Black Cat White Cat Photography | Seattle Wedding Photography | Modern Fresh Wedding and Portrait Photography

Best of 2009

Ning — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:05:56 +0000

I finally have time to sit down and recap year 2009 and put together a short slideshow of some of my favorite pictures from last year. I hope you enjoy the show!

UW Chinese New Year Performance

Ning — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:02:23 +0000

It’s this time of the year again! Chinese New Year this year will be next Sunday on Valentine’s day. Every year around the actual new year’s time, the University of Washington Chinese students and volunteers organize a great performance to celebrate this big festivity. This year is no exception, around 1000 people attended the show. Here are some a few of my the favorite pictures I took of the performance. Please see link below to visit the whole gallery.

Please enjoy the slideshow

For pictures in this slideshow, click here

If you were in the show, please see if you can find yourself here: http://pics.blackcatwhitecatphotography.com/uw2010

Happy Chinese New Year!

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Haleh + Guillaume engagement session in Bellevue

Ning — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 07:52:38 +0000

Haleh and Guillaume live in the most romantic city in the world, Paris! I dream that I could go there to shoot their engagement session but I guess in my reality, Bellevue, Washington will have to do. Today was just like any other typical Seattle winter day, cold and a bit drizzly and the sun sets at around 4pm. Haleh and Guillaume helped brighten the the day though. They make each other laugh so easily that the dark gloomy day cannot stop them from having fun at their session. We spent a few hours taking pictures in downtown Bellevue and nearby waterfront.

If you ask me, I’d say this picture looks like one from a magazine commercial and these two could get by as models.

And here they are, down to earth and in love

Haleh, Guillaume, congratulations on getting engaged! I can’t wait to see how beautiful your wedding will look like. Oh, Guillaume, I’d say you are pretty photogenic too.

Marymoor Park

Ning — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:07:27 +0000

Posting some personal pictures that I have taken recently. I love the mood of this series.

WPJA and new site design!

Ning — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 07:12:36 +0000

Hope you are having a great holiday season and looking forward to the new year! I have two great news to share with everybody! If you are not reading from an RSS reader, you’ll probably notice the new website design. I hope you like this improved look better! I am slowly updating old posts with the new design, soon portfolio galleries will also be up and running. Please let me know what you think!

As I was waiting for the new website to be designed, I had to hold back the excitement that I have been accepted by the Wedding Photojournalist Association! It is really an honor for me. WPJA was the place where I find out more about awesome wedding photojournalists from my area and around the world. Being accepted into that list of photographers is humbling and exciting for me. If you are a bride, I hope you can find great resources about photographers from that website as I did when I planned for my wedding.

Laura + Mike: Carkeek park engagement session

Ning — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:14:06 +0000

Today I met up with Laura and Mike to have their engagement session taken at Carkeek Park in Seattle. This is the beautiful park where they just got engaged! The short hike was a great way to help burn off some of those extra calories consumed in Thanksgiving! The weather was gloomy and cold but that did not stop them from having a lot of fun at the session. Bear, their dog, came along and was excited to be able to run around the park. He definitely stole some spotlight from the lovely couple.

Laura, Mike, congratulations! Can’t wait to photograph your beautiful wedding next year!

Kristi’s family portrait session

Ning — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:54:47 +0000

Kristi was the winning bidder for a family session I donated for this year’s giving campaign. 100% of her generous donation benefited United Way of King County. Kristi, thank you for your generosity! It was a pleasure to take pictures for your gorgeous family! Having little experience in family portraits, I allocated 2 hours for the session. It turned out that we spent a whopping 40 minutes together before the kids were ready to fall asleep :)

Meet Kristi’s beautiful family

Bride’s guide to better wedding photography

Ning — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:02:53 +0000

Having been on both sides of the camera, as a bride and as a photographer, I am writing down some tips for the bride, in hopes that you will get better results for your wedding photography. Your wedding day usually goes by way faster than you expect, but your pictures will be there to preserve your happy memories for a lifetime.

1. Connect with your photographer
I’d say the number one tip is to connect with the photographer. Having a good match in personality is something you should not ignore when selecting the photographer. Having a photographer that can talk and laugh with you will help you be natural and relaxed in front the camera and be the best of yourself. One thing I highly recommend is doing an engagement session. When the big day comes, you already know exactly how your photographer works, and you will just have to worry about being your happy self!

2. Allocate a lot of time for your pictures
Make sure you plan enough time for pictures, not just enough time for formal pictures with the family. Having some private moments to capture images of you and your groom is priceless. I recommend that you think about this when planning your wedding day timeline. Pick a few locations that you’d like to have pictures taken and discuss this with your photographer before the big day.

3. First look
This is most definitely a personal choice. More and more brides chose to see each other before the ceremony nowadays. I did that on my wedding and I found that to be a great decision. The first look can be as emotional as the one walking down the aisle. This ties back to point number 2, by having the first look, you and your groom will be have a lot of time before the ceremony to take pictures. You will also feel less rushed after the ceremony ends. You can then enjoy that time talking and greeting all the guests that are at the wedding to celebrate your day with you.

4. Location, location, location
Your ceremony and your reception may not be at the grandest places. But you can pick some locations, or ask your photographer to help pick some great location for pictures of the bride-groom and wedding party. Have a place with large windows for getting ready (parents’ house, hotel, etc). A beautiful backdrop will never hurt!

5. Custom designed album
Many people asked what I did with my wedding pictures. I always laugh and tell them, nothing, absolutely nothing. I did not even have one printed out. I tried, I loved my wedding pictures a lot, but I could never make up my mind which ones of the hundreds of pictures I got back on DVD I wanted printed out. Now that I am a wedding photographer, I love designing wedding albums. Each album tells a story of love. They are hand selected pictures that completely tell the the story of the wedding day. These include little details that you’d never thought about printing out a picture for, to the formal and candid portraits of the bride and groom and the loved ones that attended the wedding. I know I would be designing the album for my own wedding. Soon I will also have a beautiful flushmount album to relive the story of my wedding day.

These are the tips I can think of for now. Feel free to drop me a comment on what you did for getting better pictures on your wedding day!

Tanya & Vinit’s wedding album

Ning — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:55:47 +0000

You can add only one book on page

UW arboretum bridal session!

Ning — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:05:58 +0000

This past Sunday I met with Tanya and Vinit to take some quick bridal pictures. It was one of the last days of perfect weather here in Seattle in the near foreseable future and we took full advantage of the gorgeous light and beautiful fall scenary at the University of Washington Arboretum.

It was a lot of fun! Special thanks to Tanya’s mom for coming up to help out with Tanya’s veil, and often times even with holding the reflector! Ask them about the “leaf rain”.