Can someone tell me what was going on with 7-10-2010?  There must have been 10 other weddings going on when we were shooting on location that day, but that didnt stop us from getting our photos of Soraya and Gerardo’s wedding.

Soraya and Gerardo were preparing at different locations so we split our team up this time.  It trial by fire for two our newest members to the Moy Photography team, Alistair and Kenny Chow.  They didnt crash and burn so everything came out great!  Both bride and groom had an army of people helping them get ready and as well as goofing off!  Gerardo and his groomsmen were very animated and definitely showed they had a lot of fun.

We started off at Soraya’s hotel room, and Jay went to Gerardo’s place for preparation.  We ended up meeting at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Daly City, where the ceremony was held.  Definitely had alot of fun taking that huge group picture in the church.

We then headed to San Francisco to the Legion of Honor for some group wedding pictures we must have waited in line for 30 minutes to use the location.  There were at least 4 other weddings coming up for photos, it was insane.  We closed the night at Crowne Plaza in Foster City, with dinner, dancing and wine.  The venue was set with accent lighting, and a huge head table that encompased 2 levels of people!

It was a lot of fun for all of us, especially for our two new guys.  Congrats again.  Here are the highlights.  Enjoy!

We spent the entire afternoon working with Jennie and Dan traveling around the shores of San Francisco.  We picked an alternate location from the norm and decided to go to fort point.  We’ve been trying to travel to new sites and give some new perspective on other sites of San Francisco for engagement photos.  Fort Point is an old civil war fort right underneath the Golden Gate Bridge.  Since roof access is available we took our lovely couple up there to do some nice portraits.  The fort has a solid concrete spiral stair case that has very interesting lines and makes for great pictures!

We then moved on to Pier 1 in San Francisco and finished off our day with them at Stow Lake where they changed into their Dragon Boat jerseys.  They brought their paddles as well for some of the engagement photos.  This is how the couple met so they definitely wanted some pictures of how that all unfolded. 

We’ve got a video in the works with them and this time its an interview style fusion piece so keep your eyes out for that and their upcomming wedding in October!  It was a hell of a day, thanks for working with us Jennie and Dan, cant wait to shoot your wedding!

Enjoy the highlights!

Ya vast mateys!  Theres TREASURE OUT THERE on them islands.  Actually there isnt.. its  a bunch of land fill that the Navy built out ages ago and now only the coast guard remains.  BUT, it provides a hell of a view for the bay area.  Awesome views of the skyline of downtown San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, and Golden Gate Bridge.  We took Cathy and Bobby out there for an awesome engagement session.

Of course we end up on the beach as Bobby proposed to Cathy on the beach and it was something that was very special to them.  So ahoy! More beach photos.

Fantastic couple to work with, and I cant wait to work with them again.  We’ll be doing their wedding this August so keep an eye out for their wedding later on.

Golden Gate Park in San Francisco can have endless possibilities for photo shoots.  This time we decided to do our engagement shoot starting at the De Young Museum in San Francisco.  Sharon and Tyler met working in a lab at Kaiser, so if you’re wondering why there are lab coats in a “dream sequence”, thats why.

They are a beautiful couple and they came out with an awesome set of pictures.  We stayed so late at Bakers Beach trying to finish up our photoshoot that we got kicked out by the cops!  Cops are no fun!

Keep an eye out for their wedding photos this Sept, it will be here before you know it!

Enjoy!

Yanina and Tony Wedding Hightlights from Moy Studios on Vimeo.

A while back we posted Yanina and Tony’s wedding day highlights.  I finally got around to editing their wedding day highlight video.  We were able to get them from start to finish so we got the full story on video as well as photo.  It was an incredible day for everyone!  Their locations were great especially the Palm Event Center.  Great setting, mood and a remote location.  Anyways please enjoy!

One evening I decided to call Vy up and say hey Vy, dont you live 20 blocks from me?  Lets do your engagement shoot uhh next Saturday!  Vy and I have been friends for a while and I know shes getting married next year so I figured what a nice gift to give to a friend!  So I called the guys out and we decided to do a set of engagement photos as well as a video!  We picked Golden Gate Park and Marin headlands as our shoot locations.

