12.28 photo diary

In the mood for vintage

As I was in the mood for a bit of vintage, I organized a film noir inspired fashion shoot with the greatest talents in OC.

Who says there is no culture/art in OC?? Ok maybe not so much as London/Tokyo/NY/Paris but anywhere you go, you always come across creative people with abilities for performing as greatly as the artists living in metropolises, I believe!

Everyone in the team I worked with was based in or from OC. They were all super nice, chilled and hardworking.

The studio in Fountain Valley thestudiooc.com

I always use my favorite lens Canon 85mm F1.2 for portrait shoots. This gives amazing texture to human skin and fabrics. If you do fashion, this is a must have.

I shot a model Emily against a gray wall with a 32" umbrella with a diffuser that gave dramatic light and shadow at the same time.

Emily was a great model who knew how to move of course, and could look innocent and sexy depending on angle. Despite the freezing cold weather (yes it does get cold in Southern California) she did a great job and we were all happy about the way pictures came out.

We managed to capture 7 looks. They should be on the G.O.O.D.S magazine January issue! I cannot wait to share the images here..!

Charity, all the clothes were beautiful. Alisha, your make up was just perfect. Nycole, you are the sweetest & most talented hair stylist to work with. And Emily, you're a great model.

Thanks everyone!

International Photography Awards 2011 Honorable Mention

Photography: Asami Uetsuji Zenri

Stylist: Hideyuki Sanbongi

Make up: Atsushi Kokawa

hair: Hitomi Kaneda

Model: Lenke

Downtown LA Photo shoot

My October started with an exciting fashion shoot in Downtown LA.

I realized every city has a spot that fits your style, and when you find the spot, you can love the whole city maybe the whole country, then appreciate you have freedom to travel anywhere you feel like going to.

So Arts District. I'm in love with this area that reminds me of East London. Lots of bars, cafes, restaurants, colorful graffiti, stylish people, chilled atmosphere, industrial looking flats... I've missed London so much but now I'm ok as long as I get to hang out in Arts District once in a while.

The shooting location was only 3 mins drive from Arts District.

We had Gus Castaneda, incredibly successful stylist/MUA/Hair stylist who's been a contributing editor for Spanish Vogue for years, and a beautiful and sweet model Linda H, also lovely Andre who helped us out hugely.

Thank you for sharing your talents with me!

LA has so many great spots for fashion shoots. Isn't location hunting the most exciting bit for photographers??

We got several looks and I'm happy how they turned out. Now editing is in progress so hopefully I can post some images here pretty soon.

This is the start of new and exciting life in the States for me.

Cannot wait to work on new projects and meet new people.

Next shoot seems like High fashion Autumn resort by the beach. Excited..

new website launched!

It's been a month since I moved to sunny Southern California.

My new life started with making a new look of my website and re-organizing my portfolio. Now the website is launched and it's looking very good.

Hoping to get involved in lots of exciting projects and meeting many many incredible people here in LA as well!

on the very last day in Tokyo

I've just left Tokyo and now moved back in my quiet & peaceful hometown where I'll sort out all my final paper work. One more week to go before I leave for California. Last 12 year I've been moving a lot (Osaka - Cambridge - London - Tokyo - OC - Tokyo) but hopefully this is going to be my last moving.
On the last day in Tokyo, I had a great photo session with a great team. It was first time for me to work with everyone but we all got on so well. The shoot was relaxing and intense in a good way at the same time. This is the feel I love when I work cos it's a good sign of a seccessful shoot.


Editing is in progress!

Where are all the models gone??

Just after the earthquake in Mar, all the foreign models left Japan and there was NONE left in the major agencies in Tokyo for a while. And recently it seems they are coming back to Tokyo little by little.

I luckily was able to book this cool looking LENKE for my shoot on Monday.

The concept is raw/sensual/deep-sea/couture/darkness... It's going to be a great shoot.

Stylist: Hideyuki Sanbongi

Make up: Atsushi Kokawa

Hair: Hitomi

How can we go wrong with these talents??

Images will be posted here later.

11-12AW Tokyo Collection

check out vogue Japan!

Beautiful work by Motonari Ono is featured with my photos.

Orange county

I'm coming soon!

10yrs

On Saturday I met up my friends from Uni in Osaka for lunch. I haven't seen some of them more than 10yrs but they still looked beautiful like they stopped aging...

10yrs ago we would want to be creative and unique, never have enough money, smoke a lot, listen to indies bands, always have probs with boyfriends like other art school kids. Silly but good times.

Now we are a writer, training director, photographer or mother. And married. People grow. Amazing.

There is a beautiful roof top garden at Isetan Shinjuku. Who would imagine you can find this hidden and chilling space in the right middle of crazily busy Tokyo?

now I know I can go there and breathe when I need. Strangely fresh wind keeps on blowing there.

We chatted about random stuff and said good bye. Still I can hardly believe it's been 10yrs..

one more week to go

Tonight I went out with my coworkers for some nice Italian food.

I am going to leave work next week so the girls squeezed in this night out before my final week.

I've been working for this studio since Sep 2009. Time flies...! Really, all I can remember is good stuff. I met so many cool people, learnt a lot of new things, had lots of fun w coworkers, sometimes got frustrated but it was a part of process to create something new. I must confess that I'm so excited about starting my own business in the US next month but still I know I'm gonna miss everything in this studio.

At the restaurant we drank, ate, laughed, chatted and chatted...

Amazing pizza!

Thanks for the pretty flowers! I love them!!

They know me well. I love yellow and orange.

On my way back home, I was alone on the train. Everyone disappeared? Where are they? I'm still here.

social network

I find great talents at social network sites and get to shoot with them very often.

And sometimes I get found by great talents and involved in fantastic shoots! I just want to tell the world how great this modern technology(internet) is!

This time a Tokyo based Make up artist Atsushi Kokawa contacted me and we are gonna have a real cool high fashion shoot together.

He's also gonna bring great hair stylist and wardrobe stylist who have incredible portfolios. I'm so proud my work caught Atsushi's attention. The beauty of being in this industry is to be able to collaborate with anyone immediately as long as you love his/her style. It doesn't matter how old you are, where you are from, what careers you have had. Maybe it does matter if he/she has a great personality though...

Anyway I'm so excited. This is gonna be the last shoot in Tokyo. I'm moving to L.A in a month time and won't be back to live in Japan.

I will put up some pics from the shoot later!

still life and me

Even though most of my work is fashion with models, I have true love to still life and I often shoot random things just for fun.

It's just so nice to be on my own, put my favorite tunes on, being in some random thoughts, play around with gears anyway I like, take as much time as I want till beautiful images are captured... Very therapeutic.

Then after a while, I start missing working with people and go back to shooting fashion. I love the way my life is and am grateful for everyone & everything that help my dreams coming true.

Behind the scene

Backstage is the most exciting place to shoot!

London!

Tokyo!

Hollywood!