Anna Wu Photography » lifestyle

Best of 2011: Engagements & Couples

Anna — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:53:43 +0000

2011 was filled with the most amazing couples. I got to shoot engagement sessions in New York, Atlanta, Seattle, and of course all over the Bay Area. I photographed a surprise proposal on the beach, a really disgusting (or is it cute?) gum wall, and even a baby pig! You can see it all for yourself below. Thank you to all the couples who made this such a fantastic year!

Sun & Elliot at Sutro Baths, San Francisco, California

Theresa & Rob at Muir Woods, Marin County, California

Debby & Justin in the Mission District, San Francisco, California

Jenny & Kevin’s Anniversary Shoot in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, California

Connie & Tony’s Engagement Session in downtown Los Angeles, California

Magali & Sam’s Engagement Session in San Francisco, California

Silvia & James’ Engagement Session at the Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, California

Shelly & Mark’s Surprise Proposal at China Beach, San Francisco, California, and their Engagement Session at the Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco

Evelia & Joseph’s Engagement Session at the Atlanta History Center, Atlanta, Georgia

Raquel & Andy’s Engagement Session at Lullwater Park, Atlanta, Georgia

Mega & Jason’s Engagement Session at Baker Beach, San Francisco, California

Catherine & Joe’s Engagement Session at Baker Beach, San Francisco, California

Janey & Lee’s Engagement Session on Treasure Island, California

Kristen & Ryan’s Engagement Session in Sunol, California

Cat & Dan’s Engagement Session in Buffalo, New York

Nina & Fernando’s Engagement Session in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California

Cami & Eric’s Engagement Session at Pike Place, Seattle, Washington

Anny & John’s Engagement Session at Baker Beach, San Francisco, California

Inspiration | Shoot What You Love

Anna — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 09:30:31 +0000

Have you ever felt so passionate about something it makes your heart beat a little faster, turns interest into obsession? Have you ever been so excited to work on a project, it just feels like something deep within your soul is wanting to leap right out of you? If you’re a photographer, an artist, anyone who creates anything, chances are, you probably have. You may have since forgotten, but it’s what brought you to your craft to begin with. All too often, after that initial excitement of finding what we love, we start noticing the compliments we get, those paychecks we manage to receive, and we wander off. We start paying more attention to the whims of others than to that little heartbeat inside that drove us to create in the first place.

To all of us collectively, I say come back. Take some time and simply create something that is just for you. What is it that only you can create? What is it that you have always wanted to create? What would you absolutely put everything else aside to do?

Do it.

Personal projects are not just luxuries. They are your core, your heart. They allow you to discover and celebrate who you are. They feed your creative soul. One heartfelt personal project will give you more energy than five hundred well-executed but not very interesting gigs. Find what compels you. Shoot what you love.

I am so excited to share with you this sneak peek from a session today. This is my passion project right now: a personal endeavor photographing ballerinas. I am falling in love with photography all over again. I could not ask for anything more as we wrap up the year. And it makes me so excited to see what 2012 will bring.

Ballet dancer: Sharon Kung
Makeup: Pretty by Julianne
Assistant: Jonathan Lee

Little Sarah | San Gabriel Family Portraits

Anna — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 23:31:07 +0000

She might not be able to walk without wobbling all over the place, but she’s smart as a whip! Little Sarah reads entire books and answers all sorts of questions, from “what sound does a monkey make?” to “who is the president?” (both answers are really adorable, by the way).

It was a sunny Monday afternoon when we all met up in Lacy Park, San Marino, for a family session with the Espinosas. We kick it off with the whole fam! Joseph, Sarah, and Marilyn. Plus, another little one on the way!

Fun fact: Marilyn and Jenny (of Kevin and Jenny) are twin sisters!

A kiss for mommy!

Dimple power!

Precious!

Jenny & Kevin | Little Tokyo | Los Angeles Anniversary Shoot

Anna — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:50:11 +0000

This is an anniversary shoot. It’s also a story of love and family and Thanksgiving.

