String lights always add a little magic, AND they look great in photos!
I bought string lights for my place recently. Can’t wait to hang them up. I don’t even know if they go with my decor but I don’t care. I love them! 
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I had a dinner party and decided the theme would be CELEBRATE! Celebrate what exactly? Anything and everything!
Besides food & drink, we set up a photo booth. They are way too fun. Every party should have one!
To make a backdrop, I dug through my arts & crafts and found streamers in every color. Thought rainbow colors would be appropriate. 
Carla made these super fun props!
It’s official – I’m a bad confetti thrower.
Besties + Besties.
Ivy is holding a clay figurine of my dog Sammie that she made for me. The details of it are insane, down to the spots on her butt and the color of her collar. One of the best gifts I’ve ever received!
Mmmmm, fried chicken.
Every day should be a day to celebrate! What are you celebrating today?
Thanks to my friends for having big smiles, hearts of gold, and excellent taste in food and wine. Love you guys!
I love celebrations:-) Thanks so much for the invite and good food:-)loveyou:-), Len x0x0
Wish I could have been there for the cake splatting! Had such a great time with you and the besties, Cc! Thanks for putting together — and inviting us to join — a really cool evening.
omg¡¡¡ I had a freaking blast last night!
Cant wait till the next one!
Jana
Success!
And I’m ready for more fried chicken now! I just ate way too much last night. I didn’t think was possible.
High five for taking a pie to the face!
Really nice shots, Thanks for sharing..
A couple months ago I wrote a blog post about reaching out to 10 people who inspire me. My goal was to meet up with these people and this is how I did:
1. My parents – my biggest inspiration! They came to this country not speaking English, got Ph.D.’s, and I have watched them build multiple successful biotech companies from scratch. I owe my business confidence to them. They show me that ANYTHING is possible if you are willing to work hard for it.
I went up to the Bay Area to see them. I lugged my big desktop computer up so I could spend the week up there (because editing on a laptop just isn’t the same!). It was mellow, low-key. The good stuff!
2. James Altucher – My favorite blogger/author. I reached out to him and he was nice enough to email me back immediately. Our plan is to have lunch and do a little photoshoot. He said that I can photograph him and his wife Claudia as long as they get to photograph me. Haha. He lives in NYC and though I didn’t make it out there before the end of August, I will be heading out there in a couple weeks and I will see if he’s around. He’ll also be in LA to speak at the Amazon tech conference this week, so maybe I can see him here too!
3. Johnny Cupcakes – entrepreneur extraordinaire, Mr. Modern Day Willy Wonka! I thought I was going to have to fly out to Boston to meet up with him but I got lucky. He emailed me back and said he was coming to LA. We had breakfast, talked business, and he gave me a rubber cockroach. He continues to be one of my favorite entrepreneurs. When he has conversation, he is completely, utterly authentic and fully engaged. He truly looks and listens to whoever he’s talking to, as in, “It’s not about me, it’s about you.” He asks a lot of questions. He asks what he can do to help. I have found that truly successful people in this world have this quality. High-five, Johnny.
4. Eckhart Tolle – author and enlightened soul. I didn’t get a hold of Eckhart. He must be busy staring at the sidewalk and seeing the beauty in it. When I asked his “people” if there is any way I could meet up with him, the guy gave a nice “no” but his tone indicated something like – do you know how many people ask that? Eckhart has workshops every so often so I can attend one in the near future and see if I can meet him that way! I think this billboard of him and Oprah is funny.
5. Tim Ferriss – Whoa, he’s floating in this picture! I wrote him, tweeted him, and didn’t hear back. In his book the 4-hour Work Week he talks about reaching out to authors and celebrities as an exercise to build self-confidence, because it’s possible to reach ANYONE (even the president) if you are ballsy enough. I guess I still need to grow a bigger pair. I actually do know what to do to get a hold his phone number but I’ll admit it, I’m still too chicken to call him right now. There’s also this thought that sometimes I prefer things to happen more organically, like bumping into him at a conference. Life seems more romantic that way.
6. Kyle Cease – Comedy Central’s #1 Comedian. I think Kyle is one of the funniest people on this planet. His content speaks TRUTH and the timing of his delivery is hilarious. I reached out to him and he was flattered. I got to spend the day with him and his fiancé Amanda! We went to Agape and then Café Gratitude for dinner. It was a lovely day and I will continue to keep in touch with them. Maybe I’ll even photograph their wedding.
