May 17 – 18 – Phoenix, AZ
May 22 – 24 – San Francisco, CA
May 25 – 28 – Boston, MA
June 1 – 3 – Boston, MA
June 9 – Graduation, Chicago, IL
June 11 – 30 – Boston, MA
June 19 – 21 – San Francisco, CA
July 1 and on – Living full-time in San Francisco, CA
July 14 – 15 – Seattle, WA
July 21 – 22 – Los Angeles, CA
August 10 – 19 – Boston, MA
September 1 – 9 – Boston, MA
October 5 – 10 – Boston, MA
October 11 – 14 – Chicago, IL

Shang is a jetsetting wedding photographer for dynamic couples. She captures imagery that pops with color, personality, and energy.
hear the news first - like her work on facebook . follow her thoughts on twitter

There are more than enough sources out there that bring us down. Magazines with pictures of women with unreal faces photoshopped to the point where we all believe that under-eye shadows don’t belong. Forums and blogs where internet trolls say horrible things about women they’d never say to their mothers. Even at parties and weddings, I hear and observe women judging one another.

In the end, my photographs cannot happen if you don’t believe in your own beauty. I can’t make you believe that you are beautiful. You need to believe it first, and to get there – and I know this can be hard – you have to learn to love yourself and put yourself above the noise, above all the people who don’t see you for the real you. In the end, they do not matter.

I can help you, but you must be open to believing in the existence of beauty in your life

Getting there is a process. The first step is the desire to be a better person

Reward yourself. Acknowledge all the amazing and good things happening in your life and what they have brought you to, thus far

Recognize that there will always, always be things beyond your control. The weather. A zit. Don’t worry about those, because no one else can change them either

If you have people who cherish you in their lives, don’t be afraid to ask for affirmation! It sure doesn’t hurt for me to hear from my parents how proud they are of me, or from my boyfriend how awesome he thinks I am

Rise above cattiness, judgment, and jealousy yourself. To become beauty, we must embody it, inside and out

Give yourself me-time and fun-time. For some ladies, it might mean manis and pedis, for others, it could mean paintball. Whatever it is, do something that makes you smile

Give back to others. There is no purer form of joy than that derived from doing something for people who have no means, no power, no ability to give you anything back

Recognize that life will have its ups and downs. There is beauty in pain, too. Make sure that you surround yourself with people who will be there to prop you up when you need a hand, and also who will celebrate in your success

Be open to change – and know that change does not come easily. However, be on the lookout for opportunities where you can continue to change into the best version of yourself

Love yourself first, always. It will lead to amazing things

May 22 – 24 – San Francisco, CA
May 25 – 28 – Boston, MA
June 1 – 3 – Boston, MA
June 9 – Graduation, Chicago, IL
June 11 – 30 – Boston, MA
June 19 – 21 – San Francisco, CA
July 1 and on – Living full-time in San Francisco, CA
July 14 – 15 – Seattle, WA
July 21 – 22 – Los Angeles, CA
August 10 – 19 – Boston, MA
September 1 – 9 – Boston, MA
October 5 – 10 – Boston, MA
October 11 – 14 – Chicago, IL

Shang is a jetsetting wedding photographer for dynamic couples. She captures imagery that pops with color, personality, and energy.
hear the news first - like her work on facebook . follow her thoughts on twitter

More importantly, I went off to Philly to attend a friend’s wedding and it was quite the reunion of the Asian American sisterhood I’d co-founded and been a part of at college. At the wedding I’d also bumped in Gary and Katrina (see lower left). Gary and Katrina were my very first commissioned photoshoot, EVER, I did their engagement photos at Harvard way way way way back in the day. So far back it was before this blog. Nevertheless, I have Gary and Katrina to thank for kicking off my career in photography. Okay, those 2 photos are not cell phone photos, clearly. Lower right, that’s me and the boyfriend going macaroon hunting in Chicago. These super-giant, chewy ones are from Pierrot Gourmet inside the Peninsula Hotel. I think the cookie was very well done, but the filling does not measure up to the freshness of that of Laduree.

