This year for my birthday, I opted for an interactive gathering: a pottery class! We gathered at Play with Clay in El Cerrito and dug in, pottery wheels and all. It was so much fun, I’m already plotting my next return to the wheel. I went with full traditional paper invites and everything, designed by…
On February 28, 1947 began the infamous events of “228,” a widespread massacre of tens of thousands of Taiwanese by the Nationalist (KMT) government that had recently arrived from China. The 228 Massacre became a taboo topic in the subsequent years of martial law that extended through the 1980s and had ripple effects that were felt…
I absolutely love seeing all the beautiful creations from my friend Brianne over at Brown Fox Calligraphy. We met up at my studio one day so I could help her photograph some of her favorite wedding suites and miscellaneous pieces from 2015. They’re all so pretty, it’s impossible to pick favorites, though this first one with its…
Last weekend, I teamed up with Brianne of Brown Fox Calligraphy and Melanie of Hawthorn Flower Studio to offer our “Calligraphy and Centerpieces” workshop in San Francisco. We had a full class of ten awesome students. They first learned the basics of calligraphy for menus and escort cards and then each got to create a…
Halfway through planning their big, expensive wedding, Sarah and Zach did what a lot of couples find themselves doing: they turned to each other and said, “let’s just elope instead.” Most couples probably don’t go through with the idea, but for Sarah and Zach, it quickly became reality. With their families’ blessings, they flew from their home in Florida…
Cake party! We had such a lovely shoot with these wooden cake toppers from Brown Fox Calligraphy, cakes decorated by my friend Andrew Chao, and florals by Hawthorn Flower Studio. Here’s a little glimpse at our three pretty cakes below: Vendors: Cake toppers: Brown Fox Calligraphy Cake: Andrew Chao Florals: Hawthorn Flower Studio Venue: Berkeley City…
I was thrilled to help Melanie of Hawthorn Flower Studio photograph a floral lookbook for her new marketing collateral. One of my favorite venues, The Berkeley City Club, provided the perfect setting for our shoot. See it all below: What a privilege to work with such talented friends! See more of Melanie’s floral work at…
I first met and photographed Shawna six years ago, when her first book Water Ghosts had just been released by Penguin Press. Now her second novel has been completed and is available for preordering: Green Island. The book has been Shawna’s labor of love over the last decade and is a work of historic fiction set against the backdrop of Taiwanese and…
One of the best things about being in the wedding industry is finding other vendors whom you just love to work with and collaborating together on all sorts of projects. In the past few weeks, I’ve connected with my friend Brianne of Brown Fox Calligraphy to help her photograph some of her beautiful pieces, and I also attended one of…
First of all, a big congratulations is in order for my friend Brianne who, as of this week, is now a full-time calligrapher! We met only recently through a mutual friend of our shared alma mater, but we hit it off right away, and we’ve been thinking up all sorts of collaborations ever since. Check out Brianne’s…
Located just two hours south of San Francisco, Monterey makes for a perfect day trip from the Bay Area. I’ve been lucky enough to visit Monterey Bay four times in the last year, for a variety of reasons, including weddings and personal trips. This March, when I was down in Monterey for a couple days, I visited the Monterey…
I’m not a very outdoorsy person by nature. Lacking in athleticism, having no survival skills, and having a general dislike for insects makes me pretty useless for most intense outdoor activities. But walking through pretty nature? Yes. That I love. Back in March and April, I got to go on four different hikes around the…