Storytelling Portrait

If you are looking for an unique location because you do not want your portraits to look as if your faces were photoshopped onto others' photos, I strongly suggest you to discuss with your partner and your photographer for an unique theme instead. Think about how your relationship is like, what you both love, and what is the most important for both of you. 

If you are busy and you don't have the time to prepare for a full set of props and costumes for your ideal theme, you can look at what you have at hand and come up with a simple storyline:

Visit our fanpage for more photos from this portrait session.

Summer: Trip to Asia

It's been awhile since we last posted on our blog. We have been away earlier this summer to visit Japan and Taiwan. Our schedule was tight, we were exhausted, but we had a lot of fun meeting people from different cultures. It is always refreshing hearing life stories from various people with diverse backgrounds.

This antique bike owner is a blade-sharpener 

Mengjia Longshan Temple

We quickly finished our beverages to pass our recyclable bottles to him.
He gently thanked us and neatly cleaned the garbage bins at the train station in Tainan.

Dragon Boat at Anping District in Tainan

Sakura Days Japan Fair 2012 - Tea Ceremony

If you are not an accountant working 24 hours to file taxes for clients, April has to be one of the best months in Vancouver! As the temperature became warmer, thousands of cherry (sakura) trees blossomed all over the city. We then know spring has arrived, and summer is nearby.

We had the opportunity to support the Japanese community by photographing for Sakura Days Japan Fair this year. It's a 2-day event with traditional Japanese performances, food, vendors, and demonstrations. 

One of my personal favourites, is the Tea Ceremony:

Although we can get Matcha (抹茶) at coffee shop easily and quickly, it should be prepared slowly and carefully. It requires a lot of of attention, wisdom, and patience to prepare an authentic bow of matcha. If you ever have a chance, I would recommend everyone to attend a Tea Ceremony. 

Fashion Portrait: Experiment of Lights

Although we are faithful believers of natural lights, we also enjoy experimenting with different lighting methods to create a wide variety of atmospheres/moods. When you hire a photographer, it is important to communicate with your photographer the tone of images you are looking for.

These are taken in one session with the model standing under the garage door one sunny afternoon:

natural light with wider aperture to overexpose the image

2(+) Canon speedlites

natural light with 3 reflector boards (white)

natural light with 3 reflector boards (white), model facing outside

Which style do you like the best?

Happy 2012 Dragon Year!

Wow, it's been awhile since we last updated our blog! We were occupied with other engagements that we did not get to maintain our blog the past few months.

Other than our photo sessions, we promise we will have at least one post each month to share with you interesting things that we stumble upon, be it a photography gadget, wedding idea, meaningful event, or a way to pamper ourselves.

If you have a facebook and/or twitter account(s), we encourage you to add our fanpage to your list to get the most current updates. We are still offering a 10% off on our packages for all our facebook fans!

We have scheduled to travel to Japan and Taiwan in a few months for portrait sessions and a wedding. If you wish to have portrait done in one of those two countries, you will be able to take advantage of only investing in our local (Vancouver) rate instead of paying for destination photo session expenses. Feel free to contact us to discuss for the possibility!

Vancouver Tourism: The Greater Vancouver Zoo

Living in Vancouver for over 15 years, I never really took advantage of how beautiful and interesting the province is. With all the natural disasters, riots, and wars going on around the world during the last 10 months, we finally realize that we will not always have the peace, resources, supports that we currently have.

Starting this summer, we will be taking trips to different places to record the world through our lenses.

The first road trip

We were heading toward Harrison Hot Springs last Wednesday, but we noticed the Greater Vancouver Zoo (Aldergrove, BC) when we were driving toward the highway. It is one of the places that we never had the opportunity took the time to visit, even though we knew its existence. As a result, we found the closest exit and drove back to the zoo.

Being in the busy city for too long, I am once again refreshed after returning back to the nature. I am so glad I went on the road trip!

Maternity Portrait: Brian & Joyce

Brian and Joyce had studied in Canada, but they met at work after they both moved to another country. They connected, attracted to each other, fell in love, and finally got married in January 2010. Since Joyce's parents still live in Vancouver, they decided to return to Vancouver so that Joyce's parents could take extra care of Joyce and Bianca the first month after the delivery.

Two weeks before Bianca was born, we had the maternity portrait session:

We were a bit concerned of the rainy weather we had those few weeks, but we were blessed with a beautiful sunny afternoon during our session!

Although it is a Chinese tradition for new moms to follow strict guidelines the first month for health and safety reasons, the guidelines are quite different between Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and Vietnam.

It is believed that the health of new mothers would be the weakest during the first one month after giving birth. As a result, mothers have to take special attention to things like what food to eat, what activities need to be avoided, and how much rest to take.

Ancient practices usually have their reasons behind. If you have never heard about the traditions of postpartum confinement, why not find a time to chat with your East Asian friends and see what you would discover!

To see more photographs from their maternity portrait, click here.