2009-9-27 Attending one of my best friends' wedding | Garden Court Hotel Palo Alto

Too busy too busy, I have been asking myself to blog about this special August wedding asap. I have attended one of my my best friends Ellie and Eric's wedding last month in Palo Alto Garden Court Vincci Hotel . I met Ellie (half Japanese, half Italian) when we went to business school back in 2003 for my MBA. We are good friends ever since. I still remember 5-6 years ago, when Ellie looked at my travel pictures, she said "Chung , I think you should be a photographer !". Well, I am now :P Life is fun , Life is exciting !

I'm very glad to be able to help my great friends Ellie and Eric to capture their wedding day, this meant a lot to me too. I originally told Ellie I'm not going to photograph her and Eric's wedding as I really want to totally participate and enjoy their wedding day, and I said I'm only going to help her on the outdoor portrait part, and just shooting here and there. I think the highlight slideshow below can pretty much summarize the whole day :)



Highlight Slideshow : <<<<<<


This is one of Ellie parent's favorite pictures. Ellie's whole family getting ready before she walked down the aisle.


Ellie doesn't need any fancy expensive wedding dress to make her look pretty. She looks simply elegant with this evening gown.

















One of my favorite pic of the day




Thank you for my assistant of the day , Mari ( Ellie's sister ) helping me to do some test shots. She has a great sense of style, is it because she is a stylist or is it just because she is from Italy ???

2009-9-13 Martha's Vineyard Destination Wedding (Sneak Preview) | Massachusetts

Alright, you have seen some of the rehearsal day images of Heather and Tom's wedding in the last blog post, what an awesome location to have a wedding in Martha's Vineyard Massachusetts. Lets see more images of this beautiful destination wedding.

I spent whole 2 days with Heather & Tom , as well as their families and friends in this island ( the 3rd day was my own vacation day, hehe :) , everyone treated me and my 2nd shooter very well and I love clients like Heather and Tom who showed total trust of our work flow and our creativity. Is it much more work for us to shoot destination weddings ? Well, honestly, YES, all the preparation work, the travel, the portrait locations scouting, but I love what I am doing, I love to shoot in locations totally new to me, I am so inspired by all the new things I see. The whole 3 days trip in this beautiful island was definitely a treat to myself and I love the New England flavor. The recemony was at a private property and the reception was at the Beach Plum Inn. The Portrait session we shot part of it at a private beach - Lucy Vincent Beach near the Beach Plum Inn.

Here I also included a sneak peek slideshow I emailed them 3 days after the wedding while they were in their honeymoon in Maui.

Sneak Peek slideshow (wedding day): <<<<<<

Sneak Peek slideshow (rehearsal): <<<<<<


It was my first time to shoot the brides' preparation outdoor :)
















Yay, heading to the beach for some portrait after the ceremony.






Thanks for my 2nd shooter Garvin got this shot for me shooting at the beach.

















Heather and Tom's parents treated me very well I have to make sure I got some good portrait for them :)


Bonfire after the reception.

2009-9-8 Just flew back from the Martha's Vineyard destination wedding shoot

AWESOME TRIP !!!!

Just came back from a 3 days trip from Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. I was so excited to be part of Heather and Tom's wedding in this beautiful island on east coast. I shot Heather's Sister Joanne's wedding last year in Palo Alto and Heather was the bridesmaid and I couldn't wait to photograph her wedding and meet Joanne and Todd again.

It was a long trip for me and my 2nd shooter flew from SF , but the experience was just amazing.I and my 2nd shooter flew took the red eye flight depart from SFO airport at about 11:30pm Friday night and arrived Boston Logan airport Saturday morning at 7:30am ( ZZZZZZzz it was 4:30am SF time ZZzzZZzz ). Then we took a 1.5 hrs ride from the airport to catch the 45mins ferry ride from Woodhole to the Martha's vineyard. Saturday was the rehearsal dinner and the wedding was on Sunday. I have a lot of images to share with you, let me post some images I took in the rehearsal dinner first and will post some more wedding day images in the next post. Guest what we have in the rehearsal dinner ? Yes, a super nice Lobster dinner everyone loved it !


On the ferry to the Vineyard from Woodhole





My destination wedding shoot gear


At the Rehearsal




At the rehearsal dinner


I like my clients serve me well ! ( e.g Good food :P )

2009-9-3 Heading Martha's Vineyard (Massachusetts) this weekend for a wedding Shoot

While I'm still recovering from the east coast Rhode Island wedding shoot 2 weeks ago for Jessica & Cory, I'm again packing my gear for a Martha's Vineyard wedding this labor day weekend in Massachusetts for Heather and Tom. It is definitely going to be a gorgeous wedding in this beautiful place. I 'm leaving Friday night from San Francisco and coming back Monday. Stay Tuned for some awesome images !!
I also have my videographer with me this time and we'll make a behind the scene video promo !! So Excited !!!

something about Martha's Vineyard....

Martha's Vineyard (including the smaller Chappaquiddick Island) is an island off the south of Cape Cod in New England. The islands both forming a part of the Outer Lands region.

Often called just "the Vineyard," the island is the 58th largest island in the United States, and the third largest on the East Coast of the United States.

It is located in the state of Massachusetts, in Dukes County. The island is primarily known as a summer colony, and is accessible only by boat and by air. Nevertheless, its year-round population has grown considerably since the 1960s. A study by the Martha's Vineyard Commission found that the cost of living on the island is 60 percent higher than the national average and housing prices are 96 percent higher.

2009-9-1 Crystel & Juan's wedding at the Saint Ignatius Church | San Francisco

August , for me was the busiest month in this year, photographing five weddings were pretty exhausted, but totally rewarding to me. Here is the wedding I shot for Crystel and Juan on August 8. Ceremony at the Saint Ignatius Church in University of San Francisco. The reception was held at the Westin Hotel near the San Francisco Airport.
It was a fun day for me to work for Crystel and Juan, they are awesome and Crystel looks so elegant !!!!

I want to make every of my bride look their best on probably their most important day in their life and help to make the atmosphere FUN. I want all of them to feel hiring me was not ONLY for the creative images, but the whole experience that the brides and the grooms will talk about for their whole life.

In this wedding, I was also excited to know that I had the chance to work with Matthieu of MVideoM , also Annie of Annie Siu Floral and Events , Great Team !!!

Here is the highlight slideshow : <<<<<<

Here is the email I got from Crystel and Juan right after I released the sneak peek slideshow to them ..... :) THANK YOU SO MUCH CRYSTEL & JUAN