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Laura & Joseph's Wedding - March 11, 2006

Here's some shots from last week's great wedding at the Tribeca Grill in Manhattan, NYC. Check out a whole bunch more through the link on the bottom of the post.

Laura getting her hair done.

Laura's sister giving her a big smooch.

The head stylist at the Rene Salon (located in the Pierre Hotel) working on Laura. The salon staff were super nice to me and did an absolutely amazing job on Laura. Refreshments were served to everyone that Laura brought with her to the salon.

The gorgeous view from Laura's bridal suite inside the Pierre Hotel. I have to admit that the 5 star hotel definately lives up to its name and prestige. The suite was gorgeous.

The gorgeous bride just before she puts on her dress.

Laura's sisters, mom and maid of honor helping her get into her gown.

Even Laura's dad tries to help.

Putting her earings on.

At the beautiful Pierre Hotel Lobby.

Joseph's groomsmen helping him get ready. I'd also like to note that Joseph is an artist and SVA alumni like me. He was an illustration major and now paints and restores frescos in churches. While in SVA, he took a photography class with one of my photography mentors, Sardi Klein. Sardi helped me break into wedding photography back in the late 90's.

Joseph's best man helping him out with the tux.

Playing with the rings.

The handsome groom looking GQ before the ceremony.

Outside the breathtaking Riverside Church.

On his way to the chapel room.

Joseph looks at Laura for the first time in her gown while she's walking down the aisle.

A reading by Joseph's friend Manny. Manny was also an SVA grad who now runs a major toy action figure company.

Joseph and Laura glancing at each other during the beautiful ceremony. I love these.

Laura's mom and dad looking on.

The Kiss.

While the best man signs the license, our couple snuggles.

In the Limo on the way to Tribeca Grill.

We stopped off at Times Square for a few shots.

Outside the famed Tribeca Grill. The restaurant is owned by Robert Dinero and serves some of the best cuisine in NYC.

Placecard apples.

The first dance.

Parent dances. Laura had more of a high energy flameco style dance with her dad.

A blessing by Laura's sister.

Now the party starts.

Toasts by the best man and maid of honor. The maid of honor had a terrific and funny speech where she proclaimed Joseph as the fillet mignon of Laura's life.

Joseph laughing from the speeches.

Feeding each other cake.

The last dance.

To check out a bunch more photos from the wedding click below:
more photos

Sandra & Ron's Wedding - March 5, 2006

Here's some shots from last week's amazing wedding at the Venetian in New Jersey. Check out a whole bunch more through the link on the bottom of the post.

Sandra checking herself out in the mirror.

Getting her makeup finished.

Sandra having an emotional conversation with her sister from Israel who couldn't attend the wedding.

Getting into her dress.

Sandra and her bridesmaids making sure their dresses are secure.

Ron and his buddies chilling out before Ron gets to see Sandra for the first time in her gown.

The moment when they see each other for the first time. Don't they look so cute and happy.

The bridesmaids having fun.

The bridal party having some laughs.

Putting the veil on before the ceremony.

The beautiful bride with her veil on before the ceremony.

The handsome groom's expression while his bride walks down the aisle. Doesn't Ron remind you of Chris Klein, the jock "Oz" from the American Pie movies.

Sandra making her grand entrance through the overhead staircase.

Sandra's mom whispering into her ear during the processional right before Ron escorts Sandra to the altar.

The exchange of rings.

The breaking of the glass.

The Kiss.

The bridesmaids helping Sandra bustle her gown.

The beautiful ballroom at the Venetian.

The grand entrance.

The first dance.

Ron's mom looking on.

Having fun during the hora.

The toasts. Ron's stepbothers took the mic. They gave a great account of how when they first met they tried to get their step parents to split. They failed in doing it but became best friends during the process.

It was a funny story.

Now the party starts. Sandra having a blast with her mom.

Big kiss after cake cutting.

It also happened to be Sandra's mom and uncle's birthdays.

Parent dances.

Sandra danced with her mom whom she refered to as "the wind beneath my wings".

The party winding down.

To check out a bunch more photos from the wedding click below:
more photos

Henna Pregnancy Shoot with Penelope

As I promised earlier, here's a few samples from the shoot. I got so many interesting and great shots, I'm not sure which ones will make it into my "Excursions" Show.

Annual Scholarship Showcase At Salmagundi Club

I've been an active member of the Salmagundi Art Club for the last three years. The club has a beautiful gallery space in Greenwich Village located at 47 5th Ave. Every month they hold group shows and competition shows featuring artworks from its members as well as some non members. I have to note that I'm one of the very few photographers that showcase here. The walls usually adorn classical realism paintings. This month they had their annual scholarship show and since I'm under 30, I'm a scholarship member. Four of my new fine art pieces got into the show and one of them won an award. I'm pretty excited about this because photography doesn't normaly win awards here. Anyhow, the pieces that got into the show will also be on display on my upcoming show at the LITM gallery in April. If you can only make it to one of these shows, come to the LITM show because its a solo show of my new work.