While in Philly, I also managed to crash the Wharton Spring Gala

Upper left: That’s me grabbing – get ready – McDonald’s before the gala! Hahaha I had landed just an hour before and I was FAMISHED. Upper right: me and my lovely host, Yi-An
Lower left: Bumped into dsquared, whose wedding in Los Angeles I attended in 2010. Lower right, me and college friends Jannie and Christina

Then it was 2 weeks of Monday classes followed by commuting to San Francisco for work on Tuesday – Friday. Clearly, food is my #1 priority

Upper left: my Macbook Pro and my Vaio PC. Upper right: Lunch with Anna at Indo Bali Cooking Street

Lower left: Dinner with my team at Osha Thai. Lower right: Getting bumped up to first class for my red-eye back, thanks Dad!

And whenever possible, I try to see this little munchkin as much as I can. She likes expensive stuff, hence her munching on my Coach bag.. haha

May 22 – 24 – San Francisco, CA
May 25 – 28 – Boston, MA
June 1 – 3 – Boston, MA
June 9 – Graduation, Chicago, IL
June 11 – 30 – Boston, MA
June 19 – 21 – San Francisco, CA
July 1 and on – Living full-time in San Francisco, CA
July 14 – 15 – Seattle, WA
July 21 – 22 – Los Angeles, CA
August 10 – 19 – Boston, MA
September 1 – 9 – Boston, MA
October 5 – 10 – Boston, MA
October 11 – 14 – Chicago, IL

Shang is a jetsetting wedding photographer for dynamic couples. She captures imagery that pops with color, personality, and energy.
hear the news first - like her work on facebook . follow her thoughts on twitter

Kim and Evon’s destination Jamaican wedding on Destination I Do

(see my original coverage of the wedding in full HD deliciousness here)

Yaya and Ben, my friends, got their wedding announcement into the New York Times

(see the engagement shoot I did for them 2 years ago here)

Shreya and Anoop were featured in a 4-post extravaganza over at Maharani Weddings, thanks so much MW! [part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4]

Thanks to all the wonderful couples and vendors who made this possible!

May 1 – 4 – San Francisco, CA
May 22 – 24 – San Francisco, CA
May 25 – 28 – Boston, MA
June 1 – 3 – Boston, MA
June 9 – Graduation, Chicago, IL
June 11 – 30 – Boston, MA
June 19 – 21 – San Francisco, CA
July 1 and on – Living full-time in San Francisco, CA
July 14 – 15 – Seattle, WA
July 21 – 22 – Los Angeles, CA
August 10 – 19 – Boston, MA
September 1 – 9 – Boston, MA
October 5 – 10 – Boston, MA
October 11 – 14 – Chicago, IL

Shang is a jetsetting wedding photographer for dynamic couples. She captures imagery that pops with color, personality, and energy.
hear the news first - like her work on facebook . follow her thoughts on twitter

Some people have been curious as to how this progress works on my side, so I’ll explain in this post. This isn’t necessarily how it works for every photographer, but I think come with pretty simple principles: target correctly, be detailed, network, and follow up.

Target correctly
I usually collect a lot of information upfront from a potential client regarding their wedding (date, venue, style, etc.). I post most of that (anonymized) on to the board. Sometimes, they’re specific. When my post specifically says something like… client does not like super posed photos or the vintage look but wants something modern, it does not help if you post and your style is nothing like that, even if the venue sounds fabulous! Believe me, you will be the happiest photographer when you shoot clients who love your style and can completely connect with you.

Post within your price range
I post referrals in all different kinds of price ranges. It makes no business sense when I see a photographer reply to every single referral that lands on the board. You can’t be everything to everyone. If I post a $4500 wedding, I’m not looking for people whose websites start out at $2000, because the people who’ve worked by the skin of their teeth to get to a starting price of $4500 (AND their work shows it) deserve that referral.

