Jonathan Yu Photography

We’re going to turn back time a little. This is going back to July when I shot my first wedding as the primary shooter. I had the privilege of photographing Susan and Pete in Pennsylvania’s beautiful Bucks County. (A little secret: Susan was actually the adviser of my high school newspaper, The Spoke, where I got my first exposure to photography. Another little secret: I’m still getting used to calling her by her first name.)

As far as my first wedding gig working alone, this was pretty good experience. The ceremony was small and intimate (only about 40 people). Everyone was also super friendly, which made the day so much less stressful.

There were also a lot of little details that helped me conceptualize the event more easily. For example, the church where the ceremony was held was the same one Susan regularly attended growing up. The reception was held at a wine cellar that led out to a big pasture and sheep. Sheep! The venues were all very cozy so I opted for a classic look minus the black and whites so I could try to capture some of that warmth.

I’d like to share a sampling of these images below. There are some formal shots, of course, but I reveled in the candid and more playful moments. With such a fun and spontaneous group, you never quite know what you’re going to walk away with. Thank you, Susan and Pete, for the opportunity to be a part of your special day.

With today's beautiful weather, I ventured out to Valley Forge National Historical Park to take a stroll. I needed some pictures for my weekly post, after all, and it seemed likely that I'd return with something. 

After spending about 45 minutes in the Washington's Headquarters area of the park, I walked back to the car and got ready to go home. That's when I noticed a fire engine speeding along one of the park's roads. I wasn't too fazed because it seemed like something routine. Nonetheless, I flipped on the scanner to see if I could follow any radio transmissions. "Field fire" and something "Inner Line Drive" - that was enough to send me speeding out of the parking lot. 

The problem was that there were 4 different Inner Line Drives - North, East, South, and West - and I had no clue which one was referenced on the radio. Following the general direction of the fire engine seemed like a logical thing to do at the time. It wasn't long before I saw a long line of emergency vehicles.

Smoke was grazing through the woods near the Washington Memorial Chapel. I didn't see a big blaze, thankfully. The fire companies looked like they had done a good job of preventing the fire from spreading. 

I never thought a white stage curtain could be my best friend.

I had the chance to photograph the University of Pennsylvania's Pan-Asian Dance Troupe at their show Friday night. The group requested that I cover all aspects of the show including the prep and warmup time leading up to the actual show.

Since the venue was an old church, lighting was definitely one of my concerns. I feared it might be too dark before the actual show when they'd presumably have the stage lights on. Armed with the only speedlight I own and a pair of PocketWizard triggers, I took on the challenge of lighting the dancers during their rehearsal. 

The first set of shots were terrible because I had tried to bounce light off the ceiling which was too high and too darkly-colored. But then I got lucky (and maybe a little wiser) when I realized that the backdrop was this large white curtain. Bingo. Problem solved. I had found myself a massive reflector. Now the real fun began. 

For the first time in forever, it was actually warm in Philadelphia! (Please pardon the "Frozen" reference.) There are officially 11 days left until the start of spring, so with the warm weather, I felt obligated to enjoy the outdoors and to do some mental spring cleaning.

I ventured into Rittenhouse Square yesterday to look for some nice moments with everyone out and about. After a few laps around the park, though, I was still uninspired. Thinking it was time for a break, I followed the sound of a beautiful cello playing in the southwest corner of the park and decided to sit on a bench nearby, hoping for some inspiration. 

The cellist’s playing triggered some distant memories. Back in the summer of 2010, I had plans for a documentary photography project to capture the street music scene in Philadelphia. At the time, I roamed the streets of Philly as a photo intern at the Philadelphia Daily News and it seemed like street performance, a.k.a. busking, was an integral part of Philadelphia’s culture. As an amateur musician myself, I was drawn to their performances. But I was also curious about the day-to-day lives of these “buskers” – I wanted to know whether they were formally trained, whether this was their only job, whether they could make a living off performing.

With these thoughts in mind, I picked up my notebook and my camera and got off the bench. Yesterday, after four years, I met my first subject, Emily – a 22 year old cello student from Temple University. Here is Emily playing her rendition of Fats Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’” yesterday in Rittenhouse Square: 

I am happy to say that this project has officially started.

After shooting a lot of winter weather pictures, I was eager to shoot inside for a change. I can't remember the last time I shot a basketball game, but when I found out that the PIAA District 1 playoffs were happening, I had to jump on the chance to make some pics. 

For these games, I used two cameras: a Canon 1D Mark III w/ 70-200 f/2.8L IS lens and a Canon 5D Mark III w/ 24-70 f/2.8. I primarily used the long lens but wanted to keep a wide-to-medium lens for action under the basket. You definitely want fast everything for a sports shoot - fast lens, fast camera, and a fast mind (still working on this part). 

What really made these games so fun to shoot was the lighting at these arenas. I'm used to shooting in high school and college gyms with (relatively) dim fluorescent lights, so these two games were a real treat. After shooting these games, I don't know how I ever got by without professional lighting!

Game 1: Conestoga vs. Pennsbury at Temple University. Pennsbury 58, Conestoga 36.

