Garylene

I have heard so much about her from my sister Daina on how fabulous Garylene was but I never really knew how fabulous she was until I finally got to meet her. Up until our shoot we were only in contact via email and chat but already her bubbly personality shown through (you can't hide fab behind text and a screen).

I can see why she is my sister's BFF. Her laughter and wonderful personality can't help but make you smile and feel at ease. Gare brought along her friend (who was equally as enjoyable and who made a really good prop hehe). We couldn’t help but laugh and make fun of ourselves the entire time. The wind kept attacking her hair and I kept fussing with my odd clothing ensemble (don’t ask), thank God I don’t have photos of myself.

Afterwards I had invited them along to the Scott Kelby’s World Wide Photo Walk. (If you can find me I’m hiding behind Gare). After walking for a few hours in North Beach we decided to meet up with Daina at my place to rest our puppies and play a serious game of Settlers of Catan!

Like all things that are good they have to come to an end. Sadly Gare is leaving us for law school back east (my sister is already struggling to come to terms with it). She will be terribly missed and I’m seriously jealous of East Coasters now.

I’m so glad though that I got a chance to meet such a wonderful person. I think everyone needs a Garylene in their lives to make it just a bit brighter and full of laughter.

I Dream in color

If you ask Mitch he will tell you that my dreams are pretty vivid. I'll wake up and before I even throw off the covers I'll start yapping away about what I dreamt. And he (while half asleep) would mumble 'yes hon', 'oh really', 'wow', while not actually listening to me.

One of the reasons why I do this is so I can actually remember what I dreamt about (only because it was so cool)! Last night was one of them!

I’ll skip the super hero part and my special flying abilities and go right into the Nikon part of my dream.

So I'm walking (err flying)down a street to go home when I see a parade of little children (very cute kids too)on these tiny tiny miniature real life horses riding down the street. Follwing them closely was a troop of photographers and they ALL had Nikons (I’m a Canon girl). The back of their photographers vest (yes VEST) said “The Children’s Place” (which is real life store that sells kids clothing but in my dream it was a photography company).

So I slowly walk up to one of the photographers and with my back turned to him (all stealth like and through my teeth) I mumbled “do all of your photographers only shoot with Nikons?”.

He then replies, without turning around, “No Meg we don’t all just shoot with Nikons”.

I was shocked and cried “How did you know my name!”. He said I had been standing there for so long he figured it out (as if I had a 'Meg' written in huge letters on my back or something). He then handed me a card and asked me if I wanted to work for them. I said I’d think about it and continued on my way home which happened to be at the end of the next street (somehow in my dream I knew this). Now here is where it gets bizarre.

So the Nikon guy asks in amazement “Do you live down this street? Are you sure?”. I was puzzled why he’d ask me until I turned the corner. It was like walking into a fairyland. All the houses were mansions with gigantic gardens and fountains in their front lawn. I could have sworn I saw fairies flying too while I walked down the street.I was amazed that I lived on such a beautiful street until I came to the end of the road and turn left where I supposedly lived.

The house was hidden by over grown trees and shrubs and when I finally got to the end of the driveway what stood before me was a rundown looking old shack. The minute I saw the house I looked down at myself and saw I was wearing tattered old clothes (a potato sack would have looked better).

It turned out that I belong to a Caucasian family (I’m Asian) that looked like the family from Pete’s Dragon! The mom was all dirty with ratty hair and broken teeth and my siblings all had overalls on and dirty dirty hair. The mom was screaming at me “Where have you BEEN!? You have chores to do!”. I had no idea who these people were but I quickly ran and started to do the laundry out of a wooden bucket. I felt like I was erally Pete except for the fact I was a girl and didn’t have a handsome couple fighting for me and singing in the middle of the bay on a boat.I also lacked a magic Dragon :(. It was a good thing I woke up after that.

I then rolled over to recounted everthing to a still sleeping Mitch.

Cupid :Dog Extraordinaire

He had booked me in advanced months ago and was finally able to squeeze me into his crazy schedule.

We started the morning off with a portrait session at his home in beautiful Sausalito.

Then it was off to Baker Beach in S.F. to do his duty as a Life Dog with his assistant. It was a very hot day yesterday and the beach was crowded.