It was just over a year ago that we were all gathered in Southern California for Jenny and Kevin’s beautiful wedding. I was their official photographer, and we were also there with our brand new videography company Seaglass Cinema, which Kevin and I had co-founded.

We had already been friends before their wedding, but in the months since, we have all become closer than ever. Even though we live on different ends of California, I’ve seen Kevin just about every other week this year, and I’ve come to regard Jenny & Kevin’s place as a second home. In fact, as I am sitting on Jenny and Kevin’s couch right now on Thanksgiving Day, it’s no understatement to say we’ve become family in many ways– just one of the many things that I’m incredibly thankful for this Thanksgiving.

The anniversary shoot was initially Jenny’s idea as a followup to their engagement session and their wedding photographs, and I immediately jumped on it. I love absolutely everything about the anniversary shoot idea. It’s a celebration of love and life and a reminder that yes, weddings are fantastic (and I love them too), but they are only the beginning. The years that come afterward are just as important and worthy of celebration (if not more!).

So on a lovely fall weekend, we dressed up Jenny and Kevin and headed to Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, to kick off our new anniversary shoot tradition.

I should mention that being close friends with your photographer has its perks. Our other friend Jon and I spent the week leading up to the shoot playing stylists and shopping for a variety of outfits for Jenny and Kevin. Jon actually bought Kev a whole new wardrobe, not just for the shoot. Jon helped out for the actual shoot too, driving us around and playing assistant. I’d like to think our styling efforts paid off!

We pulled off some quiet moments in the Far Bar alley tucked between two buildings.

Love the soft sun flare and long shadows stretching across the frame. And Jenny’s pristine white TOMS complete her second outfit.

More fun with shadows.

Jon drove us to his favorite ivy wall and to a bridge underpass.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Technical note: half these images were shot on digitally and processed with VSCO Film (and other tweaks). The other half were shot on a 35mm film on Fuji 400H and processed by Richard Photo Lab. Can you tell the difference? Probably not! (Success!)

Baby Miles | Richmond | Bay Area Family Photography

Anna — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:42:07 +0000

It has been an absolute privilege to watch this family grow over the last couple years. I’ve known Aaron since we were partner teachers in 2008, and I’ve photographed his daughter Isla twice before. This time I came back to meet the newest member of the family, baby Miles!

Precious.

Even more precious. My favorite.

Isla, can you curl up like Miles too?

Baby yawns are so stinkin cute! And if you’re wondering why Miles’ tongue is black, it’s because of a homeopathic remedy that’s supposed to help with spitup. I think the verdict is still out on it.

Teeny tiny Miles was working really hard to hold his head up!

Of course, Isla is still a little diva.

Oh, and here are some more of the motley crew of Gardner family characters!

Not exactly the standard family portrait, but I think it sums it up nicely. =)

Congratulations Aaron & Tegan on your growing family! I still have a whole bunch more images of Isla at the park… but we’ll have to wait until I get around to developing that film. Something to look forward to!

Ho Chie Tsai | TaiwaneseAmerican.org | Oakland Lifestyle Portraits

Anna — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:06:52 +0000

I don’t know who started it, calling him the godfather of Taiwanese America, but I think the title’s going to stick. Ho Chie has been involved with almost every Taiwanese American organization imaginable, and he even had a hand in creating many of them. One of his ongoing projects is TaiwaneseAmerican.org, an online portal that spotlights events, people, and perspectives in our community.

Ho Chie is the person you imagine when you read books like Tipping Point and Linchpin. He is the indispensable connector who somehow melds ideas and execution seamlessly. He makes things happen while other people are still skeptically sitting in the corner thinking it will be impossible. Through it all, he is always keeping his eye on his personal mission, which centers on empowering everyone else around him to really shine. Oh, and all of this community organizing is just an unpaid passion project. In his other life, he still works a full schedule as a pediatrician.

Below, a collection of portraits that we created one day. Our TaiwaneseAmerican.org mascot Stinky Tofu helps to kick it off.

Levitation.

Perhaps this will be Ho Chie’s new headshot as he makes his rounds speaking at conferences next year.

Check out our website at TaiwaneseAmerican.org.

