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.

Best of 2011: Portraits & Headshots

Anna — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 21:20:56 +0000

It’s been another wonderful year! We kick off the year-end recaps with the best of portraits & headshots in 2011. Click on the links or images to visit the full posts.

Lifestyle Portraits & Headshots

Karina Garcia Li in San Jose, California.

TaiwaneseAmerican.org t-shirt shoot in San Francisco, California. Dental school students never looked so good.

Alexandra Leem, violist, in San Francisco, California.

Ho Chie Tsai in Oakland, California.

Diana Lee in Los Angeles, California.

Eugene Petrushansky, Harpsichordist, in Fremont, California.

Family Portraits

Wallis & Julian, family session in Orinda, California.

Little Isla, family session in Oakland, California.

Deion’s Birthday Party, family session in San Francisco, California.

Baby Miles in Richmond, California.

Little Sarah family session in San Gabriel, California.

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:

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!

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!

Sammie | San Francisco Photography Mentorship

Anna — Mon, 23 May 2011 22:29:21 +0000

Today I just wanted to give a shout out to my mentee Sammie. She found me through my friend Dianne Jago when she needed to do a mentorship for her senior year in high school. We met up at my home office for some lessons on photography, and Sammie helped out as my assistant at a couple different shoots including Cynthia & Nathan’s wedding last week. Sammie was a great student and an awesome assistant! If she weren’t going off to college next year I’d try to keep her forever. Thanks Sammie!

Below, couple frames from our first session together.

My Headshots | Jeffrey Kuo Photography

Anna — Wed, 18 May 2011 06:35:04 +0000

It’s always a bit strange to get out from behind the lens and hop in front of the camera for some of my own headshots. But it’s something I shold probably do more often, lest I become the photographer who is never in any photographs! Luckily, my friend Jeffrey Kuo was in my neighborhood a couple months ago and photographed a few portraits for me. Below are just a couple of the frames from our shoot!

Check out Jeff’s work at Jeffrey Kuo Photography. And many thanks to Van at Vanity Pham/A-List Makeup for my hair and makeup!

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.