Be detailed
I usually do ask for details from the photographers – give me your email, give me a blog or a recent wedding… and I especially ask this from photogs who I don’t know. I want to see how much care you are putting into an inquiry. If all I see is “Name, website”, it just sounds like you were browsing through the posts on the phone. If my client asked for a detail-oriented, professional photographer, that was my test to see if you pass. And I change it up every now and then =)

Network
Now that I’m away from Boston, I don’t have the luxury of being able to meet everyone. Nevertheless, there are people who have been able to video-meet me, chat with me on Twitter, etc. etc. Meeting with a photographer from whom you want to get a referral will boost their ability to remember you. So get OUT, start having coffees, assist, like their pages on Facebook, comment on their posts. There are instances where I’ve seen a photographer post on pretty much every single one of my referral posts but NEVER emailed, wrote, or said a word to me. When you’re asking for a wedding referral, I view it as you’re asking for the potential to fulfill a part of your income for the year. In many other instances in business, that’s a big ask, so you have to establish a connection.

In business school we often refer to the concept of “social capital” – you get out what you put in. I exhausted a lot of my social capital in looking for a new job in Cali, so I’m not going to be asking these same poeple for something for a while =) If all you ever do is take, people are less likely going to want to help you in the future.

Keep in mind that networking is only half the battle. A famous photographer in his early career once approached a mentor of his and asked why he never got referrals and the mentor said, “your work just isn’t good enough”. Sadly, you could be the nicest and most network-y photog in town, but if your work isn’t good enough, I’m not going to risk that on a bride and groom. If you’re not booking work, make your OWN shoots happen! I have referred photographers whose work I saw improve drastically over a year’s time.

Follow Up
As much as it pleases me to send out referrals, I want to find out who gets it! So, if you book a referral from a fellow photographer, let them know! It’s good information for them to have AND reflects well on you.

The best way to get wedding referrals though? Do FANTASTIC work, have happy clients who will rave about you to their friends =)

April 24 – 27 – San Francisco, CA
May 1 – 4 – San Francisco, CA
May 22 – 24 – San Francisco, CA
May 25 – 28 – Boston, MA
June 1 – 3 – Boston, MA
June 9 – Graduation, Chicago, IL
June 11 – 30 – Boston, MA
June 19 – 21 – San Francisco, CA
July 1 and on – Living full-time in San Francisco, CA
July 14 – 15 – Seattle, WA
July 21 – 22 – Los Angeles, CA
August 10 – 19 – Boston, MA
September 1 – 9 – Boston, MA
October 5 – 10 – Boston, MA
October 11 – 14 – Chicago, IL

Shang is a jetsetting wedding photographer for dynamic couples. She captures imagery that pops with color, personality, and energy.
hear the news first - like her work on facebook . follow her thoughts on twitter

Christina and Dave love the outdoors and the four seasons. Originally, we had an idea to do four engagement shoots – one in each season – but once I moved away from Boston, it was pretty much impossible what with our three schedules being too hard to match up. With my move to the Bay Area, there are many things in Boston that I could not commit to, one of them including attending Christina’s wedding. However, we were so, so fortunate to all be free this past weekend. Christina and Dave took extraordinary measures to drive down at 6AM with a snack-filled car from Boston to meet me in Philadelphia while I was attending a friend’s wedding. Christina has always been a super creative girl with a love for beautiful, cute things, and flowers. In fact, she has even assisted me in the past on some shoots, so she knows how I work! However, it’s always a little different to be in front of my camera. [grins]

Their engagement story is amazing and there is absolutely no way for me to recount it here. However, I will let you know that it involves snow, post-its, two teddy bears, fresh flowers, and their first “I love you”. The first things Christina actually replied with was “I WIN” because they had a running bet that she would cry, but she did not. Haha! Anyway, I burned midnight oil to get this post up given that they are marrying soon and I’m flying out to San Francisco today.

