intel Matrix Storage Manager 8.9 is buggy and would periodically declare a drive failure in the RAID array when there was none. Upgrading to the Intel Rapid Storage Technology application solved that problem (free download). I'm also thankful that my Monaco Optix XR color calibration system continues to work on Windows 7. The DTP-94 (colorimeter aka puck), though not explicitly supported, works with the help of a Windows Vista 64-bit driver. No BSD experienced after installing the driver.
Lightroom 2 and Adobe CS4 are installed and the BlacX docking station helped migrate all my image files over. A test run rendering 700+ 1:1 full resolution images in Lightroom completed in well under an hour which was easily an overnight task on my old workstation. I'm happy :D
Hello wedding season, I am ready for you!
I met Judy and Eric at the Ritz Carlton Modern Bridal show last July. They are a fun and youthful pair that happened to meet half way around the world in Shanghai despite both being from California at the time!
Fast forward to early March. Great news! Battling the threat of rain all week, we got the go ahead the day before to expect an outdoor ceremony. The wedding party looked great and we couldn't have hoped for a better combination of cloud cover and lighting. The ceremony and photographs were completed just as it started to drizzle.
As the reception got underway, the bridesmaids and groomsmen performed a little number as Judy and Eric ran into the room. It was a great evening featuring classic Chinese wedding games, dress changes, a little nephew, a karaoke star, and a chocolate fountain. Now they are off to Taiwan for what will probably be another great party.
Floral Arrangements: DeYoung Flowers
Hair & Makeup: Sarah Chu
Cake: Bijan Bakery
Videographer: Van Hsieh (Ocean Blue)
Music: Turner Hayes (Elite Entertainment)
I have been busy and not posted in a while. However, it is difficult to ignore the utter devastation experienced in Haiti. This is one of the worst catastrophes to occur in the western hemisphere! In a poor country with 9 million people, at least one third now require assistance, at least 50,000 are estimated dead (a figure sure to rise), the capital is virtually flattened, 8 hospitals have closed, the nation has little ability to help itself, and this is just in the first few days (AP report). Haiti will require aid for years to come. After a couple of days of study this is what I've come up with.
Medical care will be in short supply. The studio will donate 10% of gross bookings for the next 3 months to the SendANurse.org. This newly formed group is California-based and has been established by the Registered Nurse Response Network to support volunteer nurses going to Haiti to assist in relief efforts.
From April to July, 10% will be donated to AmeriCares. This organization is uber-efficient and specializes in delivering medical aid to disaster areas. They are on the ground now preparing to receive an airlift and also plan an overland convoy from the Dominican Republic.
From July until December, 10% will be donated to the United Nations World Food Program. Specializing the feeding the world's hungry and undernourished, this global organization has already landed emergency food supplies from El Salvador and Panama. What is nice about this group is that they stay long after the disaster to support the rebuilding process, Haiti will need their services.
To evaluate a charity on your own, you can try Charity Navigator. They have an excellent and extensive ratings and review database which is accessible online. CNN has also listed several reputable need organizations here.
