2007 February | Me Ra Koh Photography Blog

Archive for February, 2007

February 28th, 2007

Pictage Photography Conference!

I had an amazing surprise the other day that I have to share with all of you!

Pictage sent out an email announcing their photography conference in Chicago, May 2007.

I had sent in a speaking abstract to speak again, but when I clicked on the link I saw the speaker line up had already started, and wow, I about fell out of my seat! Check out the line up of speakers!

THE LINE-UP

Learn from the Pros.Who better to learn valuable business advice from than over 18 leaders shaping your industry, such as Denis Reggie, Mike Colon, and David Jay. Come to the Pictage Partner Conference and you’ll get to see presentations from these top professional photographers. Then after each presentation, get all your questions answered in the following Q&A sessions.

Pictage has been expressing great enthusiasm to support us in 2007 and that alone has meant the world. For those of you who use them, you know they are so much more than a pro-lab. They’ve definitely become the leaders of our wedding/portrait industry, and to be sponsored by them is such an honor!

On top of that, I can’t even begin to say how honored I feel to be in a line up with David Jay, Denis Reggie, Mike Colon and David Salomone. I’ve never had a chance to meet David Salomone, but I’m so impressed with his business model. And the other three men have all had such a personal impact on our business. Denis is an amazing man in the industry and has brought photojournalism to weddings for the last twenty years, as well as shooting the last twenty Kennedy weddings. He was the first to really challenge me head on at one of his workshops, and his words changed my life and our business forever. Mike and DJ have both encouraged me countless times as a leader to not only photographers, but women too. The industry is still very much a man’s industry, but I think we’re changing that little by little.

David Jay, Mike Colon and Denis Reggie all have a certain openness about their business and experiences. Their openness and enthusiasm to support Brian and I have definitely been a large part of why our studio has exploded the way it has. Without a doubt, we wouldn’t be where we are today without the amazing influence and work of these guys! And I can only say, I’m honored beyond words to be in the speaker line up with them!

If you are in the area or any where near, you have to come to this conference! I guarantee your studio will be encouraged, inspired and totally challenged from the two days. I think pre-registration has already started, so check it out!

9 Comments »
Tags: Art, Business, Photographer, Photography, Speaking, Workshop

February 27th, 2007

That’s a Wrap!!

After a week of pulling sixteen hour days, we can finally say “that’s a wrap!” I can’t even tell you how good it feels to say that! And you know it’s bad when Pascaline asks me if she can have a day without filming! (guilt, guilt, guilt )

We did three straight days of filming all twenty lessons, a day filming Brian’s nutty professor scenes, and then we spent two more days filming Brian and I modeling the exercises with our own kids,

and then the flu hit Pascaline hard, we ended up having take-out dinner at 11:30pm for four days, gaining 10 lbs., and when Josh and Kendal flew home, our little family of four slept until 11am the next day (very weird for our kids!).

What a relief! It takes every thing in me not to call Josh every five minutes and see how the editing is coming. And I must say, I think our friendship was tested on this little project! Since Kendal flew out two days early, Josh came and stayed in our guest room, and oh boy, the stress and fatigue was at it’s peak by then. Poor Josh! I don’t think he’s ever going to want to come back to our crazy home! But he’s a trooper, and I’m already in tears at the clips he’s showing me! (Your amazing Josh!)

And I’ve got to do one more shout out to Rey. He runs Absolute Digital Broadcast Rentals in Bellevue, WA. Rey hooked us up with such great lighting, a tele-prompter, HD equipment, seriously, every thing was perfect. Even when we realized we were going to need an extra two days, he was totally cool with it and helped make it happen last minute. He even delivered all the gear and then picked it up for us!

I know you can relate to doing a big project and how much of a difference it makes when every person involved is supporting you. We didn’t even know Rey, but he was so excited for this project and did every thing he could to help us meet our deadlines. Check him out if you ever need to rent any thing in the digital/broadcast/video arena! He is your man! Here’s a fun shot Brian took of me with Rey and his girlfriend, Stephanie.

If you have a chance check out Kendal Miller’s website too! Brian and I feel so honored to have worked with this guy. He was one amazing director. Check out his “clips and photos” page and see his car commercials! They are freaking amazing! (Kendal, there is no way we could have done this without you, thank you a million times!)

So we’re working as a family to bring life back to normal. I’ve actually packed the cameras away to give the kids a break and just be. I feel so out of touch with many of you and the blog, so stay tuned this week! I’ve got fun photos to share from the Mom’s Workshop last weekend, and a bunch of other surprises! Much love! And one last time, “that’s a wrap!”

8 Comments »
Tags: Exercise, Kids, Workshop

February 21st, 2007

Ask and Learn Wednesdays!

