Success

If you insist on measuring yourself, place the tape around your heart rather than your head.

Carol Trabelle

I had the pleasure of photographing the Walton Family in the breathtaking snow. It was freezing but they were brave to endure and ’work it’. Kyus, Bliss, and Tristan are such darlings, aren’t they? Back in the day, Amy and I bonded while we were managers together at Gene Juarez. Gabe was a designer there also. They fell in love and got married. Gabe works at Obadiah in Bellevue now - go see him for your hair needs and tell him I sent you. Amy photographed alongside me at a wedding this past summer and we had a great time. To this session, she brought me this gift saying that it reminded her of me – so thoughtful!

Photographer: Grace Kim

Copyright 2007 GH Kim Photography

We were watching TV and ‘hawkeye’ Paul said, ‘Hey, isn’t that Matt?’ We backed up on DVR and lo and behold, two of our friends, Becky and Matt on the Toyota commercial!

A little bit ago, I found another friend, Mike on TV as well.

The Ultimate Compliment

We photographed Jennifer and James at a winery in Napa Valley. They are so easygoing and have such a pleasant nature about them. Jennifer happens to be a photographer herself. They originally booked a reputable wedding photographer from San Francisco but canceled to book with us. No pressure at all.

After the session, we had some time to visit a few wineries. Many a times we’ve gone to San Francisco, but we’ve never gone to well-known Napa Valley so we figured we should visit at least once in our lifetime.

Domaine Carneros

Robert Mondavi Winery

V. Sattui Winery

Sterling Vineyards

Copyright 2007 GH Kim Photography

Adventures already

Situation I . When we got to our hotel in the Bay Area at evening time, we had to wait 2.5 hours to get into our room because of ‘complications’.

Situation II . On the way to photograph Lana & John’s wedding, our rental car made rattling noises and we were thinking that it didn’t seem normal. As we got off the exit, the hood of the car started smoking and then died. From a recent friends’ experience of their van going up in flames, all I could think about was that I wanted to jump out and grab our equipment and run as far as we can. But instead, we rolled the car down the off ramp and pushed the car to the side. More importantly than the car issue, we had a wedding to tend to, so we dealt with it later. Two of the awesome bridesmaids came to our rescue.

Bottom line . We got to our destination, had some fun, and captured a beautiful wedding.

Copyright 2007 GH Kim Photography

Catch up

During the holidays, I didn’t have time to post, so I’m going to consolidate.

[below] Kimi and Brian, who are very loving and supportive of each other, got married in the Columbia Tower Club where there is an amazing view of beautiful Seattle!

[below] Lindsay is a wedding photographer and Christopher is an actor. They live in New York but are getting married in the Seattle area this upcoming summer. It was a lot of fun photographing them in Queen Anne!

[below] Christine is the third roommate of a house to choose us for their wedding photography. We love referrals! Christine and Jack are very down to earth.

[below] Carolyn and Yee’s wedding was extra special because we helped them find their venue . . . the location where Hun and I got married! They’re so fun-loving!

[below] Juliette and Mark had an extravagantly gorgeous wedding! They also live in New York but held their celebration in Seattle. I found out later that Juliette was sick but I couldn’t tell at all – her countenance was great and she was so beautiful! 

[below] Sylvia and Glenn’s wedding was simple and laid-back, yet still beautiful. They really focused on enjoying the company of their guests.

[below] Mazel Tov! A fun celebration with Sara and Jed. It felt very intimate because they were so personal with all the guests. It was exciting to see a bald eagle fly over the ceremony as well!

[below] Gina and Greg held their reception at Seattle’s well-known Space Needle where they created an environment for the guests to get down and have fun! Isn’t the cake topper hilarious?

Copyright 2007 GH Kim Photography

2007 . Carpe diem

Hope everyone’s 2007 is off to a fabulous start!

Hun and I are currently in our hotel near San Francisco and about to shoot our first wedding of the year tomorrow.

As the new year quickly came upon us, I pondered whether to make resolutions or not. There are many people who make them, but more often I hear of people not making them because they know they’ll break them. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to make at least one resolution – make an effort, try your best, and live life with purpose; don’t be defeated before you even start.

Of course there are tons of things we want to work on, but this year we decided to especially focus on our health and wellbeing. We’re not getting any younger and we need to treat our bodies as a holy temple.

1. Sleep earlier. This past year, the average time we’ve been going to sleep is about 5am, often giving us anywhere from 3-5 hours of sleep. No matter how busy we are, we shouldn’t neglect our time of rest.
2. Drink more water.
3. Lessen the amount of yummy but bad food intake.
4. Do some type of physical activity at least once a week.

Some of these might seem silly, but to us, it’s a huge challenge.

2007 just got started but there is so much to look forward to! More of our friends are getting married, having babies and turning 30!

I can’t help but be excited for more adventures to come! Let’s make it an awesome year!

Stay tuned for the next edition of ‘style & grace’ and more . . .