Also see Ho Chie’s interview with Taiwan543.net, which features some of these images!

Deion’s Birthday | San Francisco Family Photography

Anna — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 20:49:20 +0000

Prepare yourselves for cuteness overload! I was invited to photograph little Deion’s second birthday party a couple weeks ago, and I had a great time wandering around with all the little toddlers. The birthday party was held at Joanna and Ray’s downtown San Francisco home with all these amazing views.

Joanna and Ray with the little star of the day.

On the right below, Ray’s family looking like they’re part of a lifestyle magazine ad.

Little boys with their motorcycles.

And the girls!

I love these sweet little moments… mothers and their boys.

It was really quite a feat to get them all in the same vicinity.

Deion’s working really hard to blow out that candle!

Hipster Deion and matching daddy, hahaha. And Elmo pinata!

Prunes falling from the sky!

And finally, Joanna’s family and one more of Deion’s “cheeese” face.

Thank you Joanna for having me over! And Happy Birthday again to Deion!

Blogstalkers– I’m currently blogging from the Oakland airport, about to head out to Chicago/Indiana/D.C. Hopefully I’ll still have time to keep up with blog updates, but if not, I promise there’s more to come soon! Til then.

Little Isla | Oakland Rose Garden Family Portraits

Anna — Tue, 03 May 2011 17:02:57 +0000

It’s hard to believe it’s already been a year! Last year, Isla was just turning two, and she was an adorable babble of words and not-words. Now, at age three, she’s morphed into this beautiful little girl who has opinions and ideas about everything, seeks out ladybugs with her eagle eyes, and befriends ducks by quietly sneaking up on them.

We had a very fun session over at the Morcom Rose Garden in Oakland. Isla is the best smiler I have met! She’ll tell herself cheese and give real smiles– no fake grins. I love it. And yes, she has a little sibling on the way!

The monster’s gonna get you!

Sweaters are made for swinging and dragging, not for wearing, clearly.

Ladybugs!

Lucky little girl! She gets to wear mommy’s necklace.

Getting nice and close to the ducks.

Love the photo on the right. Perfect.

She’s such a goofball!

Thanks again Aaron & Tegan for inviting me to photograph your family! Can’t wait to meet the next little one in a few months. =)

Orinda Family Photography | Orinda Community Park

Anna — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:13:31 +0000

Wallis rolled ahead of me in her little tricycle, looking back at me skeptically, unsure of whether or not to trust this lady with a camera. She trailed behind her older brother Julian who was mostly disinterested in vetting me out. I would have to win them over, mostly by staying back and letting the candids fly.

After putting aside the bikes, Wallis moved on to the weightless magic of the swings, and then she went over to the sandbox to sculpt her very own creation, a watery, sandy sludge better known as “birthday cake.” I watched her meticulously scoop water from her favorite old water fountain and walk it back to the little yellow bucket of hers. Eventually, by the very end of the session, I had her running around chasing after her brother with deadly kisses as her weapon. I’d like to think I won her over.

Meanwhile, once Julian found himself on the tire swing with endless possibilities for turns and spins, all was right in the world. And by the second half of our time together, Julian was educating me with a very thorough character analysis of Harry Potter, concluding that his mother was most like Mrs. Norris, the cat.

Thank you so much, Mona, for your flexibility and for entrusting the process to me. Sometimes it takes a bit of running around and allowing the kids to do what they will to capture these kinds of real, beautiful moments. I absolutely love, love, love, these photos.

Wallis makes a birthday cake for the dog, complete with birthday song!

Love this photo. Favorite.

Film vs. Digital | A Modern Day Comparison | Shooting Film, Part 3 of 5

Anna — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 16:45:07 +0000

Film vs. Digital. It’s become clear that it’s no longer a matter of technical quality or megapixels. Digital is the norm of the industry. In many ways, it has “won.” But there are still a select few photographers who shoot 100% film even today, in 2011, and they are standouts in the industry. Jose Villa, Jonathan Canlas, Elizabeth Messina, and Tanja Lippert come to mind.

