The Kims

I photographed the Kim girls last summer in Pennsylvania when they were visiting family. This time, I had the pleasure of visiting them at their home in Korea.  Little Carlyn changed so much since I last saw her! She’s definitely come out of her shell. Lovely Marley was calm as usual.  Occasionally, she’ll share her opinions and thoughts of the workings of the world.  You will not believe the eloquence of this 4-year-old. Oldest sister Ella is sincerely the best oldest sister anyone could ask for. She manages her family with such good humor and grace.  Our day consisted of a little fashion show with casual clothes and Hanbok (traditional Korean clothing), a ride around the block with the scooters, and standing against the wall in height order to see who’ll outgrow Mommy first.  Hershey, their adorable chocolate dog, jumped in for some play time too!  Check him out sneaking into the family photo! (Hint: He’s hiding in a bush in the upper right-hand corner.) :)

Yesong & Dukhyun

I was so happy to have the chance to photograph my best friend before her wedding. We had a few locations in mind but due to the bit of rainy/gloomy weather we decided to stick with the Seoul N Tower. This is one of the landmarks in Korea and also the place where Dukhyun proposed to Yesong!  Despite the rain, the cherry blossoms were at their peak and hung in there for us :) At night, we walked along the Han River with the 63 building behind us-- another landmark of Korea. Yesong and Dukhyun ended the long day with a romantic kiss against the lit cityscape.

Nylon Magazine April Issue '13

Some of the beauty still life I photographed for Nylon Magazine is out on the April Issue!

Fruits on Metal

My friend Brooke, who is a prop stylist assistant, and I did some test shoots over the weekend.  We wanted to set raw veggies and fruits against a darker metal environment to see what kind of visual contrasts we could create. And voila here are the results! We found that the hard industrial textures really showed off the bright freshness of the produce and helped draw our eyes to the original form of the subjects.

Prop Stylist: Brooke Deonarine

Shyema

I’ve been so bad with updating my blog posts! So, I finally sat myself down away from my usual environments and started going through my hard drives to do a comprehensive edit and see how the past few years of my life have been.  As I was going through my hard drives, I came across Shyema’s portrait folder.  It took me back to the summer of 2011.  I was away in Singapore and Korea with my family when I received an email from Shyema, who needed a headshot, and she only had that Saturday to do it, which was in 2 days and which also coincidentally happened to be the day I was coming home.  I landed that morning, got home, unpacked my camera and rushed over to photograph Shyema.  I was happy that it was less humid but oh man! It was blazing hot! We could barely stand outside without sweating. But we did it in 30 minutes and now these photos are in magazines and other blogs!

If you haven’t noticed from the photos above, Shyema is Founder & Editor-in-Chief of an awesome blog called Beauty and the Feast.  She combined the 2 things girls love the most-- make-up and food! Pure genius! Check out her blog for beauty tips or recommendations for delicious local joints in the NYC area!  

Iceland 2012 Instagram

Have you been to Iceland yet? This is one of my favorite places on Earth. I revisited this past November since I failed to catch the elusive Northern Lights the year before. This time my friend and I were fortunate enough to see it 3 times! It was simply breathtaking. It's definitely worth standing outside in the cold for hours on end for. I would do it again and again. More pictures to come later, but you want to see them now, you can always follow my instagram: (click here!) You will find a comprehensive visual summary of what I ate and saw there (I instagrammed like crazy on this trip). No doubt about it, I am definitely going back again!!

Big City Little Sweets

A few months back, I collaborated with Big City Little Sweets to create a holiday catalog featuring their delicious cake pops. Here are some of my favorite shots. Be sure to check them out, and if you have any special occasions coming up, just shoot BCLS owner Julie an email!

Prop Stylist - Melissa Choi