around Philly and UPenn

Last weekend, Chris and I walked around Philly, scouting for places to take photos and places to take visitors. We ended up at the Art Museum (and Rocky Steps!) just people watching. I never realized how popular this place is for wedding pictures! In less than half an hour, we saw three different wedding parties take their pictures near the giant columns. I didn't snap any of these because well, I didn't want a confrontation with a photographer. They were hard at work and the last thing they need is some n00b taking pictures of their work!

Before we started our adventure, we stopped by Tbar to get, in my opinion, the best boba in Philly. That's a lot coming from a California Asian. ;)


We found some pretty good spots for portraits and whatnot. Here is Chris modeling them:




I love his cheesy smile here!
Then yesterday, my coworker Liz wanted to go to Locust Walk at UPenn to practice her photography. I also asked our other coworker Paige to join us because I wanted to get some portraits of her and her beautiful eyes.

There's a mini Love sign on campus.


There a lot of beautiful old buildings on Locust Walk, but since it was such a nice day out, SO MANY people were milling around! This was basically the only free spot of doorway I could get.
This last shot is my absolute favorite of any portrait I've taken (not like I've taken that many). This is one of those shots that look fab straight out of the camera and need very little tweaking. I think this is the first one I've taken that needed about 2 minutes of post production. I'm pretty happy about that. :)

these are a few of my favorite things

Ahh, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I fell in love with the combination during our trip to Italy in spring of 2006, back when Chris and I conquered Italy with nothing more than a passion for traveling and a Canon PowerShot SD500.

I knew he was going to be my husband when we both went to Costco, very early in our relationship, ate our hot dogs plain (Polish sausage, yum!), and used the condensation on our soda cups to "wash" our hands. Of course, I didn't tell him that. But it was in Italy (Florence, to be specific) when I realized I loved Chris-- overlooking the Arno River just as the sun slipped below the horizon. Of course, I didn't tell him this either, but now he knows. ;)

Anyway, we went to Di Bruno Brothers on the way home from work today, and aside from the cheese samples they always have out, there was a table set up with pieces of bread, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. "OoOooohhhhh!" we exclaimed, grabbing a piece and dipping generously. As I popped a dripping piece into my mouth, I prayed people were kind enough to refrain from double dipping.

The explosion of taste in my mouth took me straight back to Italy. Now, I'm no expert in olive oil or balsamic vinegar, but this stuff was GOOD.

A store worker came up to us and started explaining that the olive oil was Di Bruno's own, in celebration of their 70th anniversary this year. He hadn't even finished his spiel when I grabbed a bottle of balsamic vinegar and attempted to grab a bottle of the olive oil. I failed in that regard, because my vinegar-less hand was holding a container of shrimp doomed for tonight's dinner. Chris helped me out, haha. He also grabbed a loaf of Italian bread sitting in a nearby basket.

We're super full from dinner (whole-wheat spaghetti with vodka cream sauce and shrimp, heyyyy), but eventually, when we eat this wonderful combination, I will be taken back to Italy...to where I fell in love with my future husband.

Jacob + new logo!

I'm proud to announce our new logo, created by the wonderful Stefanie Montemayor, one of the most talented graphic designers we know! Stef was one of my roomies during my third year of college, and I remember she would always be tinkering around on Photoshop and Illustrator. We lost touch for a couple of years, until the powers of Facebook brought us back into contact. Through her profile, I found her Flickr and samples of her work. Well, it was around that time where Chris and I were tossing around ideas for our logo, and we finally relented that we aren't graphic artists. I'm so glad we found Stef's work when we did...or else you'd be stuck seeing that plain text that was up previously. ;) So thank you, Stef, and here's to you and your wonderful work!

On another note, Chris and I had a great time shooting with Mike, Charlotte, and baby Jacob the other weekend! They were so fun to work with, because they're new parents, and you can totally see the excitement, wonder, and quickly-fleeting awkwardness.

You can't tell by these photos, but the storm outside was pretty bad. In fact, we got stranded in Virginia on Monday. We slowly made our way back to Philly later that afternoon.

