Mieng Saetia: Photographer

The last post.

miengs — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:12:27 +0000

Time to update your bookmarks! The new blog is live! Come check it out @ www.miengsaetiablog.com!

I will no longer be updating this blog, but it will still be active. I have moved all of the posts from this blog over to the new one, so there’s no reason to come back here anymore. Yay!

Christie & Joe Married – Ritz Carlton, San Francisco

miengs — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:30:06 +0000

Please enjoy some of my favorite images from Christie & Joe’s wedding this past Saturday in San Francisco. Thanks again Jason for inviting me up to hang out.

Getting Ready for a BUSY Weekend!

miengs — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:49:45 +0000

Tomorrow I’ll be flying up to the Bay area and to hang out with my good friend Jason. On Saturday we’ll be shooting what looks to be a fantastic wedding @ the Ritz Carlton. Here’s Christie & Joe’s e-session that Jason did a while back. Then early Sunday morning I’ll be heading back to LA to shoot Wendy & Richard’s wedding (no e-session) later that day that’s also looking to be pretty awesome.

Today, however…I have to pack, tie up loose ends at work, do my laundry, complete my pre-flight check-in, and go pick up a spare flash all while fighting back this cold i picked up yesterday. Boo hoo. It’s good to be busy, but I could have done w/o being sick. Here’s a quick iPhone snapshot of what I’ll be bringing:

This is all going to go into my new Think Tank roller bag, which is awesome. If you’re in need of a roller bag for your camera gear, I can’t think of a better bag. It’s got really nice features, such as a built-in cable attached to the frame of the bag that you can secure to stationery objects (i.e. speaker or table at a wedding,) big roller blade wheels, a built in TSA-approved lock, and tons of space. Plus it is small enough to carry on board most flights (I’ll be taking it with me to Puerto Vallarta for Richard & Maria’s wedding in November too.)

Here’s what it looks like filled up.

There’s still PLENTY more room. Not pictured is my new 5D and 35L F1.4 lens I bought recently. It was a great offer and if you’ll recall, I was talking about picking up another body for back-up purposes (although in this case, the 30D will be relegated to back-up duties now.)

I decided against the 5Dmk2 because it wasn’t worth it for me to spend that much money on just a camera body. I was able to pick up a slightly used 5D and the 35L lens for less than the price of the 5Dmk2. So, I think I did good.

Jessica + Anthony’s Wedding – Orange County, CA

miengs — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:36:15 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I met up with fellow photographer, Miguel Pola and together we shot Jessica & Anthony’s wedding. They’re very nice people and it was great to see how much in love they were with one another. We started in The Garden Room and finished up at the Waterfront Hilton in Huntington Beach, CA. I had a great time. Jess & Anthony: congratulations and best of luck to the both of you!

This little girl was adorable. She kept making faces at me whenever she saw the camera pointing her way.

Jessica looks great here!

Married!

An emotional first dance

At the beach for some post wedding portraits:

I love this moment!

30.

miengs — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 06:10:47 +0000

Even though I wanted a nice and low key b-day, per sandy: “even the most minimal birthdays have to have cake!”

potd

miengs — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:08:06 +0000

just one from the archives. this was off newport pier.

My new website is live!

miengs — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:58:30 +0000

I’ve been quietly working on my website for a while now, and today I’m happy to say that it is finally up and running! Please check it out here:

www.miengsaetia.com

I am still in the process of adding more images, but so far I have to say…i love it. Please check it out and let me know if the feeling is mutual

Melissa + Dave’s Vow Renewal @ Birch Aquarium

miengs — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 08:30:06 +0000

Melissa & Dave got married…six years ago. They had a quiet ceremony back when they were both busy with post-graduate work; Dave with medical school while Melissa was working on her PhD. Today, they live in sunny San Diego and have spent most of 2008 planning and getting ready for September 6, when they would, in front of all their friends and family, express their love and continued commitment. However, they had a sneaky trick up their sleeves…Melissa was (is) six months pregnant! They kept it from most of their friends and family (most flew in from the east coast) and surprised everyone.

It was quite an honor for me to spend their 6th special day with them for their vow renewal and ‘wedding’ at the Birch Aquarium. It was actually my 2nd time down in San Diego, the first being when we headed down to shoot Mel & Dave’s engagment session. It was a gorgeous day and my camera & I have never been happier.

Special thanks to the awesome vendors!
Florist:
Evangeline Rafael (edrafael90@gmail.com)
858-449-4183

Hair & Make-up:
Rhea

Wedding Planner:
Charlene Yang Chan
(949) 610-3193
www.pictureperfectevent.com

Caterer:
The French Gourmet
(800) 929-1984
http://www.thefrenchgourmet.com

Venue:
Birch Aquarium
(858) 534-FISH
http://aquarium.ucsd.edu

i’m alive

miengs — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:32:30 +0000

for the past month or so i’ve been really lacking in blog posts, for which I completely apologize. yes, i’m still around, and all is well. it’s been busy, though. i’m just checking in right now, but i promise that there will be better content in the very near future!

tty soon.

Two-Week Update

miengs — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:58:46 +0000

Hello everyone. i haven’t been blogging lately because there isn’t much to talk about. things have been pretty quiet, albeit hot, over in my neck of the woods. Um…recently i dropped off my camera at the Canon Service Center in Irvine after delaying a bit due to a slight sticker shock at the expected repair bill. I eventually sucked it up and went to drop it off, pleasantly finding out that the cost of repair was $70 less than what I was expecting.

I picked up the camera today, and it’s basically a brand new machine. The shutter mechanism was replaced along with a few other items that had been worn out. Apparently, I’ve been putting the camera to some serious use and all the wear and tear finally caught up with it. The Canon 30D’s shutter is rated at 100k images before things start going wrong. I don’t know how many images I took with the old shutter, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I was close to that ballpark. Either way, all is well now that I have it back in my hands. A bonus was that they cleaned the whole thing, inside out…so now I have a crystal clear sensor as well as a spot-free viewfinder. (yay!)

The whole experience has gotten me to think seriously about investing in another body. If something were to break down again while I was on assignment, it would be completely unacceptable to not have a back-up plan. For the time being, I will look into renting (or borrowing) a camera for various assignments until I’m able to get another.

In other news, I bought a Shootsac. There was a $30 off coupon through Twitter the other day and I couldn’t pass the opportunity up. To be honest, it feels a little bit like a man-purse. It’s definitely fashionable, and I’ve yet to take it out to see how it performs, but I’m sure anything is better than my stone-age system of running back and forth to my camera bag to switch lenses. More on this as I break it in.

A few weeks ago, Sandy and I met up with Brian (www.briankhang.com) & Helen and had dinner in Little Tokyo. Sandy & I took B&H over to our favorite shabu restaurant, aptly named Little Tokyo Shabu Shabu House. The wait is always at least half an hour or more, but this particular weekend was really bad…1.5 hours! There was a cultural event going on right around the streets of Little Tokyo (Nissei Week, i think it’s called) so there were alot more people there than usual.

We had plenty of time to kill, so we all went walking around. Brian had brought his camera and pretty soon it became an impromptu photoshoot with Brian taking advantage of the blocked-off streets (for the parade) for some casual portrait shots. It was fun and Sandy was definitely happy since she says that we never have any photos of ourselves (most of our pics are of her, since I’m usually behind the camera.)

Here are some of our favorite shots that Brian took. Thanks again Brian, now we have something we can hang on our walls!