He insisted we got him with the iconic Golden Gate bridge.

He spent most of the day assisting fellow canines (such as this one) away from the water for their safety. The waves were crashing pretty hard.

His lovely girlfriend came along for the shoot (Miss Coco). She was soo sweet she bought donuts with her (Cupid loves donuts).

We later caught him rescuing a ball that was getting dangerously close to the water.


He demonstrated the right way to remove a shell from the beach.

Resting after a long hot day.

----
Thank you Cupid and Zsofia for such a fun day in the (very hot) sun!

Aurora and Noah

We spent a lovely day at the park in Walnut Creek with the cool Miss Aurora and her little brother Noah along with their equally cool parents. There were lollipops and lots and lots of bubbles! ( The only thing missing was a teeter-totter that I am still trying to find! I think there is one at the park on Belvedere Island here in Marin. )

One of the many things that I love about kids and babies is how they express themselves. Some you can tell by just looking at them or playing with them. I say the photos speak for themselves here.

Thank you John and Roslynd for sharing your cool kids with us!

The Beach

As a little girl I never got to go to the beach enough. I know living in the central valley and being miles and miles from the beach (actually 100 miles or so, go google maps!) it was kind of hard to go as a kid. But that didn't stop me from loving the beach.

I would imagine listening to the waves crash and the smell of the sea salt in the air. At home we had this huge conch shell that my parents kept in their bedroom (a gift from someone). Sometimes I'd go into their room and press the shell up against my ear and listen to the sound of the ocean. I would always tell myself that if I ever got the chance I would live near a beach somewhere so I could listen to it every night.

Since moving to the Bay Area (Marin especially) I've lost count of the many times I've been to the beach. When we were dating it seemed like Mitch and I were at the beach almost every weekend. He lived only a few minutes away from Ocean Beach in San Francisco so we would load up the car with his surfboard and spend a Saturday morning or afternoon there. He would be out in the freezing cold water fighting for crappy waves (yay for Northern California) while I sat reading my book and occasionally checking on him to make sure he wasn't fighting with JabberJaw. Yes how I love the beach.

We did a shoot with some friends of ours and their daughter Corry. It was a nice overcast day at Muir Beach for some fun in the sand. There were holes dugged, sand fishes created and smashed, sand angels formed, and a seaweed mom-ster. By the end of the shoot we were all covered in sand but the important part was that we all had fun!

Sand sand everywhere, in your teeth and in your hair!

Summertime and the Magic of Reading

As a child summertime meant something different to me. While other kids looked forward to no school, no books, no homework, and vacation fun, I dreaded it. While others went off on camping trips or some place fun I was stuck at home during the summer.

Growing up in a large family meant that we didn't get to do much of anything outside of bike riding in our cul-de-sac, playing marbles in the front yard, or my Dad's fishing trips. Because my parents were strict we didn't go to slumber parties or go to other kids houses to play (unless it was on our block).

It all changed for me though one summer when I discovered the magic of the Library.

It was a gigantic building with large white pillars that reached to the sky. The walkway around it was accented with glass mosaic patterns which was slippery and I was always afraid to step on them. It had white tables around the outside of the building which was usually taken by the homeless men in the area. Most of them sat there quietly leaning against their large backpacks reading with much intensity in their eyes as though they were trying to solve a problem.

The parking lot was in the back so we would have to walk all the way around to get to the entrance of the building (and for me meant many many squares of glass patterns that I had to avoid and to not stare at the homeless men). It was a workout getting to the front (Modesto gets VERY hot in the summer) but I was well rewarded when the automatic doors open and I would be hit with a blast of nice cold air on my face. After that it was like paradise to me.

I had an unlimited supply of adventure just waiting for me to find. And the best thing of all it was free.

I checked out as many books as I could and that would fit in my book bag. I would hunt under adventure, mystery, and all the bound comic books that they had (Peanuts, Garfield, Family Circle, and Heathcliff).

I traveled to other lands and other countries, through time and space. I read the classics that I didn't read in school and I wondered if Sally would ever leave poor Linus alone (her sweet Baboo).

My library card was something I treasured so much and was so proud to have. That blue piece of plastic with my name written on it gave me a passport to anywhere I wanted to go.

