I honestly can’t remember the last time I spoke to two individuals literally NON-STOP for over FIVE hours straight. Last night, I had the utmost pleasure of hanging out and getting to know make-up artist (MUA) sensation Solana and her super cool husband Miguel. I met Solana about a month ago at Lisa and Aldous’ wedding and talked to her briefly during the after-wedding party hang out. It was certainly our commonality of being in the wedding industry that got us talking, but what really caught and held my interest with Solana that evening were her personality and behavior.

She came off as someone that was very sincere and honest about her work and herself. Solana was also very upbeat and full of energy, all of which are qualities I admire and look for in wedding vendors that I want to work with and refer to my brides. She also takes that extra step to listen to what her brides want and ensures they all look absolutely amazing on their wedding day. As a wedding photographer, I think it’ crucial that I team up with a make-up artist that is highly skilled at what she does and clicks with the bride and makes her feel comfortable and beautiful. The MUA almost always sees the bride even before I do during the getting ready phase of the wedding. By the time I see the bride, I want her to not only look amazing, but also feel good too; all of that transpires into amazing images of herself.

So after meeting Solana and seeing her work and resume, I knew I had to get to know her better and collaborate on how we could possibly provide professional, high-quality make-up AND photography service to our brides. After all, the two go hand-in-hand with one another :). Here’s a screen shot from her website that shows the wide variety of work that she does:

Solana’s goal is to help you look AND feel beautiful on your wedding day, and to be that personal assistant and friend leading up to your wedding, during it, and even afterwards. And as YOUR wedding photographer, I aspire to give you my all in capturing your beauty and the love that you and your significant other share for one another. We strive to not only build strong relationships with our brides, but to strenghten it throughout the wedding day and beyond.

Going back to last night, Solana, her husband Miguel, and I had dinner in West Hollywood and talked for HOURS on teaming up together and giving future brides an amazing experience. I’m really stoked to work with her! If you’re a future bride reading this, we sincerely hope to have that privilege!

Miguel took this one shot of us with his Blackberry phone around 12:30AM right on 3rd St. last night (thanks Miguel). Sorry for the small size and decent quality but it’s better than no photo right?

I went to USC during my lunch break today to pick up my M.S. diploma. Holding that piece of paper in my hands, it truly felt GREAT to officially be done with graduate school, but more so to tell myself: no more lectures, homeworks, essays, projects, and exams! I can’t help but feel pretty excited, relieved, and a bit content since this is the first time in forever that I don’t have academics in my daily life. It’s nice to have an extra 10-15 hours per week to do other things, such as focusing more on my wedding/NBA photography career and hanging out with the people that mean the world to me.

At this time, I’d like to thank all my elementary, middle, and high school teachers, as well as my undergraduate and graduate professors. The few names that stand out, whom I’m forever grateful for their teaching and wisdom, are Mr. Austin, Mr. Genova, Ms. Paulson, Mr. Wong, all from Lincoln High School, and Professor Harris, from Harvey Mudd College. After 20+ years of school, I think the most important lesson I’ve learned is to do whatever I can to have a career and life that I’ll be very passionate about and one that will influence and help others. The study of mathematics, science, and engineering is not just about complex equations, how the world works, and building things; it’s about learning how to solve the toughest challenges ever: not just the problems in textbooks but also the ones we deal with in our life everyday.

The awesome, awesome, awesome people of Flosites outdid themselves with a brand spankin’ new MySpace page for me. Ross and his team first designed this blog and my new logo LESS THAN three weeks ago. These guys work fast without sacrificing quality. Also, their professionalism and customer service are top-notch.
The new MySpace page comes with a custom-designed layout, flash header (currently replaced with a regular photo to speed up downloading time because there’s A LOT of stuff on that page), three galleries (weddings, NBA, and portraits), audio player with my favorite songs at the moment, unique background to match the style and color of my website and blog, and even sub-pages for more information, contact, etc. I currently have those linked to my portfolios. The great thing is I can easily go in and change any of the images and songs, which is very important to me because I update like crazy :).

I think we all know how horrendous the MySpace code is to understand and edit; so it’s amazing how these guys pulled off a professional web page that loads correctly in pretty much every single web browser on both Macs and PCs. I’m VERY impressed!

Thanks again to Flosites for doing an outstanding job in such a short period of time. If you’re someone looking for a new blog, logo, and/or MySpace page, contact me and I’ll give you my Flosites promo code so you’ll get an even better deal.

Visit my new MySpace page by clicking here.

Hey everyone! This is the official coming out party for my new weblog, designed by the wonderful people of Flosites. Ross and his team did an amazing job getting this thing designed and running in a week and a half. I got a really good deal from Flosites and couldn’t be happier with their work and customer service. The blog is only part of the entire package. I’m also having Flosites design a certain webpage that will be launched in the next day or two and is going to kick major arse! More info on that when I’m ready to launch it ;).

Besides the blog and this other thing, I also had Ross design me an actual logo for my photography. Inspired by his cultural roots in England and parts of Eastern Europe, Ross came up with this design:

What do you guys think? I like how it’s simple yet complex at the same time. I’ve always been a fan of symmetry and star/flower-like shapes plus I haven’t quite seen anything like it yet. Just a reminder to visitors that you’re more than welcome to download my photos for your own personal usage, but please leave the border/logo on each photo and link back to my website. It also wouldn’t hurt to give me a heads up as well :).

My old blog is still running and will be up for a while. But all future posts will be made here. I’m currently editing a few more photos from my last wedding two weeks ago and the Clippers/Magic game from last night. They should be up before the weekend hits. So expect to see even more posts and bigger photos. Your feedback on the new blog, logo, and pretty much anything else is greatly appreciated so please drop a comment. I’m going to be more conscious about writing back to your thoughts in the comment box. I hope to hear from you soon!