This is last minute, but with all that we’ve been doing I almost forgot to mention it!

For those of you who use Pictage, I’ll be on there “Ask and Learn Wednesday” forum today.

The forum will start around 3:45pm, and I think I’m going until 6pm. So if you’re a Pictage person, jump on the forums and come say hi!

Excited to see you there! And feel free to ask me any thing b/c that’s really what today is all about!

2 Comments »
Tags: Art

February 20th, 2007

Lights, Camera, Action!

After 237 takes in only 2 1/2 days, we finally crossed a huge milestone in the filming of the DVD tonight. For the most part, my twenty teaching scenes are done! And I can’t believe it! I don’t think any of us can believe it because it’s almost impossible to pull that off in such a short amount of time.

It’s 12:45 am, and I think we might get to bed before 3am, which will be a first in three days! It’s almost unreal to think we’ve been pulling 16 hour days for the last 3 days. Never boring around here!

Seriously, I had no idea what I was getting myself into! When I do a teaching chapter I have to get every word right while I’m reading the tele-prompter and trying to pretend like I’m not reading it, while trying not to lose my place, while showing you the setting on the camera I’m referring too…it’s insane!!! And if one, small thing goes wrong, we go back and start from the top; like a dog barking outside at random, or a plane flying over us, or a light causing a weird shadow half way through. It’s amazing that we got any of the twenty done. But we did, and I’m so ready to get some sleep tonight!

I haven’t even had a chance to process how cool the Women’s Workshop was on Saturday! We had the BEST time, and I’m dying for you to see the trailer that the film crew are making from it! It was a blast! (miss you ladies already!)

Tomorrow we start filming, Professor Townsend, the nutty photography professor. Brian did some run throughs tonight, and I almost peed my pants because I was laughing so hard! I can’t wait for all of you to see this! We’ve got so many surprises and great teaching tips that it’s going to be a blast! I just wish it was ready today!

We’ll try to get some bloopers this week so you can see a bit of what we’ve been up to. Thanks for all the support and encouragement! We can definitely feel it!

7 Comments »
Tags: Art, Photography, Workshop

February 15th, 2007

Lighting Equipment and More Lighting Equipment, Oh My!

So the producer is arriving from Chicago in the next couple hours, and Josh (the most amazing film guy!) is arriving by 5pm from Louisiana. The door bell has been ringing throughout the day with more and more lighting equipment showing up, even a tele-prompter! Wow! What did I get myself into?

Say a prayer for us, send a positive thought our way or whatever else you do, for the next six days. We have 20 episodes to film, and I’m told one episode takes 8 hours. We’re going to need some serious god speed! I’m also going to try and model all the photography exercises with my own kids–that should be interesting.

I’ll try and keep you posted on our progress as we go along, and thanks for being patient. We will get back to photography tips for moms very soon.

Can’t wait for you to see this DVD series, we’ve even decided to have “Professor Townsend” do a guest appearance. Who is he? An expert on useless information and incredibly technical matters that don’t help anyone (my hubby–he’s got such a great attitude to play this role! )

To all the ladies flying and driving in for the workshop on Saturday, can’t wait to see your beautiful faces and have a blast together!!

11 Comments »
Tags: Exercise, Kids, Photography, Workshop

February 14th, 2007

Born to Love, Born to Laugh!

The novel we sit down to write, and the one we end up writing may be very different, just as the Jesus we grasp and the Jesus who grasps us may also differ. -Walking on Water: Reflections on Art and Faith by Madeleine L’Engle

This morning I woke up to my five year old running in the bedroom, jumping on the bed, and yelling, “Happy Valentine’s Day!!!” It doesn’t get much better than that.

But Valentine’s Day is also a day of mixed emotion for me. If you read my About Me page, you know that before photography I wrote a book about date rape. Today is my fifteen year anniversary of when I was raped. It’s been a long road of pain, healing, restoration, and in the end finding I was born to love. I was born to laugh.

This family slideshow is made up of images that Bradley Hanson (an incredible photographer in the Seattle area) recently did for us. We are up to our elbows in producing this DVD series for parents, and Bradley was kind enough to come and shoot some promo photos of our family. The song in the slideshow cannot express any better how I feel today. Click here to watch.

If my life was a novel, this is not how I would have expected it to read. But thank goodness I don’t always know what to expect and things often turn out different than I expect.

Wishing all my readers, friends, family and especially Brian, a wonderful Valentine’s Day. (and thank you Bradley for bringing more joy then you’ll ever know-the photos are perfect)

Much love, Me Ra

12 Comments »
Tags: Art, Photographer, Photography, Writing

February 12th, 2007

A Birthday Weekend!

The last few days I’ve been out of the studio and having a wonderful time with my family.