We started with a picnic at Morris Arboretum because, if there’s one thing you should know about both Christina is that she is hungry. All the time. And macarons and cupcakes are awesome

In fact, when I asked them what their most memorable date was from recent memory, both mentioned dates involving food! For Christina’s birthday, they went to O Ya in Boston. Last October, Christina and Dave took a road trip down the east coast that basically involved eating and visiting friends. I totally want to do that

Yummy yummy. And thank you for getting me a red velvet! What a beautiful, beautiful ring

They were so comfortable and laid back with me

We had incredible luck with flowers. With the recent cold snap and rain and wind, Chicago pretty much has no more flowers, but spring flowers abounded in Philly. This was probably my number one goal (and Dave’s too) – to make sure Christina was 100% happy with these photos, we did a lot of digging and researching to come up with a location that wasn’t too far from the city and would have the greatest chance for all these colors. By the way, I tied that green sash :D

Their faiths are very important to them. We actually took a little time in the middle of the session for a little prayer. And a couple more cute kisses

Christina knows my love for shoes all too well. These J. Crew pumps have such lovely detail, I want a pair now..

This was a cool plant that looked autumn-like. I have no idea what it is. Anyone, anyone?

One of my favorite things: awesome trees

One thing I really like about Dave is how genuinely nice he is and how he is always looking for other people’s happiness

This sums up the engagement proposal: post-it notes, teddy bears, and “I love you”

Thank you Christina and Dave so much for being incredible to work with and Christina, for your years of friendship, for seeing me through all these different changes the last several years. A true friend indeed!

For photographers: I continue to receive a lot of questions about whether I use special actions or tricks to achieve my photographic style. Honestly, if you have to rely on editing tricks to get great photos, I think you’re making things too hard on yourself. Sure, I do edit the photos a little in Lightroom because not everything turns out perfect, but it’s all about finding good light and getting it as correct as possible in the camera. Every day, I’m looking for better light

April 24 – 27 – San Francisco, CA
May 1 – 4 – San Francisco, CA
May 22 – 24 – San Francisco, CA
May 25 – 28 – Boston, MA
June 1 – 3 – Boston, MA
June 9 – Graduation, Chicago, IL
June 11 – 30 – Boston, MA
June 19 – 21 – San Francisco, CA
June 22 – 24 – Kiawah Island, SC
July 1 and on – Living full-time in San Francisco, CA
July 14 – 15 – Seattle, WA
July 21 – 22 – Los Angeles, CA
August 10 – 19 – Boston, MA
September 1 – 9 – Boston, MA
October 5 – 10 – Boston, MA
October 11 – 14 – Chicago, IL

Shang is a jetsetting wedding photographer for dynamic couples. She captures imagery that pops with color, personality, and energy.
hear the news first - like her work on facebook . follow her thoughts on twitter

I’m not available for Meg’s wedding, but I was very happy to be able to do this Love Story engagement session for them during the week when I was interviewing in SF. We picked the natural (and windy) location of Land’s End. The weather could not be any more perfect, and even though it was quite cold, I don’t think you can tell from these photos at all.

Meg and Greg quickly fell into a beautiful groove and I felt like I was just interacting with two very genuine friends

I really felta sense of openness and honesty when I’m around Meg and Greg, they were all too happy to share their love story and lives with me

My goodness, these trees are amazing!

YAY blue skies!

This is one of my favorite photos from the day

Snuggling up close!

Greg makes Meg super happy. Can you tell? =)

This picture is special to me – you may have noticed that Greg is quite tall, so even with her adorable heels, Meg has to stand on tip toes to kiss him. I can totally relate with my tall boyfriend ;)

Meg and Greg, thanks so much for such a fantastic time for me to shoot in SF, my new home!

April 20 – 22 – Philadelphia, PA
April 24 – 27 – San Francisco, CA
May 1 – 4 – San Francisco, CA
May 22 – 24 – San Francisco, CA
May 25 – 28 – Boston, MA
June 1 – 3 – Boston, MA
June 9 – Graduation, Chicago, IL
June 11 – 30 – Boston, MA
June 19 – 21 – San Francisco, CA
June 22 – 24 – Kiawah Island, SC
July 1 and on – Living full-time in San Francisco, CA
July 14 – 15 – Seattle, WA
July 21 – 22 – Los Angeles, CA
August 10 – 19 – Boston, MA
September 1 – 9 – Boston, MA
October 5 – 10 – Boston, MA
October 11 – 14 – Chicago, IL

