Las Vegas Wedding Photographer Emily Ku

Welcome to my blog and please take a look at my galleries above! I love capturing memories with my camera and I drag my camera almost everywhere with me. I love getting to know people and showcasing their personalities in amazing photos!

I am a portrait and wedding photographer who resides in Las Vegas. Every once in a while, I'll documenting my travels and my life on the blog.

Please leave a comment to let me know you stopped by! Also, keep up to date with Emily Ku Photography by adding me to your RSS feeder, Twitter, and Facebook fan page using the buttons on the right! To see more pictures, head over to my Facebook fan page!

(photo by Binita Patel Photography)

Archive for the ‘Lifestyle/Portraits’ Category

Retro portrait session – SMUG group shootout

November 9, 2011

Las Vegas has a very vibrant photographer community, and I am very grateful to be a part of it. Smugmug sponsors a monthly photographer group co-lead by Yasmin Tajik of Shalimar Studios and Scott Bourne, a legendary photographer. As a bonus, Scott is always giving away free stuff at meetings, and this time I won a Honl snoot/reflector for my speedlight. It is a bit flimsy to use as a reflector, and I prefer to use my Demb reflector instead, but Honl is handy if I ever need a snoot.

This month Yasmin and Scott organized a phenomenal shoot-out at one of the dry lake beds outside of Las Vegas. About 40 of photographers got together and took turns shooting Olivia and Kady, our beautiful models. They were amazing even though it was fairly hot outside and very sunny! Here are a few images from the shoot:

Tags: dry lake bed, Las Vegas photographer, pin up, Portraits
Posted in Lifestyle/Portraits, Personal | No Comments »

Bridal portraits

August 28, 2011

My friend Erin of Erin Hatch Photography is so awesome! She put together another fabulous shoot for some local photographers (the last one she put together was the model shoot at the dry lake bed). This time, she gathered up some girls she knew to model for us in their wedding gowns. And they are all gorgeous!! One of the girls told me that it’s been 7 years since she last wore the dress, and it fit perfectly, even after having kids!! I hope that I am that lucky whenever I have kids. And one of the girls is actually getting married soon, so it was a real bridal session with her!

I had so much fun with these girls! Thanks Amanda, Jeravae, and Ashley!

These are my favorite kinds of roses, the two-toned ones. They are so colorful and really match her personality!

Happy, laughing bride. I don’t feel like I’m doing my job right if I don’t get some genuine smiles and laughter.

So gorgeous, right? I was happy that the sun came out towards the end of the session so we could get some golden light in the images.

We found an amazing patch of wildflowers that resembled sunflowers. When I saw them I was so giddy and jumping up and down because I never see these in Vegas! At least my excitement made the bride laugh.

Does the dress looks like it’s never ending? Yes, she’s about 6 feet tall, the tallest bride I’ve ever photographed! Poor girl, she said she couldn’t find a dress long enough for her! But I don’t think the dress is too short, and plus, she looks stunning!!

I love the bride with the mountains in the background. It feels so serene.

Okay, who’s up for a real trash the dress session?! Contact me!

Tags: bridal sesison, bridals, Las Vegas portrait photographer, Las Vegas wedding photographer, Portraits
Posted in Lifestyle/Portraits, Weddings | 2 Comments »

Las Vegas newborn session :: Little J

July 24, 2011

I had the pleasure of photographing a newborn at two weeks old! He is so cute and precious and did so wonderfully on his first photo shoot! Seriously, I don’t think babies come cuter than this one.

His daddy is from New York so Little J is already a big Jets fan and no doubt will grow up to be a great football player.

He’s smiling for the camera! He looks so much like his mommy in this photo.

Changing the diaper! I don’t have any kids yet, so I am amazed at how many diapers babies go through!

His little puckered lips are so adorable.

This is one of my favs.

So peaceful. It took a few tries, but we were finally able to get a cute nudie pic without disturbing his slumber.

Then he woke up again and fell right back asleep in mommy’s arms.

Tags: Las Vegas newborn photographer, Las Vegas newborn photography, Las Vegas portrait photographer, newborn portraits
Posted in Lifestyle/Portraits | 3 Comments »

Dry lake bed portrait shoot

July 5, 2011

I finally had some free time over the long weekend to process these pictures, and I am so happy to finally be able to show you! My friend Erin of Erin Hatch Photography organized this awesome shoot and brought along some amazing girls – Mariah, Denise, and Kamille. They aren’t professional models but they did such an phenomenal job that they could totally pass for models. And very stylish too! It was unusually cold that day, so a few girls had goosebumps and I felt so bad for them. But they really hung in there, and we had such a fun time. Each model had a very different, beautiful look and a different approach. It was fun to have so much variety shooting in one afternoon! Seriously, I can’t wait to go back to the dry lake bed!

