Frequently Asked Questions

 

Everything You Want to Know

Browse this FAQ list to find answers to some of the most common questions we’ve received about the way we work and the variety of services we offer. We’ve tried to be as comprehensive as possible, but please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need more information. We look forward to hearing from you!

 

About Bookings & Deposits/Payments

 

How far in advance should I book your services?

To secure your booking, the earliest possible would be the best. Usually, people will book in advance as far as 6 – 12 months or more prior to the event, along with the venue and other services. To avoid an overcrowded schedule, if your event is anticipated/scheduled during busy seasons such as summer, early booking is recommended as we can’t always have an opening on your desired date as it comes closer. Also, please check out our specials page since we may have special discount(s) for early birds.

 

How much deposit that I have to put in to secure my booking?

A 50% of the total package (choose your package/service selection in this form) as the non-refundable deposit is required to reserve your wedding date. The remainder of the package price is due at least 7 days prior to the wedding/event day. Any non-payment will render this contract to be void and services will not be provided.

 

What forms of payment do you accept?

All packages booked via our website can be paid with Credit Cards. For non-online bookings, we accept Cash, Zelle, Cashier-Check (sorry we don’t accept personal-check), Paypal (additional fees by Paypal may be added), and Google Pay.

Please make sure to contact us first before and after sending the payment to get confirmation.

 

 

About Fulfillments/Delivery

 

How do you do fulfillment/delivery?

Online pictures will be uploaded to our private gallery which customers can access via Client ID directly or by invitation, which requires guests to sign in and use the provided credential(s) to access the gallery.

Full High-Resolution JPG Files of pictures & videos will be saved onto SSD (Solid State Drive) and put in a box/container which will be sent to you (if you live outside our area) or delivered to you in person (if you live in Seattle area). The reason we are using SSD instead of other media (CD, DVD, HDD, etc) is that the SSD offers big storage size that can accommodate big file sizes that may go as more than 100MB per each file, especially the ones taken by our high-end mirrorless and medium format cameras as well as for video files. SSD is also very versatile and resilient; however, their availability may be subject to our vendor’s inventory and we will try our best to provide you with SSD or its equivalent. After the delivery, it is the customer’s responsibility to create a backup of the files from the SSD. Upon the loss of the SSD, we may charge an additional fee to replace the SSD. SSD’s MTBF/lifetime is different between brands/models and its usages, but on average, it should be good for 5 – 10 years. As with any electronic device, SSD can get damaged due to external forces and is not waterproof. Please take great care whenever storing and using the SSD in order to prolong its life.

Canvas photos, prints, albums, and other media are fulfilled by our printer vendors which we affiliate with them via our partners. Our workflow will send the finalized designs and orders to the vendors, and they will ship the final product to your address. They will handle the shipment and support. In some very rare special cases, we may produce the products by ourselves when time is of the essence and going through vendors may not meet the expected time, however, this is only by availability and we can’t guarantee fulfillment within the short time period since this is based on our best efforts only and subject to availability.

 

How long will it take before we get to see our pictures?

Since It may take a while to upload the files after reviews and post-processing to ensure the quality, we will do progressive uploads, meaning we will do it in several batches over time. This may occur within a few days to a few weeks. We will put priority on high profile pictures first which are most important, and trickle down towards the completion of the entire pictures. Some low-profile pictures that don’t meet the standard will be kept in the final SSD (Solid State Drive) media delivery for archives.

The online gallery will be maintained until the specified expiration date. We may keep certain files afterward for archive purposes. In the case when our online provider takes the maintenance of their facilities, the online gallery may not be available during that maintenance or outages period and it is beyond our responsibility and control whenever that occurs. You may report issues to us and we will try to forward them to the online provider.

 

What color depth and resolution are your pictures?

In general, the pictures taken by our DSLR and Mirrorless cameras may have up to 14-bit RAW files and > 45 Megapixel resolution.

Pictures taken by our Medium Format cameras may have up to 16-bit RAW files and > 100 Megapixel resolution. Note: These are only available for portraits and certain photo shots for some packages.

 

 

About Photo Shots

 

Who will take the photos during the event?

Our master photographer, Andrew Wong, will be the one that take the photos during the event. We may have an assistant as well as a secondary photographer (upon availability and package) who may assist during the event.

 

How do you handle communications?

We will work with you and the event coordinator/wedding planner to ensure that we can prepare and anticipate the sequence of events as no wedding is the same. Cooperation with the EC / WP is the most paramount and we are looking forward to working with you.

Certain venues may require a special permit to be given to our photographer(s) and assistant(s), hence we have to visit the venues to understand certain rules and aspects (such as where we can park, put our equipment, security checks, best angles, and views, etc).

