Anna Wu Photography » headshots

Elisa Park, Clarinetist | Musician Headshots

Anna — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:16:55 +0000

She is a pharmacist by trade, but she doubles as a clarinetist in her free time. I met with Elisa one Sunday for a quick headshot session outside the Dean Lesher Theater in Walnut Creek. I love the mix of looks we got! Some of my favorites are below.

Talya Lieberman, Vocalist | Musician Headshots

Anna — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:19:02 +0000

My friend Talya is an incredibly talented opera singer. She also happens to be gorgeous. She’s one of my long time fans and has made frequent appearances on this blog. This time, I told her if she flew out to California, she had a portrait session waiting for her over here. She got a little bonus too. I even did the styling and all her hair and makeup.

We took a short little trip over to Oakland’s Lake Merritt for some unbeatable California sunshine.

Play On, Philly

Anna — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 01:07:26 +0000

My good friend Talya is working with an amazing after school music program called Play On, Philly. While I was visiting Philadelphia last month, famed vocalist Bobby McFerrin also happened to be doing a guest appearance at the program. It was a perfect opportunity for me to grab some photos for them and capture the excitement and the kids in action.

Stan Thompson leads the program and conducts the symphony orchestra.

Students and teachers alike had a great time exercising their improv skills with Bobby McFerrin.

Thanks to Talya and Stan for hosting me in Philly! Talya is actually en route to San Francisco for a little California visit at this very moment, so I am sure you will all be seeing more of her soon!

Eugene Petrushansky, Harpsichordist | San Francisco Musicians Headshots

Anna — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:19:37 +0000

Eugene is not only a great harpsichordist but he also restores the beautiful old instruments for fun. Plus, it turns out he’s quite the natural model too. Multitalented and handsome. Here are some of his portraits from our headshot session in Fremont:

Diana Lee | Los Angeles Lifestyle Portraits

Anna — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:28:10 +0000

She’s amazing and gorgeous and would never admit it herself. On my visit to Los Angeles last month, I needed some help with office and editing tasks, and my friend Diana needed some headshots to submit to castings as an extra. It made for the perfect trade. I taught her how to do some things on Lightroom and Photoshop, and she even retouched a bunch of these images herself.

We just wandered around Alhambra and snapped these portraits in about half an hour. Diana claims she can’t pull off a serious or a sexy look, but clearly, she’s wrong.

Gorgeous!

Part 4: Live Shoot | Workshops

Anna — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:56:55 +0000

Earlier this month, I taught the final workshop of our four-part series. It was a live portrait shoot with two wonderful models, Henry M. Chu and Shannon Louie. We were rained in and spent most of the session in a loading dock, but with all the awesome participants, I think it turned out just fine.

First, some of my images from the shoot. Then some glimpses behind the scenes, and finally, some great participant photos as well.

I loved the diffuse lighting coming in through the garage door grating. It provided beautiful “window lighting” conditions. We learned how to best position ourselves and our models to get the best side and front portrait lighting.

Henry M. Chu poses with his EQ Unit Chicago bag.

And Shannon Louie strikes some poses with our gridded garage door.

Just for fun, they pretended to be a couple as well.

Now for some behind the scenes images. The first two are from me.

Photo of Jing, Justin, and me by Vilma Milan.

Photo below by Jing Jin.

Left side by Vilma, right side by Justin Rose.

Photo below by Jing

Left side by Justin, right side by Vilma.

Photo by Jing

One last image from Justin.

Thank you again to all of the participants and our models for a great final workshop! Part 4 was unanimously the favorite workshop of the series. No new workshops have been scheduled as of yet, but you’ll see them here when the time comes!

Alexandra Leem, Violist | San Francisco Musicians Headshots

Anna — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:02:06 +0000

It was Valentine’s Day afternoon, her three adorable boys were home from school, and the weather was soggy and uncooperative, but Alexandra still made the time to drive across the Bay to come see me, and I, for one, love her for it. She is a violist newly transported from the East Coast and in need of some headshots. Trapped indoors, we made creative use of the building, including the parking garage, and captured some really lovely portraits. I also love the super unique shape of her viola.

Alexandra’s beautiful hair and makeup was done by Nini of A-List Makeup.

