Can you believe it's April already? I guess when you're having fun (or, in my case, as I get older) time really does fly doesn't it?!

Before March came to an end, I FINALLY had the opportunity to photograph a good friend of mine for a whole new set of headshots for her acting career. We had scheduled a previous (perhaps even two previous) sessions, but mother nature had something to say about that. However, on the last day of the month, we were able to get together and create some stunning photos for Wanru, a whole slew of "straight" commercial and theatrical poses, as well as some fun character stuff! She's so photogenic!!! Take a look at a few selections from the day:



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A huge thank you to Wanru for coming out to photograph with me :) Great work W.T.!!! 

As for everyone else, enjoy your first week of April! See you next time!
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I have always believed that professional dancers, or any dancer for that matter, make some of the best photographic models. Their sense of lines, and body position help to make any photograph, that much better. Seriously.

Even with subtle poses, I believe they really know how to get the most out of a shot. 

Here are a few photos from a shoot I did with a good friend of mine, who is a professional dancer. Enjoy!

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Bling Singh says:

I am your fan! Great shots

(02.22.12 @ 04:02 PM)
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Happy day after Valentine's day (or Singles Awareness Day for some of you)! Regardless of how you spent it, I hope you are had a terrific day and the rest of your week is going great! 

As pour moi, I've been wanting to share one of my latest projects with everyone - a fashion shoot with local renown Japanese Geta Dancer Miyuki M. Miyuki has been an actor/performer for a long time now, and I was interested in photographing her in her Geta dance costume. So we finally set up a date, and got to work on some cool images. 

Accompanying her was her fabulous, uber-terrific MUA and hairstylist Akie who was in town from Japan for a convention. Her make-up and hair on Miyuki was beyond awesome! I was so impressed and so inspired that it made the images that much better :) Thank you so much Akie! Hope you can come back some time soon and we can work together again. 

Lastly, an entourage isn't an entourage if you don't have a right hand dude/driver/helper, and all around cool guy. Miyuki had this with her friend Poel. Poel was so helpful throughout the shoot, and I want to thank him again for being a great impromptu assistant! You rock Poel! Thank you!!!



Okay, onto the images!

Hair and Make-up: Akie Maeda, After Hours Salon, Japan


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Thank you Miyuki :) 

Have a great week everyone! 

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MIYUKI says:

Thank you Mike for awesome photos, fun time and also mentioning my name on your blog!!! Yay:)

(02.15.12 @ 01:44 PM)
Vishal says:

Wow!

(02.15.12 @ 11:45 AM)
Helen says:

Beautiful and amazing photos!!! Love them all!

(02.15.12 @ 11:29 AM)
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Happy Wednesday everyone! Now that the Superbowl is done, what's there to do? J/K! Hope your favorite team won, and if they weren't in the big dance, there's always next year. If you don't follow football, hopefully the commercials entertained you instead. A huge congrats to my buddy Aaron Takahashi for his Superbowl commercial, you know the one, the asian dude in the bath tub full of gold coins? Yeah, that's him. You may have seen him before ;p

About a week or so ago, I was invited to photograph the first birthday of little Isshin, this cute, cool, adorable kid whom I met that day. He and his family were terrific and so inviting that it was a blast to photograph his party. 

For those of you without kids, YOU try keeping up with a room full of about 50 of them, bouncey-house included! I pride myself with working out and keeping fit, but believe me, it sure does take a lot of energy to keep focused all the time looking for those cool kid moments. Big ups to parents, I'm telling you!

For about 4 hours, there I was, engulfed with all the fun activities the kids had at Isshin's party, along with the great food, and cool parents! Here are some of the images I took that day. Enjoy!


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Mr. One-Year-Old himself, Isshin, rockin' that little bowtie while having a refreshing drink. 



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The K family - Mom, Dad, Isshin and his big sister Mion. 



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They're a cool fam.



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That stroller belongs to his sister's doll. 



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It's a Japanese tradition for little boys to carry a satchel of mochi on their backs on their first birthday. Isshin did fine :) 




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Happy birthday little buddy! Hope you enjoyed your day :)


Thanks for stopping by everyone. Enjoy your week! And if you get a chance, hug a kid :) 
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Happy Wednesday everyone! And happy first day of February! Where did January go? Didn't we just get to 2012? Whoa! 