We may use some wireless radio communication devices so that we can communicate with the EC / WP during the event. Also, our strobes/flashlights may use certain frequencies to the wireless controller/master device on our cameras and may get interferences if the venue uses the same frequency, hence we need to make sure we won’t get such conflicts.

 

How many photos do you usually take at a wedding?

We do not count/pre-count photos as we found it is very limiting and may be regretful afterward as we learned from our experience in the early time of founding the business model. Certain moments during the event may happen in a blink of an eye or the other way around, very slowly. So, we want to ensure we capture all and we let our customers pick the best ones. We even take several photos of certain poses from different angles and distances as well as the best combination of the 3 photography elements (ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed) for the best exposures. On average, we usually ended up taking hundreds to thousands of pictures. After post-processing and selection/review, we may get 1/3 to half of the best photos from them and a few of the final selective processes to make featured photos. All original pictures will be kept on the final delivery media (SSD).

 

What is your photography style?

We don’t limit ourselves to just certain photographic styles, due to the nature of our business. During certain events, we may use “story-telling” and “photo-journalistic” styles. We do “fine art” and “portraits” for certain engagements, elopement, and wedding photo ops. However, no one size fits all since our creativity and passion are limitless.

 

When should we do our formal photos during the wedding event?

Each customer has a different preference and we do not want to dictate yours. Also, we understand the grueling process that couples have to endure, so we will work with you to adapt to your needs and preferences. We would like our customers to be happy and we can accommodate them as best as we could possibly provide our services. If a customer has some physical constraints (such as can’t walk or stand for a long duration), we will try to make several brief photo ops instead of a long one.

 

Do you do Gay, Lesbian, LGBT & Same-Sex weddings?

We believe in marriage equality, and we are an equal rights wedding photographer. We work with and have friends who are gay and lesbian, and we embrace them equally. We are professional photographers, and we intend to uphold our quality services for any couple, regardless of their orientation and background.

 

 

About Technical Stuffs

 

What equipment do you use?

Basically, we divide our equipment into several groups. Whenever we go to photo ops, we always carry two groups of equipment to cover A and B scenarios where B is our backup equipment. On top of it, we also always carry more than enough support peripherals such as memory cards, batteries, lightings. It is always our motto to have a backup of a backup of a backup. As our inventory grows, we might update the list and post some announcements/blog posts. As with all photographers, it all came from just one camera and we grow from it as new technology becomes available.

 

DSLR Cameras:  Nikon D800, D810, D850, D500 (We retired D200, D300, D5500, D700).

Mirrorless Cameras: Nikon Z7 ii, Z6 ii, Z9. Fujifilm XT-4, XT-5.

Medium Format Cameras: Fujifilm GFX-100s. Hasselblad X2D 100C.

Lenses: Nikon, Tamron, and Sigma Art F-Mount lenses. Fujifilm X-Mount and G-Mount lenses. Hasselblad XCD lenses.

Strobes/Flashlights: Nikon Speedlight (SB-5000, SB-900, SB-800, SB-700, SB-600), Godox (AD360II-N, AD600BM, Ving V860IIN, , Macro LED Ring), Neewer (PRO i-TTL), Westcott FJ80 II M, ProFoto strobes.

 

 

About Gotchas/Unexpected Turn of Events

 

What happens if it’s raining on our big day?

Surely, we don’t control the weather (as Seattle is notoriously known for its rainy seasons), but we have strategy, creativity, and equipment. We could optimize the in-door settings, seek some creative setup outdoors without exposing ourselves much to the rain, or simply wait for in-between rain breaks. We can do some creative poses with umbrellas, tents, rain ponchos, etc. During my experience since 2009, we found rain to be a thing that is unique to the Pacific Northwest region and it is already embedded in our culture so much that we have embraced it as a norm. While we can waterproof our equipment, we often have to seek creative moments during such occasions. Whenever possible, we could try to accommodate a postponement/rescheduling of photo ops whenever it is possible and available in our schedule, however, it is not possible to refund the booked photo event due to rain or an Act of God.

 

What happens if our event is canceled due to any reason?

Unfortunately, currently, we cannot refund any payments that are already made. However, if the wedding is canceled, we will refund fees up to 25% of the total amount as for token of our regret (excluding the non-refundable downpayment). This is because we have to cover the potential income loss on that event day, but at the same time, we have empathy towards our customers if such unfortunate cancellation occurs. This policy only applies to weddings and elopement (for other events and services, we can’t refund any payments that are already made).

 

Not finding answers to your questions? Please send your questions to us by contacting us. See our Contact Info below or check out our Contact page.