HyStudio – Life Behind the Lens

We got a lot of bookings and inquiries from Ruby Hill Golf Club for 2008. I thought it will be nice for me to share more photos from Vicky and Vincent’s wedding from the location. Ruby Hill Golf Club is such a dynamic and beautiful location. Berni, the director of wedding/special events at Ruby Hill was super helpful when we were on site. We can’t wait to work with Berni and the team more in 2008!

Check out Vicky and Vincent’s wedding slideshow highlights by clicking the image below. Remember to turn on your speaker! Enjoy ~

Have a nice and safe labor day weekend girls ~

Bora Bora, here we come!

Caitlin and Alex were referred by our close sister and brother from church, Jenny and Charlie. Caitlin and Jenny went to high school together. I grew up with Jenny in the same church since my high school years as well. It’s fun to have common friends. We got a lot more to talk about during the first visit than just the wedding day details. Though Jenny heard a lot of Alex, she actually hadn’t met Alex at the time. At the end of Caitlin and Alex’s first visit at our place, we were even thinking to drop by Jenny and Charlie’s to give them a surprise visit. End up our spontaneous idea didn’t work out as Jenny and Charlie were out that evening.

If you follow HyStudio blog for a while now, you know this place probably is not Bora Bora Caitlin and Alex’s creative vision plus Hy’s artistic eye created these nice settings! Yes this is a location in bay area. And these teaser photos are from Caitlin and Alex’s engagement photo session

Hy and I are just so fortunate to meet with so many brides and grooms who share the same passion and thirst for creativity and uniqueness in photography. It is great fun to work with people who vibrates to the same tune. It’s amazing that by working together, we can create something that’s way beyond our own limited imagination if we were by ourselves! Caitlin and Alex, kudos to you for providing us the sauce for success!

Caitlin, I love the make up and hair! I am glad the trial turned out well. The style fits you well. Love the bouquet you made for yourself too, you are so talented!

Girls, did I mention these photos are just teaser? There are just so much more amazing photos to come. Peeking at what’s coming from Hy’s computer makes me so excited that I have hard time breathing! I myself have to be patient and show you one excitement at a time.

Oh btw, if you are having a wedding in Bora Bora in 2008, do contact us. Our 2008 theme is destination wedding. We will be sure to create a fair package you will enjoy.

“Some love lasts a life time, true love lasts forever”

This is the theme of Vicky and Vince’s wedding. The sweet hearts met in college at the fraternity table Vince’s hosting at those ‘welcome’ weeks when the semester just started. Reading their love story really brought back those fun and crazy memories of the young college days.

From the proposal, to the dreamy wedding venue, to the wedding day photos, I can see Vicky and Vince are deeply in love with lots of romance in their life. Vince proposed during a trip to the Big Apple on a romantic night carriage ride in Central Park during the Christmas season. I can imagine the park must be so pretty with holiday lighting. The surrounding street decorated with warm festive atmosphere. So romantic ~

Let’s start with some portrait shots to refresh your memory – My new blog reader, see v&v’s teaser.

Let’s rewind a little, starting from the ‘girl friends’ time

I was cracking up when I was working on the set. Haha ..

Vicky and Vincent decided to meet before the ceremony. So, Hy and Frank was station to captured their first glance of each other.

An intense moment

They also schedule plenty of time to take photos with the wedding party. The wedding party was great fun. I will show you guys the slideshow some other day.

Beautiful ceremony site of Ruby Hill Golf Club.

Paparazzi Alert!!

Beautiful surrounding of Ruby Hill Golf Club after the ceremony.

You’ve seen a slight variation of this photo in the teaser set.

I love the ambiance of Ruby Hill’s Grand Ballroom. The guests gather around watching the slide show.

The Filipino Money Dance!

I think this is the greenest money dance we’ve participated in so far!

Happy newlywed!

I love the shadows on the wall. Vicky threw 3 bouquets at once!

Beautiful ground at night.

Venue: Ruby Hill Golf Club
Florist: Trish of trishflower@comcast.net
Make Up: Elaine of make-up_by_sanusi@hotmail.com
Officiant: White Robed Monks
Cake: Primrose

Congratulations Vicky and Vince!

Hy and I are both adventurous eaters. We love to try different type of restaurants.

Recently, we were introduced to Sumika, an authentic Kushi-Yaki (skewered-grilling) restaurant in Los Altos. According to the web-site, Kushi-Yaki is based on the concept that flavors of the season can be best enjoyed when bite-size meats and vegetables are served piping hot directly from the charcoal grill.

We went to Sumika twice for dinner already this month. It’s a small restaurant, so be sure to make reservation on weekends. On weekday night, it can be quite empty. It’s fun to go on an empty night, as you get to chat with the waitress and the chef. Check it out, it’s an very interesting experience. And the food is fresh and yummy!

I will have a pack day Sunday. But I do have some amazing wedding photos to show case when I have a chance next week. There are also Aug wedding teasers that I am holding on to. Stay tuned!

About a month ago, I showed you photos of Sharlene and Jason’s engagement teaser.

Here are more photos from the engagement photo session. Sharlene and Jason will be tying the knot this Sept., inside a beautiful romantic garden. I can’t wait for the big day!