My birthday was on Friday, and I’m overwhelmed at how much love people have expressed over the last couple days. Friday morning started with Pascaline coming into my room while I was still sleeping and whispering the Happy Birthday song in my ear and ending it with a kiss. A photography forum I love had dozens and dozens of photographers from all over the world sending me emails, posts and prayers wishing me a happy birthday (love you guys!).

Later in the day, my mom, the kids and I made seashell candles together. And I even got to steal away for some alone time during naps and write in my journal at a local cafe. When I got home Brian had cake, balloons and a beautiful necklace wrapped in pink. Pascaline did EIGHT bows for me! She is hilarious! You can see it for yourself on the video! Blaze got me a Hawk or Hot Girl, click here to read the story on this!

On Saturday, Brian and I ran away to Seattle and stayed overnight at the Inn in the Market. Had a wonderful dinner at Dahlia Lounge, late night drinks at Cafe Campagne and the next day took our time shopping at my favorite store, Watson Kennedy then hiding away in a cafe for lunch. The perfect and much needed rest to a big week ahead of us.

This Thursday, Joshua Smith from Cinematic Bride will be flying in as well as Kendall from CA, to start filming and production of our DVD for moms! Friday is our Meet and Greet dinner with all the moms flying and driving in for the Saturday workshop. Saturday is the February workshop for moms! (Yeah! It’s here!) And then we continue filming the DVD series until Thursday next week! Phew!

Wishing all of you a wonderful week, and I’ll do my best to post some blogs over the next couple days! (fingers crossed!)

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To learn more about me visit About Me Ra.

For information on Me Ra’s popular photography workshops, visit “Documenting a Child’s Life.”

To see our day job, visit our website.

11 Comments »
Tags: Art, Kids, Photographer, Photography, Workshop

February 8th, 2007

Top Music Tip from 2006!

Since I did a Top Limo Tip from 2006, I thought I’d share a Top Music Tip from 2006.

This summer we shot a wedding in Sonoma, CA at a small vineyard tucked in the hillside. You can check out Shannon and Rob’s slideshow here. They were such a great couple, and on a side note, Shannon is flying in from Colorado for our workshop this month! (Yeah!!!) But back to the music tip, the wedding’s scenery, decor, weather–all of it was dreamy. And the music definitely topped it off.

Shannon and Rob had Trio Solea, a group that specializes in Flamenco and Latin guitar, come and play for the day. The music was so good I found myself gravitating toward them so I could take in their music and dance a bit myself. It was the BEST I’d ever heard.

The guys of Trio Solea were kind enough to give me a CD of their work, and I think we listened to it non stop for the whole summer. If you go to their website you can hear some of their sound samples (they’re pretty awesome!).

Trio Solea is based out of the Napa Valley, but they also travel! Enjoy!

4 Comments »
Tags: Photography, Travel, Workshop

February 7th, 2007

Great Grandmas!

Today is my grandma’s birthday! Pascaline calls her Gigi Ma for Great Grandma, and Blaze calls her Gigi.

Isn’t she beautiful!

Tabblo: Great Grandmas are the Best! Happy birthday Gigi ma!

See my Tabblo>

Things I love about my grandma; her beautiful long legs, how she squints her eyes when she laughs, her beautiful hands and feet (she’s so good at getting manicures), her love of a good book, her amazing gift at mailing cards for every holiday and never missing one, how she always spells Brian’s name as “brain” (he especially loves that ), the time she came to my apartment when I was first married and taught me how to can apple sauce, that her birthday is two days before mine so every year we have a special birthday celebration together (afternoon tea at Queen Mary’s being one of our favorite), how she says “Now Cherri” when she wants to correct my mom, listening to her recite the Owl and the Pussy Cat to the kids, her love for fluffy cats, going to the Korean spa together–wandering around naked and giggling so hard it hurt, countless telephone conversations where she listens so intent as I share all my fears and worries, hearing her story of seeing God when her heart stopped several years ago, that she prays for me every day, her colorful potted plants at the lake house, seeing her sunbathe and then frown as my grandpa jumps in the lake trying to splash her, hearing her stories of traveling across Asia with my dad after my parents got married (very patient woman here! ), how much joy she carries with how much pain she has endured, that she signed up for a computer class on her own a few years ago so she could email her grandchildren and stay in with the times, that she went to her first counseling appointment at 70 with a heart to learn and grow (that one always makes me cry), that she was best friends with Brian’s grandma, Dorothy, for forty years, that she loves me no matter what I do or say, she just loves me.

I love you grandma, happy birthday! Can’t wait for our tea time! Love, Me Ra

1 Comment »
Tags: Art, Kids, Travel

February 7th, 2007