Otherwise, if you're in Greenwich Village, come into the club. Here's their website:
Salmagundi Club

During the show's opening reception.

Me with the show's curator and director, Annmarie O'Malley.

Henna Designs for My Next Fine Art Shoot

For the last 4 years I've been fascinated with henna body designs and incorporating them into my fine art nude photography. Here is a little excerpt about the origins of henna that was written by my friend Lisa Butterworth (who's a professional henna designer and an authority on all things henna):

It was in North Africa that the first henna plant appeared.  The use of henna for decoration in Morocco goes back to the time when the Berbers first migrated to the area; they were long settled there when the Phoenicians and the Romans invaded North Africa.  No one is certain of the Berber's origins, but it is generally believed that they came from either Yemen or what is now Syria.  It wasn't until the 8th century that Arabs, spreading the word of Islam, invaded the Berber regions and added the Berber culture to their already rich mix. James Jereb, in his book The Arts and Crafts of Morocco, describes Berber designs as "a testimony not only to the meditative and aesthetic power that decoration holds for them, but a faith in supernatural power. Many pieces are valued not because of appearance alone--perhaps because of their form or the way in which they are decorated--but because they may contain a power known as baraka, a concept deeply embedded in Moroccan religious beliefs and crucial to the understanding of all artistic traditions in Morocco.  Baraka has many meanings in Morocco, but it is principally the positive power of the saints and the Sufi brotherhoods.  It is a source of inspiration among most Moroccan artisans...Baraka permeates all things to varying degrees; not only can it exist in jewelry, talismans and other manufactured objects, such as ceramics and textiles, it is also thought to suffuse plants, such as henna and oleander, and incenses, such as sandalwood and myrrh.  This power is transferred to objects and textiles by the use of a particular artistic vocabulary of symbols, designs, motifs, colors and techniques that protect the object, creator and consumer." Baraka is sought and used to deal with the darker forces of life, curing illnesses and protecting oneself against the evil jnoun (spirits--the source of the English word "genie") and the evil eye.  Berber symbols are included in the design of everyday objects to protect the object as well as the person who uses or wears it.  These motifs appear in all aspects of the Berber artisanal tradition, including pottery, leatherwork and textiles, not to mention all types of personal adornment.  Berbers found many ways to adorn themselves with jewelry, tattoos and henna.  It is mostly Berber women who are tattooed.  Because tattoos are forbidden by Islam, many women have found other outlets for placing their protective motifs by including them in textiles they weave and in jewelry and henna.  Thus, the designs that are drawn in henna on the hands and feet of a bride on the eve of her marriage are these same protective and nurturing symbols that have evolved throughout centuries of use. -Lisa Butterworth

One of the most monumental trips I ever took in my life was when I visted Morroco during my high school years. The rich culture there fascinated me as well as a lot of visuals. Later, I began to incorporate the dance, costuming, colors and henna into my fine art photography.

Today, Lisa was preparing henna on my next fine art model, Penelope, who is also a middle eastern dancer who I've used before in my fine art photography. What makes the upcoming shoot particularly different with Penelope is that she's 8 months pregnant. It'll take about two days for the henna design to sink in and become dark. This upcoming shoot will be pretty challenging for me because I want to capture the beauty of the pregnancy stage of womanhood and showcase the beautiful henna design while still in the context of of my dance photography. Stay tuned as I will have some images to share with everyone from the upcoming shoot. I won't showcase the best ones on this journal because I'm saving them for my upcoming show but I will showcase some that will give you a taste of what's in store for my upcoming show.

Lisa applying the henna designs.

For more information on the art of henna design as well as some beautiful samples, check out Lisa's website:
www.kenzi.com

Julie's 20th Birthday

Julie Skya has been working with me for the last two years and since then she's become a friend besides a sidekick. She studied under one of my first and most important photography teachers, Anne Courier (at the LaGaurdia School of Art) and Julie was one of the best photography students there. Anne recommended her to me when I needed an assistant. Julie's gone from first just holding my camera gear during weddings as an assistant to helping me shoot some important parts of the wedding day. She works in the office about three days a week color balancing wedding images, retouching images, sizing photos for albums, getting orders ready for my lab, and lots of other miscellaneous office work. Julie and O.B. (my business partner and other sidekick) and I make up the core of Lina Jang Photography. Julie and O.B. are my second shooters at weddings.

Tomorrow will be Julie's 20th Birthday but she's spending the day and the weekend away with someone important. So O.B. and I along with our interns, Erica and Fernanda, took her out for dinner at one of my favorite NYC restaurants, Galaxy Global Eatery (on 15 Irving Place in Greenwich Village). Galaxy has some of the most unusual and exotic foods which are mostly cooked with hemp. Some of the far out dishes include curried indonesian ostrich, barbecued buffalo seitans, bison steak, forbidden black rice, stuffed rainbow trout, and lots of strange vegatarian dishes (O.B. who's a vegatarian loves it). You'll either love the delicous cuisine here or you won't understand it.

