Wedding and Portrait Photography: Bay Area

San Francisco Wedding Photography: Unbelievable

2008-05-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

Photo by Jasmine Wang

I am fortunate to have met an artistic photographer who is now in San Francisco.

First of all, she has an amazing background - she has photographed for international newspapers in France and China, and then built a very succesful photography practice in Ann Arbor.

The Bay Area is fortunate to have her now.

She is Jasmine Wang. Visit her website.

I was so impressed with her work, that I had her come along to a few of my weddings.

You have seen one sample (above) of her work. Now visit her website to see this Fabulous San Francisco Wedding Photographer's work.

I am very impressed at how she works with couples and individuals to get artistic, creative, beautiful and evocative wedding images.

KFOGs Fireworks As Seen from the Bay Bridge

2008-05-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

Wow!

My wedding photography job in Moss Beach (on Highway one, just south of San Francisco and Pacifica) ended at 8:30 Saturday, and I knew there was a good chance that I would cross the Bay Bridge during the display.

I had no idea how close to perfection it would be.

At first it looked as if they were being launched out of Pac Bell Park (Or Gramophone Park or Two-Tin-Cans-and-Thread Park, they keep changing the name). But as we all merged to get onto the bridge, I could see that the display was over the Bay south of the bridge. I had thought they were going to be at the Ferry Building.

I was in the right lane, closest to the fireworks, and traffic in my lane slowed to less then 5mph. By the time I was on the bridge, with the perfect view of the show, the part visible below the fog, it was about ten minutes before the end - they always end at 9:30.

About ten cars ahead of me (I eventually figured out) one driver stopped to watch. I was so lucky to get in a one-lane traffic jam that put me in the ideal spot for watching the fireworks.

It was awesome.

I was oohing and aahing out loud, and my mood, always good after a wedding shoot, was rising. I got so excited. I even called my wife, "This is incredible!" "I'm jealous," she said.

Sorry, no photos, no mp3s of the booms.

Closet Fairy

2008-05-09T10:01:00.000-07:00

Our kitchen has a closet fairy. The invisible closet-door-opening spirit slips into the kitchen and opens several cabinet doors. It happens four or five times a day, at any time, even when I am in the kitchen.

My wife is the one who noticed. A fan of the orderly kitchen with closed closets, she bristles at open doors. At first we thought I did it. So I learned to close the doors. But, even as recently as this morning, I was making breakfast, and before I took the cup of tea into the bedroom for Anne, I checked to make sure I had closed the doors (I'm sure I had). But, the closet fairy had opened FIVE doors in just the few seconds it took me to get from the stove to the doorway.

If we can vanquish the Closet Fairy, then we can work on getting rid of the fairy that pulls all the blankets over to my side of the bed.

Trust Me - If You Own a House

2008-05-09T06:52:00.000-07:00

If you are reading this blog, then you are really, really smart. You know that if/when you die, and you happen to own a house, the tax stuff (ramifications) will be humongous (substantial). And if/when you get half-way to dying, you will need someone to make medical decisions for you.

My wife and I have proof that we are aging. Even inCalifornia, aging has caused massive deaths.

We don't have a ton of money, but we have several tons of housing, and in California that means that we need to avoid probate. I don't know what probate is, exactly, but it seems close enough to "problem" and "probe" that I should stay hecka far away from it.

So we went to see Attorney Howard Neal. He wasn't able to reverse the "growing older every day" paradigm, but he did set up a "Probate Avoidance System," or a crust, or something like a truss or a thrust. I think it was a "trust."

We had had a simple chat with his assistant on the phone a few days before we visited his Montclair (Oakland, California) office. We told his assistant about my many, many children and vast real-estate holdings. When we arrived, all the documents to protect us were prepared and ready for us to sign.

(Seriously: ONE TRIP to the office. We didn't have to waste gas driving there twice! What a bargain!)

He must be one of the nicest guys you could meet. My wife, who fears lawyers in the abstract, and lawyers' offices in the concrete, liked the guy. So you know he's one of us Gentle and Nice guys (like my wife's husband).

