My Wedding
September 6th, 2006
Here’s my post as a customer. I finally received my wedding albums in the mail (I got married this year, in March), and they’re really professional and lovely. Queensberry did an excellent job, their albums are hand assembled in New Zealand, and though I paid an arm and a leg for the albums, they’re definitely worth it.
The thing about my wedding is that I thought it was one of the most stressful things I have ever gone through in my life. A lot of people wish they could get married all over again and go through all of the excitement, but for me it was really nerve-racking, and usually when people ask me how it was I say that it was the most stressful thing in my life, and thank God I am only planning to get married once. We were on a budget, I couldn’t get days off at work, and most of all, I felt like everything was compressed and sometimes I felt like I was missing the point of it all but there were so many things I had to get done.
Though I couldn’t shoot my own wedding, we found someone who did: Darcy Padilla, and when I saw her credentials and her pictures, my husband and I knew she was the one. By hiring her to shoot our wedding, she taught me much about what it means to be a wedding photographer, and it’s more than the pictures. it’s how you interact with people, it means being supportive, and it means taking on the full responsibility of capturing a couple’s milestone.
Now that I think about it, we spent about a third of our wedding budget on photography, but it’s all worth it. Now when I look at my album (she took the pictures, I designed the album), I get to relive my wedding, without all of the stress and the fuss. I get to dwell on colors, and people, and when I see the album I see the main point of the wedding and the important things, like friends and family and a lifetime promise. Even the pictures on the beach are stunning, and I only remember slightly that I was in a strapless dress and it was 40 degrees and a thunderstorm seemed imminent.
Check out Darcy’s website www.weddingsbydarcy.com. She was a great deal when she shot our wedding, though I’m not sure if she raised her prices. I know that part of my business is shooting weddings, and if I shoot your wedding I’ll do my best, but if you can afford Darcy, I would recommend her, she’s really good. If you do consider her tell her I said hi.
The other thing that I realized is that alot of you don’t know what I look like. I know that for many of you the blog is the only thing you know of me in this Internet era, so if you go to www.weddingsbydarcy.com, and click on “my wedding portfolio”, my own wedding pictures will be in her portfolio, under Carmel.
Trip Reflections
August 30th, 2006
My two weeks in China was great because I got to get away from the modern world for a while. During the weekdays I was in Bao An, which is a city in the outskirts of Shenzhen; it’s a 30 minute drive from Hong Kong. It’s a nice thing, not having a cell phone and not needing to check email.
(above) Here’s Bao An, and the area where I went to get a cold iced tea whenever I had a break. It was around 110 degrees Farenheit and very tropical and humid, so combined with the pollution (I only saw a “blue” sky a few days out of the two weeks that I was there) it was a bit difficult for me to get used to at first. I lived a minute walking distance away from here. If you notice, there’s trash on the side of the sidewalk. I was taught very quickly not to walk along the buildings, as the people who live there throw all of their trash not in a trash can, but out the window. Stepping on pothole covers were also not suggested, as some of the pothole covers weren’t really covered and a coworker of mine has fell through and into the sewage water.
What’s travel without food photography? I consider food photography to be my weakest photography skill…but it sure doesn’t hurt to practice.
I had a great week!
July 10th, 2006
I’m back from Sacramento, and all I can say is that youth camp was great! I didn’t get a chance to take pictures because I was so busy having fun with the kids. This time for camp I had college students and I was very impressed by their maturity and their faith.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank many of you for your support and encouragement. Often people talk about their kids, and I know this is kind of weird, but I can’t help but think that my photography is my kid. It’s something that came into my world and has only brought me alot of rewarding hard work and joy. I’ve been getting great feedback about my work, as well as a lot of constructive criticism on how I can improve, which I really appreciate. For example, I got a call from a Ayman (a potential client who is getting married in Michigan), saying that they found someone else, but I was at the top of their list if not for a couple shooting their wedding. So it looks like I got beat by a husband and wife team, and when I learned of this I just started laughing, because that was something out of my control; I’m a one person team. Thanks to Ayman for the encouragement and congratulations on your upcoming celebration!
Another note: On the day of the wedding, per request of the couple, I usually show a same-day slideshow of the getting ready pics and ceremony pictures. I have this really neato program that processes my images and times it to a song of choice. Anyhow, here’s the slide show that was shown at Jeff and Ying’s wedding
http://www.christinechangphotography.com/beta/portfolio/jeff_ying/
My helpers
June 27th, 2006
This is Ethan, one of my web guys and a very good friend. He’s in Albuquerque, New Mexico working on my website. I was going to take pictures of Ethan and Andrew and introduce them formally but these pictures, self-taken by Ethan, were too funny, I couldn’t resist posting them. My web guys are pretty crazy, and kind of like older brothers too. They ever-so-gently but firmly make me learn all of the computer stuff (sometimes I tell them this is akin to making an engineer write a shakespeare essay, it can be so intimidating!!). Andrew’s brushing me up on the photoshop skills and Ethan’s giving me FTP computer assignments. Anyhow, we’re getting ready to launch the full version of my full photography website and it’s been crazy, but I sure am having lots of fun.
Welcome!
May 5th, 2006
