HyStudio – Life Behind the Lens

Sarah’s also an Amy Kuschel bride!

Have a happy long weekend!

Irene, Amy Kuschel Bride.

Many HyStudio brides are wearing Amy Kuschel wedding gown this year. When I got married, I wore Lazaro, a male designer. Since I’ve been in wedding industry for about 5 years now, I’ve always observed the artistic differences between male and female wedding photographers. Each of his/her own strength. I started to observe the similar differences in wedding gown design business. I didn’t know Amy Kuschel till I met Carmille, a 2007 HyStudio Bride: See some blog posts last year: wedding day, day-after. Since then, I really fall in love w/ Amy Kuschel gown.

Here’s Irene in Amy Kuschel.

More to come. Stay Tuned!

Alison and Dave live in New York City. They will be getting married in Napa upcoming Fall. They stopped by bay area to plan their wedding couple weekends ago. Hy and I were able to meet up with them the morning before they fly back ton NYC.

Here are some of my favorites from the morning

I love the close ups 🙂

We met up in front of the SF Ferry Building at 9am. I used to work in the city, but it’s been a while. I missed the morning feeling of the city. Hy often shoot engagements at the city late afternoon. It’s a totally different feeling in the morning. I love how the color turned out.

One of my favorites.

Congratulations Alison & Dave. Can’t wait till your big day!

Stay tune for part II 🙂

Summer months are usually very busy months for HyStudio. Reading back on HyStudio blog, there are lots of pictures, but again, lack of life stories. You can’t name your blog “Life Behind the Lens” if you only show life before the lens, but not behind. 🙂 So, here we go. Let me give you a dump on how things roll behind the lens.

I would summarize my summer so far as ‘intense, enlightening, awe’.

There were lots going on this summer besides weddings for Hy and I. For me, in times of changes in my full time job, my work life pattern has been repeating cycles of surprising incidents following by reacting, team work and resolution. Within those sometimes painful cycles, fortunately, I am always surrounded by great teams with their support. During the process, there are often excitements when we discover if we work together as a team, we are stronger and able to achieve more. I often told my upper management how lucky we were to be able to work with great talents among us. For Hy, he switched to a new company this year. He has been working extremely hard for past months which most people go through during the on-boarding process to a new job. He finally got over that hurdle last week. A good timing as we are now full speed in our wedding season 🙂

On the topic of team work, I am enlightened and owe during this Olympic season. I’ve sat in front of TV a lot recently, working through the pictures (giving our Editor in Chief a break to prepare for her upcoming wedding in Sept.), and watch snippets of Olympic. For the beach volleyball, I saw Misty May & Walsh overcame five set points in the first set to beat Belgium. For gymnastic, we saw young ladies in both US and China team went through their routines, made mistakes, but continued to push through and not gave up. For men’s program, we saw US team worked together routine after routine, cheered each other up even after problematic performance to achieve a bronze. And of course, there’s Michael Phelps achieving golds that he worked hard for. One consistent theme through out the Olympic story, during the trials, hardship, and difficulties, these star athletics never gave up. They continued to work toward their goals.

On a lighter note, on the Olympic opening ceremony night, Hy and I were actually at Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe camping with our God son Lucas and his mother, who are visiting from London. For my faithful blog readers, you’ve seen Lucas last summer on our blog as well. This is Lucas’ first time camping, so he was super excited. this is Lucas’ interpretation of Olympic! Hy took some really cool photos during our trip, I will share with you girls when we have a chance.

Since my Taiwan trip, I’ve been reading up life stories of different artists in the area of sketching, painting and drawing. This afternoon, I spend quite some time browsing through Tim Cantor’s life story. I’ve fallen in love with Cantor’s work during a visit to his gallery at San Diego. In his life story, he talked about his drive to follow his artistic mind of continue creation of new images in his heart, and not be limited in a particular style. This requires courage, because a new style may mean a new audience. This made me think of HyStudio’s passage as well. Hy’s style now is quite different from when he started, because Hy too, wanted to follow his heart as an artist, instead of following financial rewards. And I would reveal, if you read thus far, in 2009, there will be break through for HyStudio. It will take courage, but I know, it’s necessary for the artists in our studio to following their artistic instincts. I support their decisions to follow their hearts!

Sunday evening, Hy and I will be meeting up with the pastor who married us at Sausalito. I plan to visit Tim Cantor’s Sausalito studio in the afternoon. I am so looking forward for the trip!

Venue: Hakone Gardens, Saratoga
Florist:Florabella Designs (Sarah Kratz)
Makeup Artist:Nam Vo
Hair Artist:Lisa Truong
Cake:Margaret’s French Bakery
Ukelele Musician: Hiram Bell
Videographer:CinematicTouch (Vincent Quach)
DJ:X-Generation Entertainment (Ngoc Hieu)

I really love the Chuppah.

Hakone Garden outdoor wedding is just beautiful.

Some wedding photos with traditional Japanese tea house as backdrop.

One of my favorite in this wedding!

Congratulations Huong & Danny!

Venue: Ruby Hill Golf Club, Livermore
Gown: Amy Kuschel
Make-up and Hair Artist: Sherrie Long Makeup & Hair, Sherrie Long
Florist: Ivy Florist, Saeko Sugo
Cake: Katrina Rozelle Bakery, Katrina Topp
DJ: DJK, Keith Switzer
Lighting: AmosPro, Jody Amos
Chair Cover: Lynn’s Wedding Service, Lynn Le

Carol and David, two high school sweet hearts, tied the knot at the beautiful Ruby Hill Golf course at Livermore, CA. The flower girl is Carol’s sister’s daughter. She’s so adorable!

I love the flower girl’s basket as well.

My younger sister is one of the bridesmaid. Guess which one is my sis?

Carol is the most joyful bride I’ve known.

One of my favorites!

Beautiful Carol in Amy Kuschel wedding gown ~

I always like Frank & Hy’s sunset lighting photos. Lighting makes all the differences! This photo also show case the back of the gown. So beautiful!

Wishing you Happy Ever After Carol & David ~

Venue: Ruby Hill Golf Club, Livermore
Gown: Amy Kuschel
Make-up and Hair Artist: Sherrie Long Makeup & Hair, Sherrie Long
Florist: Ivy Florist, Saeko Sugo
Cake: Katrina Rozelle Bakery, Katrina Topp
DJ: DJK, Keith Switzer
Lighting: AmosPro, Jody Amos
Chair Cover: Lynn’s Wedding Service, Lynn Le

I’ve known Carol for ages. In fact, I’ve known David for ages too. Carol and David started dating since high school. Check out our creative e-sessions with them last year in hot air balloons and in e-sessions at Napa! Carol is my younger sister’s best friend since high school. And of course.. my sis is one of the bridesmaids in this gorgeous wedding!

We met our good friend, one of the best make up & hair artist in bay area, Sherrie Long, in Carol’s bridal prep session.

Designer wedding gown from Amy Kuschel

I am going to start with some amazing detail photos. Carol and David got married in one of the most beautiful golf course in bay area: Ruby Hill Golf Club. Carol & David use romantic honeymoon destinations as theme for table names!

Elegant cake

Stay tune. I will be posting more of their wedding photos soon!