The waterfall at Stow Lake is always an awesome place to shoot.  Its one of the few waterfalls in Golden Gate Park and its a great place to walk your dog.. well except when they freak out and fall into the water and get all dirty in your car on the way back.  Theres nothing worse than a wet stinky golden retriever named Sophie but I digress!

We then moved onto Marin Headlands but our time was cut short due to weather.  The storm rolled in @ 50 degree weather with -10 degree windchill and a sandstorm.  Yeah it sounds like Im making it up but ask Vy and Telemachus how many times I said INCOMING when the wind blew up all the dust and sand into our faces.  Anywho, great e-session.  If you want to see the video highlight visit our video site at Moy Studios here.

We were invited back to shoot the Linux Collaboration Summit again this year by the Linux Foundation.   This collaboration summits Linux has are for all the great Linux minds to get together, share and develop Linux.  I have a huge tech background so listening on their keynotes and market perspectives are always interesting, plus I get to photography them! 

It was held at the Hotel Kabuki  in Japantown, San Francisco and was a fairly large group of people.  Something like 500 attendants.  They even gave away the Google Nexus One phones to everyone attending!  Everyone who was a paid attendee that is.. (that means I didnt get one =(… )

The after party was much closer this time at Yoshi’s Jazz Club and Restaurant.  Great atmosphere for events and even weddings!  They even had guitar hero going on upstairs!

Great event, and if you havent seen the highlight video, check it out here on our Moy Studios site.  The video can be viewed here.

Enjoy

Yanina and Tony came to me months ago and definitely loved our style of work.  Well, then they shouldnt be disappointed with their wedding photography =).  We started the day off with prep at their place.  Even though Tony got ready at his house and Yanina was only across the street at her cousins, things were still as hectic as ever, which for us is normal =P.

We then moved off the St. Michael Church in Livermore, where we had a catholic wedding. Then.. we drove to a place not too far away at the Palm Events Center.  Its a winery out in the cuts of Pleasanton but it sure is a real treat.  The setup was very nice, from the winery and the view outside to the accent lighting and wine barrels inside.  Great place for a wedding in the bay area.

Awesome wedding to be at, and we’ll be doing their cousin’s wedding next year so we’ll definitely see you two again =).

Stay tuned for your video highlights.

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OMG.. really thats all I have to say.  This was probably the biggest wedding we have ever done.  Nisha and Kamal chose 888 Live in San Francisco as their wedding venue and did a ton of work to making the most spectacular and unique wedding I’ve seen to date.  This was probably the biggest wedding venue possible in San Francisco. We had a total of 6 floors to work with, a huge stage and reception area.  A whole floor was dedicated to cocktail reception and group picture booth, and bride and groom had their seperate floors to prep.

It only gets better…

Working with the couple I knew their wedding photography was going to be great.  From everything to accent lighting, to the decorations and all the hardwork they put into the themes and design made it a particular unique wedding.  They were no slouch on tradition either.  There are alot of ceremonies and traditions to follow from an Indian Wedding.  They went as far as to procure a white horse for Kamal to arrive at the bride.  Yeah.. A HORSE… take a look at the gallery, we’ve got plenty of pictures.

This wedding was so huge, I put a team of 5 photographers on this wedding.  The largest team we’ve put together for any 1 wedding.  We definitely needed all the help we could get though.  We also worked on this wedding together with our friends from Imperial Video Productions, Vinny and Ivan. I cant wait to see the footage from this wedding.

From horses, to Bollywood style performances and dances, this was an awesome experience that I will talk about for years to come.  Enjoy the highights!

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I know, this really isnt my latest wedding or engagement photography, but I’ve decided to add little tidbits of other than just work!  So Im going to talk about Apple’s new iPad.

Apple released their latest piece of technology last week with the advent of the iPad.  When it first was annouced, I have to admit I was very skeptic.  I must have made fun of the concept so many times, because I basically argued that it was

thats what it is right?  It runs on iphone OS 3.2, has the same smooth touch interface, plays video and music, and runs iphone apps.  So whats the big deal and how is this even a photography tool?

Let me explain.