The gang minus O.B. (he's taking all the photos today) in front of the restaurant.

Me with the wacky galaxy menu.

Fernanda & Erica laughing at how few options they have because they don't want to order something strange and unusual (these two have rather bland appetites). They finally decided on hemp burgers which they loved.

The always camera shy Julie who although loves photographing others, doesn't quite like to be photographed too often.

Barbecued Buffalo Seitans is what I ordered and it was delicious.

O.B. handing out the Apple Pie Cake. Happy birthday Julie.

Check Out WWW.KASSARTRIBAL.COM

Design by Jim Parks using Lina Jang Images

My good friends Karin and Melanie of Kassar have finally launched their website. I've been photographing these immensely talented tribal dancers since 1999 and I've probably done more fine art shoots with them than anybody else. Check out their beautiful website (designed by Karin's talented husband Jim) at:

www.kassartribal.com

On their website, you'll find out info about them, along with when and where they'll be performing, their class and workshop schedules, and a gallery of some of the images I shot of them over the years.

They'll be performing during the opening reception of my gallery show and they're the ones featured on the front of my invite.

James Blunt - What I'm Listening to at the Office

I spend about 8-10 hours in the office just about everyday. Most of the time, we're working on photoshop work, designing albums, taking care of orders, answering emails so we almost always have music or something going on in the background. I tend to like listening to Jazz, Blues, New Age, or world music. Julie likes techno dance, trance, trip hop and electronica music. O.B. likes books on tape. About two weeks ago, I picked up James Blunt's "Back to Bedlam" album from itunes (I pretty much get all my music from itunes now). At first I got it just for the song "You're Beautiful" and the rest of the tracks on the 30 second previews sounded neat. I'm not even a big fan of pop music but this album is amazing and James Blunt seems to be a sincere singer songwriter despite being labeled as pop. I think I listen to the album twice a day and it always puts me in a good mood. The first song on the album, "High" is such a nice, sweet and classy romantic tune that I'll probably wind up using it for one of my wedding slideshows. Below are the great lyrics for the song from the linear notes:

My Upcoming Fine Art Show and the Invite Postcard

I'm so amped up about my upcoming show "Excursions" coming up in April at the LITM gallery in Jersey City. I've got the invites designed below and I'll be mailing them out the second week in March. If you're not on my mailing list, please email me so that I can send you a formal invite. However, everyone is invited to come to opening reception on April 1st without receiving a formal invite. It's been about three years since my last solo show and this one promises to blow away the last one. First of all, I've got about 40 new and edgy pieces that I will be showcasing for the first time; pieces that were shot in exotic locations like the deserts in Cabo, Mexico and some of the most unusual studio sessions I've ever shot. Of course they'll be some of the most exotic and sensual dancers performing during the opening including tribal and bellydancers from around the nation. Spread the word and I hope to see everyone there.

Invite Front:

Invite Back:

Amy & Tom's Wedding - February 10, 2006

Here's some shots from last week's awesome wedding at The Garden City Hotel in Long Island. Check out a whole bunch more through the link on the bottom of the post.

Another fantastic make up job by Maureen Pedala.

Zipping the dress.

The bridesmaids helping out with the dress and Amy laughing from a joke. That's me in the right side of the mirror (I'll crop myself out if Amy likes this one).

Amy looking gorgeous. Doesn't she look like a model.

Tom's not the typical groom. Most guys could be nervous before stepping into the ceremony. Tom steps up to bat right before getting ready. We should also note that Tom's a fitness and sports junkie that wakes up 6AM in the morning everyday to work out in the gym.

After 30 minutes of baseball practice, the groom gets into wedding mode.

Now he's starting to look antsy while mom is helping with the boutineer.

Going into the ceremony.

Tom's expression while Amy's walking down the aisle. I have to note that Tom's one of the cutest groom's I've ever had. He looks like a cross between Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. Great catch Amy.

Amy's mom and dad looking on.

Cute Flowergirl.

The Kiss.

The Garden City Hotel just before the guests arrive.

The bridal party. Don't let the picture fool you. They're all nice and formal here but they're some of the wildest party people I've photographed.

Just before their grand entrance.

First Dance.

The Toasts and Roasts.

Now the party starts.

Cake Cutting.

Parent Dances.

The imfamous bouquet and garter tradition. While I'm not the biggest fan of it, I'll have to say these guys pulled it off with charm, flair and style (anything will work if you've got these things working).

Now we're getting to the winding down of the party.

Last Dance.

To check out a bunch more photos from the wedding click below:
more photos