After Neal explained what each document said and did, we signed in the correct places, in the correct way (bring your picture ID with you!). We are ready to die now! Or, rather: Now, we are ready to die, or to be very sick.

Update: In May, Howard commissioned me to do his portrait. It took less than half an hour in his office, and the proofs were online before we turned on the set to watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that night.

You can check out the proofs at http://www.EKProof.com/howard.

You too, if you are in the mood for simplifying your possible demise, should make a will and trust appointment! Call Howard - he's in Montclair Village in Oakland, California: (510) 339-0233 or http://www.nealaw.com/. Like me and Montclair, he just has one "L." And he's one L of a lawyer, too! If you put in an extra L, you're just asking for trouble.

With Howard, estate planning is easier than falling off a log, and less painful - WAY less painful.

Here are a few more shots:

Five Star Chefs...

2008-05-04T17:40:00.000-07:00

I photographed the annual Meals on Wheels fund raiser at the Greek Church in Oakland on Friday, May 2, 2006.

Here are some of the chefs working on the meal:

Another Photo of Mom

2008-05-04T17:37:00.001-07:00

Happy 95, Mom

Physics Explains Underexposure

2008-04-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

One of the most ubiquitous problems in photography has been the mystery of underexposure, or, in layman's terms, "The picture, she is so dark."

Causing lost shadow details and muddy highlights, underexposure is the number two enemy of photographers, second only to abysmal wages and poor math skills.

During the twentieth century (that means the 1900s) several hypotheses had been advanced and shot down. Joerg Hilti, the Austrian jurist, had proposed in 1919 that photons slowed down whilst passing through the lens, and thus struck the film with too little force to make an impression. Einstein eventually put the kibosh on that theory, but it remained part of formal photographic education well past 1940.

In 2005 astronomers reported that dark matter, which was first synthesized by Fritz Zwicky in 1933, is far more prevalent than ever. The ever increasing and menacing dark matter has been proven (extremely proven, in fact) to be the cause of underexposure in the photographic fields. To put it simply, dark matter gets trapped between the lens and the film (or sensor) and then lodges in the receptor sites during exposure. This blocks some of the lighter and friendlier photons. The cause of dark photos had been found

These effects of dark matter have been overcome with digital sensors. In mass production since early 2007, dark-matter-protected sensors eliminate the dark matter underexposure conundrum.

The new CMOS and CCD sensors feature receptor sites that are too narrow and foreboding for dark matter to enter, leaving room for even the weakest photons, thus boosting the effective exposure to what it should have been all along. Film, still made by hobbyists in the hinterlands, cannot be adjusted to compensate for dark matter. This may may relegate film to the ash bin of history.

With digital capture in ascendancy, the dark problem is essentially solved. As one bride in Ohio or Illinois said, "My wedding pictures aren't as dark as I feared." And she was right!

Look Who I Found When I Came Home!

2008-04-27T23:24:00.000-07:00

It was Ben and Charlene, hanging out in in the front yard.

Just kidding. This is actually my vacation home in Norway.

Nope, this is an engagement session we did in San Francisco in March.

Here are a few more images.

Jewelry Photographs

2008-04-26T16:32:00.001-07:00

I recently photographed the amazing jewelry of Keren Barukh of Oakland, California.

The similarity to portrait photography is that the subject (in this case jewelry) must be lit to bring up its distinctive features. And, distracting elements (in this case clothing, face and hair) must be lit so that they add to the photo, rather than distract or detract from the jewelry.

In this case, Jillian is not just the model, but also a client of mine.

Another model was Courtney

Hiking With Dad - Retrospective

2008-04-26T13:29:00.000-07:00

My father, Felix Khuner(1906-1991)

I took this photo in, I am guessing, 1968. I took this with my first real camera, a Canonet QL-17, that my father had brought back from Japan in 1968.

We were hiking in a National Park - I think it was Mt. Lassen - and my father stepped in a creek with his right foot. He stopped to dry his shoe, and I got this shot.

I was a photojournalist forty years ago!

What Will You Be Doing on Your 95th Birthday?