7. Joe Buissink – my FAVORITE wedding photographer! I have loved him since day one. He’s one of the pioneers in wedding photojournalism and still shoots using B&W film. He’s the one who taught me to photograph from the heart . . . to capture those “moments in between moments,” because that’s the good stuff! I first emailed him, and then called him, and then he invited me to come by his studio in Marina del Rey.
When I got there he was editing a celeb wedding and it was comforting to see that, even after decades in the business, he goes through the same exact things (the fun parts and also the frustration) that I do in the editing room. Shortly after he was able to take a break and we chatted about life and business. Love you Joe!!
8. Joseph Gordon-Levitt – Actor and founder of HitRECord. With The Dark Knight, Premium Rush, and Looper coming out in theaters, he’s probably been doing a lot of promoting. I tweeted him but that’s all I did. I feel the same way about him that I do about Tim Ferriss – I prefer to let the universe take care of this one and it might sound strange, but I really feel like I’m going to bump into him in the near future. I photographed one of his events once and I really feel like it’s going to happen again, on a more intimate scale!
9. Michelle Phan – This girl is harder to get a hold of than the rest of the people I didn’t get a hold of! I emailed her a few times, got her phone number, called her, text her, and all those times she did respond but was just too busy to meet up. I also invited her to my dinner party tomorrow night.
I get it – I know how hard she works. Working in social media takes up A LOT of time. She actually lives right down the street from me. I can camp outside her building and scare her one of these days.
10. Kevin & Leslie Alejandro – my favorite couple in the entire universe! I met them through a friend years ago and they have always been great acquaintances. You know how they say that you should get advice from people who are already at where you want to be? The Alejandros are a walking example of generous LOVE and pure GOODNESS. I got to see them before they moved to NYC a few weeks ago. Kevin will be starring in the show Golden Boy debuting this fall on CBS (which films in NYC). I will be going out there in a couple weeks and they have been so gracious to invite me to stay with them! I can’t wait.
Seldom do I look at life as failure, even if things don’t go as planned. I did not get to meet up with half the people on my list but I view it as SUCCESS! I got to hang out with people in the last two months who I didn’t imagine hanging out with. I got out of my comfort zone and put myself out there more than I normally do. I gave myself until the end of August to meet up with these people but that doesn’t mean I have to stop here.
Persistence . . . patience . . . and (as my parents have taught me) work hard and you will have it.
um, the day the universe answers your requests in regards to JGL… you give that man my phone number and tell him there is a dinner and whatever else his handsome heart desires waiting for him in nueva york. k? THANKS!
also, as usual — this is great.
Great job Christine !! Keep us posted about Tim Ferriss and JGL !!
Hope you all enjoyed the 3-day weekend (unless you live outside of the US, in which case, hope you enjoyed your regular weekend). I spent a good chunk of it with la familia! On Saturday we went to Universal Studios and on Sunday my cousin got married!
The new Transformers ride at Universal Studios is crazy rad!! I love theme parks!
Here are the answers to last week’s open Facebook Q&A. If anyone else has any questions, I hold an open Q&A on Facebook every Friday from 9:30am-10:30am PST!
1. Catherine K.: How do you manage your time and physical energy throughout your day?
I always try to schedule myself so that I don’t feel overworked. When there are too many stressful back-to-back things to do, you don’t enjoy the process and the quality of what you do goes down. Quality is very important to me.
Taking care of health and wellness is top priority because if I’m not well, it’s going to penetrate into all other areas of my life. Physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually – I check in on all four of these every day.
I wish I could be one of those people who can function on 5 hours of sleep but unfortunately that is NOT me. I always make sure to get a good night’s sleep and if I can’t, then I nap or make up for it the following evening.
Things that help keep energy up are drinking a lot of water and simply BREATHING. If I’m unable to do those (hopefully not!) or still feeling tired, I change my state of thought. The mind is powerful! Instead of dwelling in it and telling myself, “Gawd, I feel tired,” I practice saying, “I’m not tired and I feel super excited!.” Then I’ll do a little dance or jumping jacks. It works!
Ayurveda With Alicia on Facebook is a page I came upon recently that shares natural tips on how to boost energy throughout the day. There’s a lot of good stuff on there. I love Ayurvedic health!
2. Eric B.: How did you manage to get the courage to jump into photography, knowing that there wouldn’t be a fixed income?
I owe my business confidence to my parents. They came to this country, got their Ph.D.’s, worked their butts off, and have started multiple successful biotech companies. They have shown me that you seriously can do ANYTHING if you are willing to work hard.