I was no longer this poor Asian girl who couldn't go anywhere but a girl who went everywhere.

The Little Empress

Although she is tiny for her age (hence the "little" in her title) she is big when it comes to personality. Full of spunk and character she really gives her mom a reason for the title "full time Mommy". You can follow her on her many adventures over at Mommy Misadventures.

Cheers!

Megs

Beginnings

Olympus OM10 with a 75/205 MM

The love of photography for me started from my father. I remember growing up and watching my father pull out his camera (an Olympus OM10) every time we were on a trip or just to take pictures of us kids (all six of us). He kept it and a couple of lenses in this old leather boxy camera bag (see picture). I think I was around 10 or 11 when he first let me use it. I remember getting so frustrated when loading film into it that Dad had to eventually do it for me. For the longest time when I shot depended on if Dad felt like loading film for me or not (loading film was hard as a kid!).

And it was heavy! God was that thing heavy. I couldn't use it without having to put it down every couple of shots. I was constantly told to shoot people only and not to waste film on inanimate objects (but I always managed to sneak in a tree or a fence into a roll). Another obstacle that I had to hurdle was the manual focus, there was no such thing as auto focus (such a luxury!).

I developed a passion for wanting to document everything; events, people, and places. I wanted time to stand still and never wanted things to end. I wanted my parents to stay young, my siblings to always be cute, and life to always be simple.

I still think that way to this day. My hard drive is filled with photos of family (how can it not be with over 10 birthdays a year and every holiday on the calendar to celebrate). The fact that I’ve managed to get some of those photos printed and in frames and gifted to people surprises even me.

Although I haven't master freezing time yet I have figured out how to grab a piece of it and carefully tuck it away for safe keeping. Thanks Dad!

Terrific Two!

Jack will be turning the big 2 this weekend so we did a photo shoot to mark this special occasion. He is one really happy little boy, so full of fun, spunk, and a love for trains. He also has a very spiffy chair that I'm totally jealous of. It's just so comfy looking!

Davon's Photo shoot.

It was a bee-utiful day for a photo shoot in San Francisco. There were friendly cotton candy clouds in the sky and most importantly--- no rain! Perfect for a 9:00 am photo shoot with Miss Davon. Well it was more towards 10ish because of a long line at a certain Star coffee place and Davon was stuck on the Bay Bridge in traffic but after that the city was ours for the frolicking!

Two things I learn on this shoot.

One: I CAN climb narrow metal stairs and do a shoot on top of a roof (even with my fear of heights) (Hooray for not falling over).

Two: I need knee pads. My jeans do not protect me against gravel, pavement, or bird poo.

:)

Cheers!

Megs

Love Day(s)

Valentine's day has always been a celebration of love for me. Either love for my family or love for that special someone. A long time ago someone once told me that I was a hopeless romantic and that I wasn't just wanting to be 'in love' but that I was in fact in love with being in love. For all intents and purposes they were actually right. I was in love with being in love.

Why wouldn't someone want to take on the adventure of 'in loveness'? How exciting and mysterious it can be. I have always been one to want to write my own love story and see it unfold. When I love, I love intensely and fiercely. I know it is the Cancer in me that drives me to be that way (whether I can help it or not).

When I shoot couples I'm always searching for that same excitement. Whether it be a quiet private smile or the "I'm so in love with you I want the whole world to see it" look, it all speaks to me. (I'll end my rant now or I'll keep going on and on and on.)

So this year, whether you are in love, married, or love a cat or dog (or any other animal) I hope you celebrate one of the beautiful things that life has to give us; and that is love.

Not just for the day it's set aside to be celebrated for, but every day.

Cheers to Love!

Megs

Run Away With Me...

So I know the year has just started but there is always a good time to run away to an exotic place for a few days right? So when Mitch’s company decided it was time to spend a few days in the sun in Kauai I did not hesitate. My bags were packed and I was standing in the middle of our living room floor with my shorts and flip flops even though it was the middle of winter. Lucky for me we were having a heat wave here in the San Francisco bay (in the upper 50s!) that weekend so I didn’t freeze to death while waiting for our flight.