Life wise, Hy and I are currently planning an autumn trip to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina. I hope we will be able to catch some fall foliage. Hy loves nature, so he’s so excited about the trip. If you have any tips, leave us a message.

On a separate note, thank you all who had been emailing us about enjoying reading this blog! Leave messages sometimes and say hi. I am glad the blog bring some joy to your life. I also appreciate our HyStudio Mrs. who shared happy baby news and honeymoon photos with us. I can’t wait to hear more about what’s going on in your life! Thank you for keeping in touch with us. We really appreciate your friendship and support!

I’ve been taking a one week summer slack from the blog. Now I am back to my normal schedule.

Life is good for a small summer break for Hy and I. We finally had a chance to watch a movie. We haven’t been to movies in centuries!! (ok.. I am exaggerating. But it does feel like centuries!!) Instead of watching Homer’s family, my dear husband sacrificed himself for me to watch Jason Bourne.

On Sat., Hy had a chance to go to the beach, actually playing volleyball and enjoying BBQ, not taking photos! Sunday afternoon, we finally get to visit Satura Cakes in Los Altos for the first time for some delicious cakes and high quality coffee. Life is good when we remember to stop and smell the roses.

With that said, we are still going full speed processing many many photos in our hand. I will be able to show case a bunch up coming.

For tonight, I would reward your patience with some ‘HyStudio backstage photos’. Thanks Frank for capturing these moments of Hy in actions during Camille and Mike’s photo session. Enjoy ~

I went on a SF Treasure Hunts as a team building activity last Friday. The goal was to resolve some puzzles together as a team (to stimulate team work). We were given 16 clues with 16 ‘treasures’ to find. We were given a ‘boundary’ on the map, from Embarcadero, to the Financial District, to China Town, to North Beach. From the 16 clues, we were supposed to figure out 16 locations within the map boundary and to hunt 16 ‘treasures’ from those 16 locations. Time bound was 3 hours to figure out the puzzle, including figuring out what cross street to go to, walking to the locations, and finding the treasures.

Working with HyStudio, I thought I knew the city inside out. Hy and I had drove around the city numerous times to scout out locations in the past years. Yet, last Friday, while walking on foot the street of San Francisco, I learned that I knew so little of the city. The 16 locations where the treasures were hidden, some were located in famous cross streets, some were located in narrow dead-end alleys with names that were unheard of. My team and I would turn a corner and arrived at a totally different world. The hills went up and down, scenes in front of me defines San Francisco in one way, scenes from afar defines the city in another way. In the midst of literally running cross the city and yelling over the crowd to get my teammates moving in the same direction, I was awed with what the city has to offer.

Last night, Hy finished Camille and Michael’s Day-After photo slideshow. Again, I was awed with how beautiful and dynamic San Francisco is through Hy and Frank’s lens. I am going to let the photos speak for themselves. Enjoy ~

Thank you Camille and Mike for putting your full trust on Hy and Frank! You two are such a pleasure to work with.

Girls, if you have a tight schedule on your wedding day, do consider having a ‘day-after’ photo session. It’s a great way to capture that beautiful gown and a relax way to enjoy the creativity of HyStudio portrait shots! Check out our past Day-After portrait session here: http://hystudio.wordpress.com/tag/day-after/

Tonight, I was going over a wedding day time line with Hy. At times, it’s hard to describe where/what a ‘barn’ is.

“Do you remembered, last time we went visit? it’s not really a barn, but it’s a 2 story building. The folks over there just called it ‘the barn’”? I tried to be clear in my late night language.

Hy had a blank look ..

“The 2 story building? remember?”

Still looked blank ..

“OK, picture worth a thousand words. Let me show you from our blog. I post the photos there. Remember?”

Then, I realize, urg .. we do have too much posts. Hy sat next to me, reading the details of the wedding day time line while waiting for me.

“Hm.. too many posts now” I said. “Let me search our own blog using Google.” (Hee .. did I mention that I am a search queen?)

“Hm.. strange. Not found on Google main search. Let’s try blog search .. What? None either .. “

So, what can you do when you can’t find it on Google.

You do the search by hand. Looking at the posts one by one. In our industry, it’s call “brute-force search” for our geeky readers out there.

Still. The Image Is NOT Found (I love Grace. She’s so cute. If you can decode my language here, leave a comment)

“What.. I didn’t post the photos? Oh man … “

Then, I went to Hy’s computer, and found the images sitting there, quietly, without ever seeing the light of the day ..

So, I am liberating them now. Here, let me introduce you “The Barn”!

“The Barn” is next to Quail Meadows, one of the ceremony location of Quail Lodge Resort and Golf Club of Carmel. Here is a photo of the ceremony ground.

Hy will be heading to Carmel this week. I know Hy will really enjoy the trip.

<<Side note #1>> Hey everyone, thanks so much for visiting us. If you visit us weekly, please leave a message to say hi. We are getting close to the 10K page views. I am so excited!!

<<Side note #2>> Hy and I will be in Maui 12/7 – 12/12. We are looking for a couple to shoot a formal gown/tux session. I haven’t sort out the details yet. So, more details to come in up coming months. If you are interested, send us an email. We will keep you posted when we have the details. Please include in your subject: “Maui Photo Session”. Please include 1 or 2 location suggestions that you would like to be photographed at in Maui. Please find our contact email here: http://www.hystudio.com/contact/