25 Wednesday Apr 2012
Posted in Personal, Uncategorized
Sophan Theam Photography Blog has moved to http://www.sophantheamphotography.com.
I would like to thank each and everyone of you for reading my blog. From the far reaches of Korea to the outskirts of Alaska, I welcome you to join me at my new blog. It’s not goodbye, it’s just, see you soon…
19 Thursday Apr 2012
Posted in Personal, Uncategorized
Sometimes I wake up with my son’s face looking right at me, and I wonder, where has all the time gone? I’m so grateful to have a career I love which also gives me the opportunity to watch my son grow everyday. I’m truly thankful for that and I’m thankful for all my brides and grooms who believe in me and believe in what I can do.
It’s about to get busy again these next two weeks, so before I get lost in a blur of photo shoots and photo editing, I decided to follow Arun around with my camera and capture images depicting a typical day I get to spend with him.
18 Wednesday Apr 2012
Posted in Uncategorized, Vendors
When Beth emailed me an invite to attend the Mary Kay Spring Color Night and Company Makeover Contest at the Wyndham Hotel in Tampa, I was hesitant. But when we later talked on the phone about it, she got me roped in after two sentences. That’s the power of Beth. She’s just amazing like that and I love having her as a friend. I went from no, I’m not interested and I don’t have a babysitter for Arun… to… I can’t wait to attend! Gotta drop my baby off at my mother-in-law’s, and, I’ll be the photographer for the event! …all in a matter of an hour.
It was a very empowering and inspiring event. Seeing so many successful women in one room and hearing their amazing stories left me with an incredible feeling of high. One other thing I noticed was how everyone’s skin was just perfectly flawless. At the end of the night, not only did I grow a deep respect for all Mary Kay Consultants, I was also convinced to switch my entire skincare line to Mary Kay exclusively. This is all because of the power of my friend, Beth.
To order products from Mary Kay, visit Beth Bailey’s site here.
14 Saturday Apr 2012
Posted in Photography, Uncategorized
Tags
lightroom, outsourcing, photo editing, photoshop, post processing, professional editing tips, tampa wedding photographer, wedding photographer marketing
Being a Wedding Photographer requires a lot of different skills in different areas. It’s not just about picking up a camera and clicking the shutter button. I quickly learned that in this business, one has to learn many things he/ she doesn’t really like to do or better yet know how to do. For example, marketing. I never studied marketing when I took photography classes, but without marketing, no one will know that Sophan Theam Photography exists and I would never get any clients. Believe it or not, I’m an introvert, so this aspect of my business is still something I’m learning how to do better.
Another skill entirely on it’s own is learning how to use Photoshop and Lightroom correctly. I’ve seen far too many photographs around the web gone wrong because of Photoshop misuse, usually because of over-sharpening or way too much softening. I think a little really goes a long way during photo-processing.
I’ve spoken to a lot of photographers recently who actually prefer outsourcing their photo-editing rather than doing it themselves. There’s nothing wrong with that and I think it’s a great idea for photographers to free their time to focus more on marketing and shooting. There are companies that will actually take all of the photographer’s images after a session and edit it them all at a certain rate. It may or may not be something I’ll look into doing in the future, but as for now, I do all of my own photo editing from start to finish, and it makes me 110% proud.
I shoot on manual mode 100% of the time, so getting just the right amount of background blur or reduced digital noise is all in my control. Photoshop and Lightroom, however, adds a touch of flair and style that makes me feel… you know, warm and mushy inside? awed? complete? I’m not sure, I guess all of the above. It just perfects the image and gets rid of blemishes and imperfections in a way that my camera alone could never do. It let’s me express my creativity and artistic side even more, and, I love doing it.
It takes a lot of time and occasional sleepless nights to get the photos delivered within my two week turn around time, yes. My son gets mad at me at the end of the day because I work a lot, sadly, yes. My husband feels neglected, absolutely yes (I’m sorry, baby). But still, when I deliver the photos to my brides/ recently engaged clients, it makes me feel incredible to know that I worked on all the 400+ sometimes even thousands of pictures all by myself from start to finish.
