My name is Bryan Hong and I am a husband, father and photographer from Los Angeles.
For 10 years I worked as a grip and cinematographer in the motion picture industry, specializing in lighting, rigging and camera work. However, after the birth of my daughter and spending two years mostly as a stay at home dad I knew I did not want to return to the demands of the film industry as I didn’t feel I could give my family the attention I know it deserves.
Yet the desire to harness light to tell stories through images persists. Whether in the studio or out in the field, the experience, training and passion I cultivated while working in the motion picture industry lives on in my photography today.
Professionally, I am available for portrait photography including headshots as well as corporate and educational event photography. In my personal work I am passionate about documentary photography and street photography. In all of these arenas, documenting moments in time for the future is what ultimately drives my passion.
My Philosophy of Portrait Photography
In my experience I have found that many people are wary of having their picture taken for many reasons. Some have had bad experiences with photographers, receiving poorly taken or poorly retouched pictures that don’t even look like themselves while others simply don’t like the way they look.
My belief is that we are all fearfully and wonderfully made in God’s image and my desire is to work together with you to create an image that brings out the best version of the real you. An image that can make you feel good about yourself. Not just the way you look but also bringing out your true personality, the essence of the real you.
For me that means impeccable lighting, camera angles and posing and minimal retouching done in a natural manner. Something just slightly better than real life. In practical terms this means that I will of course remove pimples and other temporary blemishes but I will not digitally alter the shape of your face or body nor remove any permanent features that define who you are. While doing such retouching might create a pleasing image, in the end it will not be an image that makes you feel good about yourself as ultimately you will know that the image is not real. It’s not really you.
My background is in the motion picture industry. While in the print world you can get away with extreme retouching, in the motion picture world it is simply not practical to retouch 24 frames per second. Results need to be achieved instead through lighting and camera work, and that is the expertise I can bring to the table.
While the lighting and camera work may be idealized, it is ultimately really a picture of the real you. It really is what you really looked like on that particular day, at that particular time, and from that you can gain the pleasure of knowing that it really is a picture of the real you.