Trick or Treat??!!??!!

I'm ready for some candy.

Mom is so mean putting the candy bag on my head!

I had to take a little bit of time to stop by to Sienna's house today. I heard someone wanted to show off her eggplant fairy costume. Needless to say she was very cute and she can even stand and crawl now. Pretty soon she'll be jibba jabba'in. What were you this Halloween? I wanted to be a ninja or a goth dude, but I was swamped (I have a presentation tomorrow with some scholars from Japan) so I missed out on all the festivities. Check out Johnny Lam's memoryloot blog ---> Linky to the right. His girlfriend San had the coolest costume.

A Quick Update

I have been super swamped so i haven't been able to take any pictures since Jazmine's 15 so I thought I'd post a pic I took a while back at the Ritz. They're just rose petals but I really love the colors. Right now is a great time for kid photos since they'll all be in their Halloween costumes - fun! Check out THESE awesome kid photos by one of my favorite local photographers Jessica Verma.

Update: I came across this good guide for taking Halloween pics. Here's the LINK.

Jazmine - The Slideshow

This is the complete collection of the retouched photos of Jazmine's Sweet 15. Each one was individually chosen and retouched by me, so enjoy.

Here's the email Celina wrote to me that made my day:

OMG!!!! Johnny there are no words to tell you how beautiful the pictures look. Thank you is just not enough!!!! You have really out done yourself. Everytime I open your blog I get even more surprised, each and every time...You are really an amazing photographer, and you do this as a hobby???? Ummmm, you might want to re-consider your day job. - Johnny you ROCK!!!!

Sick of these yet?

Some people will say this is blurry and "no goot mang" but I say this is awesome.

I'm pretty much wrapping up showing these pics from the quincinera on the blog. I'm trying to wrap up the touching up and get these off to print. Speaking of prints, everyone should be printing their photos at the store and not investing in a couple hundred dollar ink jet printer. 29 cent prints at Target use real photo paper and are better than anything an ink jet can produce. Some places are cheaper like Costco, but the Target near my house uses Kodak Perfect Touch Paper, which is incredibly vibrant and sharp. IMO Kodak is better than Fuji Crystal Archive paper - I've seen them side by side.

It looks like a lot of people I know are getting the photo bug, which is great. Sandy, Howard's wife, just got a new Nikon D40x, my buddy Phil has a Canon Rebel XTi on order, and Jeff should be getting a Nikon D?? soon, if not already. I want to extend an invitation to any of my friends who take a killer shot of anyone or anything - send them to me and I'll post them here!

More pics from quincinera

Mommy/daughter moment.


Very cool purple color.


This pic just says classic beauty.

Dad in the background.



Here are another set of pictures I've managed to supe up. I got a real nice email from Suzanne saying how great I am so that made my day. I'm glad everyone is enjoying these. Some more to come.

Quinceanera: Portraits

Here are some of the lovely young ladies from the party in some nice lighting. Tomorrow's update won't have as many pictures as I get swamped during the week with non-photo related stuff. Check back daily as more photos trickle in. I want to share as many photos as I can so I won't be doing my usual holding back the goods as a surprise.

Jazmine's Quinceanera

Getting the speech ready.




Getting ready at the house.




Purple (I assume her favorite color) was the color of the day.




Arriving at church.


I love this picture.


Mom Celinda was so proud.


On to the reception. Nice details and decorations.


Same crowd as Susy's graduation party - yep they still know how to party.


Suzanne's slideshow.

First of all, happy birthday Jazmine! Yesterday I shot Jazmine's quinceanera and it was simply amazing. What really impresses me is that Jazmine at only 15 is not just beautiful on the outside, but is well grounded and mature. She wrote and gave a touching speech that thanked those that mattered in her life and unlike those stupid MTV Sweet 16s, stressed how NOT important material things are. Her family definitely raised her well. Her aunt Suzanne made an incredible video that started with a sonogram and ended with half the place in tears. I was fortunate to be a part of it.

