Joseph & Kimmy Family Portraits

Josh & Esther's Engagement

Yosemite 2020

Fujifilm XT-3 W/ 35mm 1.4F

NATURE

PORTRAITS

Philip & Justine's Engagement

These two are the most awesome of awesome. It was a great honor and pleasure to be able to shoot for them.

“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” - John 15:13

Kimmy & Joseph Family Portraits

Mt. Tamapalis

Went on a hike with some solid people to take some scenic nature pictures. This was probably the first time hanging out with this group outside of church but it was great to hang out with people who also like to take pictures none the less.

Mr and Mrs. Waggoner!

My First Wedding!

This was a fun experience, to say the least. This client had reached out to me about 2 weeks prior to the wedding date. Praise God for the opportunity to shoot. I had pulled in my 10 years experience of shoot other clients and events, but this was the first time being the primary photographer for a wedding. This was a great experience, and I would not mind having another opportunity to hone my skills even further. The hours are long and the editing was tedious. I had overshot and had about 4,000 shots total on my new Fujifilm setup. Thankfully, I had all of my 7 batteries with me. By the end of the night, I was on my last battery which was surprising, because each battery should only be ~350 shots each. Provision of God? 1 King 7:16 moment? I think so! :)

Pre-ceremony

Cocktails!

The Reception

Praise God for these wonderful people.

— A+

The Kwan Family Portraits

The Wait Is Finally Over!

I had waited so long to shoot this family. Hanna is so freaking cute!!! I love that she is so expressive and joyful (when she isn’t giving a tantrum). This family is always so dressed up, which is such goals for my life. First they have a house that should be in a house magazine, now they have a family that fits in one too. Happy for you three. I’m looking forward to what God will do through you guys.

Praise God for these wonderful people.

— A+

Pegactive x Swyft Fitness x Athleta

I was given the opportunity to work with some talented people and to test and develop new skills. I’ve always been nervous before a shoot regardless of who and what it’s for, but that coupled with just getting into videography added another layer of, “omg, I hope i’m doing this correct….” It also didn’t help that my back had recently started giving me problems. Thankfully all of the pain/complications were non-existent during the shoot (PRAISE GOD). Unfortunately(or fortunately) everything surfaced again when I was on the way home.

This is the fruit of said opportunity. Read more about this event on Pegah’s blog post!

Shout out to these awesome people for making it all happen!

Instructor: PEGACTIVE

Live DJ: SOULMAT3S OFFICIAL

Photography: ESTEVAN MARQUEZ

Venue: SWYFT FITNESS

Decor: ZANCY BUZZ

Praise God for these wonderful people.

— A+

Cypress Tunnel with Exhilo and The Joshua Chang

I'm glad I was able to visit the Cypress Tunnel with these two cool cats. These are my favorites from a mini road trip I went with Curtis Ying and Joshua Chang; a graphic designer and a videographer. These 6 photos are my top 6 from our mini trip.

Mr. Director Chang guiding Exhilo into a pose for our little photoshoot, an HDR stack of the Point Reyes boat, OOTD/EDC of Mr. Director's layout, Mr. Director succeeding at becoming Mr. GQ,

Praise God for these wonderful people.

— A+

You won't believe what I found! (MWH pt.2)

If you missed out on part 1, dont worry, heres the link!

Set on going a second time, to our original spot, Josh and I decided that we would take another trip into the mountains to chase the milky way a couple of days after our first one. I felt strongly that there was more to it, than what we originally saw.

Adventure Begin (again).

No adventure would be complete without a dramatic scene to start the whole story. On my way to Josh's house, I saw a roaring fire, on top of a mountain reaching for the sky, as if trying to grasp everything and anything to pull it into its all consuming fire. This was the first time I have seen such an enormous fire so close.

After being enchanted by flames, we set off for our destination. A secluded area high in the mountains of Morgan Hill. After an hour drive, windy roads and a deer jumping in front of my car, we had arrived to an empty parking lot, which was a good sign, if we didn't want to be bothered.