Shang is a jetsetting wedding photographer for dynamic couples. She captures imagery that pops with color, personality, and energy.
hear the news first - like her work on facebook . follow her thoughts on twitter

My goal in going to business school was to facilitate an industry / career change into tech. In fact, I’m starting a bit early – I’ll be flying to San Francisco for several weeks during spring, balancing both the job part-time while finishing up my last academic quarter here at Booth. What does this mean for Shang Chen Photography? Unfortunately, this isn’t what most of you want to hear: Shang Chen Photography will continue to be on indefinite hiatus for the foreseeable future. But Shang, I still see you shooting! you say. That is true, I still have some weddings to which I committed before I started my job search, and I even have people trying to meet me in other cities for shoots when I’m traveling (I have an engagement shoot in Philly for a lovely couple from Boston), but officially, I cannot make any more promises like the kind I used to.

I’m happy though. This tech job I got is exactly what I’d like to do as my next step. The product / company is great with very interesting business challenges, the team is fast-paced and values transparency. So yes, I’ll be returning to my world of Excel models, but on top of that, I’ll be able to see my strategic recommendations operationally in action.

I praise God for how it all worked out so smoothly. I will need my weekends to see my boyfriend as we’ll be in a long distance relationship. I’ve written at length before that as much as I loved being in the wedding industry, it has negatively impacted my personal life, and going forward, I want to put the two of us above that.

Another exciting piece of news is that I made the front page of the school newspaper! Pretty darn cool. I was recently a recipient of the C200 scholarship. The C200 (Committee of 200) is an invite-only organization of amazing women leaders around the world who are pioneers in business and entrepreneurship, CEOs, presidents, the like. I am so excited to have access to this network. I just about near fainted when I found out at the luncheon that I’d been selected as a recipient

Photo by Elizabeth Oates – thank you! In the excitement (and not knowing on that day whether I’d win the scholarship), I didn’t bring a camera or ask anyone to take a picture of me.  This was one of the proudest moments of my life this year, and afterwards I was kind of sad when I realized I didn’t have a picture, until I saw the article. So thank you SO much for taking this picture

So, Bay Area / SF people, get ready, I can’t wait to catch up and meet all of you! Also, Instagram came out for Android phones, meaning I can also finally take square-cropped photos with filters. yay =)

(L-R: Brannan Street in SF. A Hipmunk luggage tag. And of course, In-N-Out)

Here is my full travel schedule for the rest of 2012. I’m really going to be racking up those miles on United…

April 20 – 22 – Philadelphia, PA
April 24 – 27 – San Francisco, CA
May 1 – 4 – San Francisco, CA
May 22 – 24 – San Francisco, CA
May 25 – 28 – Boston, MA
June 1 – 3 – Boston, MA
June 9 – Graduation, Chicago, IL
June 11 – 30 – Boston, MA
June 19 – 21 – San Francisco, CA
June 22 – 24 – Kiawah Island, SC
July 1 and on – Living full-time in San Francisco, CA
July 14 – 15 – Seattle, WA
July 21 – 22 – Los Angeles, CA
August 10 – 19 – Boston, MA
September 1 – 9 – Boston, MA
October 5 – 10 – Boston, MA
October 11 – 14 – Chicago, IL

Shang is a jetsetting wedding photographer for dynamic couples. She captures imagery that pops with color, personality, and energy.
hear the news first - like her work on facebook . follow her thoughts on twitter

I love the beautiful colors of Spring’s outfit

To keep little B entertained, we brought these bouncy balls

Joe’s mother also came along to help out with the session

Super sweet

I just about died when I saw that they brought a toy camera for B

So cute!

Spring majored in music and is a music teacher. I asked her and Joe to sing to their baby girl

Absolutely glowing!

Congratulations Joe and Spring!!! So excited to see your family grow!