Anyway, before I get too sappy, here are the pictures. I shot it photojournalistic style which tells the story of the day - almost like a wedding. I got some killer shots and some that exposes me as the kind of wannabe photographer I am. There will be a ton more pictures in the coming days.

Update: I totally forgot to give a birthday shout-out to Khiemy (see link on right) who celebrated his 31st birthday last week. We went out on Friday for some shabu shabu which was delicious but the spiciness almost KO'd me for the quinceanera the next day. I got him The Orange Box as a gift but haven't been able to give it a good run through myself.

Picture of Me Taking a Picture

Jeff took this pic as the sun was setting - I brightened it a bit.

A Few More from Saturday

B and I love Lilia's look and lighting in this pic. Voted 2 thumbs up :)

This concludes my blog shots from last Saturday with Bryana, Lilia, and Ailyn - oh, and of course Jeff, in beautiful San Diego. Looking forward, this Saturday is the big quincinera for Jazmine. I'll be able to get some real nice candid shots as I shadow her all day and I'll be trying out some new remote lighting equipment which will come in very handy for January's wedding. Stay tuned.

Ailyn @ San Diego

Photo by Jeff Luzadas

I was back in San Diego yesterday for another shoot. This time it's Lilia's aspiring model sister Ailyn. She seriously worked the camera and made it a little TOO easy for me. The lighting was great (thanks to better timing and weather) and Jeff, who's planning on getting a nice camera, came out for some pointers and got some pretty awesome pictures. Check out the picture on the bottom - unretouched out of the camera! He recommended some railroad tracks which turned out nicely.

Bryana and Lilia were there too so the 5 of us just had a great time going around and snapping pics. Then B and I had a nice dinner at Panda Inn in Horton Plaza, which was shockingly good for a Panda Express-owned upscale Americanized Chinese food place. More to come when I get a chance to fix up a few more pictures.

More pics from Lilia

Now that Lilia has seen all her pics I thought I'd share a few more. These were taken a couple weeks ago in San Diego (scroll down for earlier pics). This weekend I'll be heading back to SD but this time for her aspiring model sister and hopefully this time my pal Jeff will be able to make it for some pointers. Afterwards, I'm hanging out with Bryana that evening in happenin Downtown. Stay tuned...

Speaking of pointers, from my experience it's not good to carry a ton of camera equipment around. Carrying around 20 lbs of gear just gets in the way and gets your tired quickly. Just pick a couple of lenses for the occasion and go with it. What I did was after Lilia's shoot last time I broke down and bought a man purse or "murse" that I carry around to put a lens and an extra battery, memory cards etc. when I shoot. It has come in super handy and allows me to quickly change lenses without putting them on the ground or handing it someone to hold it which slows down the flow of things. Anyway, it's so great that I might just end up carrying it around even when I'm not shooting....maybe.

More Jaz

I love the yellow background. This house was painted bright yellow there and the painter was cool enough to let us go inside the gate and take a few snaps.

Here are some more pictures of Jazmine. I seriously can't wait for her big 1-5. She's got over 100 guests, which is considered "small." Can you believe that? They know how to party! I'll be running around for sure that day.

We made due with the harsh lighting by taking lot of pictures in the shade - big photo tip there used by many pros. Speaking of which, we saw a pro photographer there with the same idea shooting a couple using a big ol flash. Personally, I don't like using flash at all and only do so sparingly and only when necessary. A lot of people suggest using fill flash so you don't blow out the background while keeping the person lit. Me, I don't really care for the background too much. But this was some seriously harsh lighting to take pictures in but I think we pulled it off nicely. What do you think? Note: I usually don't show these many pics to keep things a surprise but I couldn't help myself!

Jazmine @ Balboa Island

I spent part of Sunday taking some pre-shots for Jazmine's upcoming quinceanera (kinda like a sweet 16, but 15) at scenic Balboa Island. Unfortunately, I overestimated the sunset so the lighting was a bit harsh. But I did manage get some great shots. I suped one picture up for the blog. This one of my favorite pics from the shoot - even I'm wowed by this one. More to come.