Shaun Yasaki's Blog

Tyler and Amanda’s Old City Engagement

shaun — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 02:58:05 +0000

Tyler and Amanda’s engagement shoot was a long time coming. We finally got together on a cold morning and headed into Old City, Philadelphia. Thankfully, the sun gave respite from the frigid air and provided beautiful light for some great photographs. They made my job incredibly easy. Make sure to check out the end of the post for an example of Tyler’s “good ups”. Can’t wait to get a wedding version of that shot in July!

Emily & Darin’s Wedding

shaun — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 23:10:57 +0000

I had been looking forward to Darin and Emily’s wedding ever since we did an engagement shoot together in Manayunk, Philadelphia. We all had a lot of fun that day and the wedding itself was no different. It’s pretty obvious how great they are together! Darin and Emily, thanks for letting me tag along and document everything!

Dave & Hannah’s Country Wedding

shaun — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 03:10:55 +0000

I’ve been to a lot of weddings, and I can easily say this was one of the most breathtaking. The ceremony took place in a small town Catholic church in Maryland. Dave and Hannah made their vows while eagerly anticipating the celebrations they had planned for the evening. The reception was to take place in a barn on Hannah’s family’s property in Mercersburg. And I don’t mean a nice barn that often serves as a reception hall. I mean a barn that, two months earlier, was completely full of hay and pigeon droppings. Dave toiled in the summer heat, anti-pigeon bb gun in hand, to clean everything out and Hannah designed the perfect decorations. Most of which, I should add, were homemade. Everything really came together. The sunset, the mountain backdrop, the candle lit barn, the classic cocktails, the fantastic band, the camaraderie. It was a wedding to remember.

Custom Wedding & Engagement DVD Cases

shaun — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:31:46 +0000

Amber B. is an awesome Chicagoan artist I’ve recently started working with. She’s been making custom DVD cases for some of my wedding and engagement photo packages. Pretty neat. It’s fun coming up with ways to personalize them for the clients. Here, she designed the case with the engagement ring that Darin gave Emily. More to come!

Travis + Kate

shaun — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:16:10 +0000

When Kate asked me to shoot her wedding, I was pretty excited. She just oozes style. And as evidenced by the following photographs, Travis isn’t too bad himself. Travis, you should tell me where you got your best man’s bow tie….so I can get one too…

We walked around Pittsburgh in the sweltering heat and got some great shots before the ceremony. The locations paired wonderfully with Kate’s vibrant choice of blue and red wedding colors. The ceremony was at Smithfield United Church of Christ, the first church built in Pittsburgh. As we were leaving the church, an untimely monsoon hit but everyone made it to the Warhol Museum for the celebratory festivities. If you didn’t believe me when I said Travis and Kate have style, just check out this reception hall. Fantastic. They even spent three weeks in Paris for their honeymoon. You two were awesome and I wish you the best in life!

CIRCLE.SQUARE by Lisa Malanij

shaun — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:35:46 +0000

Lisa Malanij is one of my awesome friends back in Cleveland. She also happens to be a pretty awesome fashion designer. This was our second shoot together and I designed a much more complex lighting setup to showcase her circle.square collection. We wanted an edgy and high-contrast look that didn’t hide all her design details in shadows. To achieve that I used two gridded softboxes on either side with flags to keep light off the black seamless. A gridded beauty dish was on a boom directly over head and a bit forward of the model for high key. Finally, there was a gridded strobe behind the model and to the right to provide a subtle rim light.

Darin and Emily’s Manayunk Engagement Session

shaun — Mon, 10 May 2010 04:42:35 +0000

I had the pleasure of shooting Darin and Emily’s engagement photos this afternoon. It’s great when a couple is this comfortable with each other. Makes my job much easier! We walked around Manayunk, Philadelphia for a couple hours and braved the unusually chilly and blustery weather. Looking forward to your wedding in August!

Caleb & Katie

shaun — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 19:39:52 +0000

Caleb and Katie had an exceptionally elegant wedding in Albany, NY. They were so relaxed on their big day, and I think this must have rubbed off on their guests. I’ve never seen so many people on the dance floor before dinner was served! The Karen Lawrence Band kept everyone of their feet, and the floor even filled up between the salad and the entree. Speaking of the entree, The State Room served what could quite possibly be the best prime rib ever. Ever. Caleb and Katie, thanks for letting me be a part of your big day!

And so it concludes.

shaun — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 05:35:56 +0000

JoLyn and I left Cambodia to return to Bangkok after quite a nice stay. I don’t have any other captivating stories to tell but we had a great time exploring the city on foot. It’s crazy to think that the same streets we walked have been home to violent protests in the last few weeks. Our trip would not have been possible with everything that’s currently going on. I kinda wish I had been there to experience it. I’ve never helped to overthrow a government before. Well, thanks for keeping up with my photos. This concludes my South East Asian travels.

Angkor Wat

shaun — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 17:24:31 +0000

I can’t emphasize enough how beautiful the Angkor Wat ruins are. It’s a whole different experience from walking around the Coliseum or any European ruin. The Khmers are trying to find a balance between restoration and keeping the temples in their current state. I think I like what they’re doing. While rebuilding some areas, the whole temple complex is still quite dilapidated and therein lies their charm. Most of the construction is to keep more areas from caving in. The Ankgor Wat temple itself is probably in the best shape and has the most tourists. The surrounding temples of Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm are crumbing and still overtaken by jungle trees but these were by far the most fun to explore. Plus, Tomb Raider was filmed in Angkor Thom.

Our hostel recommended us a guide named Chan for our day trip through the temples. He was great. For $15 he picked us up early and drove us to the temples in his tuk tuk. He would wait for us and then shuttle us to the next one. $10 is actually the going rate for such a service, but sometimes I hate to bargain for things like this. Chan had an uncanny ability to spot JoLyn and I from a distance. We would be heading back to find him and he’d be waving at us from 75ft away. It turned into a game of trying to find him first. We only won once. Chan has a photo in the number two spot.

Listen to “Hello Seahorse!”. They’re Mexican but the music won’t make you look for a sombrero. -Bestia