Guest Blogger: Kevin Chin

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

I'm very excited to introduce our guest blogger--Kevin Chin of Kevin Chin Photography. Kevin can definitely be considered a veteran in the wedding photography business. He is known for his classic and timeless style, ensuring that you will never get tired of looking at your wedding pictures! His calm, easy going personality makes him a perfect fit with all types of clients and his artistic eye is just amazing! Some of his best wedding photos are taking from the most interesting angles, and some are just pure classic works of art.

Kevin has been fortunate enough to be hired to shoot at many fabulous places outside of his hometown in San Francisco. Just recently, he shot in both New York and Paris! Here is Kevin, sharing a bit of his insight on photography for destination weddings.

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As a destination wedding and portrait photographer, I feel I have the best job in the world! I love all of my weddings and adore all of the couples that I get to photograph but it’s the destination weddings that I enjoy the most. Aside from the obvious perks of getting to visit and photograph new places, I really cherish the friendships and bonds that I develop with the couple and their families. Everyone is on vacation so people seem to be in a happy and festive mood. I usually arrive at the destination at least one day prior to the wedding to photograph the rehearsal dinner and I usually stay a few days after the wedding to be able to enjoy the location. We all become great friends because we are usually staying at the same hotel and eating at the same restaurants. I even end up taking the same sightseeing tours as the couple and their family and friends. I think this friendship and rapport that we develop helps me capture better pictures. I am no longer just the photographer, I am their friend and they feel comfortable enough to be themselves around me.

For couples who are having destination weddings, I highly recommend you bring as many of your hometown vendors with you as you can. First of all, it’s much harder to pick a vendor at a destination if you are unfamiliar them. At least with your hometown vendors, you know what to expect from them. It is also much easier to work with your hometown vendors before the wedding in terms of planning and meetings. And as a photographer, it’s much easier to work with you photographer after the wedding to help design your album and select photos when they are in your hometown.

I have been fortunate enough to photograph weddings in the Philippines, Italy, Thailand, Avignon, Lima, and Paris.

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Kevin will be one of our returning professors at The Wedding University for engaged couples, which will take place at the Four Seasons Hotel Silicon Valley on January 31, 2010. He will teach couples a lot of great tips on choosing their photographer, and the different things that should be considered when selecting photoshoot locations, family portraits, etc. There will be lots to learn to help couples make the best decisions for themselves!

All images above by Kevin Chin

Our New Website is LIVE

Saturday, August 22, 2009


After 6 months of hard work, we are excited to launch our brand new website! We hope you will take the time to browse through it, to understand our vision behind this new venture.

Although we have been in business for a few months, it almost felt like we were working in secrecy as we sat through endless meetings and brainstorming sessions to define who we are as a company before we could present ourselves to the world. Now, with the launch of our new website, it finally feels official!

We want to acknowledge and thank some of the people who have encouraged and supported us so wholeheartedly during the past few months.

Thank you to...

Viola of Chewing the Cud and the team at Elephant, our branding agency, for their creativity, talent, and patience in helping us with our new identity. From the new name to the new logo to the beautiful new website, we appreciate all of your hard work and efforts!

Gloria Wong Tritasavit of Gloria Wong Design, who will be our 'in-house' designer for many of the amazing events that we are working on. She is one superstar!

Linda Hylen of the Julia Morgan Ballroom, for her wisdom and love. At times, she believed in us more than we believed ourselves....

Catherine Hall and Gene Higa, for sharing so many marketing tips with us and teaching us lots about social media!

Sean Low, owner of The Business of Being Creative, for inspiring us to think in strategic ways to grow our business. His blog is full of practical tips and his mentoring sessions are very insightful and thought-provoking.

Justine Kaltenbach, our business manager, for keeping us in check all the time and being a practical voice in between our creative visions.

And ofcourse, our hard working and dedicated staff helping us to make progress everyday--Janece, Amanda, Janette, Monique, Amy and Melissa.

We look forward to a lot of great events in 2010!