I was drawn to the look. I’ve described it as buttery and soft, the colors are just beautiful, and there’s just something qualitatively different about the look of film. But I wasn’t sure what the differences actually were. So in this post, part 3 of my Shooting Film series, I compare not only the aesthetics but also many other key differences between film vs. digital.

For the examples in this post, we’re revisiting Debby & Justin’s lifestyle session in the Mission District of SF.

1. Aesthetics. The Look of Film vs. Digital

First of all, this is not a scientific experiment. Many of my declarations of “winners” between film and digital are subjective, and many of the variables in my comparisons could be manipulated. For instance, color or grain could be changed in Photoshop to an extent. However, I still think all of these are useful baseline comparisons for understanding the differences between film and digital photography.

All of the film examples were shot on a Contax 645 with Zeiss 80mm/2.0 lens on 120mm Fujicolor 400H film and processed by Richard Photo Lab.

All of the digital examples were shot on a Canon 5D MkII with various lenses and processed by me in Photoshop.

Color:

The number one thing I hear about the look of film is that skin tones look great. Color on film is often dependent on specific film types. It is also dependent on the lab that processes it. But based on what I’ve seen, the hype is true. I prefer the color that comes straight from my film. Here are four examples of the color that came out of my cameras. The top two were film, and the bottom two were digital. See the technical specs above.

Film:

Digital:

Overall, my digital color on the bottom has a lot more red in it, while the top two film photos came out more yellow. Looking at the shady areas alongside the garages on the very left side of the photos, you can also tell that the film tones are colder (more blue) while the digital tones are again redder. Could I adjust my processing on the digital photos to match the film photos in color more? Yes. But again, with what I’m given, film wins.

Better color: film

Highlights:

Film tends to retain highlights without blowing them out or overexposing them. For instance, if you’re shooting with a very bright area within your frame such as a bright sky, you run the risk of overexposing the sky in order to get the correct exposure on your relatively dark subjects (especially if you are shooting your subjects backlit). If your highlights are overexposed, then they look completely white with no color information at all in that area. Many people don’t mind this look (myself included) but it’s technically a photography no-no.

Why is film better at the highlights? With film, exposure is all about a physical process of the film reacting to light coming into the camera. It’s actually a more common problem for film to be underexposed than to be overexposed. Exposure on film is more logarithmic than linear; that is, when you give it more and more light, it slows down in its reactiveness to the exposure instead of continuing up and reaching complete overexposure right away. Of course, the opposite is true for digital, because exposure is much more linear on a digital sensor. So if there is a very bright sky in your photo, it is probably going to be overexposed, and it will look pure white.

Here are two examples below.

Film:

Digital:

Now, pay attention to the right side of the pictures above, the highlights. Both of them probably look white to our eyes, but if I adjust the levels to see what information is actually in that space, we see this:

Film on left, Digital on right:

In the film version on the left, there is actually still a lot of information in that highlight, whereas in the digital version on the right, most of the highlight is completely blown out; no matter how much I bring down the levels, there is no information in the highlight; it’s completely white.

Again, film wins in this situation!

Better highlights: Film

Sharpness & Grain

In general, film has more grain than digital. And film grain has a specific look. Granted, I was shooting ISO 400 film vs. ISO 100 digital, but even digital images at ISO 400 are going to have much less grain than film. Again, grain is going to vary not only with the film but also with the camera, the lens, scan, and the post processing. But here are my comparisons from the basic edits I had:

Film:

Digital:

Film on left, digital on right:

In this first instance, the film actually appears “sharper” but also grainier. I would have probably sharpened the eyes more in post on the digital file. But you can also see the difference in grain in all the shadow areas. In this case, the digital file looks a lot smoother.

One more example.

Film:

Digital:

Film on left, digital on right:

Based on this example, I think film tends to soften hard light. Look at the shadows cast by her eyelashes– soft and feathery vs. individual lines. Again, the film is grainy; you can see the texture of the grain as if it’s a layer of ground glass over the image, but it’s not unpleasant, depending on your taste. However, the digital file is much more crisp and clean. It’s definitely a matter of preference and also depends to a certain extent on the scan quality. I’m torn on this one. I prefer a little less grain, but I love the soft shading over crisp hard lines. So… it’s a tie?