Game 2: Chester vs. Pennsbury at Villanova on Friday, February 28, 2014. Chester was behind for most of the game but pulled ahead in the last few minutes to win! That ending almost gave me a heart attack. Chester emerged as PIAA District 1 Boys Basketball champs. Chester 52, Pennsbury 49.

As I was capturing the aftermath of Winter Storm Nika today along a closed stretch of N. Valley Rd. in Paoli, Pa., a woman walked out. Merline Edwards was wondering what I was up to. I introduced myself as a freelance photojournalist who was documenting the damage around the neighborhood . But when she told me about some of what she had gone through, I knew I had to capture her story. I was lucky enough to be able to go inside and speak with Ms. Edwards. Edwards and her husband had lost power for the past 4-5 days but had gotten it back this morning. The storm, however, did damage her Chester County home. After falling tree limbs had caused a hole in her bedroom ceiling (and dented her car, too), they decided to sleep in their living room. Edwards has been calling Tredyffrin Township and PECO to figure out how they can help her and remove the broken limbs in her property. According to Edwards, the township workers stopped near her home, looked, and drove away. She expressed confusion over who was responsible for dealing with the fallen tree limbs. 

But the storm also presented other problems. Her husband has sleep apnea and relies on a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine at night. (the machine is shown at Edwards's side). When they lost power during the storm, the machine couldn't run. But he was resourceful. He powered the machine using a portable generator and a car battery and was able to get by.

It's taken me 20-some years to figure out the beauty of celebrating both the Solar New Year and Lunar New Year - you have two chances at a New Years resolution. Turns out I missed the January 1 deadline, so with the recent celebration of Chinese New Year, I resolve to be a more responsible blogger this year. You can expect a post every Sunday (with pictures, of course) and I will do my best to keep this flow going throughout the year. For my first post in the new lunar year, let's talk about Chinese New Year itself. As a Chinese-American, I was surprised that I had never attended the Chinese New Year parade in Philadelphia's Chinatown. Never! It was finally time to change that pattern and be a little more in tune with my heritage. So with camera in hand, I decided to look for pictures at the Philadelphia Sun's Lion Dance Parade this past Saturday.

The throngs of people, lively lion dances, and seemingly endless popping of firecrackers transformed my "Lazy Sunday" into a rather intense one. I'm glad I chose my 16-35mm wide-angle lens. On a full-frame body, that might have been a bit too wide, but on a 1.3x crop body, it seemed like a perfect focal length. At many points along the parade route, I was sandwiched between people with no room to move. The 16-35 allowed me to get right in front of people and to shoot blindly from a high or low angle if I needed to. For the conditions I was working with, the 16-35 gave me the most flexibility. I did pack a 70-200mm lens with me as well just in case there was interesting action happening far away, but I stuck with the wide lens for most of the shoot.

I was treated to some pretty neat scenes (pretty sure I was shutter-happy as a result). Here's a small subset of the original 600-or-so pictures that I got.

The focus of the parade was certainly the lion dancers who graced the streets of Chinatown (and martial artist Buddha as well?). Police blocked off a fair amount of streets for the dancers and spectators as they snaked through the heart of Chinatown.

In a move to bring luck, some property owners and business owners dangled lettuce in front of their doors to attract the lions.

The lion dancers pay their visit, culminating in lots of shredded lettuce and exploded firecrackers. Then there is usually an exchange of lucky red envelopes filled with money between a dance organizer and a business owner. (Actually I didn't realize I even had this shot until I checked my memory card later. I shot this one blindly by putting my camera close to the ground and shooting slightly up.)

Chinese New Year festivities wouldn't be complete without some firecrackers. I had to stick my camera fairly close to the man's hands in the one or two seconds when he wasn't looking.

At another location, some people were setting off smaller firecrackers. Don't let size fool you - those were still loud.

I forgot that firecrackers let off a lot of smoke. This was a special shot for me. From the street, I saw a worker dangling a head of lettuce out of the 2nd floor window of Sang Kee Peking Duck House so I was tempted to be up there shooting down. I spoke with some of the front desk staff, who were initially wary about letting me go upstairs, but after making my full case, they let me go up (speaking Mandarin definitely helped, I think). Shooting down from the 2nd level helped me capture the lion dancers in the context of the mass of spectators. It was also a useful lesson in overcoming anxiety about asking for access. Worst thing they can say is "no," right?

Given the smoke and popping from the firecrackers, this little guy had the right idea: wear ear muffs and cover your nose. For this shot, I had to stand on a pillar on the sidewalk and shoot over the crowd. This perspective made it naturally easier to capture kids who were riding on their parent's shoulders.

Did we talk about the crowds? There were a ton of people which meant you always had to vie for the spot closest to the action. In this scene, I was up against the perimeter (demarcated by a bamboo pole not shown). As I was being told to back up, I saw this green lion sneaking up on the guy in charge of crowd control. I pointed the camera back over my shoulder blindly, guesstimated my field of view, and fired off a few shots. I must have gotten lucky because I didn't even have to crop this shot. Lesson: Never take your eyes off the action even if you're on the move. And continuous auto-focus can be your best friend.