Despite the last cold blast of winter, these pictures make us warm and fuzzy inside. Enjoy!




Jacob was doing a whole lot of eating that weekend...every 2-3 hours, to be exact!


He also did a whole lot of this.


Chris got this shot with Jake's eyes open...right before he closed them again!


I love the look on Chris' face here. He's like, AHH I'M HOLDING A BABY!!! Note Jake looking at him (O_o).
I can't wait to see how he looks when we have our own. ;)


Mike taking a break from feeding and leaving it to Charlotte.

The next day, we shot in the early afternoon to get good lighting. Because it was a little more gray than sunny outside, it wasn't the best, but the effects were pretty cool.




A couple with Daddy.


We tried to get him to turn towards us, but he was too intrigued by the design on the pillows.


Circles?

Jake's grandparents (Charlotte's parents) were visiting for the week and got him this SUPER CUTE outfit for St. Patrick's Day. Mike was joking how he wanted to bring Jake to a bar on March 17th, shove him in everyone's face, and say, "Kiss him!" Hilarious!

I'll end with this shot, simply because it reminds us how tiny a baby is. I'm always so amazed looking at newborns; I can't believe how something so tiny can grow up to someone our size!

backing up

I recently joined POTN and one of the very first threads I replied to was about archiving photos.

Now, I'm quite paranoid about losing photos. You can break my laptop, and I could care less about losing music, movies (unless they're home movies), or programs. But my photo collection means the world to me.

Chris and I were married on January 10, 2009. We were on such a high from a wonderful wedding; virtually nothing had gone wrong...or so we thought. On January 16th, we got a call from one of our photographers (a husband-and-wife team). The wife's first memory card was corrupted, and gone were the photos of my bridal prep, solo portraits, and most important to me, the shots of my parents walking me into the church, down the aisle, and meeting Chris at the altar.

Words couldn't express how I felt when I hung up with our photographer. I was blubbering in Chris' arms, trying to wrap my head around the fact that memories of our special day were lost. Our photographer apologized profusely and offered us a partial refund. Still, I didn't care about the money-- I wanted the memory card. We're still in the process of trying to get them to mail it, even after several unsuccessful attempts on their part to recover anything more than the middle portion of our ceremony (read: the middle of mass).

Anyway, that happening was a swift kick in the pants, reminding us to back up, back up, BACK UP. Granted, this loss of photos was due to equipment failure and not failure to back up, but nonetheless, I would hate for that same thing to happen with anybody we work with. Which leads me to our backup process...

1) Download photos to my MacBook Pro. Each event has its own folder, named accordingly. Chris also downloads the photos to his iMac.

2) DVD (either regular or dual-layer, depending how big the folder is) burn x3-- one copy stays with us in Philadelphia (or wherever we happen to be living), another copy is mailed off to my parents in Japan, and the third copy is mailed to Chris' parents in California. We don't mail the off-site copies every single time we shoot an event; once a month works well for us.

3) Every few days, Chris makes a backup of our computers using Time Machine, plus he copies the photos off both computers onto another hard drive.

I also save Photoshop files as I edit the photos, but this is mainly because sometimes I can't remember the recipe I used for TRA.

At the end of the calendar year, Chris does another FULL photo back up. Again, we have both on-site and off-site copies. Once we're absolutely, 150% sure that everything is good to go, that year's photos are deleted off the MBP and iMac. Ready to start the new year fresh!

I know, a little (or a lot) excessive, but I've lost photos before, and it was not my favorite thing in the world. I'd rather have 6 copies of a photo than realize later that there are some missing ones.

Come to think of it, my dad has a similar plan for backing up his machines (multiply and you can't go wrong). Maybe I got it from him? ;)

Mike, Charlotte, and baby Jacob: sneak peek

Chris and I have a new nephew, and he's a cutie patootie! I absolutely love babies...we can't wait to have our own one day, but that'll come in due time. ;)

We love the look on Charlotte's face here. Chris says the caption should be, "Did we really just have a baby?!"

More to come soon. Also, watch out for a new logo in the next few days! :D