Better Sharpness & Grain Look: Undecided

Overall Aesthetics- Film Wins.

Basically, film wins on color, highlights, and I am undecided about the grain/softness. But overall, based solely on the aesthetics of film vs. digital, I have a strong preference toward the look of film. Not everyone feels this way, but I think film wins. I will give the caveat that film’s strong point is the brightly lit, often backlit outdoor look that Jose Villa has made his signature style. If you were to look only at film shooters’ indoor, dark ballroom high ISO photos, I doubt you’ll be convinced that film looks better than digital.

2. The Process/Experience

Shooting

Buying film, storing film, and loading film are all definitely more difficult than dealing with their digital memory card counterparts. Just the act of loading film is intimidating enough to keep plenty of people from attempting to shoot film (myself included for a long time!). And even after you load it, there’s a much steeper learning curve of figuring out how to shoot properly so that your photos turn out reliably. There’s no instant LCD feedback that assures you’re doing things correctly. Most film shooters also use external light meters (handheld devices that take light readings) instead of trusting their cameras. Again, this will vary depending on your gear, but a lot of film cameras are manual– manual focus, manual settings, etc. Other film cameras have less controls but more variation/unpredictability. So yes, digital is definitely easier to shoot.

One more thing– when you load a roll of film, you are tied to that particular film speed for the rest of your roll. So you have basically no way of moving between very dark spaces and bright spaces unless you have multiple cameras on hand. Digital cameras are equipped to adjust to changing light conditions all the time.

Better Shooting Experience: Digital.

Post-Processing

The major difference here is that when you send film off to be developed by a good lab like Richard Photo Lab in Los Angeles, it comes back FULLY READY TO GO! You can choose to have prints made, or you can (like me) have the negatives scanned. All of the images you have seen in the examples above were developed and scanned by RPL and came back just like you see them here. I may have done a bit of brightening here and there, but that’s it. And they look amazing! Is this a quality inherent to film? No. Because it does take a good lab to make it look this good. In the next part of this series I’ll be comparing two different labs, and you’ll see what I mean. But when you do send it to a good lab, it comes back beautiful and blog/client-ready!

As for digital, you can definitely send your digital files off to be post-processed by an external company too. But a lot of photographers, myself included, do their own post processing in Lightroom and Photoshop. It’s a basic trade of time vs. money.

And I will point out that the reason why (I think) film is extra viable now as an option is because in truth, what you’re getting from a lab like RPL is the best of film AND digital– you can actually have an analog thing perfected through digital means, and then you get the convenience of having the digital file as your final image. It’s no longer either or. It’s actually the best of both worlds.

So it seems like film processing is great, but there are two major drawbacks. One is time. Especially if you are mailing it off, it will take 1-2 weeks before you see anything, whereas a digital preview is instant, and retouching can happen as fast as you can make it happen. The other major drawback of film, of course, is cost. Which will be our next topic.

Better Post-Processing Experience: Digital. I do love being able to just send film off and have it come back all wonderful, but factoring in the time and the money, I think Digital still wins. For the cost of film processing, you can probably pay to have more digital files processed, maybe even to mimic a filmic look, and probably get it faster too (but I haven’t actually tried, so I don’t know).

Overall Process/Experience- Digital. Pretty much everything about shooting digital is easier and faster. Of course, I haven’t mentioned the “magical” experience of shooting film, which probably wins people over more than the convenience factor, but I personally think digital is still so much more usable overall.

3. Cost

Film is definitely more expensive than digital. By far. Here are some lowball estimates for the cost when you shoot film:

At minimum, to buy a single roll of Fuji 400H 120mm film and process and scan it at medium resolution at Richard Photo Lab, it would cost
$5.09 (film) + $18.50 (process+scan) + $9.90 (shipping there & back) = $33.49! For a total of 16 photos!

If you were to save on costs by buying in bulk, 5 rolls is $22.22, with 16 frames on each roll.
That’s $22.22 total, $4.44/roll, $.28/photo.
Process + Scan: Processing and doing a medium scan of five rolls at Richard Photo Lab is $92.50 + ~10.50 shipping (I’m guessing).
That’s $103 total, $20.60/roll, $1.29/photo.