I also took into consideration what Tim Ferriss said in his book The Four Hour Work Week. Map out the worst case scenario. I figured that the worst case scenario would be that I don’t make enough money and would have to go back to working part-time at a restaurant temporarily. I thought – if that is the absolute worst, then that’s not so bad!
3. Christine C.: If you are ever in the SF Bay Area, would you mind a free assistant to shadow you at one of your photo shoots?
Sure!
4. Jamie G.: I know u r a lover of peanut butter. What is your all time favorite food that contains peanut butter and why?
I’d have to say these special peanut butter cookies that my friend Margot makes. She puts other stuff in them as well, like chocolate chips, cranberries, and some other nuts. The peanut butteryness, the semi-sweet taste of the chocolate chips, the tart of the cranberries, the crunch of the nuts . . . yummmmm. Margot puts a lot of love into what she does. It’s like eating a bunch of fluffy clouds.
This is Margot. Isn’t she cute?
5. Christine C.: What are all the procedures that you need to go through to officially start your own photography business? (Ex: Register your business, get a logo, register your trademark/copyright, all the paperwork /backend stuff needed?)
Gah! This is a very good question. Thinking about all this makes my head hurt. I remember going through the process and learning things from my bookkeeper and CPA. To be honest, it would be best to get legal “starting a business” info from someone in that trade. I don’t want to steer anyone in the wrong direction and get them arrested!
But, here are some basic things off the top of my head to do to get started (and feel!) like a business:
- Decide your company name. It’s not good to change the company name so think long and hard about this. How do you want to brand yourself in the long run?
- Have a logo designed
- Put up a website
- Get business cards
- Open a business account at the bank and get an EIN tax ID number
- Get Quickbooks or some kind of software to keep track of all income and expenses
- Register your company in the city that you live
- Talk to a CPA about tax laws
- Get photo insurance. This is important. Some wedding/event venues even require vendors to have proof of insurance.
6. Alexada B.: What’s the best long lasting camera to invest in?
I’m not sure if there is such thing as a super long lasting camera nowadays. With digital photography, new camera models pop up every year with technical improvements. I shoot with the Canon 5D and have had my oldest body for 4 years now. It still does me good but I think I will be upgrading to the Mark III within the next year.
7. Tim S.: Aside from timing and scheduling conflicts, are there gigs that you won’t accept (i.e. due to location, unfavorable personalities, or any other particular red flags)?
There are some gigs that I have said no to. When hiring a photographer, I think that it’s important to look at their previous work. Your primary decision should be based on liking the pictures in their portfolio. Sometimes people come meet with me and they want a very specific type of photography that is not my style. There are some photographers who can adapt great to whatever instructions they are given, but I tell them I can’t produce it because that’s just not how I shoot. I like to do a good job and I do my best work when things flow naturally. So in this case, yes, I tell people that I don’t think I’m the right photographer for them.
8. Lauren H.: If any one could buy you a drink and some conversation time, who would it be and why?
“Adam Levine? Oh, hi! What? You want to buy me a drink? Ok!”
Hmm, while that would be fun, right now I think I’d like to sit down with Tim Ferriss. He’s on my list of inspirational people and I haven’t gotten a hold of him yet, but I think he’s one of the smartest people on the freaking planet.
The 4-Hour Workweek – one of my all time favorite books by Tim Ferriss.
9, Lydia C.: I’d love to know where you got your beautiful envelopes and paper made!
In A Card! Irena from In A Card has been designing beautiful stationary for me for years. Besides having GREAT taste, she is reliable, super fast, and easy to work with!
10. Asia A.: Nikon vs Canon … Why?
Sometimes I feel like the fight between Nikon and Canon is like the East Coast and West Side. Ahem, excuse me. West siiiiiiiiiiiiide! Can’t we all just get along?
They are both solid camera manufacturers. I recommend going to the camera store and playing with both to see which you prefer. I shoot with Canon because that’s what I started on and it does me well. I’ve picked up a Nikon before and I think they’re cool (especially the cool shutter noise the SLRs make!), but I’m happy with my Canon 5D so I don’t feel the need to have something different.
I love to watch (and photograph) girls getting ready.
Hm, that sounds a bit creepy. Raise your hand if you feel like a creep! (*slowly raising hand) . . .
Clothing, hair, and make-up don’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but it can be awfully fun. I love getting ready and lookin’ perrrrrty!