Glendale Wedding | Cynthia & Christopher

Crystal Cove + Downtown LA + Urban Lights Engagement | Rosanna + Danny

HDR Friday: End of the World

Not that I'm trying to portray the end of the world with this photo but I figure since today is 12/21/2012, it's only fitting ;)

Have a great friday and holidays folks!

Griffith Observatory Engagement | Stephanie + Brian | 12.09.2012

So this past Saturday my wife got a call from Stephanie checking to see if I was available to photograph their engagement session next weekend... given that I had prior obligations scheduled, I respectfully declined.. then few seconds later, Stephanie goes "ok.. so how about tomorrow?"  So with that, THANKS Stephanie and Brain for taking away my Sunday nap time! Just kidding :)

Last second call for an engagement session is sort of an adrenaline rush, there's no real time to prep, just pack the available gears and improvise.  For Stephanie & Brian's session, the colors of the sunset proves that we picked a great day for a shoot... nap time well sacrificed :)   Congrats Stephanie and Brian!

HDR Friday: 150 Lights

Happy Black Friday everyone! Hope you all had an awesome Thanksgiving, regardless if you've spend it with your love ones or just enjoyed a quiet night in.   I almost forgot that it's friday and I would definitely hate to end my streak of HDR Friday posts due to food coma and forgetfulness.

In case you don't know, the photo is an large-scale assemblage sculpture by Chris Burden call Urban Lights at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art).  One of few popular spot for engagement and portrait sessions.  You can check out more about the piece here.

HDR Friday: The Busy Station

For a city full of drivers (approximately over 80% of the population), I didn't think there would be so many people here at the Downtown LA Union Station on a sunday evening.  So since I arrived early for a portrait session, I was able to take couple of shots of its waiting area.

Couple Portrait : Vivian & Sule

Key ingredients for a "quickie" couple portrait session consist of four things: planning, an awesome couple, a location and a Lamborghini...

Thanks Vivian and Sule for the opportunity to photograph you two, even though Sule have the reputation of not smiling in front of the camera, I think I captured some smirks and smiles (see evidence below).

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Stitched Panorama

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HDR Friday: Home Sweet Home

It's pretty rare that I post any photos from my own home town, even though I have millions of them in my archive.  I guess grass is always greener since I'm always wishing that I'm anywhere else except LA.  This weekend, I'll just chill and relax given that the next couple months going to be crazy....

Here's the beautiful download Los Angeles near sunset and the beautiful Walt Disney Concert Hall!

Happy Friday folks!

If interested, you can purchase a print of this photo HERE! 

LA Beerathon ... the unofficial one

Back in February, during lunch with my old coworkers, Michael (or aka "Mr. Pasadena") was hyping up this inaugural, first in LA event, call the LA Beerathon.  It's an event derived from the successful annual NYC Beerathon that tests your beer stamina, 26 different beers at 26 different venues in downtown LA, a drink 'til you succeed type of event.  Being a light weight, I didn't care too much for it, I figure I'll be a goner after 3 pints.  But when Mr. Pasadena asked me to be part of his Brew Crew and photograph the event, I was more happy to accept! After all, it's always fun when photographing drunk friends ;)

Now fast track to last week of March, the organizers announced its cancellation of the event due to conflicts with California Department of Alcohol Beverage Control. I won't go into details here but if you're curious you can always check it out HERE.  So despite the cancellation and forecast rain, we still troop on to the venues and had an amazing time!  We didn't finish all 26 venues but we got to give them huge credit for providing specials and made this "unofficial" LA Beerathon great!  For a full article on how Mr. Pasadena saves Los Angeles, please head over to Pasadena Now link at the end of the post.

For now, please enjoy the photos:

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CHEERS!!

For more information check out the following links:

Mr. Pasadena

Pasadena Now Article

Mobile Monday: Sister Cities

For the inaugural post of Mobile Monday, here's a shot I took by the Los Angeles City Hall, using my iPhone4 & Hipstamatic App.  Being a LA native for the last 20 years, I know only a few of us have ever seen this Sister Cities signage unless you work around the area.  So if this is your first time seeing this signage, drop by and take a snapshot of it the next you visit downtown for whatever reason (i.e. jury duty, lil' tokyo, city hall, etc.. ) Hopefully everyone in LA survived through this past weekend's hyped up "carmageddon" and enjoyed a nice quiet weekend away from the freeways.  Speaking of carmageddon, check this out, "planking" on the 405 freeway!

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P.S. - Let me know if you guys have any feedbacks on the installment of Mobile Monday..  I use my phone as a camera everywhere I go due to its portability so I figure this would be a good forum to post some of the photos from it!