2008-04-25T21:02:00.001-07:00

Will you be teaching a dance class?

My mom was teaching her regular Thursday class as the Senior Center (not at the Senior Edge, I guess?). Because her class was celebrating her 95th birthday, she asked me to come by and take a group photo.

They had a cake for her

Happy 95, Mom! - Like she'll ever read my blog.

My Mom at Eighteen

2008-04-25T18:44:00.000-07:00

My Mom's High School Graduation Photo

I did not take this photo. I am guessing that the person who took this photo isn't around anymore. But look at the gift the photographer gave us.

Photographs are our gift - the photographer's and the subject's - to people in the future.

You may think you are just hiring a wedding photographer or some photographer to do your family portrait. In the best of all worlds, you choose a person who will create images that will tell your children and grandchildren who you were way back then. How did you feel? Who was close to you?

"Thankyou Mr./Miss photographer of 1931 who took this photo."

I want to be Nadia Boulanger

2008-04-20T11:38:00.000-07:00

I don't even know who Nadia Boulanger is, but I LOVE the name.

Sandals

2008-04-20T11:02:00.000-07:00

My mom is a name dropper. She used to tell this story about my older brother's footwear, and how we were so ahead of the times:

"Remember when Jonathan wore sandals, and that was before everyone else was wearing sandals. He was the first. He did it before everyone else wore sandals."

An impressionable youth, six years younger than Jonathan, hearing my mom tell that story many times, I really believed what she was saying. And I felt pride. I would see a guy wearing sandals and I would think, "Oh, but my brother, my family, was the first." [I am not sure if I really think with commas, but using commas makes me feel important.]

This year my wife and I are working on this problem. I want to have conversations without my mentioning that I was the first to do something or that I or my family has a connection to a famous person.

We have come up with a technique: Whenever I mention some connection I have with a famous person, she or I say, "Sandals."

Don't we all know that Pride is a sin? Don't we all know that murder and Pride are not good? It ain't the latest self-help fad, buddy.

It's not that it's a sin, but that it is alienating, it breaks the connection that conversations are, ideally, supposed to create and strengthen. And, it alienates me from myself. When I mention my connection that elevates me, I am not as present. I am less my authentic self, and just a jerk compensating (failing to compensate) for my inadequacies.

Connecting with others feels good. It's the opposite of alienation. When I don't feel connected, name dropping makes it worse, not better.

Help me Stop NameDropping

2008-04-20T10:39:00.001-07:00

Just to make sure we are all on the same page: name dropping is mentioning a well-known name in conversation. For example, "I remember when Barack, back when we called him Barry, and I were teenagers and used to get together on Sundays and look for typos in the NY Times."

Or, "Ah, the Prius. You know, back in '62, we were the first ones on the west coast to have a car that didn't use gasoline - it ran on orange peels and shredded clothing. We were the first."

In a word: Pride. The sin of pride. Trying to alleviate anxiety and alienation by self-aggrandizement. I am guilty, extremely guilty.

I don't like myself when I do it, yet it has been a staple of my life. I even namedrop in my own inner monologue (dialog?).

My wife Anne is the opposite. She is humble, self-effacing, a goddamn saint, if you ask me, and her modesty makes it easier to hang out with her - she's not trying to prove how special she is all the time.

In the past few months, we have been working together to stop my namedropping.

Will you help me too?

Much thanks.

ps: note to blogspot.com - Please update spellcheck. Barack is the correct spelling of our next president - ONE R.

The Phone Guy

2008-04-17T08:01:00.000-07:00

My wife and I, being dissatisfied Comcast customers, were forced to switch from Good Old Analog Phone Service to Comcast Digital Voice. I want to apologize to Pac Bell (it doesn't exist anymore, right?) for switching to Comcast Phone a few years ago. However, they made it too expensive to switch back, but that's another story.

So, a few weeks ago Comcast came out, in the form of The Phone Guy.

While he was installing the modem, I snapped a few portraits. I sent him some free 8x10 prints - after all, he wasn't really Comcast, just an employee.

