Alexis + Jason: Barnsdall Art Park Engagement

This year, I sought new inspiration for outdoor engagement portrait sessions. When it comes to outdoor photography, I can’t always control circumstances like how harsh the sun is. I can, however, recommend ideal times and game plan. At Barnsdall Art Park, we did not have a huge outdoor space to work with. Amateur me, ten years ago, would have panicked a bit. Older (current) me resolves this with two steps.

When couples find me, they always bring up the candid photos in my body of work. Engagement portraits are obviously more posed, but there is a certain spontaneity in them that I strive for. Maybe it’s an age/experience thing–in self-reflection, I find that tighter planning makes for more natural moments at the shoot. I find myself game planning more often and nudging couples to game plan with me. In this instance, I mapped out sunset like I usually do and I arrived early and scouted. I split the portrait session into four time slots between two general areas and it never felt like I was ever running out of ideas as a result. The sun didn’t set the way I expected, however, and I fell back on my muscle memory to adapt and spontaneously create in the final half hour or so.

The other part of my game plan to this shoot was envisioning a few must-have compositions. If you must know, I rarely capture these photos exactly the way I plan to. Mike Tyson has a quote about everyone having a plan, though he was referring to boxing, haha. We go through multiple takes for a scene/pose until I feel confident I have what I’m looking for. Below are the shots that made the cut for me!

In the widest crop photo, inspired by cinematic aspect ratios, we have a glimpse of the Hollywood sign and Griffith Observatory. Orangey purple sunsets always have a special place in my heart. Thank you for a pleasant evening on that day, Los Angeles.

Leslie + Vi: Altadena Town & Country Club Wedding

In early October, I found myself back at the Altadena Town & Country Club for Leslie and Vi’s wedding, half a year after our engagement session together.

With this post, I went a bit harder with the candids. They are always a focus of mine, but I feel like I don’t share enough of them. Maybe I spent too much time directly under the 100ºF afternoon sun, but I noticed my mood was great. I was having a blast running around, people-watching, and challenging myself as a photographer. You might note in some scenes the presence of face masks, another reminder of the times we’re in!

I make a tiny cameo in one of these photos via front-facing camera on a video call. Enjoy your ten seconds of Where’s Waldo (Where’s Steve-o?) 🙂

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Ngoc + Sean: An Intimate Pasadena Wedding

I often interpret a wedding as a collection of simultaneous stories involving the couple and their family and guests, yet there’s nothing wrong with a couple being the entire story when there are no guests as we slowly try to exit a global pandemic. Ngoc and Sean visited from NorCal to have their (micro) wedding in Pasadena, where you can find Spanish Colonial Revival architecture and Eastern aesthetic just a few miles apart from one another. Respectively, we visited Pasadena City Hall for portraits and witnessed their ceremony at the Storrier-Stearns Japanese Garden.

They did have one officiant/maid of honor/best friend who showed her dedication to Ngoc through her active involvement the entire day. In the details, they styled their wedding with Totoro and Sailor Moon to showcase their personalities and interests that they bonded over.

However big or small, an event is always worth documenting for those who are celebrating. In the democratization of digital photography, with endless scrolls and unfathomable amounts of data generated per second, I like to think I’m taking my time to craft something. I share photos from various weddings here with my audience, but no matter how proud I am or how many likes they get, the photos will always matter most to the couple, who will always have these memories to look back on.

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