So even in bulk, you are paying $1.57 for every frame you take, or $125.22 total for five rolls (80 photos).

As for the digital comparison, can you even imagine a digital memory card that only holds 16 frames? Probably not. A 2GB memory card holds a bit more than 80 raw files from a Canon 5D MkII, so for comparison’s sake, a 2GB CF card (~5 rolls of film) on Amazon is $12.95. Even if you were to add digital post-processing costs, there’s no way it would come close to the $112 more that the film costs. And besides, CF cards are reusable, so it’s not like you would buy a new CF card every time you take 80 more photos.

$125.22 vs. $12.95. Film costs almost 10 times more.

Yes, I’m leaving out camera and equipment costs and photo storage costs, and you could save by shooting 35mm instead of 120mm (which is what I will be doing!), but I’m still pretty sure film is more expensive in the end, by far. Even going to a local lab doesn’t save that much in the end (and again, I’ll talk more about lab comparisons in the next post of the series). The one thing that Jonathan Canlas points out is that when your cost of materials is actually higher, it will force you to charge clients more, and along with that comes a whole point of differentiation that you can work to your advantage. It’s a valid point. But this one still goes to digital.

Cost: Digital is better by far.

4. Ultimate Considerations- Film vs. Digital

What kinds of portrait photographers would be ideal film shooters?

People who value the art of photography above the commercialization or the “cool” of it.
People who love to shoot with natural light.
People who want the look of film as their signature style.
People who are ready and willing to charge a premium to cover the cost of film.
People who can be very selective and disciplined about their shots.
People who love all things vintage/analog to begin with.

What kinds of portrait photographers would probably hate shooting film?

People who love off camera flash and likes a high tech/glossy/ultra modern photography style.
People who like to take a lot of photos on rapidfire and select the frames to keep later.
People who prefer flexibility and like to be all over the place/fast paced in their work.
People who charge very little or can’t afford to spend a lot of money on materials & processing.
People who want instant feedback on results.
People who prefer digital everything overall.

Ultimately, I would consider myself the pragmatic film shooter. On many of these points, I fall under the “ideal film shooter” category. Most of all, I love the look of film. However, I would not want to shoot film all of the time, the biggest reason being cost, followed closely by the overall inconvenience. While film is beautiful for a certain look, it is also very limited and limiting. Plus, I am not actually one of the people who loves film for film’s sake or prefers all things analog. To the contrary, I prefer the flexibilty and the instant nature of digital, and I prefer the rest of my life to be digitized as much as possible (paperless organization. google docs, please).

So what is my solution? Ideally, I want to be able to mimic the look of film even in digital, so I can have digital work that blends seamlessly with film work. Before you say it cannot be done, I assure you, people are already doing it– my favorite photographer Caroline Tran, for one, shoots mostly digital, interspersed with film, and yes, it all looks cohesive. I do not think I personally would want to shoot an entire wedding in film, because I don’t want to have to buy or be running around with that many rolls of film and having to reload it constantly, and I don’t want to have the uncertainty of not knowing whether any of my photos would turn out or if I’d miss entire chunks of the day due to technical error. But would I want to shoot parts of a wedding in film? Sure! Would I want to shoot special projects or certain sessions in film? Absolutely. So in my ideal arrangement, I would get to keep the best of both worlds. I think it’s possible. I just have to figure out how to work my digital post processing to my advantage.

So that concludes my extremely long analysis of film vs. digital photography. To reward you for making it to the bottom of the page, here are a couple more examples from Debby & Justin’s lifestyle shoot in the Mission District of San Francisco. Film on top, digital on bottom.

Stay tuned for Part 4 of the Shooting Film series– when Richard Photo Lab and my local Oscars Photo Lab face off, and I explain which is the best buy! Then, in Part 5, one more experiment that integrates digital and film. You can look back to the previous parts linked in the “Related Posts” below.

Feel free to leave your comments, & critiques below!