Days of Chocolate

2008-04-16T22:47:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Rene Bien of Plan B Home Design Company and Renaissance Gift Baskets, I photographed Charles of Charles Chocolate.

Yes, I did eat lots of chocolate over the months Rene and I worked together photographing gift basket items in my studio/office.

My Gulch in Gourmet Ghetto

2008-04-16T10:01:00.000-07:00

This is where I shop for cheese and tea, where I have the occasional Chinese lunch. Not shown, the famous Monterey Market.

I encourage couples interested in using my services to visit during the day so they can include a visit to the Hopkins & Monterey shopping area in their Berkeley stay.

I am just two or three blocks from Solano Avenue. I'll either go out and shoot it today, or go through my archives.

Actually, it would be easier to drive two hours, shoot for two hours, and return, rather than search through my files of personal photos.

April 2008 Update

2008-04-14T08:26:00.000-07:00

I've been away at an extended dinner, so I have not been blogging.

Actually, I got busy with album production, and just forgot to blog.

Yesterday, April 13, I photographed the Berkeley Opera fundraisers at the Town and Gown club in Berkeley. Helping me out was Casey Cheung" It's fun to hang out with another photographer and and work together.

Wagnerian Soprano Christine Brewer performed, accompanied by my brother, Jonathan.

Work is piling up, so I will try to blog more so that I don't spend too much time working.

Re-weddification? 30th Anniversay

2007-09-02T23:32:00.000-07:00

What a pleasure it was to spend the afternoon and evening with Jill and Martin, and their two kids - (I hope I have remembered their names correctly) Sara and Liz. Jill and Martin were celebrating their thirtieth wedding anniversary by having a re-weddification as they called it. One might also call it a renwal of vows.

At my suggestion, we started the photography at their home - just a few blocks from mine in north Berkeley.

Along the way to their house, I passed Jane Hammond working in her garden. I stopped to say hello to Jane, who is one of the Bay Area's top caterers. Her East Bay Office #: 510.528.3530.

Fortunately, Jane new Jill and Martin, and reminded me which house was theirs so that I wouldn't have to search for house numbers.

The bride was still getting ready when I arrived. So, the kids and I created some portraits. In their living room I set up my favorite, The Wall of Light, which was my lighting for almost the entire day, in three additional settings.

The twinkle in the eye, actually the reflection of the light source, is called a catchlight. I'll write about that in another blog entry. You might want to pay attention to it's placement in my portraits.

Here are a few more:

Last Week's Bride

2007-08-18T14:48:00.001-07:00

Kendra and Brian got married at the Lake Temescal Boat House. To make a long story short, we had a good time, Brian and Kendra are very, very nice and sweet, and we got some great pictures.

If I hadn't been fighting with CS3 and Adobe Camera Raw for the past week I would have had the images online sooner. They went up last night (Friday) onto one of my online galleries.

Caution: Boring Techie Stuff

2007-08-18T13:54:00.000-07:00

Let's suppose that you make really, really fast hard drives, but it turns out that older computers can't handle the speed at which the information travels to and from the drive. You could put a little switch "Slow/Fast" so that users could set it one way or the other before they install it.

But, there is no slow/fast switch on hard drives. Instead these potentially really fast drives have a jumper (see picture)

It's not that I have a huge penny - don't I wish - but that the jumper is small.

Here is the jumper in place on a hard drive (I know it's not a SATA drive, but it was the only drive that wasn't in an enclosure).

When the jumper is in position, the data moves at half speed. But, if you pull the jumper off (it ain't easy once the drive is in the computer) the data moves at full speed.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I got a new computer. It has three SATA drives. I decided to put in a fourth. During this process I discovered that all three drives had been installed with the jumper in the SLOW position!

After I removed the jumpers the computer ran much faster. Actually, it sat on/under the desk at the same speed, sort of in one place all the time, but it functioned more quickly.

Imagine if services or products we purchased arrived only half functional, and we never even knew it?

"You mean, if I COOK this artichoke it will taste better?"

Yep, like artichokes and hamburger meat, some hard drives are not fully ready to use the moment you put it in your shopping cart.