I think the difference between this year’s trip ( as opposed to last year’s trip ) was the increased number of dSLR users in the company. I’d like to think I started the trend by running around at last year’s trip with my shiny new 40D and scaring people with the size of it. (Even if I didn't start it just let me think I did so I can be all happy sunshine and lollipops about it.)

I'm really excited that others have picked up their cameras (either for the first time or getting back to it). It is always fun shooting with others and I'm always delighted to inspire others (my uncle Ralph comes to mind).

In fact I had so much fun that I shoved 4 guys in to the Subaru that I rented and went to shoot Waimea canyon while we were there. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun running around a canyon before.

Now that I'm back all tanned and and goddess like I'm ready to get into the swing of things. We have a lot of exciting and new things planned for 2009 and I can't wait to share it with everyone.







I lured Cedric into a photo shoot near the beach. Does he not look tubular?


Cheers (and suntan lotion),

Megs

Happy Pi Mai! (New Year)

Christmas Snow, Yosemite National Park

This past year has been one of the busiest but most exciting year so far in my photography journey. I was blessed to have been able to travel and shoot so many different places.

My love and gratefulness to my wonderful and amazing husband Mitch, for being my second shooter and my tech nerd hero.

I would also like to thank those who gave me the opportunity to share and shoot the wonderful moments of their lives. I'm looking forward to many more photography adventures in the year to come!

Cheers to the New Year!

Meg

Winter Resting

Waking up to fog this Thanksgiving weekend I decided to go shooting in a rather unusual place. The local cemetery. I'm sure there was a reason to my madness for getting up at 7:30 A.M. on a holiday weekend let alone go to a foggy, wet, damp, and at sometimes, eerie cemetery. I think a lot of people avoid the cemetery because it's an ever fixated symbol of death and the end of life, something that one does not like to be reminded. I, on the other hand, enjoy the sometimes mysterious, ominous, and artistic side of the cemetery. There is history and lives that makes you wonder what it was like back in the old days. I'm not saying that I schedule on a regular basis to go shooting in grave yards but I do stop to admire and wonder about lives that have come and gone.

Mike and Lina's Wedding

Shooting through the lens with Love

Even before I seriously dove into photography Mitch had been my favorite subject to take (much to his protest). I can't explain it. Even at weddings, such as the below, I find ways of getting my Mitch shot in. Maybe because it’s just the two of us (most of the time) that he’s become my favorite main focus.

Other people have their children or pets to follow around and I have a Mitch. If it weren’t for the fact that he’s married to me (bwa ha ha), he’d probably think I was some crazed fan obsessed with him. Instead I’m just his nutty wife with a camera.

Now that he has a camera of his own though, it has turned into a camera-off. We’ll see how this pans out.

Cheers!

Megs

One Love

I had the honor of attending the wedding of Lindsay and Lisa, two very beautiful souls. It was a small garden wedding on a gorgeous Saturday in San Diego.

No matter one's view is on marriage; love is love and it is beautiful.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved. -William Shakespeare

Little Munchkin

We traveled all the way up to British Columbia, Canada for this photo shoot. Granted that it was for my wonderful cousin who just had her first baby boy Tristan. He was such sweetie!

We actually shot him while traveling around Victoria Island and Vancouver (sightseeing hehe). Although he was asleep for most of the day trip to Victoria Island we were able to shoot these on the long ferry ride home.

He is two months here and it will be another year until we see him again.

Little ones grow up so fast but I'm glad we were able to shoot him while he was still a little munchkin.

Z(oom) Z(oom)

The Z enjoying a lovely sunset on top of Mt. Tamalpais.

A friend of ours had just gotten a new Z and wanted some nice photos of it so we took him (and the Z) up to Mt. Tamalpais for a lovely sunset photoshoot.

We had alot of fun doing this shoot and got some really nice shots for him. This is a really sexy car and I was thrilled to have had the chance to shoot it (and such a cooperative model too).

Cheers!

Megs

A Painter and the Moon

It's been rather hot here in the Bay area and there was finally some relief yesterday to the heat when the fog rolled in. Rather than basking in the coolness we grabbed the cameras and headed north, as in up Mount Tamalpais. It was just spectacular looking down on to the San Francisco coast line and seeing everything engulfed in fog.




An Artist painting the sunset on top of Mt. Tamalpais under a faint moon.