Venice at Night
One random Thursday, a little while ago, I got a little tipsy. And when I get tipsy, I tend to become very inspired and creative… I was browsing through photos on Flickr and was amazed at how different a location I knew so well, such as the main intersection in Venice, looked in these pictures. I found myself becoming frustrated at myself for not taking the initiative to go out on a night-time shoot around Venice, despite having lived in the West Side for nearly 2 years! I began having an inner dialogue, contemplating whether I should do this tonight…
Experimenting with a Beauty Dish
Outgoing, energetic, and beautiful… that’s Denise! Denise and I started our shoot in the corner of a brick wall in downtown LA just before sundown. I wanted to create an edgy look for her, almost like a “bad girl” look. I used dramatic lighting to emphasize the details of the bricks and asked her to give me dramatic positions to convey the look. After dark, we did a photo session in my friend Andy’s studio where we experimented with various forms of lighting. Andy had lighting equipment called the Beauty Dish, that creates a doughnut-shaped light ring in the center
San Francisco Roadtrip
I asked myself a serious question: if I were to leave California tomorrow, what is the one thing that I would wish I had done? It was a no-brainer to drive along the Golden Coast. I’ve been jealous of friends who have done the drive from LA to San Francisco as I’ve heard that the drive along Big Sur is stunning. So I decided to knock this one off my bucket list. After some sweet talk and convincing Mike that it would be a good idea, we decided to do the shorter drive (5hrs) to get to San Francisco, and
Looking Up
When we walk, we generally have a one track mind and only look at what’s straight in front of us. What happens when we look up? If you look up, you’ll see things you normally don’t notice. If we change our direction, we see things that we usually don’t see. Sometimes it take courage and determination to look at something from another angle. But once we realize that there’s something unique about this new view, it becomes beautiful simply because it’s something that not everyone notices. Look up – touch things – walk slower. You don’t know what you’re missing
WELCOME
I call myself a ‘people’ photographer, specializing in capturing the personalities of people through family, newborn and event photography. I’m originally German-Japanese and was raised embracing both cultures. I was raised in Japan and in many parts of Europe, until I finally settled in Los Angeles to call it my permanent home. My love for photography started at an early age. A fun hobby eventually turned in to a passion when I found joy in taking candid photos of my friends. Naturally, my love for photography turned in to a lifestyle and I was asked to photograph people’s milestones and celebrations. And so, my photography business was born in 2010.