Senior · Anessa

Sometimes even in seemingly undesirable photographic conditions, one's attitude can truly make or break the quality of the images they take. Met up with Anessa on a busy Monday afternoon at USF's campus, ready for senior portraits, despite having to reschedule two times due to weather complications. This time around, it was cloudy out (and had just rained a few hours prior), but we decided to stay optimistic and take advantage of the nice, cloud-diffused lighting as much as we could. To our surprise, towards the end of the photoshoot, over at Gleeson Lawn (right by USF's iconic Saint Ignatius church), the sun began to peak out a bit and gave a nice backlight to Anessa's silhouette, allowing for some interesting compositions with nicely-lit backgrounds. Special thanks to Morgan & Carlo for the referral, because if it wasn't for their couple session a couple of weeks back, Anessa & I probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to shoot together! 

Travel · Helicopter Flight over San Francisco · December 2015

Went up on a helicopter flight over San Francisco with my buddies Rolo (@dunksrnice) and Viet (@richhomiehua) on a chilly Tuesday evening just as the sun was beginning to set. It's always a wonderfully exhilarating time going up on a helicopter, despite this being my third time, but I was honestly a lot more excited for my friends given that this was their first time ever going up. The smiles and conversations we shared on the helicopter alone were worth the experience.

 I have to say, though - it was definitely a nice treat being able to see the Golden Gate Bridge from different unique vantage points, because on my first flight over San Francisco back in February 2015, that entire side of the city (sunset/upper richmond) was completely fogged out and thus inaccessible. Not a bad way to spend the first day of the last month of 2015!

Personal · Light Through the Keyhole

Made a quick trip down to Big Sur with my cousin, Don (@donmiguelluis), on a clear, breezy, sunny day in California. Typically, we'd check weather forecasts for evenings with more clouds in the sky, so that we could add a nice texture to our landscape photos (as opposed to just a clear and empty background), but we decided to make the two-and-a-half hour drive from the San Francisco Bay Area anyways for one primary reason: it was nearing the winter solstice, which meant that during this time of the year, the sun sets in a certain position where on clear evenings, it lines up with the famous keyhole rock at Pfeiffer Beach and creates a surreal-looking ray of light that shines through the "keyhole" in the middle of the rock. We made sure to stop by the classic Bixby Bridge and McWay Falls before heading over to Pfeiffer Beach, and were definitely rewarded with an absolutely stunning sight. Photos don't do it justice compared to how the experience was in person-- definitely going to have to make it back, around this time again, next year!

Lifestyle · Morgan + Carlo

Met up with my friends Morgan and Carlo on a somewhat cloudy San Francisco afternoon to take some couple photos! Being fresh USF graduates that don't currently live in the same area (Morgan is from Southern California, while Carlo is from Northern California), they wanted to get some photos with each other in the city they met each other in before Morgan moved back to SoCal for the time being. The clouds actually provided for a nice, diffused light that made location scouting very easy, with the sun even peaking out a little bit during the shoot!