Getting there was quite an adventure because it is off the beaten path. There are a few dry lake beds in town, but none of us had been to this particular one before, and there are no road signs directing you where to go. And we were so far out of town we didn’t have reception, so I couldn’t look it up on Google maps. At one point, we took a wrong turn and ended up off-roading it on a really bumpy dirt path. Luckily, I was riding in my friend Tirzah’s ginormous truck, which handled the terrain quite well.

This is a close up of the dry lake bed. It’s a very interesting texture!

You can see quite a few people go off roading here, and it was impossible to find a perfect patch without any tire marks. So I made it part of the photo!

The light at the dry lake bed is stunning combined with the silhouette of the mountains. There were a few guys riding dirt bikes all around us, and you can see the dust that they created in the background. It makes for a neat effect.

Denise’s tropical dress almost made me feel I was shooting on the beaches of Miami! So pretty!

Yes, Kamille’s eyes are really that color, no Photoshop! They are piercing blue!

I love these pictures. Kamille did an amazing job putting together her wardrobe, hair, and makeup and bringing it all together.

More pictures are on my Facebook fan page!

Tags: desert, dry lake bed, Las Vegas portrait photographer, Portraits
Posted in Lifestyle/Portraits | 2 Comments »

Fun with video lights

May 21, 2011

One evening, a few photographers and I decided to head down to the dry lake bed outside of town and play with their video lights that they just bought. It was fun visiting the dry lake bed for the first time. We started shooting just when the sun set, so we had a short window to shoot before it got too dark. Here are some photos from the shoot.

Thanks to Jason and Jessie of Emeric Photography for bringing the models and their Lowell I-light Jamie Y Photography for bringing her LED light.

I also went to another dry lake bed with a different group of photographers, and I will post those photos in a few weeks!

Tags: dry lake bed, Las Vegas, Las Vegas portrait photographer, video lights
Posted in Lifestyle/Portraits, Photography | 1 Comment »

Lindsay + Alex :: maternity session

May 17, 2011

Lindsay and Alex are expecting a little one ANY day now, and I’m super excited for their new addition! They are a really cool laid back couple and they are going to make amazing parents! Alex is also a wedding photographer here in Las Vegas, so I was honored when he asked me to take their maternity photos. It’s so fun to take photos for other photographers, because I know as photographers we don’t have a lot of photos of ourselves. Well for me at least, I don’t have many nice pictures of my husband and me, or any pictures in general!

We decided that Springs Preserve would be a perfect place for a relaxed maternity session, which is a really cool botanical gardens place not too far from downtown Las Vegas. It’s also an amazing wedding venue if anyone wants a really cool place to get married!

Don’t they make such a cute couple? Oh and did I mention that Lindsay and Alex got married the same day and year as my husband on me? Crazy! I think we figured out that I got married first by a few hours. So we will both be celebrating our anniversary later this month!

Gorgeous smiles! I love capturing moments like these.

Love this image.

Visit my Facebook page for more pictures of Lindsay and Alex!

Tags: Las Vegas, Las Vegas maternity photographer, maternity session, Springs Preserve
Posted in Lifestyle/Portraits | 1 Comment »

Portraits at Lake Las Vegas

April 10, 2011

Kristin was looking to get some updated headshots for her modeling portfolio, and as she was describing to me what she wanted, I thought Lake Las Vegas would be a great place for some environmental headshots. She’s a Vegas local but has never been to Lake Las Vegas, so I’m glad she trusted me to choose the location. The session turned out great, and she ended up loving the location. We had gorgeous spring weather even in February! I’ll have to add a caveat though–it did snow in Las Vegas yesterday, which is extremely unusual! Other than some freak occurrences, I have been enjoying the weather here so far and the sunny days (but ask me again in 6 months after I’ve lived through a Vegas summer!). I absolutely love that it’s sunny here almost every day, which never happens on the East Coast!

Lake Las Vegas is beautiful and I ran into several photographers while shooting there. I really like the little Italian inspired village there! It is a great location for weddings as there are several high end hotels with beautiful views of the lake.

I love Kristin’s amazing green eyes!