So far the year has been busy. And thankfully so! (Not complaining, Universe!) Had a good number of shoots, and all with some terrific people :) 

One of those people is no other than our niece, and former production assistant from our 2009 production of "Songs For A New World", Claire. Yup, that same Claire from the last post on this blog, yet now, to coin a phrase from the movie "Swingers", "She's all grows up and she's all growns up!". Claire will be off to college soon, so she and her parents asked me if I could photograph her for her family senior photos. They all grow up so fast :( 

Nonetheless, we had a super time! She and her parents are one of my favorites from Helen's family, so the whole session was just a blast. Great times indeed. 

Here are some photos from our session. Enjoy! 

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Last but not least, a big thanks to my VALS (Voice Activated Light Stand), and Claire's dad, Brian. Thanks dude!

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Alrightee! Enjoy your week everyone :) Next up next time is a headshot session with actress Jeaneen Tang, winner of the headshot session from Artists at Play's fundraiser last summer. Great stuff!

Thanks for visiting!
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Christmas week 2011! How are you all doing? Hope everyone is doing great and that the holidays are treating you all well :) I've been wanting to say this for quite sometime now, but I wanted to say hello and thank you too all my international blog followers! Yes, YOU! All the folks from Brazil, France, Italy, and Russia (with the most numbers of followers), and to all the terrific people in Canada, Germany, Spain, Finland, and the United Kingdom - holla! I appreciate you guys clicking onto this little old web log of mine, and just wanted to say thanks :) Wherever you may be, may the holiday season bring you joy and happiness :) 

In the middle of all the seasons' happenings, I have finally turned the corner in terms of finishing off my final performance obligation - A Little Tokyo Christmas Goes to Las Vegas! show. In it's second year, it basically brings together talent from the Asian American acting community, with most, if not all of us having been in an East West Players show at one point or another. What a hugely talented pool of performers - from dancers, to singers, and even acrobats, etc. It was such a honor to be on stage with some talented friends, and even though we only had two shows, we felt as though we could have done more! It was also nice to see friends that we sadly don't get to see that often, other than perhaps this one show a year. 

Here are a few images I took during the dress rehearsal and the show itself. 


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Although you can't see everyone performing, this was a huge night of TALENT!



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Our friend Melody killing it while singing "Proud Mary"


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One more of the AMAZING Kennedy during his aerial trapeze number. 


It is such a honor and thrill to be a part of this community of artists :) Thanks to our friends Mike H. and Emily K. for putting it on again this year. Great work everyone :) See you next year - for sure!


Is it just me or are Christmas cards coming in late this year? As of this writing, Tuesday, December 20, we're now hitting full stride as to receiving everyone's cards. Last year, the onslaught started at the beginning of December. Go figure! 

Adding to the "late" mailers is my cousin ;p I spent monday over at her house photographing my adorable nieces and nephews for their card. Hard work? Nah. Fun times with people a lot shorter (and younger) than you? You bet!!!

Here are a few images from our Christmas card shoot. 


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My nieces and nephew, the Taylors :) 



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That's it for now. I'm slowly but surely cruising into Christmas. It'll be here soon enough. 

Till next time, I wish you and your families a joyous Christmas and holiday season :) Thanks for stopping by, and see you next time! Oh, and don't forget to take photos of all the parties and gatherings you go to! Would love to see them sometime! I'll see about getting them posted up next time :) Bye everyone! Merry Christmas!
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Vishal says:

Happy Holidays to you and your family!

(12.21.11 @ 11:11 AM)
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Happy Wednesday everyone! Well, I'm sick again, probably due to this weird up and down weather. 

Anyway, just wanted to post a few fun shots of a recent headshot session I did with my good friend, musician/composer/musical director/awesome improvisor extroadinaire, Marc Macalintal! We had a great session, filled with some awesome images, but I decided to post the fun stuff here today. Why not? :p

Lastly, I've also included a few more from my fashion shoot with Jully. Enjoy!!!



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Sly devil!



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"Okay, now act like you just won the lotto!"



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"Just a little more to the left..."



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Fun times Marc!!!




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Thanks again to Jully L. for being my model :) Enjoy the rest of you week everyone! And stay healthy!!!
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mipal7 says:

Thanks Peter :)

(11.16.11 @ 12:01 PM)
Peter Varvel says:

Such great shots of both Marc and Jully!
Feel better soon (stop working so hard!).

(11.16.11 @ 11:56 AM)
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