I have to admit this was almost a pure impulse buy.  I had just so happened to walk into the Apple Store in downtown San Francisco just as they got their brand new shipment.  So I waited for display sample to be open so I could toy around with it.  I had been reading online about it and heard relatively good things but that it also had its short comings as well.  So I gave it the benefit of the dout.  Then one of the Apple employees came over and asked if I had questions.  The first thing I said was how do I answer the phone if its so big?!?  Evidentally he told me they did put in a microphone so it can act as a recorder or dictation device as well.  So as I started to play with it, ideas started popping into my head.

When I turned it on and unlocked it, you could immediately tell the screen is absolutely beautiful.  Pictures became pieces of art on this device.  Screw looking at prints, my perspective clients could be flipping through my photo portfiolio and see things in a whole new light.  Video playback on the unit as you can imagine looks just as great.  Perfect for showing clients slideshows if they arent at my place.  It also supports some cool accessories like a vga adapter, allowing me to hook it up onto any HDTV or computer monitor.  Although I think you are limited to 1024×768 it should be more than enough rez to show photos or videos.  They are also going to be coming up with a camera/sdhc adapter to directly take pictures or upload pictures/media.

Visuals aside, theres lots of other functions that make it different.  The email interface for this device is very similar to the iphone, but expanded in many ways.  Email inbox scroll through is a sliding menu on the left hand side while you can read your email selected on the right hand side.  Internet browsing (flash aside) is super smooth and fast on the wifi.  Nothing major really right? But check this out.  The standby time of this device is 30 days.. yes a month.. A MONTH.  When I went to sleep last night battery was at 100%, I left the ipad on my dresser, went to sleep, woke up 7 hours later and it was still 100%.  This is unbelievable.  So what does all this mean?  I can access the internet, email, ipod, etc instantly.  I dont have to wait to fire up my laptop, netbook, and god forbid my desktop (and I do have all 3), so the fact that I can check this stuff immediately is just plain awesome.  Im a super busy individual, so saving those couple minutes everytime amounts to alot.

Subtle changes from the iphone are improved contacts and calendar.  Its almost like one of those leather datebooks except, well in a datebook you cant touch the days to go to them or scroll through your day.  Photos now have a slideshow option with music you can select from your ipod section.  Oh btw, this thing can turn into a photo frame thats 9.7″ and since the power consumption is so low anyway your power costs will probably be negligable.  The book app, wow.. watch out kindle.. Apple just gave a high resolution book reader thats in full color and has pictures.  Im pretty sure if you only read magazines, they’ll have some kind of magazine subscription available soon.  Playing music and videos from the built in speakers are very nice as well.  I was expecting the tinny crappy speaker sound similar to the iphone but they did a pretty good job on it.  I watched the latest episode of ABC’s Lost and had no issues with sound or video playback.  Very impressive.

Well, I guess I still havent addressed how this is my latest photography tool?  Aside from the wow factor to perspective clients, I can easily use this to review pictures while on location shoots.  Camera screens arent always the greatest, so having something I can have mobile with me thats 1.5 lbs and will fit in any camera bag I have will be a great advantage to me.  I can check to see how they look or while on location shoots the clients can view them on the spot (this is pending apple’s camera adapter, which allows connection from any usb camera device).  Now that its large enough and fast enough to type, I can take notes while meeting clients and details and even record clips of audio while in a meeting.  Sometimes details get lost, but not if you can record your own voice so easily.  Going back to portability, this device is by far smaller than any netbook I have.   Its also much ligther at 1.5 lbs.  Since there isnt a keyboard to increase the size, this makes it a super slim platform that I can literally take anywhere. 

There are plenty of cons too.  I cant stand the fingerprints on my touchscreen.. ugh.. There arent a huge number of apps now, but that should change.  You can run iphone apps but you have to hit the enlarge button which just doubles the size to fit the screen.. looks like you’re running some low resolution app on a high rez device.. why? cause you are..  There still isnt flash support.. really? apple?  cmon.. how am I gona watch hulu?  I guess we have to wait till sites convert to HTML5. 

Aside from that, its pretty awesome.  Time will tell how much I really use it for wedding photography, but I know I will definitely use it.