April 20 – 22 – Philadelphia, PA
First week of May – San Francisco, CA
May 25 – 28 – Boston, MA
June 1 – 3 – Boston, MA
June 9 – Chicago, IL – I graduate!
Mid-to-late June – Boston, MA
June 22 – 24 – Kiawah Island, SC
July 1 and on – San Francisco, CA

Shang is a jetsetting wedding photographer for dynamic couples. She captures imagery that pops with color, personality, and energy.
hear the news first - like her work on facebook . follow her thoughts on twitter

We began and ended our journey in Singapore. It’s a super clean, modern country that has done a lot of things right to ensure continued growth. It is a place where I can feel it has a culture of excellence

My #1 goal was to get to the top of Marina Bay Sands (the boat-like hotel you see 2 photos above) so I could get a night panorama of Singapore

The second highlight of our trip was Bali. We stayed in east Bali and arrived late at night – Bali’s roads are usually one-lane which means a lot of traffic during the day. We hired a driver to chauffeur us around the eastern and central region of the island during one of the days, which offers a much more interesting and authentic experience than staying in the capital of Denpasar

The camera I brought on this trip was not my usual camera. It’s a consumer DSLR that many of you guys will be able to afford – a Nikon D5100 mounted with the 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G VR lens. Having shot with a professional body for so long it is definitely a challenge trying to get more out of a lesser body and I never realized how many things I took for granted with the D700.

One big issue was auto-focus – it’s just not as good as the D700 (which has 51 points). The D5100 has a respectable 11 points, but I had issues re-programming it into back-button focus mode. It’s hard to see which focal point the camera has picked. This resulted in most photos that the boyfriend took of me being blurry

Second, is dynamic range. A camera with amazing dynamic range is the best way to achieve the color that is a trademark of my work. The lack of dynamic range compared to the professional full frames means that colors appear more flat and harsh, so I had to work extra hard on these images. Again, for personal purposes, I’m happy with these photos, but professionally I wouldn’t use this camera

All the temples and palaces in Bali have an element of water. I love it

Bali is interesting is that it is an island of predominantly Hindu / indigenous / Buddhist religions. You’ll see lots of these statues and more everywhere you go

The sunset by which we had a very delicious romantic dinner in Candidasa, Bali. The ISO performance of this camera is pretty good since Nikon got its act together with the D90 and all cameras after that. Changing ISO is a beast, I had to assign a different function button to do it. Also, this camera refuses to take a photo when the lighting is low without popping up the flash, which is not what I wanted. I had to tell it to stop being so “smart” by holding down the AE-lock button to force it to take a photo

Oh Kuala Lumpur. We stayed longer than we intended in this city because we missed our flight to Kuching and the rainforests of Borneo. It was also my first time staying at a hostel that really did look like a hostel (and not like those professional hotel-like hostels you find in Europe), which took me a long time to adjust to. So we ate.. and ate.. and ate… haha. We ate throughout the trip. The food photos below are actually from all over – only the bottom right was food from a food court in Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur has some great Islamic architecture. The below two photos were taken at a train station!

Resting at the National Islamic Art museum – Kuala Lumpur has a great selection of museums

The Batu Caves – a series of caves accessible by train. One of them has a Hindu temple. You climb 272 steps to get to it

We also visited Brunei, which unfortunately ranks now as one of the most boring countries in the world according to us (and between the two of us we’ve visited a LOT of countries). We meant to visit the Temburong national park but a change in the location of the boat dock made it too hard for us to get to with our time constraint. Instead, here is Kampong Ayer, a water village

I also had the pleasure of meeting up with several friends and make new ones! Thanks Wei Ting, Joyce, Angela, and AiGhee!

To end, here are the gorgeous Petronas Towers of Kuala Lumpur lit up at night

April 3 – 5 – San Francisco, CA
April 20 – 22 – Philadelphia, PA
First week of May – San Francisco, CA
May 25 – 28 – Boston, MA
June 1 – 3 – Boston, MA
June 9 – Chicago, IL – I graduate!
Mid-to-late June – Boston, MA – a couple of spots left for lifestyle and engagement sessions
June 22 – 24 – Kiawah Island, SC
July 1 and on – San Francisco, CA

Shang is a jetsetting wedding photographer for dynamic couples. She captures imagery that pops with color, personality, and energy.
hear the news first - like her work on facebook . follow her thoughts on twitter