It's more like you buy an ipod, and a year later you find out you are supposed to have TWO earbuds. Or, on your fortieth birthday you find out that all this time you could have been eating hot dogs IN A BUN, instead of holding the dog, mustard and catsup in your hands!

It's like you meet a really nice, totally in-style guy who makes photography really fun at your wedding, but after you have been married for six years you discover that the guy didn't know how to light, compose, or even get people to look good and natural.

The moral is, do your research, even down to the tiniest little piece: get me to photograph your wedding.

Give the Gift of Photos

2007-08-11T14:46:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest gifts you can give your children, grandchildren, and your grandchildren's pets, is photos taken today that they can explore decades from now.

My dad's family, in Vienna, often went to portrait studios, and my father saved the pictures. He would have been 101 this week, and we still have this photo taken when he was seven:

It is my job is to please my clients, make "nice" or "dramatic" or "artsy" images.

The part of the job that you may never know about, or never think about, is that we are creating presents, a treasure chest of captured emotions and relationships, for ourselves and our descendends to view year after year.

A grand child whom you will never meet will be looking at the pictures you and I created.

That's one of the reasons that I am so careful with the quality of my work. These images will be treasures for your family, they are going to store them carefully, display them lovingly. They will be the window through which they will look into who you were, how you felt, today. What a shame if that picture is a snapshot, a poorly lit portrait, an image without feeling.

Allow me, help me, give a gift to your grand children and great grandchildren.

I Love You, Mom!

2007-08-11T14:29:00.000-07:00

Dear Mom,

I love you. Thank you for supporting my photographic career, and, years ago, my dance-instruction career.

Here is the picture I took of you last week sitting at your kitchen table.

The cool thing was that we got to talk for an hour or two, and got to take candid shots.

I know, you don't like the way you look in photos, but we love you, and we like seeing in the photos aspects of you that touch us so much.

I know what you are going to ask, "Couldn't you find a nice one to put up?"

How's this one?

Love,

your youngest son,

Eliot

Why I Photograph My Hand

2007-08-11T14:08:00.000-07:00

I like my formal photos - families, couples, bridal portraits, groomal portraits - to be nicely lit. That means:

1: Main light comes from one side

2: Shadow areas are not too dark or too bright

3: Backlighting on the hair

4: Background not black, not absolutely white.

With flat or overly contrasty lighting, skin texture and color look bad in digital (and usually film) images. So, #1 (directional light) and #2 (good lighting ratio) make a huge difference.

To make sure that my light is perfect, I photograph my hand as if it were the subject - in the same spot in the room/studio/park/universe, with the same lighting. I then check the image for exposure: make sure that it is as light as it can be without losing details in the highlights, is directional and has about a 3:1 contrast ratio.

If I can have a subject as my test, then I don't have to talk to the hand (listen to the hand?).

The advantage of the hand is that it usually shows up on time, I can always count on it, and we doing, after all, digital photography.

The above image of my hand tells the viewer

1) Directional lighting is coming from the right direction and is not too bright or too dark

2) Shadows (dark areas) are not too dark.

3) The edge of the shadow is not so hard as to bring out blemishes, but not so soft as to be without character

4) The hairlight and sidelight are perfectly balanced with the main light

5) There is no unexpected color contamination from the floor or walls

6) Color: Perfect!

7) Background could be lighter or darker, but I can fix in in Photoshop

8) The line where the floor and wall meet will be very distracting, so I must position the camera and select a lens that keeps this line out of the photo.

Having created perfect lighting that will work for individual portraits as well as groups up to twenty or thirty, I can totally focus on the people

I am present to realate to the people I am photographing. I can totally work on the relationship aspect of the photos. I can move quickly from close-up to full-length to detail to groups.

With lighting and exposure perfect, my concerns are

Relaxing the subject
Keeping contact with the people I am photographing
Establishing contact with other people I will be photographing during the day
Moving quickly and effortlessly through all the images that need to be done
Being ready to capture the unexpected moment
Creating the unexpected moment!

Every picture is perfectly exposed and perfectly lit because all the technical thinking was done with a hand from my hand.