Dec
09
I was honored to be asked to do some papparazzi style photos for a secret surprise engagement session. Here’s what the lucky bride to be Josette, had to say:
Thursday, December 5th, 2013…
Jenice Yu and I had plans to go out to one of her “Jenice Yu” fancy dinners. 10 courses with wine. Dress pretty she says. Free food?! Awesome. I’m there. We planned for her to come by at 6:30pm. At 6:20pm she cancels saying there’s an emergency at her store. Jenice’s performance was EXCELLENT might I add, ” I’m at Knight and King Ed now, but I have to turn around! An employee cut her hand!! It’s pretty bad.” Meanwhile, she was at home the whole time.
So here I am, dressed all pretty with nowhere to go. Fane C-Bear says “Hey, I have these 2 free tickets to the Vancouver Christmas Market. James Kot gave them to me at work today. Want to check it out?” I’m putting sweatpants on and cranky that I’m not getting my free 10 courses with wine. “Nah, it’s too cold. Let’s stay in. And I don’t really like Christmas markets anyway…” Poor Fane.
Ric Lee and Hennisea text me “You guys up to anything? We’re going to the Christmas Market if you’re around”. Weirdest thing, Ric and Hennsiea had NO IDEA what Fane’s plans were. It was a perfectly timed coincidence that they text us about going to the Christmas Market. Because I wanted to see Ric and Hennisea – not because I wanted to go with Fane – we (finally) end up going to the Christmas market!
Off we go to the Christmas Market. Fane is still wearing a tie from work. He tries to get me to stay in my pretty dress, but I insist that sweatpants, 2 layers of sweaters, and a toque would be a better outfit for the outdoor Christmas Market. (My punishment for being so stubborn is being photographed in that dorky toque.) I’m also wearing Jenice’s coat that I was supposed to return to her that day.
We get to the Christmas Market and of course the first thing I want is food. Fane and I share a quick bowl of soup and a soft pretzel. It’s no 10 course meal with wine, but I’m satisfied. Fane is texting away. Turns out that he was texting the photographer, “Sorry, we’re running late. She’s hungry…”
Around 4 years ago, Fane and I really got to know each other while doing a sketch comedy show. I’ve seen him before at several film & tv auditions for “Asian People” (Yes, that’s a thing). I always thought he was a good looking guy, but I assumed he was too good looking to be interesting. It was through this sketch comedy show – “The Darin Joes” – that I saw what was inside. I realized how funny, and silly and nerdy he actually was. And warm and loving and generous and yes…still ridiculously good looking.
The little theatre where we first performed sketch comedy together is no longer a theatre, but now a shop for handmade Christmas ornaments…a part of the Christmas Market! The shop was beautifully decorated with lights and bright vibrant colours from all the ornaments. We walked around with Ric and Hennisea, however they started to walk faster than us. I just assumed it was because Hennisea is a marathon runner? I dunno. This gave me and Fane a chance to snuggle and sneak some kisses. Fane was being extra cuddly that night, little did I know it was because he had a photographer following us around the whole time!
We get to a corner of the theatre/shop and he tells me to look at a specific ornament. “I might get that one for my mom. Look closer!” So I do. When I turn back around he’s on the ground holding something red. “Oh no. Did you drop a Christmas ornament?” I thought. He opens the red box. It’s a ring. Then I see his face. Everything else was a blur. Apparently there were flashes from cameras going off and people cheering. I didn’t notice any of that. It was just me and my fiance.
Thank you to everyone who was involved in this perfect and magical evening.
So yeah….Christmas Markets aren’t so bad after all. We’re making it a tradition to go back every year.
Sep
26
Here’s a sneak peek of today’s newborn session… We have a new time record for a baby peeing during a shoot…. This little guy couldn’t wait until the first shutter click before he left a puddle behind!
Sep
05
In the words of The Notorious BIG, “It’s Brooklyn in tha house”… Today against all plans and preparation we welcome our second daughter Brooklyn Thilini Gunawardena into the world… She was born on September 5th, 2013 at 9:17am weight in at 6lbs 10oz and 51cm tall… Welcome my little girl… you’re definitely a chubby little monkey and I can’t get over those cheeks!
Jun
19
There’s nothing more precious than the sight and sound of cousins playing together. Even though we live halfway around the world from the rest of our family it’s amazing to see my little nieces and nephews embrace Savannah and before long they act and adore each other as if they’ve live under the same roof their whole lives.
Apr
05
Today I was excited to have a family portrait session with Rachel, Matthew and Naomi. Our initial plan was to meet at Stanley Park and work our way around from there. I got a call from Rachel saying that they were running a bit late, so I decided to drive around to scope out some shooting locations around downtown. The previous week I wanted to do the portrait session with Cherry Blossom trees as the backdrop however they weren’t blooming yet. I drove around and in that short time frame between shoots they were out in full force! I changed our plan of location and we had this amazingly colourful backdrop to use for the session. Being an Easter long weekend it was quiet and there weren’t many people around. These trees only bloom for a short period of time before they shed their petals and look just like any normal tree, but when they do come out they just attract the masses…
So once I got us all setup we followed through the session and I made use of the huge water feature and surrounding gardens. Little Naomi has a pout that can man any father melt and hand over all the candy he’s holding and she definitely put it to work!
Check out some of the photo’s from the session below:
Feb
21
This is my re-creation of a photo concept that I had seen done before and wanted to take it and put my own spin on it. I wanted to make it a more whimsical feeling of magic to the scene portraying that the child’s imagination is running wild and is bringing the story to life.
Some of the components in the scene like the chair, cabinet and lamp were reused from the original photo. This is more of a composition project with elements being photographed individually like the room, floor, play chest, drawer panels, baseboard and then integrated each one into the photo one by one to build the environment. Other elements were taken from stock photos and finally the characters were taken from rendered wallpapers to give it a more animated feel. I didn’t want to go too dark with the characters coming out of the shadows because I didn’t want to create a creepy “child’s play” effect. Lol I don’t want to traumatize her just yet. The photo of Savannah was taken with the softbox angled up at 45 degrees to to emulate the light source emitted from the book and the rest of the smoke, mist, flares & character shadows were created in post production.
Overall I’m quite happy with the final image and hope that it looks believable and portrays the feel that I was trying to create!
Jan
26
Today another photo of mine “Absolut Zest” was one of the featured images critiqued over at www.slrlounge.com. Click here and skip to the 0:50 mark to see what they had to say about it!
Jan
21
There’s nothing quite like taking a stroll down the beach during sunset feeling the sand between your toes…
Jan
10
This photo is a concept ad I did for Absolut Mandrin Vodka executed in their typical marketing style. It was shot in a studio with a white backdrop and a strobe with 3′ softbox overhead. I used some large black and white cards to the left and right side of the bottle to reflect the “colour” back onto the bottle to enhance the frosted look while creating more dimension to the shot. I did multiple exposures with the camera on a tripod using trigger release in order to have all of the elements such as the lid, seal, label, fruit be evenly exposed while maintaining as much detail as I could. I used a 70-200mm F2.8 lens @ 102mm to create a bit more compression in the shot and to minimize any distortion to the bottle and props. In post production I chopped it all together to create the final image:
