With Gratitude
Would you trust a 10 year old kid to run around with your SLR camera? How about letting her bring it to a stay-away summer camp for an entire week? Somehow my dad had the foresight to know that this would be ok. And of course, it turned out to be far more than that.
I really wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the generosity of all the people who have pushed me forward along the way. Even that random person at camp who declared, “wow, you must be a real photographer!” planted an essential seed in my mind that helped me to become this ‘real photographer’. And there have been so many people– photographers especially– since then who have shared their time, lenses, strategies, and pointers with me, all without ever expecting anything in return.
When I visited Boston a couple weeks ago, I finally got to meet up with Boston wedding photographer Shang Chen, whom I’ve known for two years but never met until now. She was kind enough to do a quick lifestyle shoot for Ernie and me. It was definitely strange to be in front of the camera for a change, but it was really invaluable (and fun!) to watch Shang in action and experience what a shoot is like from the client’s perspective. Here’s a teaser from our shoot below, but you can enjoy the rest of our photos on Shang’s blog.
With gratitude, I offer a slew of thank yous to my incredible photographer friends: Jianghai Ho for being the first to start me thinking about wedding photography, and for letting me borrow lenses all the time at Duke. It’s his fault I fell in love with the 70-200. Mark Wagoner for supporting me in my first post-college photography gig and letting me see what real studio and commercial shoots look like. Natalie Mancino for adopting me as a second shooter and overall assistant for her portrait studio– I learned almost everything I needed to know about Photoshop retouching in just one afternoon! Shu-Jon Mao for letting me build my experience as a second shooter out here in the Bay, and for generously throwing inquiries my way. And one more time to Shang Chen for blazing her own trail, always giving to and supporting everyone around her so freely and openly, and helping me to believe I can really do this too.
And that’s not even mentioning all of my other friends who have stepped in to affirm and support me in countless immeasurable ways through the years.
Thank you. Truly.
