We’re in Hawaii! We’ll be back in Thursday. Please expect a slight delay in e-mails and/or phone calls. Aloha!

This was taken with my iPhone at the Dole Plantation.

Photography workshops are a funny things. Go to a bad one, and you’ll be steaming from the ears. Go a good one, and your head will be spinning with great information. Go to a great one and it could be life changing. For me, Foundation Workshop is in that last category.

Here is the official description of the Foundation Workshop:

Unlike other wedding photography workshops, the Foundation Workshop (FW) offers wedding photographers the unique opportunity to work closely with top photojournalists and established documentary wedding photographers.

Under the guidance of experienced instructors, FW participants will explore and develop their photojournalistic skills through the process of shooting and editing a complete photo story of real subjects. There will be no staged weddings or model shoots. Participants will be challenged to approach their real assignments creatively and encouraged to shoot passionately while establishing a foundation for learning the skills and perspective of a photojournalist.

I attended FW mainly to improve my storytelling skills. In retrospect, FW pushed me to the limits of my skills and, in the process, I learned a lot about myself and I learned exactly where I want to take my photography. What makes FW so great is not only their philosophies and teachings, but the people behind it. Not only is the student-to-teacher ratio almost 1 to 1, but the amazing caliber of talent everywhere makes it incomparable. When you start hearing phrases like “Pulitzer Prize Winners” and “Top 10 Wedding Photographers”, it can be quite intimidating. But everyone there is great and the learning environment is awesome. I’m so fortunate to have met all of these amazingly talented and friendly people.

I could probably write 10 pages on what I learned, but I will keep it brief. There were 5 teams that consisted of one Team Leader, a small group of Mentors and 5-6 students. The Leader and Mentors were the ones mainly responsible for guiding their students to complete their assignment. My FW assignment was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do when it comes to photography. I had to overcome a lot of internal struggles to complete what I was asked to do. But with their guidance, I was placed in the best possible position to get the best possible images. And, for me, it was more than just shooting the assignment itself. I found the hours and hours of critique equally as important. During the critiques, I began to learn what really makes an image impactful and I started to see things that I never saw before. I just didn’t “get it” before. In the past, I thought I was critical of my own work, but now, I realize that I was not critical enough. All my teammates and I experienced similar struggles with all of our assignments and it was so great to witness everyone step their game up over the few days. I saw some amazing work! Plain and simply, attending Foundation Workshop made me a better photographer.

Now, I refer to my photography as BFW (Before Foundation) and AFW (After Foundation). I’m still proud of a lot of my old work, but with a new and improved way of viewing things definitely comes more opportunity for better and better images. It’s been 3 months since Foundation and I’m still deciphering all this new information. I guess that is always the challenge when learning new things. It’s so easy to fall back to doing what you used to do, even though you know it’s not right. It will probably take me the rest of the year, if not longer, to fully implement everything I learned. I know that there are other important aspects to running a successful photography business, but I’m definitely excited to be taking my art to new places. The next Foundation Workshop is in January 2011 and I’m excited that Tey will be attending! I’m pretty sure she will not have steam coming out from her ears.

Check out more FW info here: The Foundation Workshop. If you are interested to see what Foundation is all about in person, go to the 2nd Annual Foundation Conference this November. I’ll see you there!

My awesome FW8 Team!
Team Leader: David Murray
Mentors: Becca Spears, Erwin Darmali, Ray Soemarsono
Teammates: Abbie Flynn, Julie Kim, Kathryn Krueger, Olivia Brown, Thai Dao

Here are a few of my favorite images from my assignment which was an indoor swimming pool:

We are proud to be a member of the ISPWP (International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers). It is one of best and most respected on-line directory of wedding photographers. And we are also very excited to announce that we placed in the Top 10 for the Winter 2009 Photo Contest!! It’s such an honor to be on the list with such amazing photographers from all over the world. There is some crazy talent there and it’s so cool to see our name along with them. Here are our images that placed! Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible!

Placed #2 in “Bridal Portrait” Category

There is more! Click to continue reading »

I’m happy to share that Shanel and David’s wedding that we photographed last year at the Pala Mesa Resort in Fallbrook was chosen as one of the featured weddings in The Knot’s current issue for Spring/Summer 2010. It was such a great wedding for a great couple and they had it all. Awesome details, the infamous Scrablle cake and some amazing friends and family that kept the party rocking all night! Check out their original blog post. Here is what it looked like in print. Check it out at your local magazine source! Page 90 :)

Note: We did not photograph the cover image.

…on our Facebook Fan Page! To celebrate our passing of 500 fans, we wanted to do something to all the facebookers out there. We’re giving away one $50 iTunes Gift Certificate to the lucky winner. Go to our fan page, and post a comment on our giveaway photo and you will be entered. More details on the fan page:

NOTE: Comments here on the blog does not count as an entry, sorry. Please go to the fan page.