13 Friday Apr 2012
Posted in Personal, Uncategorized
Tags
connecticut, encouraging words, jeff sinon, kind words, landscape photographer, nature photographer, new hampshire, wildlife photography
I nominate this week as the worst week of 2012. So there I have it. Nothing can happen to me this year to make any of my weeks worse than this one. For various reasons including but not limited to; food poisoning, food poisoning of my poor innocent baby, feeling extra lonely and depressed that mom had to end her visit early this year, and just feeling overall homesick (all of my family live in Massachusetts). It happens to everyone, but this week just happens to be my time…until… I received this very, very nice comment from a fellow Weekly Photo Challenger.
“After paying a little visit to your little corner of blog-land, I have to say I am more than a little impressed. If I didn’t dislike photographing people, or even having them in my photos, as much as I do, I would wish to be able to do it as well as you do. You are an amazing wedding photographer. I can’t imagine any of your brides not being ecstatic with what you provide.”
Jeff Sinon, your words were very kind and brought a smile to my face and a warm feeling to my heart. Thank you for being so encouraging. Jeff is a Nature, Landscape, and Wildlife Photographer. We both grew up in Connecticut and have a love for the outdoors, so viewing his portfolio is very zenful and meditative for me. If you have a minute to travel to the great outdoors and view some exciting landscapes, animals, bugs, and flowers, I urge you to visit www.jeffsinon.com
12 Thursday Apr 2012
Posted in Photography, Uncategorized
Tags
journey, journey of a bride, postaday, tampa wedding photographer, walking down the aisle, wedding limousine, weekly photo challenge
A bride must partake in several journeys on the day of her wedding. Each journey varies in length and emotion, building up her excitement as the day progresses. I’ve been a couple weeks behind on the weekly photo challenges, so I decided to find a picture from the most recent wedding I photographed for this week’s challenge. What was originally supposed to be one picture ended up being several, as I realized there is more than just one important journey for the bride during an entire wedding. This montage makes up for all my missed weeks while my family was visiting from Massachusetts.
If you’re interested in participating in the weekly photo challenges, here’s a little bit of information for you to read:
Share a picture which means JOURNEY to you!
New to The Daily Post? Whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you’re invited to get involved in our Weekly Photo Challenge to help you meet your blogging goals and give you another way to take part in Post a Day / Post a Week. Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.
Here’s how it works:
1. Each week, we’ll provide a theme for creative inspiration. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog anytime before the following Friday when the next photo theme will be announced.
2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Weekly Photo Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag.
3. Subscribe to The Daily Post so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements. Sign up via the email subscription link in the sidebar or RSS
12 Thursday Apr 2012
Posted in Personal, Uncategorized
Tags
chinese buffet, disney world magical kingdom, family trip, food poisoning, orlando, photobooth, stomach virus
Recently, Steve took time off work to bring our family on a little mini-vacation. We spent two fun, hot, and exciting days in Orlando and I’m sure Disney is very happy with the amount of money we spent there. We stayed the night in one of their resorts, visited the Magical Kingdom, and shopped at the outlet mall, twice. I am such an adventure junkie so this was all very thrilling for me. Of course we just had to end the trip with a special dinner at a place we’ve never been to. It was my idea to eat at the huge brightly lit Chinese buffet that boasted two stories high with beautifully painted walls and elaborate decor. It was so nice, they even charged my little baby $2 to for him to eat there.
The minute we got back home to Tampa, my son passed out and I felt nauseous. I slept it off thinking it was just a lot of excitement and heat in a short amount of time. When Arun woke up the next morning, he vomited all over the bed. For the remainder of the day he and I must have vomited 15 times total. There wasn’t a single couch, futon, blanket, sheet, or area of the carpet that hadn’t been marked with my poor baby’s throw up.
