I just love it when I get repeat customers, because it means that they love my work and service. 
Helena and Vivian’s mother have been using my service for candid children and family lifestyle portraiture three times since 2009. Check out the previous children portrait session at Maryland Eastern Shore from a few years back and also the family reunion and birthday party lifestyle photography also at Maryland Eastern Shore. You can see how much these girls have grown since then.
For you who don’t know, Cliff Mautner is a highly regarded photographer and educator. He was named one of the top ten wedding photographers in the world by American PHOTO magazine.
However, the main reason that I took his 3-day workshop was because he was able to create beautiful photos even during the the most difficult lighting conditions. I wanted to be able to see the light the way he does. I was so glad that I took the workshop. The tuition may be expensive to some, but it was worth every penny to me. Some including myself agreed that what we gained from the workshop was worth much much more than what Cliff charged us!
Cliff not only taught the class about lighting in difficult situation, but also about lens selections, marketing, business, and workflow to name a few. We even got to see a live real potential-client meeting who was considering in hiring Cliff for their upcoming wedding! Cliff was like an open book and generously shares his wealthy knowledge that he gained from his almost 30 years of photography career. The only thing he asked us was that we shouldn’t share these information to others who have not been to his workshop. So don’t even think about asking how I did this and that on any of these images. 
The Riggins family would be the first family in my neighborhood or even my community that asked me to have their family portrait done professionally. They’re also the first family to ask me to do a maternity session. I’m happy and honored that they trusted me to do this.
So here are some of my favorite images from the session we did at Kent Island, Maryland.
I actually found Don Giannatti’s workshop site by accident. I was trying to find a certain lighting technique and was pointed to his site by Google. I read about his workshop and became interested. I had been to few lighting workshops/seminars but Don’s was more in-depth, two-days, and priced reasonably. Not to mention that there was one workshop that was nearby, Baltimore.
I found out later that the one in Baltimore was the advanced workshop. I could still do it, but I really wanted to learn about the different strobes and modifiers, and how they would affect the lighting quality. Fortunately, Don was kind enough to give me and few others a “catch-up” session the day before. So it was more like a three-day workshop for me.
Here’s one image I took on the last day. We used 5 speedlights on this setup.
I got a last minute call from a family whom I photographed the past summer (same year). They wanted me to do another session on Tilghman Island, but just the children this time. They wanted the pictures for Christmas.
Unfortunately, they could only do it on the same day where I already had two sessions! However, the first session with Adele the book writer, was very early in the morning, and the engagement session would be late in the afternoon. So I was able to squeeze in another session for that day later in the morning, which works pretty well for all of us.
OK. After going off the beaten path of trying to post in chronological order by posting recent works, now I’m back on track continuing from where I left off, the family portrait session from last November.
Only about a month after I did my commercial work for the Crazy Chick Salon, I got a call from Adele. She was referred to me by Becky, the owner of the salon. Adele said that I was highly recommended. That made me smile from ear to ear.
Adele wanted a few portraits of her in a natural setting, not studio, for her Web site and her book “The Legend of the Seahawk”. She wanted to have the images as soon as possible. We had agreed to a shoot date. However, because of the weather, it had to be postponed to another date in November. I already had another client on that day for an engagement session. Fortunately, it was in the afternoon. So I was able to do the session with Adele very early in the morning to get the morning sunlight.
Here are some of my favorite images.
This is my first full session of high school senior portrait. Well sort of…
Marissa supposed to graduate this year along with her other classmates. However, she graduated a year early, and is now in college. Way to go Marissa!
Nevertheless, she wanted to do this senior photo session anyway. I’m honored to have her as my first.
I knew Marissa through Facebook through other friends, and she is one of the most nicest/politest person in FB. I think Marissa is a beautiful person not only on the outside, but also inside.
I took my son to his orthodontist in late October. When I came in to the office, boy, was I in for a surprise!
It was almost Halloween and everyone in the office, including the two orthodontists, were wearing 80′s themed outfit. October 31st fell on a weekend, and the office would not be opened, so they celebrated it on the last couple of weekdays. That is Thursday at the Kent Island office and Friday at the Annapolis office.
Their clothing was so colorful and reminded me of Madonna, Paula Abdul, etc. back in the days. One of the staff became Paul Stanley from KISS. What cracked me up (and amazed me at the same time) was that Dr. Philbin became Michael Jackson. I actually liked the outfit he was wearing better than the typical infamous red jacket that MJ wore for the Thriller video. Not that there’s anything wrong with the red jacket outfit, but I thought the black shirt with the sequins was awesome! It looked more expensive too!
Anyway, since I loved the way they looked, I decided to immortalize the fun that they had and offered them to take their photos. Fortunately, they liked the idea and happily agreed to do it! Woohoo!!
It was morning when I took my son to their office, so I had to come back in the afternoon after the office hours to take the pictures. Well of course, we couldn’t do it when the patient was waiting. They’d be furious! 
Here are the images from the session…
We originally wanted to do it outside, but then we would have to drive to the location, and that would not be practical for everyone. Luckily, they had this red brick wall in their office. What a perfect backdrop!
As you could see here, the background really matched their colorful outfit. It also reminded me of Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall album. I couldn’t ask for any better.
Late September last year, I got a call from Becky, the owner of Crazy Chick Salon in Kent Island, Maryland. I forgot how she learned about my photography business. She wanted me to take picture of her and her hair salon crew for commercial use, such as for newspaper ads.
We finally set a date early October for the photo session. She closed early that day so we could get plenty of daylight.
Unfortunately, some of them could not make it that day. Here are some of the crew. Aren’t they all gorgeous?
We also did individual portraits of the personnel.
I had been using Neil van Niekerk’s lighting style for a while. I learned from his blog and postings at forums. However, I felt that I’m still missing few things and did understand few things he explained online. I then decided that I need to get a hands on training from Neil and planned to attend his workshop in Annapolis. Unfortunately, the one in Annapolis was canceled. Neil offered me to go to the one in Philadelphia. Which was about a couple of hours drive. I thought, why not? I didn’t want to wait for another year, and probably he won’t do workshop that’s close enough to Baltimore or Washington DC area next year.
So I drove to Philly at about 6:30 in the morning and got there at almost 9 a.m. due to morning rush hour.
The class was small, only 10 students max, so everyone will get more personalized attention from Neil. We learned so many stuff. At the end of the day (or I should say night), we were all tired. It was about a 10-hour workshop.
Neil also provided two models for us to practice throughout the entire day. Here are some of my favorite results from the workshop.
Indoor session using on camera flash bounced to a wall/ceiling.
This blog is a journal of my work, my life, everything in between, and the story behind them. :)
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