Some of the clients I’ve worked with come to their photo session with little or no experience. And that’s okay! Whether you want your portraits captured or just want some photos to give to your parents, other half, friends, or to keep for yourself you don’t need modeling experience because I, as the photographer, will help you warm up to the camera and will capture your different sides of personality. It’s going to be a fun experience! Don’t tell me you’ve never watched America’s Next Top Model. I’m sure you’ve taken photos with your friends, so you obviously know how to pose in front of the camera. Who doesn’t love photos?

I shot a portrait session about two weeks ago and she tells me she has no experience in front of the camera but only watched her friend in a photoshoot. I tell her, “don’t worry, it’s okay“, I had no doubts because she’s gorgeous and easy going. I usually hang around when my clients are getting their makeup and hair done. This is a way for me to get to know them and observe them (not in a creepy way, lol). I love the make up artists that I work with because they make my clients feel comfortable and fabulous. From the beginning of their conversation, that’s when I get to work. I will take “behind the scenes” shots, well that’s what I tell my clients when they’re getting makeup and hair done, but really I’m looking for angles, smiles, characteristics, and behaviour from my clients. Sometimes I would joke around with them and get really close and tell them I’m taking photos of their pores because my camera can capture it. Lol. But anyway, the beginning of the actual shoot where I actually take their photos, I would have a chat with them and have a conversation while I take their photos. So I can capture their candid moments. In the middle of the shoot I don’t even need to direct because most of my clients have already warmed up in front of the camera.

A.G. was the client I photographed two weeks ago. She was the one who told me she had no experience. When I started taking her photos, she was definitely NOT inexperienced. She was a natural. I asked her again, “are you sure you haven’t done this before?“, with raised eyebrows. I just continued shooting.

Oh yes! To see what I’m talking about, here is her set from the photo session. She is a doll!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

P.S. Have you tried bootcamp? I did it yesterday and I am definitely feeling sore, yes I’m a big baby! BUT, hopefully this will help me to easily lug my gear around, now that wedding season is around the corner.

A lil’ update for you, my lovely readers. The weather is definitely getting warm and wet, might I add. Spring is definitely around the corner and since we’re going to have daylight savings time this Sunday we’re going to “spring forward” by one hour. I’m just getting into the groove for the coming season. I’ve recently shot a wedding last month, you can check it out here if you haven’t already. I’ve also shot a Christening the last weekend of February so check back for that, adorable twins! Next month, I’m going to see how much Kiara has grown!

If you’re waiting for what the title of this post is about, here it is.

Helios 40-2 85mm f/1.5 M42 MC Lens

Don’t worry, the lens itself is not scratched up, it’s just the filter applied when I took it with Instagram.

An old Russian lens. It’s actually belongs to a friend of mine. When I saw it I was like “what is that strange contraption you got on your camera?”. Because all I saw was this big silver tube with screws! Of course, I asked if I could give it a try. A manual lens. It has three rings: focus, aperture, and “open/close”. The open/close feature ties in with the exposure. Anyway, I was playing around with it and took a photo of my comrade (yeah he’s Russian), Mikhail. He tells me stories about Russia and how they drink Vodka as water! Well, mainly because vodka there is cheaper and almost the same price as pop.

Pretty cool huh? Its an 85mm lens and I could get closer to my subject than the Canon 85mm f1.2.

Oh! And I’m also going to do a little bit of update on my blogsites

Have a great weekend!

I’ve got an eye candy for you. Marina. She’s a Russian/Korean beauty. I know right? Gorgeous! My session with her is a little bit different from my normal portraits session and you’ll see why at the end

I have yet to meet her mom. Why? Because the dress she’s wearing in the photo above and also the lace booties down below were borrowed from her mom! Isn’t that awesome?

I am in LOVE with her golden skin tone! OH! And she’s going to be studying business in Asia for a bit in the near future! I’m so excited for her! I kinda want to know how it feels like to be an exchange student or how it’s like to study Asia or Europe. I never really got the chance to when I was in school. Hmmmmm…

Enjoy!

Gotta love the personality collage!

So now, VIEW FULL POST to see some eye candy

Have a great weekend!

Yesterday, I had a photo session with Christine. I took some portraits of her and some fashion portraits as well. It’s getting pretty chilly here in Toronto, hence the choice of clothing; long sleeves. Here are my faves from the set:

One word. VINNIE.

Lina is very lovely in person! If you meet her, she’s really friendly! I intended to do her portraits as soon as I can but our schedules did not match and then she had to go to Dominican Republic for vacation. She got back from Dominican Republic and got tanned! It was nice, but she didn’t want to take portraits when she was tanned because she’s normally light skinned. Lina wanted her light skin for her portraits because that’s her, naturally. I agreed that portraits should show the person in their natural way and their personality. And here are my favourites and also hers! She helped me select her photos

Look its a painting of me and Lina! Well, not really, but just pretend

Happy Monday!

&

I’m off to more editing!

(I should really go for a jog since it’s a nice weather and the light is golden outside…)

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Here are the rest from Stephanie’s portrait session. I’m gonna tell you it is worth the wait! She’s such a sweetheart! After her photoshoot session, we went to Pacific Mall (Asian mall here in Toronto) and got bubble tea and those pancake waffles! But anyway she’s super nice! But I’ll let the photos do the talking.

Goodnight!

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Okay, so I updated the blog a little bit

For now, enjoy!

I did Steph Ly’s photoshoot this past weekend and she is such a sweetheart!

Here’s a lil’ sneak peak

So we shot our new portraits for the site on Friday at the Hilton Suites.

We thought this was pretty vintage and awesome!

Of course, I had to feed you with some awesomeness! haha Now for the portraits, yay!

I had to insert some funny faces in there, because if I didn’t then that wouldn’t be me.

For the nice ending, I actually went with her to her tahitian performance. I’ve known Kristine for quite a long time now and this was my first time actually watching one of her performances. :/