Best of 2010: Portraits & Headshots

Anna — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 17:31:37 +0000

2010 is coming to an end, which means it’s time to reflect over the past year. We kick off the “best of”s with portraits and headshots. Here are just a few of my favorites from the year. Click on the links or any of the images to visit the full posts.

Musicians

Flautist Sasha Launer in San Francisco, California

Cellist Samsun van Loon in San Francisco, California

The San Francisco Guitar Quartet in Oakland, California

Guitarist David Duenas in Santa Clara, California

Harpsichordist Susie Fong at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, California

Harpsichordist Christopher Lewis at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, California

Singer Krystle Tugadi in Los Angeles, California

Vocalist Talya Lieberman’sFirst Session and Second Session in New York City

Families

Luna’s 2nd birthday party in Redwood City, California

Little Isla and her adorable family portrait session in Richmond, California.

The Shay-Tang family at Kirk in the Hills, Michigan

Twin sisters Sarah & Andrea Axtell in San Francisco, California

More Headshots

Oakland Raiderette Jenna Miller in Oakland, California

Actor Henry Chu in Los Angeles, California

Actress Amanda Groth in Los Angeles, California

Duncan, an actor in Los Angeles, California

Diana F+ | Lomography | Adventures in Film

Anna — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 22:29:06 +0000

Have you met the Diana F+ and entered the giveaway? Now it’s time to see the camera in action. When you’ve become accustomed to technically perfect dSLRs, it’s both difficult and exciting to shoot film and not know what you’re going to get. So here they are– some frames and a glimpse behind the scenes with us on Talya’s Lincoln Center lifestyle shoot. I know these aren’t the most technically stellar images, so don’t judge! I’m putting these out there as they are and sharing some lessons learned as well.

Lesson 1: What you see is not what you get. Looking through the viewfinder gives you a much wider frame of view than what actually gets captured when you crop the film to 16 frames. Hence so many photos with all the heads cut off. After a while it looks intentional though.

Lesson 2: Accidents are happy. Forget to advance your film? You end up with great double exposures. Perhaps I should’ve done more of those intentionally. With how underexposed everything was, the double exposures came out better than everything else!

Lesson 3: Embrace imperfection. This is a good exercise for control freaks. It’s rather liberating to just have no expectations and accept whatever you get or don’t get.

And now for some great behind the scenes captures by Yifan (some of the above images are by her as well!). I’ll admit it’s still kind of reassuring to go back to the smooth, crisp beauty of these Canon 5D images.

Hiding my Shootsac under my coat! And peeking at Yifan through the glass.

How many of us even remember how to load film? I’m kind of glad I just got that part right.

Talya looks gorrgeous, yeah? Check out the digital images from our shoot here: Talya Lieberman, Vocalist | Lincoln Center.

So you’ve seen my first attempt with the Diana F+. Now that I’ve learned a couple things from the trial run, I plan to take her for another spin before I give her away. But I’m sure you can do even better with the camera! If you haven’t already, go enter here for my free giveaway.

Talya Lieberman, Vocalist | Lifestyle Portraits | Lincoln Center, New York

Anna — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 05:51:44 +0000

We’re beginning to make a habit of this. I fly to New York, Talya hops into town from Philadelphia, and we do a shoot. By now, Talya is a pro at modeling. She somehow makes this freezing cold winter day look like an effortless, fun, sexy shoot. There is a whole different set of photos which I am still waiting to get back from the lab (can you guess what kind of photos they might be?), and I’ll be posting those (if they turn out) as part of an exciting surprise to be announced later this week. But I wanted to go ahead and post these first and shout out a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY! to the amazing Talya Lieberman. May all your wildest dreams come true in this next fantastic year of life! I’m looking forward to riding your coattails when you become a famous opera singer.

We fittingly met at Lincoln Center and braved the elements to create these beautiful images. Love the unique chandeliers in the lobby of the Metropolitan Opera House. One day you will be performing here, Talya. One day.

Those eyes! Rawr!

Our friend Yifan came along as well, and she and I traded off cameras throughout the shoot. The image on the right is hers.

Happy Birthday again Talya! Hope you love these as much as i do.