We set up in the parking lot to take some test shots, to see what we had to work with. The milky way was hovering above us, pointing toward the Bay Area. It may sound deep and romantic, but it wasn't! The Milky Way was being covered by the light pollution that was being emitted by the cities below us.

Not being satisfied with the amount of light pollution and the arrangement of the milky way, we hesitantly treked down a dark path. Something our parents often told us not to do. "Don't go down that scary place! There could be robbers or carnivorous animals lirking about!" Being the rebellious adult we were, (Heh) we went against our teaching and walked into the abyss. The only light source we had were 2 flashlights. Not even the moon could offer us any salvation from the darkness. The path we took was carved out of the hill, so there were thick trees and a steep valley to our right. This produced a thick, humid, and warm atmosphere. When you walk through it, you feel like you want to sweat, but its not hot enough to. You just slowly perspire until you get a light glow. We only stopped a couple times to figure out where the milky way was located. We wanted to get out of there as quickly as we could

(Picture gallery)

After walking about 20 minutes, we popped out of the darkness and what do we find? WE FIND A SERVICE ROAD THAT GOES BACK TO OUR PARKING LOT.... Slightly embarrassed that I made Josh walk through the shady path, I didn't tell Josh what happened (Sorry Josh). We walked on the service road for about 5 more minutes before finding what I went there to find.

We tried many different styles in order to find something what we were imagining. Vertical and horizontal format, different focal lengths, ISO, lighting methods; the list goes on. After some time, we finally discovered the most ideal everything. This is what we were able to capture.

After this moment, we felt like all the stars(and galaxies) had aligned up for us; there was nothing else to do/capture, so we made our way back to the car (via the service road) and went home, where our warm beds were beckoning for our return. After 2 separate days, I was finally able to capture what I had imagined. Boy do I not regret it one bit :)

--A+

Milky Way Hunting

07.24.17

Ever since I had discovered that it was possibly to see the Milky Way from earth I always pondered and hoped that one day, just one day, I would be able to photograph it for myself. I could say proudly, "This is my capture of the wondrous, glorious, massive and beautiful MILKY WAY. "A barred spiral galaxy, about 100,000 light-years across" (Thanks Space.com).

Shout out to Joshua Chang and Andrew Yang for being my adventure buddies. Check out Josh's website and how he continues to "Pursuing perfection to reach excellence", and even have him pursue perfection in the photos/videos he takes for you ( Hire him ;) ).

He has my A+ stamp of approval. ;D

ADVENTURE BEGIN!

We got our milk tea and popcorn chicken and headed off to a predetermined location at 9pm with an hr drive ahead of us. During our drive we caught up with each other's lives, talked about camera gears, Subarus :P, and other things. We arrived at a road closure along our route, but luckily there was a detour. During this time, is where I believe had a mix up with the location and we ended up at an empty parking lot, far from our desired location. We decided to make the most of what we had in the area. It was an eventful night; random lone mountain biker randomly appearing from the mountain, 3 unknown animals that seemed to be stalking us in the shadows the whole 4 hours of shooting, and many memorable laughs during the hilarious poses and methods of getting our desired captures (i.e. super asian tourist poses). We all took some "Sexy Silhouette Pictures", which came out amazing. They remind me very much of a poster for a Sci-Fi movie. Shout out to Josh for the technical expertise. Would not have been able to get these epic shots without you! Thanks to Andrew for being the willing model that stood for 30 seconds at a time, and laid on the gravel.

I was happy with the epic captures, but why did I feel like there was more?

Joshua Levi Liao

Read about my most recent shoot with Little Levi!

YOOOOsemite 2017

I was given the opportunity to spend a weekend with an awesome and blessed christian fellowship, DCF. Read about my weekend and how we got lost, discovered God's beauty and created some delicious food.