Steve came home immediately to take care of both his babies, Arun and myself. All I asked was that I could sleep off my dizziness while he took care of our son. Well, he took care of our son, washed all the dishes in the sink, cleaned all the soiled linen and blankets, folded all the clothes in my closet (which was borderline disastrous), vacuumed the carpet, took out all the trash, and spoon-fed me when I finally woke up. I don’t know what I did to deserve him, but I’m still so amazed by his boundless and limitless love. Sometimes I forget how great he is, but I do know this. Steve is the exact hard-working, practical, cautious guy I need to balance out my adventurous, free-spirited, hopeless romantic nature. When my dreams are too far and out of reach, he pulls me back into reality. When I make one mistake after another to the point where I can’t handle my own mess, Steve cleans up after me one dirty load at a time. Yet, he never complains.
We all have one of a kind personalities, but the three of us together, Steve, Arun and I, we’re just perfectly right for each other. And any mother will know the lengths one can go to protect their own child. All I have to say is, that beautifully decorated Chinese buffet better watch it. I’ve seen my son suffer and cry in pain for two days straight. I will make sure they get what they deserve and also, that we get our $2 refund back.
07 Saturday Apr 2012
Posted in Portraits, Uncategorized
Recently, my family and I were invited to attend Zak’s first birthday party. Instead of toys and clothes, which you never know if children have too much of, I wanted to give him a timeless gift… photographs!
Zak is just the cutest baby I’ve ever seen! I fell in love with him several months ago when I met him at the community playgroup. He was just learning to crawl then but now he’s managing to take a couple steps without holding onto anything. It’s so fun watching him grow. Happy Birthday, Zak!
06 Friday Apr 2012
Posted in Personal, Uncategorized
It’s that time of year again. When I drop my mom off at the Tampa International Airport and we say our goodbye’s after hanging out and taking pictures near the shuttle entrance. We don’t say a whole lot, but the short conversations usually involve Arun and the funny things he does. Today he’s babbling a whole lot of sounds we can’t comprehend and he laughs after every sentence he finishes. We don’t get his jokes, but we laugh anyway because it’s so darn cute. And I really felt like it was a happy goodbye, and there would be no tears involved.
taken with my iPhone
I got in the car with Arun and contemplated our plans for the day. My son yawned and he decided for the both of us that it was nap time. Still, no tears or even anticipation of tears.
The minute I unlocked the door and walked inside my home, it was all over. I cried like a newborn for almost half an hour straight.
Oh Mom, I’m still and always will be your little baby. We miss you so much and you’ve only just left this morning.
04 Wednesday Apr 2012
Posted in Uncategorized, Weddings
Tags
columbian restaurant wedding, historical ybor city, natassa and alberto wedding, peacock feather wedding decor, tampa wedding, vintage brooch bouquet, vintage wedding, ybor city wedding
Peacock feathers, vintage brooches, and dazzling red lipstick in historical Ybor City. You’d think it was the 1940′s if you were a guest at this wedding, but in fact, the year is 2012 and the date is March 31. It’s the day when Natassa and Alberto get married at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Tampa and share their first dance as husband and wife at the Columbian Restaurant. Filled with beautiful details, family, and friends, this wedding was truly an affair to remember.
Mom was just gorgeous! It’s completely obvious where Natassa got her looks from.
The rain made us all a bit nervous, but, God is good all the time, and it happened to stop just in time to hop in the limo and make our way to church.
Love is a powerful thing.
This family’s good looking genes makes me envious.
And by the looks of it, it’s gonna keep on spreading from generation to generation.
The beautiful wedding cake was made by Molly Trimble.
There were framed black and white pictures decorating the whole interior of Columbian Restaurant. Walking through its hallways and staring at these images made me feel nostalgic for a period of time long gone in history. It was magical, and I love that photography can make a person feel that way. I shoot with a digital camera but I attempted to convert one of the images from that night to appear like the prints on the walls.
There’s nothing quite like black and white film, but I hope these images are long treasured by Natassa, Alberto, and their family for generations to come.
Please click here to view a slideshow of this gorgeous wedding.
